Type : Station
Line : Dorrigo Branch
Distance from Sydney : 711.400km
Opened : 23 December 1924
Closed : 1st December 1957 (to passengers), 1975 formally.
Status : Closed
Name meaning : After the Parish it is sited in.
Notes : 20.1 metre platform. Leigh opened 23 December 1924 with the Dorrigo Branch as an unattended siding with Staff Drawer Locks, section Lowanna–Dorrigo, Regulation (e). Became part of the Megan–Dorrigo section from 25 November 1925 when Megan opened as an ETS station. Minimal shunting allowances (3 minutes each for No. 2 Mixed and No. 4 Goods in 1927) confirm it had limited goods traffic. Closed to passengers 1 December 1957 (although use continued); formally abolished W.N. 38–1975 alongside the rest of the surviving Dorrigo Branch intermediate stations. Leigh is the most sparsely documented station on the Dorrigo Branch in the WN collection — appearing mainly as a distance reference point and shunting allowance entry.
Leigh platform shortly after closure of the Dorrigo line in 1972 (SRA Archives)
Leigh Station, 1986 (uncredited)
Location of Leigh platform (Dorrigo branch) (Six Maps)
An interesting comment I came across in another group I run, someone commented that the women who lived in Leigh and Megan on the Dorrigo branch used to catch the train to Coffs Harbour (this would have been 1930s) on a Monday morning to do their shopping, returning on Tuesday afternoon. This would have neccesitated a chage at Glenreagh in both directions. These days Coffs is less than an hour's drive each way.