Station Name: WHITWORTH[Source:
Alan Young]
Whitworth Station Gallery 3:  On Friday 18 August 1967 D3845 is seen at Whitworth. By this time Whitworth was the northern end of the old Rochdale to Bacup line, and it was used only by freight traffic. In this southward view the diesel shunter is immediately north of Hall Street bridge, and the station is on the far side of the bridge. The headboard identifies this as a special Locomotive Club of Great Britain visit. On the following day the last freight train ran on the branch and it closed officially on Monday 21 August.
Photo by Ian G Holt  A rare interior view at Whitworth station goods warehouse on Friday 18 August 1967. The final freight train left Whitworth the following day, and on Monday 21 August the warehouse and railway were closed..
Photo by Ian G Holt  From 1963 Whitworth was the northern terminus of the former Rochdale-Bacup line, and only freight traffic was handled after passenger services were withdrawn in 1947.On Saturday 19 August 1967 D3845 is seen at Whitworth station in this southward view. This was the day when the final freight train ran, and wagons remaining on the branch were removed. The platform has a profusion of weeds and the building is derelict. The loop line still passes through the goods warehouse, and a further siding can be seen in the foreground. On 21 August the railway was officially closed and the rails were removed by the end of 1967. After closure Whitworth goods yard remained in commercial use as a coal yard, but since 1988 the site has been occupied by sheltered housing
Photo by Ian G Holt  This is the final day of freight traffic on the remaining section of the former Rochdale-Bacup line. D3845 is seen on Saturday 19 August at Whitworth, the northern terminus of the line, collecting a rake of wagons from the siding. A loop line still passes through the goods warehouse. The ‘main line’ is in the foreground and Orama cotton mill with its chimney can be seen in the background. The railway officially closed on Monday 21 August.
Photo by Ian G Holt  A group photo to commemorate the departure of the last train from Whitworth on 19 August 1967. D3845 is standing on the siding west of the goods warehouse. The gentleman in the suit, second from the left, is Joe Taylor the Whitworth coal merchant, whose coal traffic kept the Shawclough (for Turners Asbestos) - Whitworth section open when all other rail traffic had disappeared from the Whitworth Valley. The Area Manager, whose name is not known, is standing far left. To the right on Mr Taylor are driver Clifford Stansfield, fireman Bill Tonge, Guard Terry Hernon. The shunter's name is possibly Charlie Kidger.
Photo by Ian G Holt  The final train to use the former Rochdale-Bacup line is seen at Whitworth on Saturday 19 August 1967, looking south. The line ceased to carry passenger traffic in 1947, and it was cut back from to Facit in 1952 and to Whitworth in 1963. The train seen here is removing the last few wagons from the siding; diesel shunter D3845 is at the opposite end and will propel the wagons towards the camera and onto the ‘main line’ before making the final journey to Rochdale. A photograph from the brake van of this train towards the end of its journey is included on the Wardleworth page. The goods warehouse at Whitworth is now redundant. Symbolically there are piles of coal still on site – the closest one in an improvised bin; for a few years the goods yard would continue to be used by Joe Taylor’s coal business. The railway’s official closure date was 21 August, and the rails were recovered from the route
by the end of 1967. Photo
by Ian G Holt
 The passenger facilities at Whitworth are seen on 19 August 1967, the day when the last freight train left the station. The platform has been used for storing (or dumping?) pipes and is disappearing under a mat of vegetation. The stone building is modest and functional, and its most interesting feature is the timber screen enclosing what was intended to be an open-fronted waiting area; however the structure is deteriorating with slates and window glass missing, and the timber screen is in a bad way. The rails would be removed by the end of 1967 and the building demolished by 1971, the platform outlasting it. A grass bank in the grounds of Riddiough Court, a sheltered housing scheme, is now found on the site of the platform and the station building.
Photo by Ian G Holt  Whitworth station looking north in 1971. Until 1967 the rails were in place and in use, and the station building was standing, though derelict. In this view the building, formerly on the platform to the extreme right, has gone, the tracks have been lifted and the platform’s edge stones have been removed: some of them lie on the trackbed in the foreground. Pedestrians are using the sloping track by which the station was reached from Hall Street, which crosses the railway by the bridge. The former goods yard (left) is used by Joe Taylor, the coal merchant. Today the view ahead from this point is a manicured lawn with a vegetated bank up to the bridge parapet; to the right, the sloping track is now a road called Massey Croft; and the site of the coal yard to the left is now occupied by Riddiough Court (sheltered housing).
Photo by John Mann  The site of Whitworth station is now occupied by Riddiough Court, a sheltered housing development. In this northward-facing view of June 2015 the modern buildings are on the former goods yard whilst the running line, platform and station building were in the sloping grassed area beyond the fence. Hall Street, in the background, is elevated and the former parapet of its bridge over the railway is visible.
Photo by Alan Young  The site of Whitworth station looking south over the parapet of the former bridge on Hall Street in June 2015. Access to the passenger station was via a track – now followed by a road named Massey Croft - whose sloping wall is seen on the left. The platform abutted this sloping wall and station building used to occupy the lawn just this side of the slight bend in Massey Croft. The large brick building to the right is Riddiough Court, a sheltered housing development, and it stands on the station goods yard
Photo by Alan Young Click here for Gallery 4: Whitworth Station and environs
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