The tram stop …. a poem ….. and Adlestrop

Yesterday I was at Navigation Road, that tram stop and railway station on the line from Manchester to Altrincham and beyond.

The day was hot and promised to get hotter and apart from my companion I was alone.

And it evoked memories of my childhood and in particular waiting on empty platforms in the middle of summer between trains.  

Back then the railway sleepers were made of wood and after decades of being covered in engine oil and preservatives they gave off a distinctive smell as they cooked in the heat.  

Nothing stirred save the lazy buzz of insects, and the regular tick of the station clock, only interrupted by the vibration from the wires which announced the imminent arrival of a train.

You could never be quite sure whether this would be the regular stopping train or an express whizzing through on its way from the coast to the city, all noise and speed and gone in a minute.

Leaving me and the busy insects to share the peace which descended again on the still empty platform.

I could only have been ten, but the memory has stayed with me only to bubble back up when I re-read the poem Adlestrop by Edward Thomas which was inspired by the moment his train stopped 

“one afternoon

Of heat, the express-train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.

No one left and no one came

On the bare platform. What I saw

Was Adlestrop—only the name”*

And like my moment it was one of stillness punctuated only by my bees and his by the song of a single blackbird.

But back on Navigation Road the tranquillity was replaced by the arrival of a train bound for Chester and the Bury tram.

Now my Wikipedia tells me “Navigation Road station serves the east of Altrincham … It lies on the Mid-Cheshire line and the Altrincham Line of the Manchester Metrolink network. There are two bidirectional platforms: one for heavy rail and one for light rail. A level crossing operates at the southern end of the station.

The station was opened on 20 July 1931, on the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway (MSJAR) following the electrification of that line and was referred to as Navigation Road (Altrincham) on early tickets and timetables. 

British Rail electric multiple units between Manchester Piccadilly and Altrincham ceased on 24 December 1991. The former Altrincham-bound (down) platform has since been used for Mid-Cheshire Line trains and the former Manchester-bound (up) platform reopened as a Metrolink stop on 15 June 1992”. **

At which point I could wander off and reflect that along with Altrincham Metro stop, Navigation Road is the only other tram stop to share light and heavy rail use on the former Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway, throwing in a bit of the history of that line.

Or alternatively write about Navigation Road, its own gated level crossing, the Duke’s Canal and the Timperley Brook which The River Restoration Centre describes as “a tributary of Sinderland Brook, located South of Manchester and West of Manchester Airport. It scores very low in all the criteria used to assess its quality, except for one reach, which has been restored".***. 

But I won’t, all of that and more will be in our next book in the series, Greater Manchester By Tram – The Stories At The Stops which will published later in the year under the title, Old Trafford to Altrincham.****

Location; Navigation Road

Pictures; Navigation Road, 2026 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Adlestrop, Edward Thomas, 1914/1915, published 1917

**Navigation Road, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_Road_station

*** The River Restoration Centre, https://www.therrc.co.uk/timperley-brook-project

****A History of Greater Manchester By Tram, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20History%20of%20Greater%20Manchester%20by%20Tram 

London Road …….. January 24th 1959 …………..

This remains one of my all-time favourites from Eddie Johnson’s book on Manchester Railway Termini.*

Until recently I had not got round to asking for permission to reproduce it, but after a nice conversation with Eddie, here it is.

The caption says, "London Road, January 24th, 1959.  This view at London Road presents an almost Christmas card like scene, a splendidly pictorial effect which no doubt had the operating authorities cursing.  The overhead electric catenary reveals this to be the eastern side of the station, at the end of platform 3”.

There is more, but I will leave it at that, and instead just point out for those who do not remember, or never knew, Piccadilly Railway Station was once called London Road.

And the rest is just snow, which at 73 still delights me and makes me a kid again, which of course pictures of steam engines also have the power to do.

Location; London Road, Railway Station, 1959 

Picture; London Road, Railway Station, 1959, M.S. Welch from Manchester Railway Termini

* Manchester Railway Termini, Scenes from the Past: 3 E.M. Johnson, 1987

Steam fun ……….. London Road ……..

