page_title: Manchester Oldham Road railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Manchester Oldham Road railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: Railway Junctions in Manchester pre grouping
context_page_description: Manchester Oldham Road was a railway station on the Manchester and Leeds Railway in Collyhurst, Manchester, England. Built in 1839 and opened on 3 July, it was the Manchester terminus for the railway.
context_section_description: The station was built in 1839 on the north side of Oldham Road, and the east side of Lees Street.  The line reached the station by a viaduct, 30 feet above the surrounding streets.  A 'flight of spacious stairs' was used by passengers to reach the 'very commodious' station building. M&LR passenger trains from and to Yorkshire served the station from its opening on 3 July.
  In 1839, both the M&LR and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway realised that their respective stations were too far from the city centre. Despite the conflicting aspirations of the two companies, negotiations between the two resulted in agreement to build a new station at the central location of Hunt's Bank, with the M&LR to have control. The M&LR's extension of the line to the newly completed Manchester Victoria at Hunt's Bank opened on 1 January 1844 and the original M&LR station closed for passenger use on the same date. An Act of Parliament, receiving royal assent had been obtained on 1 July 1839, enabling construction of this extension.
  Once the M&LR's new extension had been opened, Oldham Road station was converted from passenger use to the receipt, unloading, storing and despatch of goods. From 1844, goods trains operated along what was now a short branch line (72-chains in length) from Oldham Road Junction near Miles Platting station. Waggons of 8 metric tons (7.9 long tons) or more were raised and lowered from the goods yard at street level below by a double hoist. The business offices (including the Superintendent's office) of the railway remained at the station.
  The goods depot continued to grow in size throughout the nineteenth century under the ownership of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and was completely rebuilt in 1916. In its final form it had a number of 'sheds', which were called the Fruit Shed, Provision Shed, Delivery Shed, Fish Shed, Cloth Shed, Grain Shed, Potato Shed and the Shipping Shed, indicating the diversity of traffic handled there. British Railways London Midland Region continued to handle sundries traffic at Oldham Road for some years after the nationalisation of 1948.
caption: Railway Clearing House diagram of railways in central Manchester in 1910 showing the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway line from Oldham Road Junction to Oldham Road goods depot; also the LYR (ex M&LR) line from the station through Miles Platting and Newton Heath to Leeds
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