Notes: Racecourse Station was located on the North Mersey Branch which ran from Fazakerley Junction, on the Liverpool Exchange to Wigan Line, to Gladstone Dock. The line was opened on 8.1867 as an important goods line linking the north Liverpool docks with the L&YR route to the east. Connections to the Ormskirk - Liverpool line where provided at Sefton Junction (Aintree) going from west to north and at North Mersey Branch Junction going from south to east.

Racecourse Station opened as Aintree Cinder Lane around about 1890 and was provided purely for race-day excursion traffic and it had no other public services. It had a curious layout. As the line at this point was on an embankment there was little room for a station that could cope with big crowds. To overcome this problem the eastbound track was raised to platform height and topped up to rail level with cinders. Trains going west could then use this line as a platform. Obviously when race days were held no traffic was allowed to use the eastbound track. For the rest of the year goods services could use the line unimpeded. The station was renamed Aintree Racecourse on 18.5.1910. The last race day excursions to use the station ran on 31.3.1962

The route was always more important for goods and it reverted to serving only that role. On the 2.2.1971 the section of line from North Mersey Branch Junction to North Mersey Yard was closed. On the 1.5.1977 the connection to the Wigan line was severed at Fazakerley Junction. Only the section from North Mersey Branch Junction to Sefton Junction and to Fazakerley sidings which was by then an engineers depot survived. In 1987 what had become a short spur to Fazakerley sidings was closed and in the early 1990's regular goods services had ceased. Track lifting through thr site of Aintree Racecourse Station was completed in April 1988. Today the line survives as a route for engineers trains to access the Merseyrail Ormskirk line.

To see the other stations on the North Mersey Branch click on the station name: Ford, Linacre Road & Gladstone Dock