Oldham Werneth railway station

Oldham Werneth railway station was situated on the Oldham Loop Line, 10 km (6¼ miles) north east of Manchester Victoria. The station was situated on Featherstall Road South, in the Werneth area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. Opened on 31 March 1842 it was the oldest of the six railway stations that at one time existed in Oldham.^[1]

It predominantly served local Chadderton, Westwood and Werneth residents. The station, and all trains serving it, were operated by Northern Rail.

The station was built originally to serve the Platt Bros. of Oldham, a huge cotton spinning engineering company, who had their headquarters in Werneth. However, this company no longer exists.

The Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway formerly ran from Werneth Station down to Middleton Junction. The line included the Werneth Incline which had a gradient of 1 in 27, and was one of the steepest stretches of line regularly used for passenger traffic in the country. The branch line closed on 7 January 1963.^[2]

The Oldham Werneth to Thorpes Bridge Junction, Newton Heath line which opened on 17 May 1880 was built to avoid the Werneth Incline. It approached Werneth station from the Manchester direction on a separate two track formation adjacent to the Incline. There was a flat junction between the two lines just beyond Werneth Signal Box and close to the platform ends of the station.^[3]

Oldham Werneth railway station closed on 3 October 2009 when work started on the conversion of the Oldham Loop Line to Manchester Metrolink. There were plans to include the station temporarily on the Metrolink network from Autumn 2011 when the line partially reopens to a temporary terminus situated closed to the former Mumps station. This temporary arrangement is due to continue until 2014 when the route through the town centre is to be completed. However it was confirmed on 23 July 2010 that the station will not re-open and that the area will be served by the future Westwood stop on the town centre route.^[4]

References

• http://www.lrta.org/Manchester/Oldham_Rochdale.html

External links