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Manchester Victoria Mill Hills Blue Pits Rochdale Littleborough Todmorden Hebden Bridge Sowerby Bridge Brighouse Dewsbury Horbury Wakefield Normanton

The Manchester and Leeds Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom which opened in 1839, connecting Manchester with Leeds via the North Midland Railway which it joined at Normanton.

It was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1836, with a second Act in 1839 which authorised the extension from the original Manchester terminus at Lees Street to join the Liverpool and Manchester Railway when the latter was extended to Hunt's Bank (later called Manchester Victoria). The Act also authorised branches to Oldham and Halifax with a diversion at Kirkthorpe.

The line was opened in 1839 as far as Littleborough and the remainder of the way to Normanton in 1840.

Superintended by George Stephenson, its engineer was Thomas Longridge Gooch, a brother of Daniel Gooch of the GWR. The line climbed out of Manchester with an average gradient of 1 in 260 till it arrived at the summit and a 2860 yard long tunnel at Littleborough. From there it descended towards Normanton.

It used the North Midland's line to run into Leeds since Parliament had refused to sanction two parallel lines.

Not an easy line to build, there were eight tunnels in all, mostly through very difficult rock, a hundred and sixteen bridges and long cuttings and embankments. One tunnel, that at Charlestown, had to be given up due its collapse and the continued instability of the ground. This entailed a diversion with some tight curves at variance with the norm for the line of 60 chains. Two large bridges were avoided by diverting the course of the River Calder. The track was of 15 foot lengths at a gauge of 4 foot 9 inches with a mixture of stone blocks and, on the embankments, timber sleepers.

The locomotives were provided by local manufacturers, six-wheeled Stephenson pattern. Carriages were all four wheeled. First and Second had three compartments, the latter with wooden shutters instead of glazing. The third class was "Stanhopes," that is, without seats, each divided into four sections by lateral and longitudinal bars. There were also some mixed carriages having a first class centre compartment, with the end ones second class. The average weight of a train would be about 18 tons, with an average speed of about 25 mph, reaching approx. 42 mph downhill.

The railway was an early user of Edmonsons Ticketing System. Tickets were checked en route, the guard presumably having to move from carriage to carriage by means of the external footboard.

The line was the chief constituent of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, which was incorporated in 1847. Several railways had earlier been absorbed by the M&LR:

• Ashton, Stalybridge & Liverpool Junction Railway incorporated 1844
• Huddersfield & Sheffield Junction Railway 1845
• Liverpool & Bury Railway 1845

• Whishaw, F, (1842) The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland London: John Wheale repub Clinker, C.R. ed (1969) Whishaw's Railways of Great Britain and Ireland Newton Abbot: David and Charles

• Map and chronological details