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End of the line for rail route

31/ 5/2008

THE news that the Government has finally released the funding to allow the Metrolink extension to reach Rochdale, albeit the station rather than into the town centre, is another milestone in the town’s transport history.

It was 50 years ago next month that local commuters were able to travel from Rochdale to Manchester on diesel trains, rather than steam, although steam had a good few years left in it then, not finishing for good until 1968.

But signs of things to come had appeared a year earlier when, in August 1967, the single line track from Rochdale to Whitworth closed for good, bringing to an end services which first began all the way from Rochdale to Bacup in November 1881.

It had been a formidable challenge for Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway engineers, for it was one of the highest in the country, and also had to cross 117ft above Healey Dell by means of a spectacular viaduct, which still stands today.

The final trip on the line – at least for fare-paying passengers – was organised by the Locomotive Club of Great Britain.

A dozen or so rain-soaked enthusiasts, some of whom had been on the last trains to Middleton, Royton, Bacup, Delph and Barnoldswick, had gathered at Rochdale goods yard and piled into two brake vans which were then added to a coal train.

At Whitworth, the eight wagons were left for unloading and 22 empty wagons were attached for the return trip to Rochdale.

It was a heavy load for the 350hp diesel electric loco, even though the return was nearly all downhill.

The only users of the line for the eight months before then had been three local coal merchants, who then had to get their supplies by road.

Joseph Taylor, managing director of Joseph Taylor (Coal) Ltd of Whitworth, was at the coal yard when the train arrived.

His firm had been established in 1869 and to his knowledge had been receiving supplies by rail for 80 years.

In the 19th century, when the line was opened, the main traffic had been goods – stone and coal primarily.

Whitworth station had been the busiest on the line, although Facit was the largest station. Passenger traffic was satisfactory in the 1930s, but the demand for local stone was falling off and with it went the line’s chief source of freight revenue.

Consequently, when the Second World War finished, the end of the branch line was in sight.

The passenger service between Rochdale and Bacup was withdrawn ‘temporarily’, partly as a result of the fuel crisis brought on by the harsh winter of 1947.

It closed on 16 June 1947 and never opened again, leaving only the section between Rochdale and Whitworth operating.

In the 1960s most traffic was from Rochdale to the private sidings of Turner Brothers, then the world’s largest asbestos factory.

Stations on the line: Rochdale, Wardleworth, Shawclough and Healey, Broadley, Whitworth, Facit, Shawforth, Bacup.