Macclesfield Hibel Road railway station was a railway station serving the town of

Macclesfield Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was opened as a joint station by the

North Staffordshire Railway The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire. The company was based i ...

(NSR) and the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

(LNWR) on 13 July 1849, Jeuda p. 4. with the opening of the NSR route to Uttoxeter via and and it replaced an earlier, temporary, LNWR station at Beech Bridge. Built right at the point where the track of the two companies made an end-on junction, Jeuda p. 17. the station was managed by a joint committee of the two companies. With the opening of the

Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway The Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway (MB&MR) was an railway line between Macclesfield and Marple, England. The route was opened jointly by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) and the North Staffordshire Railway ...

in 1871, the NSR opened a new station less than further south called Macclesfield Central. Jeuda p. 7. It had been hoped that the new line could run into Hibel Road, but the LNWR objected to this and neither would the LNWR agree to share Central station. Both stations remained open until 1960, when the decision was taken by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

to concentrate services on a redeveloped Central station. The refurbished Central station, now renamed simply Macclesfield, opened on 7 November 1960; the same day that Hibel Road closed. Christiansen & Miller p. 307. The site of Hibel Road station has now been redeveloped.

Passenger train services

LNWR services to/from terminated at Hibel Road but, if they continued to via , then many stopped at Central too. NSR services, either on the main line to Stoke or via the Churnet Valley line, used both stations. Express trains between and Manchester tended only to use Hibel Road.

Freight traffic

The area around the station was very cramped. To the south of the station was the NSR

goods yard A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are lo ...

, which dealt mostly with coal for Macclesfield gas works. North of the station was the LNWR goods yard and the NSR

motive power depot The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...

(MPD). As the track north of the station was LNWR owned, the NSR could only access its engine shed using

running powers Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may co ...

over the LNWR track.

Notes

References

* * {{Closed stations Cheshire Disused railway stations in Cheshire Former London and North Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1960 Former North Staffordshire Railway stations 1849 establishments in England Macclesfield