Middleton Junction railway station

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. 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. On 11 August 1842 the station was renamed Middleton and in 1852 it started to appear in timetables as Middleton Junction. 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 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. The 1848 map shows a building and a few sidings located in the 'v' of the junction. 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. The yard was able to handle livestock and was equipped with a two-ton crane. Further to the south and located on both sides of the main line was Middleton Junction Sidings. 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. 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. 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. The branch line to Middleton closed to passengers on 7 September 1964 and completely on 11 October 1965. The line through the site is still open but the station closed to passengers on 3 January 1966. The Chadderton goods and coal depot remained open and in use until 1988 (the track was eventually lifted in September 1991).