Macclesfield Hibel Road railway station was a railway station serving the town of Macclesfield

Macclesfield

Macclesfield is a market town within the unitary authority of Cheshire East, the county palatine of Chester, also known as the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The population of the Macclesfield urban sub-area at the time of the 2001 census was 50,688...

 in Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It was opened as a joint station by the North Staffordshire Railway

North Staffordshire Railway

The North Staffordshire Railway was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire....

 (NSR) and the London and North Western Railway

London and North Western Railway

The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...

 (LNWR) on 13 July 1849 with the opening of the NSR route to Uttoxeter via and and it replaced an earlier, temporary, LNWR station at Beech Bridge. Built right at the point where the track of the two companies made an end-on junction, the station was managed by a joint committee of the two companies.

With the opening of the Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway

Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway

The Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway was a railway line, 16 km long, linking Macclesfield with Marple in east Cheshire, England, opened in 1869 by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway and the North Staffordshire Railway , as a part of an alternative link between...

 in 1871 the NSR opened a new station less than 500 yards (457 m) further south called Macclesfield Central

Macclesfield railway station

Macclesfield railway station is a main line station serving the Cheshire town of Macclesfield. It lies on the Stafford to Manchester branch of the West Coast Main Line, in the United Kingdom....

. It had been hoped that the new line could run into Hibel Road but the LNWR objected to this and neither would the LNWR agree to share Central station.

Both stations remained open until 1960 when the decision was taken by British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

 to concentrate services on a redeveloped Central station. The refurbished Central station, now renamed simple Macclesfield, opened on 7 November 1960 and on the same day Hibel Road closed. The site of Hibel Road station has now been redeveloped.

Passenger train services

LNWR services to/from terminated at Hibel Road but if they continued to via then many stopped at Central as well. NSR services either on the main line to Stoke or via the Churnet Valley line used both stations. Express trains between and Manchester tended only to use Hibel Road.

Freight traffic

The area around the station was very cramped. To the south of the station was the NSR goods yard

Goods station

A goods station is, in the widest sense, a railway station which is exclusively or predominantly where goods of any description are loaded or unloaded from ships or road vehicles and/or where goods wagons are transferred to local sidings.A station where goods are not specifically received or...

, which dealt mostly with coal for Macclesfield Gas Works. North of the station was the LNWR goods yard and the NSR Motive power depot

Motive power depot

Motive power depot, usually abbreviated to MPD, is a name given to places where locomotives are stored when not being used, and also repaired and maintained. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds", or, for short, just sheds. Facilities are provided for refuelling and...

 (MPD). As the track north of the station was LNWR owned the NSR could only access its engine shed using running powers over the LNWR track.