Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge Railway

In 1847 the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) had submitted a scheme to Parliament to build a line from Guide Bridge to Oldham.

[a][b][2][4] In 1856, a deputation, including the Mayors of Oldham (John Platt) and Ashton-under-Lyne (Nathaniel Buckley), approached the MS&LR to support a line from Guide Bridge which would connect to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) at Oldham.

[c] Once incorporated as the Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne and Guide Bridge Junction Railway in 1857, the L&YR took an interest, but the MS&LR, wishing the line to be a three way venture, prevailed upon the LNWR to join in.

[14][15] In September 1861 the OA&GB operated around twelve round trips between Oldham Clegg Street and Manchester London Road, most went via Guide Bridge where they would be required to reverse direction about half the services didn't call at Park Bridge and Ashton Moss only had two services in each direction.

[17] According to Fraser (1963) there was no urgency to start up goods traffic as the MS&LR owned the Ashton Canal which connected the same towns with Manchester, in effect the OA&GB was competing with one of its owners.

[19][20] The line was double track, 6 miles 20 chains (10.1 km) long, connecting end-on with the LNWR near their Oldham Glodwick Road station.

The right fork led onto the MS&LR main line to Manchester London Road at Audenshaw Junction.

[h][19] The GCR, as the MS&LR had now become, installed a south to west curve link just north of Ashton Moss, creating a triangular junction with the L&YR, it opened on 18 December 1911.

[41] There was a collision between two trains at Canal Junction caused by a lack of the absolute block system, an absence of punctuality, a signal not working properly and one of the drivers not keeping a good enough look-out.

[j] The inspecting officer noted that traffic levels had outgrown the station capacity, the railway already had the necessary authority to remedy the situation and should do so.