Steam Train approaching Rawtenstall

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 28 May 2016

Ex-British Railways Standard Tank Steam Locomotive 80080, hauling an East Lancashire Railway excursion from Heywood, passes the water tower at the end of Rawtenstall Station. 80080 was built to the then-standard BR design at Brighton Works in 1954. Rawtenstall railway station opened in 1846 as part of a line from Clifton Junction built by the East Lancashire Railway (later incorporated into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway). The line reached Bacup in 1852 and, for most of its life, the station served passenger services on a through route between Manchester and Bacup via Bury. Passenger and goods services to Bacup were withdrawn in 1966 and passenger services to Bury ceased in 1972. The station itself was closed in 1980 when a regular coal train was withdrawn by British Rail. The station has since been extensively rebuilt by the East Lancashire Railway, as nothing was left of the original buildings at closure. It is now the northern terminus of the railway, eight miles up the line from Bury.

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