Clayton Bridge railway station, Manchester, was a railway station that served the locality between 1846 and 1968.

Construction, opening and ownership

The station was built by the Ashton, Stalybridge and Liverpool Junction Railway and opened on 13 April 1846. The

Manchester & Leeds Railway The Manchester and Leeds Railway was a British railway company that built a line from Manchester to Normanton where it made a junction with the North Midland Railway, over which it relied on running powers to access Leeds. The line followed the ...

took over the running on 9 July 1847, on which day the latter company changed its name to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (LYR). The LYR operated the station for the next 75 years before it was absorbed into the London & North Western Railway on 1 January 1922 and the joint company became a major constituent of the

London Midland & Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

in 1923.

Location and facilities

The station was situated immediately west of where the line crossed Berry Brow in Clayton Bridge near Clayton Vale in Clayton, Manchester. The main station buildings were situated on the Manchester-bound platform, south of the two-track line. A timber-built passenger waiting room was provided on the northerly eastbound platform. The

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

, situated on the northern side of the line, just east of Berry Brow, was also used to manually operate the level crossing gates. It was fitted with a larger 22 lever LYR frame in 1893. Remotely operated automatic lifting barriers, monitored by CCTV, were installed at the road crossing in 1973 and this resulted in closure of the signal box on 16 December 1973. Railway Clayton Br Park1911 edited-2

Train services

During summer 1922, the station was served on weekdays by 21 trains from to Manchester (Victoria) station (a few originating at ), and one from Stockport (Edgeley) to Manchester (Exchange) Station. By 1956, the station was served by 17 stopping trains to Manchester on weekdays, with the third class ordinary single fare then being 8d (3p).

Closure

Clayton Bridge station became a victim of the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...

, closing on 7 October 1968. Nothing now remains of the station buildings, platform or signal box. The level crossing barriers are now remotely operated.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * * * *

External links

Clayton Bridge Station on navigable 1948 O.S. map
{{Closed stations Greater Manchester Disused railway stations in Manchester Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1846 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1968 Beeching closures in England 1846 establishments in England