Daubhill railway station

Daubhill railway station was a station on the original route of the Bolton and Leigh Railway. It served the Daubhill area of south west Bolton. It was open from 1831 until its replacement in 1885 by a later station.

See also: Rumworth and Daubhill railway station

Daubhill
General information
LocationBolton, Greater Manchester, Bolton
England
Coordinates53.5637°N 2.4478°W / 53.5637; -2.4478
Grid referenceSD703075
Platforms2 (island)
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companyBolton and Leigh Railway
Pre-groupingLondon and North Western Railway
Key dates
18 June 1831Station opened
2 February 1885Station closed

History

The Bolton and Leigh Railway (B&LR) opened for goods traffic in 1828, followed by passenger services in 1831.[1]

The railway was built as a single track line and the route included two inclines which were worked using ropes hauled by stationary engines, locomotive haulage being used on the flatter sections of the line.[2] One of these inclines was situated at Daubhill with the line climbing up out of Bolton. This incline was operated by a 20 horsepower (14,914 W) stationary steam engine which hauled the trains up the incline,[1][3] in the downhill direction trains worked by gravity.[4]

The station at Daubhill opened on 11 June 1831.[5] The station site was not marked on contemporary maps, however the approximate site can be deduced:

  • A traveller in 1846 wrote to Herepath's Railway Journal with several complaints about the railway which had recently been taken over by the LNWR, one complaint read "passengers going to the Daubhill station, are compelled to go up a flight of some forty steps (frequently through a cloud of smoke and steam), alongside of, and over the top of a high-pressure boiler, which has been in use during the last 14 or 16 years."[6] The engine house is clearly marked on the OS six-inch map surveyed between 1844 and 1846.[7]
  • Shaw (1983) reports that the first Daubhill station was situated alongside Tootal's "Sunnyside Mills" (opened in 1862) and that Tootal had in their offices a watercolour of their Mills, painted in 1864 showing the original Daubhill station and a passenger train proceeding up the line.[1]

Improvements in locomotive design meant the inclines became redundant, to avoid the incline, and allow steam locomotives to haul trains for the entire journey, the LNWR, successor to the B&LR, built a deviation over easier gradients. This required the resiting of the 1831 Daubhill station.

The station closed on 2 February 1885[5] and was replaced by a new Rumworth and Daubhill only a short distance away on the same day.[8]

The original Daubhill line was not simply closed, but sections at both ends were retained for many years, with only a short central section being closed and lifted immediately. The northern end was retained to serve the Crown Brewery (later Magee, Marshall's).[9] The southern end of the old line survived to serve Sunnyside Mills[3] and Daubhill Coal yard until the mid-1960s.[10][11][12]

References
  1. Shaw 1983.
  2. Awdry 1990, p. 62.
  3. Sweeney 1996, p. 12.
  4. Whishaw 1842, p. 43.
  5. Butt 1995, p. 77.
  6. "London and North Western Railway — Bolton and Kenyon Branch to Liverpool". Herapath's Railway and Commercial Journal. 8 (378): 1127. 5 September 1846.
  7. "Map of area of original Daubhill station on a 1844-46 Lancashire XCV OS six-inch published in 1850". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  8. Butt 1995, p. 201.
  9. Holland 2001, p. 23.
  10. Holland 2001, pp. 99, 124 & 126.
  11. DVD 2003, 26 mins from start.
  12. DVD 2013, 19 mins from start.

Sources
Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Bolton Great Moor Street
Line and station closed		   London and North Western Railway
Bolton and Leigh Railway		   Chequerbent 1831
Line and station closed
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