 A principal destination along the former Oldham Loop Line , Oldham once had six railway stations but this was reduced to three once <unk> Street , Oldham Central and Glodwick Road closed in the mid @-@ 20th century . Oldham Werneth , Oldham Mumps and Derker closed on 3 October 2009 . Trains from Manchester Victoria station to Oldham had to climb steeply through much of its 6 @-@ mile ( 9 @.@ 7 km ) route , from around 100 feet ( 30 @.@ 5 m ) at Manchester city centre to around 600 feet ( 182 @.@ 9 m ) at Oldham Mumps . The Werneth <unk> , with its gradient of 1 in 27 , made the Middleton Junction to Oldham Werneth route the <unk> regular passenger line in the country . The Werneth <unk> route closed in 1963 . It had been replaced as the main route to Manchester by the section of line built between Oldham Werneth Station and <unk> Bridge Junction , at Newton Heath in May 1880 . Oldham Mumps , the second oldest station on the line after Werneth , took its name from its location in the Mumps area of Oldham , which itself probably derived from the archaic word " <unk> " which was slang for a <unk> . The former Oldham Loop Line was converted for use with an expanded <unk> light rail network , and renamed as the Oldham and Rochdale Line . The line between Victoria and a temporary Oldham Mumps tram stop opened on 13 June 2012 , and more central stops opened on 27 January 2014 . 
