Preston and Longridge Railway
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The Preston and Longridge Railway was a branch line in Lancashire, England. It closed to passengers in 1930 and to goods in 1967.
History
The single track line was opened on 1 May 1840, primarily to carry stone from the quarries at Tootle Heights in Longridge to the terminus in Deepdale Road in Preston. It also carried passengers.
The trains were horse-drawn from Preston up to Longridge. Trains ran by gravity in the opposite direction as far as Ribbleton, horses being used for the final few miles to Deepdale. Longridge sandstone was widely used in the region and was used in the building of Lancaster Town Hall, Bolton Town Hall, Preston Railway Station and Liverpool Docks amongst others during the period which the quarries were operational. Steam traction was introduced in 1848.
The line was later leased to the newly formed Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway (FP&WRR). A double track tunnel was built, linking at one end to the existing line a few hundred metres east of the original Deepdale terminus and at the other to the existing Maudland station in Preston, on the Preston and Wyre Joint Railway. The station in Deepdale Road was moved a few hundred metres north to lie on the new line. It was planned to extend the line further east from Grimsargh to Skipton via Ribchester, Hurst Green and Clitheroe. A short cutting (which still exists) was excavated south of Hurst Green, but then the project was abandoned. At the west end of the tunnel, trains ran to Preston station instead of Fleetwood. In 1852 the FP&WRR company collapsed, and the Preston & Longridge Railway acquired its engines and rolling stock.
In 1856 a reformed Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway purchased the line. In 1866 this was taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and in 1867 by the LNW/L&Y Joint Railway. In 1923 it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and in 1948 absorbed into British Rail.
In 1889, a private branch line was opened northwards from Grimsargh to Whittingham Hospital two miles away. As well as supplies, hospital staff and visitors were carried free in converted goods brake vans. The locomotives used on the hospital branch were industrial types with the exception of the ex-London, Brighton and South Coast Railway no. 357, 'Riddlesdown', which was purchased in February 1948 from British Railways for £745.
Another short branch ran to the Courtaulds factory at Red Scar.
In the twentieth century, there was another plan to extend the railway from Longridge along the Loud valley to Whitewell, Tosside, Wigglesworth and Hellifield, but this extension never occurred either.
Passenger services to Longridge ceased in 1930, although services to Whittingham Hospital continued until June 1957, when the last locomotive was condemned. The line from Red Scar to Longridge closed in 1967. The line from Deepdale Road to Red Scar closed in the early 1980s, which allowed the Gamull Lane bridge over the line at Ribbleton to be removed. Finally the line to a coal depot at Deepdale Road was closed in the 1990s.
The route between Blackpool Road in Preston and the M6 motorway is now a cycle path and footpath. It is planned to extend the path to Grimsargh. The only section of track remaining is the double track through the tunnel from the West Coast Main Line as far as the Skeffington Road level crossing in Preston and the siding to the site of the original Deepdale terminus.
References
- Till, J.M. (1993), A History of Longridge and its People, Carnegie Publishing, Preston, ISBN 0-947789-92-1 (pb), ISBN 0-947789-86-7 (hb)
- Biddle, Gordon, (1989), The Railways Around Preston - A Historical Review, Scenes from the Past: No. 6, Foxline Publishing, ISBN 1-87011-905-3
- Parker, Norman, (1972), The Preston and Longridge Railway, Surrey
- Gilbert, A.C. & Knight, N.R. (1975), Railways around Lancashire, Manchester Transport Museum Society
- Pattinson, M. (1999), Longridge - The Way we Were, Hudson History of Settle, ISBN 0-9533643-4-8
- Potter, T. (1993), Reflections on Preston, Sigma Leisure, Wilmslow, ISBN 1-85058-387-0
See also
- Steam World October 2006
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