The original Parkside station opened on 17 September 1830 as part of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and was one of the oldest passenger railway stations in the world. These early intermediate stations were often little more than halts, usually positioned where the railway was crossed by a road or turnpike. This probably accounts for variations in the names of these stopping places, this station was located where Parkside Lane crossed the line. Quick reports that the station was variously known as Parkside, Park Side and Parkside & Wigan Junction in its first decade of existence before settling on Parkside. During the opening ceremony the MP William Huskisson was killed in an accident at the station. Parkside was one of only two intermediate stops on the L&MR where locomotives could be fuelled and watered, it was well placed to do so being about halfway along the line. In the early days the water was pre-heated by a lineside boiler. The boiler's chimney can be seen to the right of the print. The Wigan Branch Railway opened on 3 September 1832 forming a junction with the L&MR to the East of Parkside station with an east curve. A west curve and a flat crossing of the L&MR had been planned, and authorised, but weren't built because of financial considerations. The west curve had been intended to meet a similar east curve of the Warrington and Newton Railway which had also not been constructed for the same reason. The lack of these two curves made through journeys very difficult, for example, a train or carriages coming from Warrington in the south heading to Wigan in the north would have to reverse at Newton Junction, pass through Parkside station, then reverse again to take the WBR, avoiding any interference with the regular and busy traffic already using the L&MR. This would have undoubtedly have caused operational problems and therefore Parkside became the terminus station for trains on the WBR. There is doubt about how any transfer of passengers took place between the lines, it is unlikely that WBR trains ran from their single-track railway into the station on the L&MR double track, they would have had to reverse to do so, the WBR train likely stopped before the junction and passengers simply walked to the L&MR station. Sweeney records there were complaints in October 1832 that passengers had to wait without shelter when changing trains, and the railways jointly funded the building of a waiting shed. In 1834 the WBR became part of the North Union Railway. By 1837 there were 5 tracks at Parkside, Up and Down L&MR lines, Up and Down NUR lines and a siding which ran into the point of the junction, this siding was probably used for an engine shed. The illustration by Tate shows the new station but you can see the four lines running away from the junction to where the first station was located before the overbridge in the distance, also to be seen are the two NUR lines going to the right towards Wigan. This first station remained open after the new station opened in 1838 as a goods station, being labelled a "Luggage Station" on the 1849 OS map. It is not recorded when the goods station closed but by the 1894 edition of the Ordnance Survey the site was labelled as a pumping station with a couple of sidings leading into it.
Second station
On 31 October 1838, the station was relocated approximately east, to be at the junction of lines with the NUR which opened on the same day through to Preston. The station was constructed jointly by the L&MR, NUR and Grand Junction Railway which had by that time absorbed the Warrington and Newton Railway. The GJR apparently contributed to the cost of the new station as an alternative to being able to provide a direct connection between the Warrington and Wigan lines. It was a two-storey building with a booking office, general waiting room, a ladies room and offices. This new station did not solve the traffic problems, trains from the Liverpool, or Warrington directions still had to reverse at Parkside in order to access the northbound NUR line and vice-versa. The Tate illustration does not appear to show any interconnection between the L&MR lines on the left and the NUR lines on the right, indeed it shows passengers making their way across the lines from one side of the station to the other, indicating a change of trains. A west curve was opened by the L&NWR in 1847 which made north-south travel easier but reduced Parkside's importance as an interchange, eventually, in 1864, the L&NWR constructed the Winwick cut-off which by-passed Parkside and its junctions, making the north-south journey much easier but effectively made Parkside redundant as an interchange, locomotives of the time did not need to refuel on their journey between Liverpool and Manchester and passengers no longer needed to change trains here, there was only a limited local demand as Parkside, even today, remains relatively rural. The station closed on 1 May 1878, although the buildings continued in use as cottages for some time afterwards.
