Micklehurst Line

The Micklehurst Line was a railway line between Stalybridge, Cheshire, and Diggle junction in the West Riding of Yorkshire (now part of Greater Manchester). The line, approximately eight miles long, was also sometimes referred to as the Micklehurst Loop and the Stalybridge and Diggle Loop Line.

The London and North Western Railway had built its line from Stalybridge to Huddersfield through Standedge tunnel between 1847 and 1849 and it opened on 1 August 1849 for through trains between Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Victoria, Huddersfield and Leeds. The increasing number of passenger and goods trains on the route required a second single-bore tunnel to be built, opening in February 1871. A further growth in traffic required construction of a double-track tunnel which was completed in August 1894.

To effectively serve the four railway tracks through the Standedge tunnels, an additional twin-track railway line was required. The original track had been built on the steep, western slopes of the Tame Valley making it difficult to add a second pair of tracks alongside, so the new line was built in parallel, along the eastern side of the valley and about one mile distant. The new line was completed in 1885.

Whilst the line had mainly been built with through goods trains in mind, the LNWR built four intermediate passenger stations on the line, all opening on 3 May 1886. The first out of Stalybridge was Staley and Millbrook; next was Micklehurst; the third station from Stalybridge was Friezland and the nearest to the junction at Diggle and the tunnel entrance was Uppermill. Passenger traffic in this sparsely populated Pennine valley was light. Micklehurst was closed to passengers on 1 May 1907; Staley and Millbrook on 1 November 1909; and Uppermill and Friezland stations on 1 January 1917.

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