Guide Bridge, Fairfield, Gorton works, Ashburys, Ardwick, Manchester London Road. Woodhead Rly pt 4.
We travel the Woodhead route between Guide Bridge and Manchester Londo Road. Our first stop is Guide Bridge with most of its vast buildings lost, we carry out a detailed explore of the surrounding area.
Our next explore is looking around Fairfield station and branch line to the Fallowfield loop, which led onto Reddish shed and Manchester Central.
We move up the line to Gorton, tracing the alternative rout to reddish. Close to here was the mighty Gorton engine shed and works, which revealed several clues to its railway heritage. our next stop is Ashbury, with both its vast sidings and staion this proved to be a great explore.
This was a major jct where the line split with traffic working through to north Manchester and beyond.
Our next stop was Ardwick station and sidings, the platforms were not in the best of conditions. the sidings have gone through several changes including the development of a new TMD.
We finally arrive at Manchester London Road (Piccadilly) before concluding the trip on the station platform. Great explore glad to see trains on the track, shame the tommies have gone.....enjoy.
Directed by Allan Roach
Thanks to #DonCoffey for some great cab footage.
A brief history....
The line opened in 1845. It was built by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway with Joseph Locke as its engineer. In 1847, the railway merged with the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway, the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway and the Grimsby Docks Company to form the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway; it changed its name to the Great Central Railway (GCR) in 1897. Ownership passed to the LNER in 1923 and, finally, to British Railways Eastern Region in 1948.
The original eastern terminus of the line was at Sheffield Bridgehouses railway station. By the time of the creation of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1847 a 0.6-mile (1 km) extension including the Wicker Arches viaduct, engineered by John Fowler, was constructed to the new Sheffield Victoria station, which opened in 1851.
Both goods and passenger traffic were very heavy; therefore, some sections of the line were quadrupled.
Electrification
Electrification was first mooted by the Great Central Railway, owing to the difficulties of operating heavy steam-hauled coal trains on the Penistone-Wath section (the Worsborough branch); a line with steep gradients and several tunnels. Definitive plans were drawn up by the LNER in 1936; many of the gantries for the catenary were erected before the Second World War.
The Second World War prevented progress on electrification, but the plans were restarted immediately after the war; however, this time with plans for a new double-track Woodhead Tunnel. TA second Thurgoland Tunnel was also required, as the existing tunnel had inadequate clearance for twin electrified lines.
The Manchester-Sheffield-Wath electrification project was finally completed in 1955, using overhead wires energised at 1,500 volts DC. Whilst this was tried and tested technology (and is still standard in the Netherlands), the comparatively low voltage meant that a large number of electricity substations and heavy cabling would be required
New electric locomotives for the line were constructed at Gorton locomotive works, Manchester. These were the EM1/Class 76, for freight trains and some passenger duties, and EM2/Class 77 locomotives for express passenger trains. A new depot at Reddish, situated on the Fallowfield Loop line, was built in 1954 to maintain the new locomotives and EMUs.
Closure
Having seen major investment in the 1950s, the line was controversially closed to passenger traffic on 5 January 1970. By the late 1970s, a large part of the remaining freight traffic consisted of coal trains from Yorkshire to Fiddlers Ferry power station near Widnes, which required a change to diesel haulage for the final part of the journey.
By the early 1980s, the combination of alternative available routes, an absence of passenger traffic since 1970 and a downturn in coal traffic across the Pennines, along with a need to eventually expensively upgrade or replace the non-standard electrical supply systems and Class 76 locomotives, resulted in the line's closure east of Hadfield. The last train operated on 18 July 1981 and the line was mothballed.
The tracks were lifted in the mid-1980s, ending any short-term hopes of reopening. Almost the entire line east of Hadfield has now been lifted, apart from a few short sections shared with other lines, notably at Penistone.
Пікірлер: 34
Well done 🇬🇧
At 17.55 , the building with the nasty cladding, was not Belle Vue shed , that was behind it, a bit closer to the junction at Ashburys. It was pulled down , I think , in the late '90's or early 2000's. The cladded building was , since at least the early '70's , the heavy maintenance shop for the B.R. road vehicles. I used to visit it in the mid '70's delivering and collecting vehicle wheels for tyre service, before starting on the railway at Guide bridge as a guard , ending up mdoing just over 40 years as a driver. All this is my neck o' the woods, being born and raised in spitting distance of Gorton shed. Did you spot , whilst filming on Railway street , the foundations of the birdcage footbridge that survive to this day? Always got a parental bollocking if it came out I'd been around there ! Spent much time on the pilots at Ashburys and Ardwick , in fact , that's where I was sent for a week to train meself on 350 shunts. Happy days. 'Up the Cheshire' !!
I worked as a second man at guide bridge in the 70s a driver wanted to take his car to Dewsnap where his shift ended asked me to take the loco a shunter from Longsight to Dewsnap it was the only time in my brief career that I drove a train alone on the main line a truly unforgettable experience had I made one mistake the main line would be blocked and we would both have been sacked luckily I made it without mishap
I worked in Ashburys signal box around 88-89. I loved it. I sometimes walked across the lines towards Ashton old road to get bacon butties, and I walked through a giant railway building that was derelict, it had an huge old metal marroon BR sign that read "NO SMOKING" on the wall. I loved working in the box, I have some old photos somewhere. I wish I'd have stayed on the operations side. I then went in to work all over east Manchester RDR and GPR man. There was some grim places to get a shift, I disliked working at guide bridge, Glossop (they always gave me Rick's shift, the guy who was a tramp with a face full of blackheads), and, Marple, Romiley and Gorton stations. I often think about all the people I worked with and the paths they took.
