The Ashton, Stalybridge and Liverpool Junction Railway was opened in 1846 to connect the industrial town of Ashton-under-Lyne to the developing railway network, and in particular to the port of Liverpool. It was a short line, joining the Manchester and Leeds Railway at Miles Platting (east of Manchester) and the connection to Liverpool was over that line and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. A branch line to Ardwick, near the present-day Manchester Piccadilly station, was built giving passenger and freight connection to the West Midlands and southern England. The AS&LJR was closely aligned to the Manchester and Leeds Railway, and in 1847 the two companies amalgamated, along with another line still under construction, and the combined company was named the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. The Ardwick branch was not opened until after the amalgamation. When the London and North Western Railway developed a route to Leeds via Huddersfield, its trains used the AS&LJR line from Manchester to Stalybridge, so that the S&LJR formed part of an important main line. Most of the small network remains in use at the present day. Conception As the Manchester and Leeds Railway established itself, its directors began to think of what branches could be built profitably. Thomas Longridge Gooch, its engineer, was instructed to survey suitable branches in 1843. One of these was from Miles Platting to Ashton and Stalybridge, with a short branch to Ardwick. At the time Ashton had a population of 40,000, and its manufacturing industry relied on the nearest station at Guide Bridge, two miles away, on the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway, and goods to and from Liverpool – a most important port for the town's raw materials – had to be carted by road across Manchester at the time. Gooch's survey showed that a line was feasible, and construction was authorised by the Ashton, Stalybridge & Liverpool Junction Railway Act of 19 July 1844. The Manchester and Leeds Railway was permitted by the Act to purchase or lease the AS&LJR. The reference to Liverpool was to the new connection over the M&LR to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway; there was no intention to build to Liverpool. A Stalybridge branch of the Sheffield, Ashton & Manchester Railway was authorised on the same day. (The SA&MR later was reorganised as the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1847.) The two Stalybridge terminal stations were to be built alongside one another.