Atherton Bag Lane railway station

The Bolton and Leigh Railway (B&LR) opened Bag Lane station as one of the original stations on the line on 11 June 1831.^[1] The B&LR became part of the Grand Junction Railway in 1845 which became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR) in 1846.^[2]

The original "spartan" single platform station was constructed on the East side of the single track line in the centre of Bag Lane village, opposite the Railway Inn.^[3][4]

The station was renamed Atherton in 1847.^[5]

The station was rebuilt in 1880 when the line was doubled. The new station having two platforms with canopies. The platforms were accessed by an underground passage from a new road, Railway Street.^[6][7] There was an adjacent goods station capable of handling "Live Stock, Horse Boxes and Prize Cattle Vans". The goods yard was equipped with a 10 ton crane.^[8]

The L&NWR became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) during the Grouping in 1923.

The station was renamed Atherton Bag Lane on 2 June 1924 to distinguish it from Atherton Central on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.^[9][10]

It passed on to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948 and was closed by the British Transport Commission six years later.^[11]

The line closed to all traffic in January 1969 and in 1970 the road was re-laid over its original path.^[12]