Longridge railway station (West Lothian)
| Longridge | |
|---|---|
| Eastern Station | |
Old railway bridge just east of the 1850 station.
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| Location | |
| Place | Longridge |
| Area | West Lothian |
| Coordinates | 55°50′05″N 3°40′23″W / 55.834861°N 3.673048°WCoordinates: 55°50′05″N 3°40′23″W / 55.834861°N 3.673048°W |
| Grid reference | NS 953 661 |
| Operations | |
| Original company | Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway |
| Pre-grouping | Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway |
| Platforms | 1 |
| History | |
| 2 June 1845 | Opened |
| April 1848 | Closed to passengers and freight |
| May 1850 | Re-opened |
| December 1852 | Closed to passengers |
| Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom | |
| Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z |
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Longridge railway station was the original terminus of the Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway (WM&CR) that served the nearby village of Longridge in West Lothian and it was also referred to as Eastern station and was 8 miles 50 chains (13.9 km) from Morningside station.
The first station opened as the then terminus of the line at Longridge in 1845 and was then closed in 1848. The railway was extended to Bathgate on a different alignment that diverted the route to the north where a new station (55.833977, -3.673023), a simple platform, was opened in May 1850 but closed in December 1852.
The W,M&CR at first adopted the standard track gauge for mineral lines of 4 ft 6 in (1,372 mm), often referred to as Scotch gauge. The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway took over the W,M&CR in 1849, the track gauge already having been changed in August 1847, from the now almost obsolete Scotch gauge to the generally accepted standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm).
This made Longridge one of the few purely Scotch gauge stations to have existed as it closed before the gauge was converted.
The later Longridge station of 1850 had a single short platform that was accessed off the A706 Longridge to Breich road and stood just to the west of the railway overbridge.
The line was worked by steam although the early intention may have been to work the line as a horse drawn waggonway with independent hauliers.
Passenger services had started from 1845 and a road coach ran between Edinburgh to Longridge from 16 May 1846, passengers disembarking travelling on by train to Townhead. In 1847 two hours was the railway section of the journey, calling at all the stations on the Wilsontown line.
The Caledonian Railway opened its line from Carlisle to Garriongill Junction in 1848 and its trains then ran through to Glasgow over the WM&CR. The demands on the line's capacity may led to the WM&CR passenger service being terminated at this time before being reinstated for a short time a few years later.
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Wikipedia