LNWR Diggle to Stalybridge. The Micklehurst loop Manchesters lost Railways

Our latest trek following the Micklehurst Line from Diggle thru to Stalybridge, exploring long lost tunnels and stations throughout. History. The London and North Western Railway had built its line from Stalybridge to Huddersfield through Standedge tunnel between 1847 and 1849 and it opened on 1 August 1849 for through trains between Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Victoria, Huddersfield and Leeds. The increasing number of passenger and goods trains on the route required a second single-bore tunnel to be built, opening in February 1871. A further growth in traffic required construction of a double-track tunnel which was completed in August 1894. To effectively serve the four railway tracks through the Standedge tunnels, an additional twin-track railway line was required. The original track had been built on the steep, western slopes of the Tame Valley making it difficult to add a second pair of tracks alongside, so the new line was built in parallel, along the eastern side of the valley and about one mile distant. This new line was completed in 1885. Passenger train service and stations Whilst the line had mainly been built with through goods trains in mind, the LNWR built four intermediate passenger stations on the line, all opening on 3 May 1886.[4] The first out of Stalybridge was Staley and Millbrook; next was Micklehurst; the third station from Stalybridge was Friezland and the nearest to the junction at Diggle and the tunnel entrance was Uppermill. Passenger traffic in this sparsely populated Pennine valley was light. Micklehurst was closed to passengers on 1 May 1907; Staley and Millbrook on 1 November 1909; and Uppermill and Friezland stations on 1 January 1917. Goods train traffic The line had been built primarily to handle the many goods trains that ran between Lancashire and Yorkshire. A typical weekday in Autumn 1952 saw at least thirty-seven eastbound goods trains running into Yorkshire using the Micklehurst Loop and a similar number of westbound trains.[6] The loop had easier gradients than the original line through Mossley and Greenfield and this caused most of the heavy goods trains to use it. Daily local freight trains called at each of the stations to shunt waggons in the goods yards until and after their closure to passengers, Uppermill closing for goods traffic on 15 June 1964.[3] The section of the line from Diggle to Staley and Millbrook was closed to all traffic on 3 October 1966, with the remaining section from Stalybridge to Staley and Millbrook surviving for a few more years to serve Hartshead Power Station near the latter location. Filmed by Allan Roach.