Rawtenstall | |
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Station on heritage railway | |
General information | |
Location | Rawtenstall, Lancashire England |
Grid reference | SD809225 |
Managed by | East Lancashire Railway |
Platforms | 2 |
History | |
Opened | 1846 Closed for passengers 1972 closed for freight 1980 Reopened 1991 |
Rawtenstall railway station serves the town of Rawtenstall in Lancashire, England, and is the northern terminus of the East Lancashire Railway.
It was formerly on the national railway network on the line to Bacup as well as Bury and Manchester.
The Association of Train Operating Companies have identified that the community of Rawtenstall on the East Lancashire Railway Heritage Railway could benefit from services connecting the station to the National Network. [1]
The current railway station opened in 1846 as part of a line from Clifton Junction built by the East Lancashire Railway (later incorporated into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway). The line reached Waterfoot in 1848 and Bacup in 1852.
For most of its life the station was on a through route for passenger services between Manchester and Bacup via Bury. After being listed for closure under the Beeching Axe passenger and goods services to Bacup were withdrawn on 3 December 1966 (up to the last day services were regular at least every half an hour, every fifteen minutes at peak times and on Saturdays) and passenger services to Bury on 3 June 1972. Freight services to the British Fuel Company's coal concentration depot continued until 4 December 1980 when British Rail abruptly discontinued them, stating that the 14,000 tonnes of coal handled was far less than when the depot had been opened and the decline was mainly due to householders switching to other types of fuel. [2] Closure came as a surprise to local councils which had been planning to transform Fernhill depot, alongside the Bury line, into a rail-served waste disposal facility capable of dealing with 600 tonnes per day by 1984. [2] The coal depot at Rawtenstall would remain open to be served by road from rail-linked depots at Blackburn, Burnley and Chadderton. [2]
The station was subsequently rescued and saved in 1987 by the then newly re-opened East Lancashire Railway.
The station has been extensively rebuilt by the East Lancashire Railway, as nothing was left of the original buildings at closure. Part of the current station building lies across the former route on towards Bacup. The station has a ticket office and waiting room in the main building. The waiting room contains replicas of an original fireplace and original seats.[ citation needed ] The waiting room recently went through a restoration project, to make the station as original as possible. The ticket office is in the centre of the station.
Along the platform there is also a small wooden waiting shelter.
There are two platform faces, however only the main one is available for regular passenger services owing to the limitations of the signalling currently provided.
The East Lancashire Railway operates every weekend throughout the year and Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays between Easter and the end of September. It offers a "local residents discount card" but does not claim to offer a true public transport facility.
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Preceding station | Heritage railways | Following station | ||
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Irwell Vale | East Lancashire Railway | Terminus | ||
Disused railways | ||||
Ewood Bridge and Edenfield | Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Rawtenstall to Bacup Line | Clough Fold |
The East Lancashire Railway is a twelve-and-a-half-mile (20 km) heritage railway line in North West England which runs between Heywood, Greater Manchester and Rawtenstall in Lancashire. There are intermediate stations at Bury Bolton Street, Burrs Country Park, Summerseat and Ramsbottom, with the line crossing the border into Rossendale serving Irwell Vale and Rawtenstall. Before closure, the line terminated at Bacup.
Rossendale is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. Its council is based in Bacup and its largest town is Rawtenstall. It also includes the towns of Haslingden and Whitworth. The borough is named after the Rossendale Valley, the upper part of the River Irwell.
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The Rawtenstall to Bacup railway line opened in two stages, from Rawtenstall to Waterfoot in 1848, and from Waterfoot to the Bacup terminus in 1852. There were stations at Rawtenstall, Cloughfold, Stacksteads and Bacup. The line was doubled in 1880, at the same time as the line from Bacup to Rochdale was also opened. Passenger and freight services operated until the Beeching cuts in 1966, the last passenger train running on 5 December 1966 and the track being lifted in 1969. As the Irwell valley is quite narrow the line had many engineering features in its 5-mile length, including 14 crossings of the River Irwell alone, plus many over and underbridges, embankments and cuttings, and tunnels at Thrutch Gorge in Waterfoot. Most of the bridges have been demolished or infilled in the years since closure. A foot and cycle path now follows much of the route including the 1/8 mile Newchurch No. 1 Tunnel and 1/4 mile Newchurch No 2 Tunnel.
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