Not all non-CLC stations are shown The Stockport, Timperley and Altrincham Junction Railway (ST&AJR) was authorised by an act of Parliament, passed on 22 July 1861 to build an 8 miles 17 chains (13.2 km) railway from Stockport Portwood to Altrincham.

[c] This act had not, however, formally set up a separate legal body, providing instead for the two companies to manage and work the four railways through their existing structures.

This required hard working of the steam locomotives by their crews to clear the bottleneck stretch of line for the following trains.

The other stations all closed on 30 November 1964, when the Stockport Tiviot Dale to Warrington Central service ceased.

[8] Though passenger services had all ceased by the late 1960s, the line remained in regular use for goods traffic throughout the following decade, mainly carrying coal traffic from South Yorkshire to Fiddlers Ferry power station and limestone aggregates from the Peak District to the Brunner Mond works near Northwich.

In 1980 though, the eastern section of the line from Portwood to Cheadle was temporarily closed to traffic for safety reasons after the Lancashire Hill tunnel near Tiviot Dale sustained roof damage during construction work on the nearby M63 motorway and the traffic using it diverted away.

The Skelton Junction to Warrington Arpley line which it fed into at its western end also suffered the same fate in July 1985, with infrastructure issues again the reason behind the closure (the deteriorating condition of the Manchester Ship Canal viaduct at Latchford being the cause this time).