THE NETWORK RAIL COMMUNITY AWARD: GOOSTREY

Goostrey is the other station where unused buildings have been rescued from decay and put to new community use.

The station lies on the main ManchesterCrewe line, so its timber buildings might well have gone over the years in the name of modernisation, replaced with anonymous shelters.

When built in 1891, Goostrey was a typical wayside station in the contemporary LNWR vogue for timber construction. It is now a rare survivor, although not listed.

The station’s local friends were unwilling to see further deterioration, so pressed Northern (as the franchise holder) and Network Rail to carry out thorough repairs to enable its new use as a community venue.

These involved the wooden cladding, the main tiled roof and replacement windows, among other works.

When the canopy was tackled, its cast-iron support brackets were revealed and two broken ones were replaced by cast copying a good one.

Repainting has been in original colours - as evident in this picture of a Class 323 EMU approaching on a local service.