Preston to Longridge Branch. Mothballed Abandoned Railway. Deepdale Ribbleton Grimsargh Courtaulds
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 มิ.ย. 2024
- The Preston and Longridge Railway Company was set up in 1836 to build a tramway from the newly opened Tootle Heights Quarry in Longridge to Preston. The 6½-mile (10½ km) single-track line was opened on 1 May 1840, with crude passenger facilities at Longridge, Grimsargh and Deepdale Street in Preston.
Wagons were horse-drawn from Preston uphill to Longridge. Wagons ran by gravity in the opposite direction as far as Ribbleton, which was then a village just outside Preston. Horses were used for the final two miles (3 km) to Deepdale. Longridge ashlar sandstone was widely used in the region, for example in the building of Lancaster Town Hall, Bolton Town Hall, Preston railway station and Liverpool Docks.
In 1846, the Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway (FP&WRR) Company was set up. It had an ambitious plan to link Fleetwood on the Lancashire coast to Leeds and Bradford in Yorkshire. It would link the existing Preston and Wyre Joint Railway to the Longridge line in Preston, and build a new line from Grimsargh via Ribchester, Hurst Green and Clitheroe to Skipton, where it would join the proposed Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway. The line would give Lancashire passengers access to the spa towns of Harrogate and Knaresborough, and beauty spots such as Bolton Abbey. Reciprocally, it would give Yorkshire passengers access to the seaside resorts of Fleetwood and Blackpool. Freight trains would carry cattle from Craven Valley, and stone from quarries near Clitheroe as well as from Longridge. Stonyhurst College would be within a mile of the line and would be able to use it to bring in supplies as well as pupils.
The P&LR was duly leased to the FP&WRR. The line was adapted for steam and the first steam-hauled train ran on Whit Monday 1848.
In 1850, a double-track extension was built connecting to the existing line a few hundred yards east of the Deepdale Street terminus. The line passed via the 862-yard (788 m) Miley Tunnel under the north part of Preston and connected to the Preston and Wyre Joint Railway very close to that line’s original terminus at Maudlands. The extension was initially used for goods only.
The first work on the Grimsargh to Skipton line was the excavation of a short cutting (which still exists) south of Hurst Green, but then the project was abandoned. In 1852, the FP&WRR Company collapsed. The Preston and Longridge Railway acquired the engines and rolling stock of the collapsed company.
However, in 1856 a reformed Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway Company purchased the line. The line through Miley Tunnel was opened to passengers, with new stations at each end, at Deepdale Bridge on Deepdale Road and at Maudland Bridge. The original Deepdale Street terminus was closed to passengers but continued to be used for goods.
By 1866, the plan to extend the line to Yorkshire had been revived. Fearing that the rival Midland Railway would buy the line to gain access to Preston, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) bought the line instead. From the following year, the line was owned jointly by the L&YR and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR).
In 1885, Maudland Bridge Station was closed and passenger trains ran on to the adjacent LNWR main line to Preston Station, allowing connections to other railway lines for the first time.
In June 1889, a private branch line was opened northwards from Grimsargh to Whittingham Asylum two miles (3 km) away. As well as supplies, hospital staff and visitors were carried free of charge in converted goods brake vans. Trains (as many as twelve per day) were timed to connect with passenger trains at Grimsargh.
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.
The hospital line continued to operate long after the main branch closed to passengers in 1930. The hospital trains were now timed to connect with bus services at Grimsargh. The line eventually closed on 29 June 1957.
In 1918 there was another plan to extend the railway from Longridge to Yorkshire along the Loud and Hodder valleys to Whitewell, Tosside, Wigglesworth and Hellifield, but the plan was never implemented.
By 1930 the popularity of bus travel caused the line to close to passengers. The line to Longridge remained open to goods traffic until November 1967.
Goods traffic continued to use part of the line as far as the Courtaulds factory at Red Scar, until the last train worked on Friday 8 February 1980. The Gamull Lane bridge over the line at Ribbleton was subsequently removed. All that now remained of the whole line was a Y-shaped link between the West Coast Main Line and coal yards at the site of the original Deepdale Street terminus. This, too, was closed in the 1990s, although the tracks for this section were never taken up.
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Great video, thank you for posting. An interesting point worth mentioning, the bridge steelwork you are admiring at Maudlands at about 3:10 is where the Preston - Lancaster canal ran under the line and towards the town. Its now filled in and the canal starts further north. Cheers!
Amazing video 😊👍🏻👍🏻
I remember very well seeing he morning train from Preston to Red Scar and Longridge. Always a WD 2-8-0 from Mold Junction reduced to walking pace with lots of slipping until it got past Skeffington Road crossing where the track levelled out. At lunchtime I often saw locos going to/from the coal depot. Once I saw 46100 Royal Scot there - I guess a filling in job between main line work. Other locos were LNWR 0-8-0s, L&Y 0-6-0s and BR 2-6-0s. For some reason the old narrow road bridge at Grimsargh is still problem on the Preston - Longridge Road.
They were looking at using the old track beds for trams, but as usual, they never got anywhere with it. I travel through Grimsargh regularly and they are building loads of new houses without thinking about all the traffic it will produce as there's only one road into Preston and they're already getting busier and busier - the railway from Preston to Longridge would be perfect with the population getting so high.
Love you're lost railways exploring, keep
It up man 😊
As always an absolutely amazing video well done and surprised you managed to find so many jems still left
The last train was in 1993
A coal train worked by a class 37
They use to bring coal into deepdale coal depot by rail upto 1993
Deepdale coal depot was in the area where you say the original station then depot now industrial unit was as far as i know.
I had not idea so much was left, great video mate
The line from Grimsargh to Whitingham mental hospital was provided with a free train service using brake vans powered by a steam loco originating from down south Brighton I think , somebody's cast offs. It even featured in a newspaper in the USA
A fine walk into the past this day. Thank you for this day’s video. 🇬🇧🙂👍🇺🇸
nice to see some track has been left hope they do something about that station soon before vandalism sets in and part of our heritage gone forever
(5:55), Very nice stone and brick work.
Many thanks for another brilliant video 👍🏻
Cycle lane ?
Make a great railway in my book.
All these old lines need to be reinstated where possible. Once the veins and arteries of our country, they'd reinvigourate the country again if reopened.
The tunnels under the town are rather like the Heckmondwike Cleckheaton line
love these .. just 1 thing why are all these rails not been moved for recycling . there must be some serious money there in steal . .. could a scrap collector remove them . are they left just in case of reopening .. eg easier to remove the weed then to re lay ..
the old railway should have been converted into a traffic free cycle path. perhaps you need to joghlight this line to Sustrans in Bristol. the make it their mission to vonvert Fidused Tsil lines into cycle paths It could getmore use than the tram ever would because they would pass below the Preston town centre with all the danger that cycling on the roads above would pose to cyclists
How do you get over those fences at the level crossings?
Great video. Why do people have to be pigs. That rubbish is shameful.
Still owned by The Railway as mothballed operating
Never realised that Preston was such a sh**hole. What a disgrace that its been allowed to get like that. Still, nothing surprises me anymore with this country.
The rubbish is a disgrace as is the gormless graffiti.