Longridge railway station (Scotland)
Longridge Eastern Station | |
|---|---|
Old railway bridge just east of the 1850 station. | |
| General information | |
| Location | Longridge, West Lothian Scotland |
| Coordinates | 55°50′05″N 3°40′23″W / 55.834861°N 3.673048°W |
| Grid reference | NS 953 661 |
| Platforms | 1 |
| Other information | |
| Status | Disused |
| History | |
| Original company | Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway |
| Pre-grouping | Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway |
| Key dates | |
| 2 June 1845 | Opened |
| April 1848 | Closed to passengers and freight |
| May 1850 | Re-opened in a slightly different location |
| December 1852 | Closed to passengers |
Longridge railway station was the original terminus of the Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway (WM&CR) that served the nearby village of Longridge in West Lothian and it was also referred to as Eastern station and was 8 miles 50 chains (13.9 km) from Morningside station.
The first station opened as the then terminus of the line at Longridge in 1845 and was then closed in 1848. The railway was extended to Bathgate on a different alignment that diverted the route to the north where a new station (55.833977, -3.673023), a simple platform, was opened in May 1850 but closed in December 1852.
The W,M&CR at first adopted the standard track gauge for mineral lines of 4 ft 6 in (1,372 mm), often referred to as Scotch gauge. The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway took over the W,M&CR in 1849, the track gauge already having been changed in August 1847, from the now almost obsolete Scotch gauge to the generally accepted standard gauge of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm).
This made Longridge one of the few purely Scotch gauge stations to have existed as it closed before the gauge was converted.
The later Longridge station of 1850 had a single short platform that was accessed off the A706 Longridge to Breich road and stood just to the west of the railway overbridge.