Delph railway station
Encyclopedia
History
The station was opened on 1 September 1851 as the terminus of the London and North Western RailwayLondon and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
branch from .
The station closed on 2 May 1955, when the Delph Donkey
Delph Donkey
The Delph Donkey was an LNWR railway line in northern England which opened in 1849 to connect Oldham, Greenfield and Delph to the main Huddersfield to Manchester line. Passenger Trains ceased to run on the Delph Donkey in April 1955, although a limited number of freight trains continued to use the...
passenger train service from Oldham to Delph via Greenfield was withdrawn. The station building (complete with platform) still survives as a private residence, now much hemmed in by later development.
For a period after closure the station yard became home to a small, privately owned, collection of railway rolling stock, including two steam locomotives. The locomotives were Hunslet 0-6-0ST Darfield No.1, built in 1953 and Hunslet 0-6-0ST Brookes No. 1, built in 1941. Other stock consisted of a BR Mk 1 bogie coach, an oil tank wagon and a goods brake van. Both locomotives have gone on to enjoy useful lives on preserved lines, but the coach and wagons were cut up on site.