Junction Diagram showing (lower right) railways in the vicinity of Rainford It was built in 1858 as
Rainford Junction at the junction of the
Liverpool and Bury Railway (L&BR), the
East Lancashire Railway's
Skelmersdale Branch and the
St. Helens Railway, replacing an earlier station (1848) called
Rainford. The main line and the Skelmersdale Branch were taken over by the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) in 1859, whilst the St Helens line became part of the
London and North Western Railway in 1864. The former L&BR route was subsequently upgraded by the L&YR to become its main line between Liverpool and Manchester, carrying expresses to , and , as well as local trains to and until after the
nationalisation of the railways in 1948 and well beyond. Services on the line to St Helens were withdrawn by the
British Transport Commission on 18 June 1951 and to on 5 November 1956, although goods traffic survived on both until the early 1960s. Through trains from to Bolton via Wigan continued until 1977, though the line from here westwards to had been reduced to single track operation in May 1970. After the closure of Exchange in May 1977, the line was severed at Kirkby with through passengers having to change between diesel and electric services there to continue their journeys. The station's
signal box was retained to supervise the single line section (since shortened to , since the opening of the new Headbolt Lane station to what was now the terminus of the branch; this remains in operation today and is now the only one left on the line. The station was renamed
Rainford on 7 May 1973. ==Facilities==