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Middleton Junction
Middleton Junction
	The site of the station looking north west from Grimshaw Lane. The southern end of the former platforms were just to the right of the bridge.
General information
Location	Oldham; England
Coordinates	53°32′27″N 2°10′13″W / 53.5408°N 2.1704°W
Grid reference	SD887048
Platforms	4
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Manchester and Leeds Railway
Pre-grouping	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
31 March 1842	Opened as Oldham Junction
11 August 1842	Renamed as Middleton
1852	Renamed as Middleton Junction
3 January 1966	Closed to passengers
7 November 1966	Closed for freight

Middleton Junction railway station was an early junction station on the Manchester and Leeds Railway (M&LR) , it opened when the branch to Oldham opened in 1842.

The line through station site opened on 4 July 1839 when the Manchester and Leeds Railway opened a railway between Manchester Oldham Road and Littleborough, the first stage of its main line from Manchester to Leeds.^[1]

Middleton Junction railway station opened as Oldham Junction on the 31 March 1842 when the M&LR opened the Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch between this new station on the main line and Oldham Werneth.^[2]^[3] On 11 August 1842 the station was renamed Middleton and in 1852 it started to appear in timetables as Middleton Junction.^[4]

The station was located at Lane End in Chadderton, a former hamlet which later adopted the place-name Middleton Junction after the area expanded after the opening of the railway. The station site was immediately north of where Grimshaw Lane (now the B6189) crossed the railway^[5]

The station appears to have opened with three platforms, two either side of the mainline and one on the mainline side of the track of the sharply curved branch.^[6] The 1848 map shows a building and a few sidings located in the 'v' of the junction.^[5]

The station was rebuilt in 1882 and by 1893 there were buildings on all what was now four platforms, two sidings in the 'v' of the junction and a goods yard with a shed to the south west of the mainline.^[7] The yard was able to handle livestock and was equipped with a two-ton crane.^[8] Further to the south and located on both sides of the main line was Middleton Junction Sidings.^[1]^[9]

On 5 January 1857 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) opened another branch, the Middleton Branch, heading westward immediately to the north of the mainline platforms. The branch had only one station its terminus at Middleton.^[a]^[11]

On 12 August 1914 a goods and coal depot was opened at Chadderton. This was at the end of a 1,097-yard (1,003 m) long line which branched off the Oldham line approximately 400 yards (370 m) from Middleton Junction at Chadderton Junction.^[12]

The line from Chadderton Junction to Oldham was closed to regular passengers in 1958 although some diverted services used it in 1960 and completely on 7 January 1963.^[1]^[13]

The branch line to Middleton closed to passengers on 7 September 1964 and completely on 11 October 1965.^[1]^[14]

The line through the site is still open but the station closed to passengers on 3 January 1966.^[4]

The Chadderton goods and coal depot remained open and in use until 1988 (the track was eventually lifted in September 1991).^[15]

Notes

^ The Manchester and Leeds Railway had become the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway on 9 July 1847.^[10]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Brown 2021, p. 90.
^ Hooper 1991.
^ Marshall 1970, p. 268.
^ ^a ^b Quick 2022, p. 314.
^ ^a ^b Lancashire Sheet XCVI (Map). Six-inch. Ordnance Survey. 1848.
^ Bairstow 2001, p. 68.
^ Marshall 1970, p. 16.
^ The Railway Clearing House 1970, p. 371.
^ Lancashire XCVI.8 (Map). 25 inch to the mile. Ordnance Survey. 1893.
^ Grant 2017, p. 301.
^ Marshall 1970, p. 271.
^ Marshall 1970, pp. 38 & 278.
^ Marshall 1981, p. 145.
^ Jones, Chris (11 April 2013). "Rail doctor's medicine proved fatal for Middleton station". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
^ "The history of Chadderton Goods and the trains that worked there". Chadderton Goods Branch. Retrieved 29 March 2016.

Bibliography

Bairstow, Martin (2001). Manchester & Leeds Railway: the Calder Valley line. ISBN 978-1-871944-22-8.
Brown, Joe (2021). Liverpool & Manchester Railway Atlas. Manchester: Crécy Publishing. ISBN 9780860936879. OCLC 1112373294.
Grant, Donald J. (2017). Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain (1st ed.). Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Troubador Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78803-768-6.
Hooper, John (1991). An Illustrated History of Oldham's Railways. Pinner, Middlesex: Irwell Press. ISBN 9781871608199. OCLC 650187960. Most of the pages in this publication have no page numbers{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Marshall, John (1970). The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Vol. 2. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4906-9.
Marshall, John (1981). Forgotten Railways:North-West England. David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-8003-6.
Quick, Michael (2022) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (PDF) (5th revised to July 2022 (5.04) ed.). Railway & Canal Historical Society.
The Railway Clearing House (1970) [1904]. The Railway Clearing House Handbook of Railway Stations 1904 (1970 D&C Reprint ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles Reprints. ISBN 0-7153-5120-6.

Preceding station		Following station
Manchester Oldham Road to 1844 Line and station closed Miles Platting 1844–1853 Line open, station closed Newton Heath 1853–1872 Line open, station closed Moston from 1872 Line and station open	L&YR Middleton branch	Middleton Line and station closed
	L&YR Caldervale Line	Mills Hill Line and station open
	L&YR Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch	Oldham Werneth Line and station closed