Maudland Bridge railway station

Maudland Bridge
Site of former station in 2007. The bridge in the foreground was over the Lancaster Canal
Location
Place	Maudland Road, Preston
Area	Preston
Coordinates	53°45′45″N 2°42′37″W / 53.7626°N 2.7103°W / 53.7626; -2.7103Coordinates: 53°45′45″N 2°42′37″W / 53.7626°N 2.7103°W / 53.7626; -2.7103
Operations
Original company	Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway
Pre-grouping	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway/London and North Western Railway
Platforms	1
History
1 November 1856	Opened
1 June 1885	Closed
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

Maudland Bridge railway station was once the Preston terminus of the Longridge Branch Line, in Lancashire, England. It was located on Maudland Road, between a bridge over the Lancaster Canal and Cold Bath Street. The Maudlands district of Preston gets its name from the medieval St. Mary Magdalen's leper hospital, which once stood near the present-day St Walburge's Church.

In 1850, the Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway (FP&WRR) built the 862-yard (788 m) Miley Tunnel to connect two existing lines, the Preston and Longridge Railway at Deepdale, and the Preston and Wyre Joint Railway (P&WR) at Maudland. The plan was to link Fleetwood on the Fylde coast to Skipton in the West Riding of Yorkshire. However the plan collapsed in 1852, and so the tunnel was initially used for goods traffic only.

In 1856, the FP&WRR revived and diverted passenger trains via the tunnel to a new Maudland Bridge station. By 1867 the line was owned jointly by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). In 1885, the track layout at Maudland was altered to allow Longridge trains to run on the adjacent LNWR West Coast Main Line to Preston railway station, and Maudland Bridge was closed. A goods station, to replace the demolished P&WR Maudland station, was built nearby.