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Photos from two visits to the remains of the Preston to Longridge Railway, Lancashire, in May 2015.

The original 6 mile-long Preston and Longridge Railway opened on 1 May 1840 as a horse-drawn tramway from Deepdale Street in Preston, mainly to carry stone from the quarries at Tootle Heights above Longridge. Bought out by the Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway (FP&WRR), who clearly had wider ambitions, it was converted to steam traction in 1848, then a new section via the Miley tunnels was opened in 1850 to connect the line to the main line network north of Preston. The line closed to passengers on 2 June 1930, then closed to freight in stages in November 1967 (Longridge), and to Courtaulds at Red Scar in February 1980. The final traffic on the line was to a coal depot at the original terminus at Deepdale Street, via a reversal at Skeffington Road, but this closed in the early 1990s.
There have been plans for many years to partly re-open the route as a tramway, and some clearance work has been carried out.

For photos of a visit in May 2015 to the only section of the Grimsargh - Skipton route that the FP&WRR actually started to build, see this gallery; for photos of some remains of the fascinating Whittingham Hospital Railway, visited on 6 June 2015, see this gallery; for photos of a visit in August 2015 to the Longridge quarries area see this gallery; for photos of the Maudlands (WCML) end of the Preston to Longridge Railway taken in 2017 see this gallery.