@marklastname5656
2 жыл бұрын
Oh, at 23:20. When I worked at Ashburys that engineering plant was Rolls Royce, and they regularly test ran ships engines outside, and had them running for days on end.
@onemanc
2 жыл бұрын
Bet you ran into a good mate of mine, Colin butterworth, unfortunately he’s no longer with us, but he was bit of a character
@marklastname5656
2 жыл бұрын
Sorry his name doesn't ring a bell. I knew so many people, but I only remember a hand full of names. My grandad was Eric Harrison, and when I started on BR the manager I had was also called Eric Harrison, lovely guy, he always asked how my grandad was doing
Absolutely brilliant video many thanks for your hard work👍
Brilliant video. Well done. It's hard to imagine what an important junction Guide Bridge once was.
Nice video 🙂 Thanks!!
Fascinating video , thank you . Is good to see how things were . Was always intrigued by the woodhead route as it was totally unique , sadly never had the chance to travel on it , just a bit too young . Much like the Great Central .
I'm glad I came accross this. My Dad once worked - in fact did his apprenticeship in the Iron Foundry at Peacocks in Gorton. I also had a neighbour; who I knew when I was a nipper who was an old engine driver. He worked both the Steam and the DC locos on the Woodhead line. I can still remember him telling me as to how the trains running down hill could generate power and feed it back into the system. I agree with you that it is a pity its all gone now.
Double line that curves left just outside Guide Bridge, I used to take it to Stockport on the way to Crewe. I remember it as double line. The station has been demolished 😭😭 heartbreaking
Just come across your videos and they really are great, I have many more to watch by the looks of it, I am from guide bridge and the wooden bridge that went across I will remember forever as a young kid getting a train to Manchester and then off to hols somewhere. If my memory serves me right I think there was a really bad fire at guide bridge and what still stands was lucky to still be there that may be where the bridge went.
Its amazing how much this route has been cut back in terms of scale. So many communities. today would benefit if everything was to get re opened as it would mean less travelling in and out of the city to make connections which would in turn reduce congestion into the city stations.
Cool film !!!!! So sad to see whot was there and now ,old days anytime .
You mention London road / Piccadilly station I have discovered that it was called Store Street station when it was built and the original entrance was in Store Street with a stair case leading up to the fore court above came out in front of the old station buildings Store Street entrance is still there. but boarded up would be very interesting to have a look inside.
All the investment in the rail network and associated facilities were squandered in the chaotic transformation from manufacturing to the services based in London.
Really makes me feel old seeing something like this The steam train hauled by the Stanier tank at 10:10 is probably the North Country Continental from Liverpool to Parkeston Quay; it reversed at Central and then was always hauled by an ex LMS 2-6-4T as far as Guide Bridge whenever I travelled on it in the early 1960s, where it was then swopped for an EM2 I noticed the 323s passed through stations without stopping; whenever I travelled on an EMU out towards Glossop/Hadfield during the same period they always used the fast lines AND stopped at all stations. In 1966/7 I travelled on the Woodhead regularly between Manchester and Sheffield (and back), and I can never remember seeing a passenger train on the slow lines at all Ashburys Carriage & Wagon Works was nothing to do with Gorton; it was a separate company which built carriages and wagons for a multitude of railway companies; the Ffestiniog Railway still has a couple, together with a replica of a 4-wheeler originally built by Ashburys in 1868 In about 1980, the Nottingham - Glasgow service used the line between Ashburys and Park, stopping at Victoria Finally, won't HS2 emerge from tunnel somewhere in the Ashburys/Ardwick area?
For fascinating reading,get a copy of Woodhead,the electric railway by E.M.Johnson,it`s a Foxline/Booklaw publication,also Steam over Woodhead by the same author,shows all the route in photos.
Well, at least the fox looked happy with things.
Wahay the final part! Cheers for these videos, they really do brighten my day. Did the electrics run to Ashton moss as the overhead catenary can be seen along the line. I’m not sure if it was used. All the best!
The old overhead gantries and posts seem to be the old DC stuff reused. Is that the case ? I have quite a few photos of Guide Bridge when on a Railtour. If I remember rightly, you could walk to the end of the platform where your vid stops and there were locos galore there.
The woodhead museum at guide bridge has now bought the signal gantry from the dewsnap sidings, bought it last year I think it was last year
another great video, how about Barnsley Junction - Wath ?
The Woodhead Museum at Guide Bridge will be in the single storey building on the Glossop platform. The big building that is on the main road is used by Northern. Also the bit under the bridge has now been transformed by the Friends of Guide Bridge Station group. Well worth a look at if you are ever a Guide Bridge.
@ianwarriner8193
2 жыл бұрын
Do yourself a favour and buy a copy of Gorton Tank , by DAVID GOSLING , you'll learn a lot about the tank .
Do yourself a favour and buy a copy of Gorton Tank , by David Gosling . 🙂
@onemanc
2 жыл бұрын
I will check it out thx.
London Road station had unusual platform notation. The Great Central
@stewartbennett6837
2 жыл бұрын
The Great Central, now 1,2,3 were A,B, and C. LMS were numbers.
Did a person get killed by a train at Fairfield station years ago? On the Fallowfield line. If so would know what year would it of been.
Predescesor 50th 60th dated, diesel and electric way forward, Dr Beeching stipped lots of commercial traffic. Very sad, modern railways will never be of any old historic value celebrating. Traveling from A to B only what counts. People, denied their past !well being
Industrial vandalism, I hate it!