Guide Bridge railway station serves Guide Bridge in Audenshaw, Greater Manchester, England, and is operated by Northern Trains. The station is east of Manchester Piccadilly on both the Rose Hill Marple and Glossop Lines. History It was built by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway on its new line from Ardwick Junction, near to the Manchester and Birmingham Railway's terminus at Store Street station, to Sheffield; it opened as Ashton and Hooley Hill on 11 November 1841 when the line opened as far as Godley Toll Bar. It was renamed Ashton in February 1842 and became Guide Bridge on 14 July 1845, when the line was extended to Sheffield. The station had a four platform configuration originally, with a large office on the southern side. However, the southern (former slow line) platforms were decommissioned and the tracks were lifted in 1984–85; this was part of layout alterations associated with the changeover from 1500 V DC to 25 kV AC working on the Hadfield line, with demolition of the buildings following a few years later. The area has been covered, with a section forming part of the car park, but some evidence remains of the previous two tracks. The junction at the country end of the station was also remodelled in 2011 to allow Stockport-Stalybridge Line trains to cross the junction at 30 mph (max) rather than 15 mph as previously. With the electrification of the Woodhead Line between Manchester and Sheffield in the early 1950s, Guide Bridge, already a major centre of railway operations, increased in importance. Express trains called here, as well as EMU trains between Manchester London Road and the north Derbyshire towns of Glossop and Hadfield. There were also DMU-operated services from London Road to Macclesfield, via , which closed south of Rose Hill in January 1970; Stockport Edgeley to Stalybridge; and to Oldham, via the Oldham, Ashton & Guide Bridge Railway, which closed to passengers in 1959. The station was also where express services, to and from Manchester Central on the London Marylebone route, changed locomotives. Drawn by a Bo-Bo or Co-Co electric locomotive from Sheffield, a steam (or in later years) diesel locomotive would take the train the final few miles to Manchester Central and vice versa. The Woodhead Line was busy with goods traffic, especially with coal traffic from South Yorkshire to Lancashire power stations. The station also accepted goods under British Railways "Passenger"