The Royton Branch was a mile-long
Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway built double track branch railway line in
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
,
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 ...
, that ran from (renamed ''Royton'' in 1978) on the
Oldham Loop Line
The Oldham Loop Line was a local railway route in Greater Manchester, England, used by trains that ran from Manchester Victoria to Rochdale via Oldham Mumps. Services on the line at the time of its closure were operated by Northern Rail.
The l ...
to .
History
Opening
Royton Station opened on 21 March 1864 by the
Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway to link the mill town of
Royton to their rail network.
Ownership changes
Passing in 1923 to 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 ...
it was considered for electrification in 1924 but those plans were shelved. In 1948 the line was nationalised becoming part of
British Railways
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 ...
London Midland Region
The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irelan ...
who ran the line until it fell foul of the
Beeching cuts.
Closure
The line closed to freight on 2 November 1964, and passengers on 16 April 1966, officially closing on 18 April.
Accidents
Although a short line, it was well-used but poorly maintained. This led to a number of accidents, the most serious being a collision on 31 October 1908 that killed a fireman, and on 8 February 1961 when a train derailed at Royton hitting local houses but fortunately causing only minor injuries.
[http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/MoT_Royton1961.pdf ]
References
External links
Royton station and line history
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Closed railway lines in North West England
Rail transport in Greater Manchester
Beeching closures in England
Railway lines closed in 1966
Railway lines opened in 1864