Middleton Junction railway station was on the

Caldervale Line The Calder Valley line (also previously known as the Caldervale line) is a railway route in Northern England between the cities of Leeds and Manchester as well as the seaside resort of Blackpool. It is the slower of the two main rail rou ...

, from 1842 until closure on 3 January 1966. It was located at Lane End in

Chadderton Chadderton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk and Rochdale Canal. It is located in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Oldham, south of Rochdale and north-east of Manchester. Hi ...

, a former hamlet which later adopted the place-name Middleton Junction after the area expanded after the opening of the railway. It was opened on 31 March 1842 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway, whose chief engineer was George Stephenson, as part of the branch to . The station was originally called Oldham Junction but by August 1842 it was known as Middleton Station, changing its name to Middleton Junction some ten years later. The line was notable for a stretch of steep 1 in 27 gradient called the

Werneth Incline The Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway (MJOBR) was opened on 31 March 1842 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway, whose chief engineer was George Stephenson. The MJOBR left the Manchester to Littleborough railway line (opened on 4 July 1 ...

. On 12 August 1914 a goods and coal depot was opened at Chadderton. This was at the end of a long line which branched off the Oldham line approximately from Middleton Junction at Chadderton Junction. The line from Chadderton Junction to Oldham was closed to passengers in 1958 and completely on 7 January 1963 but the Chadderton goods and coal depot remained open and in use until 1988 (the track was eventually lifted in September 1991). A branch line from Middleton Junction to Middleton was opened on 5 January 1857, closing to passengers on 7 September 1964 (as a result 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 ...

)"Rail doctor’s medicine proved fatal for Middleton station"
Jones, Chris, ''Manchester Evening News'' 11 April 2013; Retrieved 29 March 2016 and completely on 11 October 1965.

References

*The Manchester and Leeds Railway by Martin Bairstow *Marshall, J. (1981) Forgotten Railways: North-West England, David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Newton Abbott. Disused railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1842 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Beeching closures in England Buildings and structures in Chadderton 1842 establishments in England 1966 disestablishments in England {{GreaterManchester-railstation-stub