16.6.1947 (temporary)     14.12.1949 (permanent)

Passengers (temporary): London, Midland & Scottish Railway
Passengers (permanent): British Railways (London Midland Region)
Goods: British Railways (London Midland Region)

Notes: Facit is part of the linear industrial area that follows the deep and narrow valley of the River Spodden, and today its Victorian terraces still line the Rochdale–Bacup road. Its prosperity in the nineteenth century depended on its textile mills and the huge quarries on the moors to the north-west. In administrative and commercial terms it has been overshadowed by Whitworth, a mile to the south, and only local people would be able to distinguish where Facit ends and Whitworth begins. However in railway terms Facit was of greater importance, serving for 11 years (1870 to 1881) as the northern terminus of the line before it was extended to Bacup. Traditions die hard, and although no longer a true ‘branch line’ the Rochdale-Bacup route remained the Facit Branch, and LMS timetables for the line were headed ‘Rochdale–Facit–Bacup’, ignoring Whitworth.

A group of railway employees in front of Facit Goods signal box, south of the passenger station c1910. Photo from Whitworth Historical Society

The curious name Facit is of Anglo-Saxon origin and means ‘bright slope’. The village grew on a west-facing slope, benefitting from the afternoon sunlight. At Facit Goods Yard signal box the single track became double all the way over the line’s summit to Bacup. The steeply graded single track from Whitworth (altitude 698ft) climbed for the mile to Facit at 1 in 50. After a short level stretch through Facit (775ft), most of the double track to Shawforth, where the station stood at 897ft, was at a punishing 1 in 39. The layout of Facit station carried the imprint of its origin as a terminus with the front of the station building not being parallel to the tracks; the extension to Bacup, opened in December 1881, continued on a different alignment from the original branch, so what became the up platform in front of the station building had to be widened progressively to the north, and a second (down) platform, also with a stone building, was constructed. A Yardley signal box was provided on the platform at the

This station had the most ambitious set of buildings of any of the intermediate Rochdale-Bacup stations. Both buildings were single-storey and built of sandstone. The original one on the up platform had a hipped roof and a hipped verandah extended from it across the platform. On the opposite platform was a smaller building with three pitched roofs whose gables were at right angles to the platform, and their profile was echoed by a ridge-and-furrow verandah; the next station north, Shawforth, also dating from 1881, had this style of building on both of its platforms. A rather elegant covered footbridge connected the platforms north of the buildings. In 1881 the new Facit signal box opened at the north end of the station, on the up side immediately north of the new level crossing. It was a Gloucester Wagon Co structure with a brick base equipped with the same company’s 16-lever frame. Two years earlier another box – Facit Goods Yard - opened south of the station, also on the up side; this was a brick-built Saxby & Farmer Type 9 box with a 15-lever frame. A 19-lever LYR frame replaced the original one in 1899.

The goods yard was extensive and at one time included a wagon-weighing machine; few stations were provided with this device. There was also an engine shed of timber construction which was in use for just over ten years while Facit was the branch terminus; it was unusual for an LYR branch to possess a shed. The shed was replaced with one at Bacup which remained in use until 1954. One of the goods yard tracks extended beyond railway property to a stone-processing plant further up the valley and then clambered up to the moors via a zig-zag and a standard gauge incline to serve Henry Heys & Sanderson quarries. The zig-zag at the foot of the incline was to prevent accidents should a wagon run out of control down the gradient; it would not foul the running line or enter the goods yard. There were rail connections to further quarries on the moors and to inclines serving the Rossendale Valley (Bacup-Rawtenstall). At the top of the incline was a shed for quarry line locomotives. The quarries were a lucrative source of traffic for the Facit Branch, but the incline ceased to be worked in 1947 when there was a major breakdown, and thereafter stone was moved by road.

Facit was the scene of an accident on Saturday 29 August 1891. The details here are taken from Wray (1989). Before proceeding on its journey, a Bacup to Rochdale passenger train was waiting for a train from Rochdale to clear the long single-line section. Some ten minutes earlier a heavily-laden stone train of one empty and 24 loaded wagons had left Britannia. Shortly before breasting the summit the engineman lost control of the train which gathered speed as it careered through Shawforth station, where it should have stopped, and it ran on towards Facit. The southbound passenger train had travelled barely 150yd when the stone train crashed into its rear. The passenger train was lightly loaded and some of the passengers were able to jump clear, but a woman in one of the last two coaches was killed and another passenger died later that day because of his injuries. An inquiry established that the guard of the stone train had made an error of judgment, pinning down only 13 wagon brakes – which was insufficient for the weight of the train – instead of 19 or 20, bearing in mind that the engine was only a light tank working a steep gradient with greasy rails.

Sometime between March 1939 and December 1940 Facit station signal box closed and two ground frames replaced it, released from Facit Goods Yard box. The station box was soon demolished and a stationmaster’s house was built incorporating its site. Perhaps at the same time the covered footbridge was replaced with a utilitarian open-top model. During World War II the services between Rochdale and Bacup remained fairly frequent although at irregular intervals: a feature of the timetable since the early days of the line. In July 1943 trains left Rochdale for Bacup at the following times: 7.00 and 9.25am; 12.05pm, 1.25, 4.20, 6.30 (Saturday excepted [SX]), 6.45 (Saturday only [SO]), 8.17 and 10.40 (SO). All trains called at Facit. Trains departed from Bacup for Rochdale at 6.41, 7.17, 8.07 and 9.37am; 12.48 (SO), 1.30, 2.07, 3.13 (SO), 4.45 (SO), 5.12 (SX), 5.52, 6.25 (SO) and 7.44. No passenger trains ran on Sunday.

After the war, during which this and many other lines suffered reductions in train frequency, the service improved, as shown in the table below for 7 October 1946 to 4 May 1947:

Whereas up trains were allowed 3 minutes for the journey from the next station north, Shawforth, to Facit, in the opposite direction the time was 5 minutes as they faced the punishing uphill 1 in 39 gradient for most of the 1¼ miles between the stations.

The last regular LMS passenger trains served Facit in June 1947 when they were suspended, the temporary closure being declared permanent by British Railways (London Midland Region) in December 1949. Goods traffic continued to be handled at Facit for some years, although from May 1952 the line northwards to Bacup engine shed was closed to all traffic. The route was notionally available for wagon storage after this time, but only at Facit station itself did this take place. On 10 November 1956 Facit Goods Yard signal box closed and thereafter the single line to Wardleworth was operated on a ‘One Engine in Steam’ basis.

During the 1950s the volume of freight traffic on the Facit Branch declined, particularly at its northern end; by 1958 most of the sidings and the running lines up to the platforms at Facit station were used to store wagons, and all of the points had been padlocked. On 12 August 1963 the station, sidings and the line back to Whitworth were closed and the ‘wagon storage’ section from Facit to Bacup was abandoned; the tracks were lifted between Whitworth and Bacup by the end of 1964.

In December 1969 an application was made to build 54 dwellings on the site of Facit station. By May 1972 all evidence of the station had been obliterated and the housing development was complete. Two years earlier the trackbed between Facit and Whitworth stations was occupied by a new road, Cowm Park Way. North of Station Road in Facit, part of the former area of sidings is still open space.

Click here for a brief history and bibliography of the Bacup to Rochdale line.

To see other stations on the Bacup - Rochdale line click on
the station name:
Bacup, Britannia, Shawforth, Whitworth, Broadley, Shawclough & Healey, Wardleworth & Rochdale 1st Station

See also special feature: Facit branch viaducts and the Siamese bridges