Pendleton railway station

The line from Windsor Bridge Junction (Salford) and Crow Nest Junction (Hindley), which shortened the route between Manchester and Liverpool, was authorised in 1883,^[1] and in 1885 a connection was authorised from the new line at Brindle Heath to the Bolton line at Agecroft.^[2]

The new lines opened in stages to goods traffic during 1887–88, and to passengers on 1 June 1889;^[3] on that day the station initially named Pendleton Broad Street was also opened.^[4] It had four platforms, as it served both the Bolton line (via the Brindle Heath Junction–Agecroft Junction connection) and the new Wigan line.^[5]

Until the 1980s Pendleton was one of the more important stations on the Bolton-Manchester line, one of only two stations with a Sunday service. The nearby Salford Crescent railway station, which opened in 1987, however, took much of the passenger traffic away from Pendleton station, sending it into terminal decline.^[6] In 1988 services to Bolton were withdrawn (with the closure of the Brindle Heath to Agecroft Junction chord) leaving Pendleton served by Atherton line trains only.

An arson attack in July 1994 led to the station being closed "temporarily" by GMPTE,^[7] though by this time it was only being served by four trains each day.^[6] Final closure came in 1998 after it was deemed that repairing the damage caused by the vandalism would not represent good value for money: "The Franchising Director advertised the closure and, in assessing the impact of the closure the RUCC for North Western England concluded (on 6 May 1998) that no hardship would result from closure as no trains had called at Pendleton for four years."^[6] Closure came despite a campaign for it to be re-opened by Salford Council^[7] in 1996.

Close to the station was Agecroft locomotive shed and sidings. The platform-level buildings have all been demolished, but the remnants of both island platforms are still visible from passing trains.^[8]