Park Bridge railway station

Park Bridge railway station was a stop on the Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne and Guide Bridge Junction Railway (OA&GB) that served the village of Park Bridge in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. It was located in the Medlock Valley near Ashton-under-Lyne's border with Oldham. It was sometimes known as Parkbridge; one photograph of the station shows the station name board with the name as one word and immediately adjacent the signal box with it shown as two.^[1]

Park Bridge
General information
Location	Tameside, Greater Manchester England
Coordinates	53.5166°N 2.0929°W / 53.5166; -2.0929
Grid reference	SD 939 022
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge Junction Railway (OA&GB)
Pre-grouping	OA&GB
Post-grouping	OA&GB
Key dates
26 August 1861 (1861-08-26)	Station opened
by 1925	Goods yard closed
4 May 1959 (1959-05-04)	Station closed to passengers

v t e Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge Junction Railway
Legend
L&YR to Rochdale LNWR to Greenfield Oldham Glodwick Road Oldham Mumps (LNWR) Oldham Mumps L&YR to Manchester Oldham Central Oldham Clegg St GCR Clegg St Goods LNWR Clegg St Goods GCR Scottfield Goods Viaduct Park Bridge Ashton Oldham Road L&YR to Droylsden Ashton Charlestown GCR curve from 1911 L&YR to Stalybridge Ashton Moss (1861-62) LNWR Oldham Road Goods LNWR link from 1876 LNWR to Droylsden Removed in 1938 GCR to Stalybridge GCR to Manchester Guide Bridge LNWR goods GCR to Hyde LNWR to Stockport
Legend Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge Junction Railway London and North Western Railway Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Great Central Railway End of electrified section from Guide Bridge

1912 map of railway lines in the area

History

The station opened on 26 August 1861, when the line opened.^[a][3]

The station was located on an embankment leading up to the south side of the viaduct over the River Medlock. The main station building was on the eastern, 'down' side of the running lines leading on to the shorter of two platforms.^[b] There was an access road and ramp from the Park Bridge Iron Works access road.^[5]

A waiting shelter was provided on the other, longer 'up' platform, which appeared to be constructed from baulks of timber, perhaps reused sleepers. Access to this platform was via steps up the embankment from a footpath that ran along the bottom of the embankment.^[5]

There were several goods sidings to the east of the station, with no facilities other than a weighing machine. A branch led from the sidings into the Iron Works.^[5]

In 1861, the station was served by eight down trains and six up on weekdays, with five services each way on Sundays.^[6] By 1895, the station had twenty three OA&GB services each way with an extra one on Saturdays; there were eleven services each way on Sundays.^[7] In addition, there were three LNWR services to Stockport Edgeley, but none in the other direction.^[8]

Goods services at the station stopped sometime between 1912 and 1925, with only private siding traffic being handled afterwards. The private siding closed in February 1964.^[9]

The passenger station closed on 4 May 1959, following the withdrawal of passenger services on the line.^[3][10]

Park Bridge viaduct was 200 yards (180 m) long and 96.5 feet (29.4 m) high, with nine arches of 50 feet (15 m); it was reconstructed in 1960, as the line continued to handle heavy parcels traffic until 1967. The viaduct was demolished in February and March 1971.^[11]

After the line's closure, Granada Television's Inheritance series filmed a staged crash of 1850 on the embankment.^[12]

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Oldham Road, Ashton		Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge Railway Leased jointly by L&NW & GC		Oldham Clegg Street

References

Notes

1. The Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne and Guide Bridge Junction Railway was the full name of the railway as defined in its enabling Act; it was often shortened by the omission of -under-Lyne and Junction.^[2]
2. Down trains usually headed away from the major conurbation, usually London; some railway companies ran 'up' to their headquarters location, in this case 'up' trains were going to Oldham Clegg Street and 'down' trains to Manchester London Road.^[4]

Citations

1. Hooper 1991, p. 39.
2. "Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne and Guide Bridge Junction Railway: An Act for the Construction of Railways to supply direct Communication between Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne and Guide Bridge, and for the Accommodation of the Neighbourhood. Local Act, 20 & 21 Victoria I, c. cxxxvii". UK Parliamentary Archives. 1857. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
3. Quick 2022, p. 352.
4. Simmons 1997, p. 548.
5. "Ordnance Survey 25 inch map Lancashire XCVII.14 (Alt; Bardsley; Oldham)". National Library of Scotland. 1894. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
6. Dow 1959, p. 286.
7. Bradshaw 2011, table 461.
8. Bradshaw 2011, table 333.
9. Clinker 1978, p. 106.
10. Hurst 1992, p. 14 (ref 0657).
11. Marshall 1981, pp. 57–59.
12. "Panorama: An 1850 crash staged". The Railway Magazine. 113 (797): 522. September 1967.

Bibliography

• Bradshaw, George (2011) [December 1895]. Bradshaw's Rail Times for Great Britain and Ireland December 1895: A Reprint of the Classic Timetable Complete with Period Advertisements and Shipping Connections to All Parts. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 978-1-908174-11-6. OCLC 832579861.
• Clinker, C.R. (October 1978). Clinker's Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots in England, Scotland and Wales 1830–1977. Bristol: Avon-Anglia Publications & Services. ISBN 0-905466-19-5. OCLC 5726624.
• Dow, George (1959). Great Central, Volume One: The Progenitors, 1813-1863. London: Locomotive Publishing Company. OCLC 60021205.
• Hooper, John (1991). An Illustrated History of Oldham's Railways. Pinner, Middlesex: Irwell Press. ISBN 9781871608199. OCLC 650187960.
• Hurst, Geoffrey (1992). Register of Closed Railways: 1948-1991. Worksop, Nottinghamshire: Milepost Publications. ISBN 0-9477-9618-5.
• Marshall, John (1981). Forgotten Railways:North-West England. David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-8003-6.
• Oliver, Henry; Airey, John (1894). Hand-book and Appendix of Stations, Junctions, Sidings, Collieries, &c., on the Railways in United Kingdom.
• Quick, Michael (2022) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (PDF). version 5.04. Railway & Canal Historical Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 November 2022.
• Simmons, Jack (1997). "'up' and 'down'". In Simmons, Jack; Biddle, Gordon (eds.). The Oxford Companion to British Railway History From 1603 to the 1990s (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 548. ISBN 0-19-211697-5.

Further reading

• Bairstow, Martin (1987). The Manchester and Leeds Railway:The Calder Valley Line. M. Bairstow. ISBN 9780951030264.