This is another one of my all-time favourites from Eddie Johnson’s book on Manchester Railway Termini.*

Until recently I had not got round to asking for permission to reproduce it, but after a nice conversation with Eddie, here it is.

The caption says, “Happy hours spent train spotting are recalled by Bill Johnson’s superb shot of Coronation Class 4-6-2 No. 46256 Sir William A. Stanier F.R.S with steam issuing on all fronts , including the coal pusher, as she backs down to collect her train………  Popularly known as ‘Duchess’ No ”. 46256 was the penultimate  member of her class, being turned out  from Crewe in 1947 ……..”

There is more, but I will leave it at that, and instead just point out for those who do not remember, or never knew, Piccadilly Railway Station was once called London Road.

Location; London Road, Railway Station, 1959, 

Picture; London Road Railway Station, date unknown, W. Johnson from Manchester Railway Termini

* Manchester Railway Termini, Scenes from the Past: 3 E.M. Johnson, 1987

Heaps of cars … missing trains ….. and Central Railway Station in colour

I missed the end of Central Railway Station by just a couple of months, and it was not for another decade that I stumbled across the place.

By then it had become a car park which I suppose was a bit of an insult although I guess most of those who parked up there thought it was a convenient use for that former grand terminus.

I can still remember marvelling at how impressive it still was with that giant wall of glass where the platforms almost ended.

Back then I mostly did black and white pictures and rarely did colour which is why most of my photographs of Central Railway Station are monochrome.

But occasionally I did venture into colour slides and recently began converting them into digital images.

Alas many suffered from over four decades in our cellar and the quality of them is iffy.

But there is enough to bring back to life that time in 1979 when armed with two cameras I wandered along the platforms, looking down on the parked cars and the slowly deteriorating remnants of station offices and other railway furniture.

Now there are plenty of pictures of Central after the trains left, but these are mine.

I have to confess that those I took in black and white are better, but here are some of the lost colour ones.

But  then as you do I decided to throw in some of the others and that really is it.

Location; Manchester Central Railway Station

Pictures; after the trains left, Manchester Central, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Victoria Railway Station ……... the one with the lot

It’s the Manchester railway station that has heaps more than just a set of platforms, some fast food out lets and lots of passengers.*

True Victoria does have all these, but it also has plenty of history on display and more than a bit you can no longer see.

It starts with that bold assertion of just how many places you could travel to back in 1909, all of which are there to see on the sweeping glass and iron canopy at the front of the station.

They were “Leeds, Harrogate, Bradford, York, Scarborough, Newcastle, Hull, Belgium, Liverpool, Southport, Bury, Blackpool, Fleetwood, Goole, Ireland, and Scotland”

And if you want more there is the magnificent, tiled map taking up three quarters of a tall wall which lists the network of towns across the North as well as eleven destinations in Wales and Ireland and twenty-one European seaports and concluding with “and the Continent”.

To which can now be added the stops along the way to Bury, Oldham and Rochdale on the Metro lines.

The station also has the memorial to those men from the Lancashire  & Yorkshire Railway who served in the Great War.  

It is made of bronze I and  lists their names flanked by the effigies of Saint George and Saint Michael with  a smaller plaque to the men from the company’s goods yard who also served.

Less ornate but no less moving is the small plaque beside an arch which once led to a separate platform from which thousands of soldiers departed Victoria during that war.

It is simple but elegant and reads “To the Memory of the Many Thousands of Men Who Passed Through This Door To The Great War 1914-18 And Those who Did Not Return”.

For as long as I can remember the arch was fronted by a wooden door which became more and more dilapidated, doing little for the dignity of the memorial.  But in 2015 the space was filled with a glass panel on which a map records the location of Commonwealth War Cemeteries, to which was added a tiled plinth and lighting.

And beside it there is at present a memorial to those who were killed or hurt by the Arena bombing on May 22nd, 2017, which is matched by the impressive Glade of Light memorial close by.

Each of these memorials are an essential part of the station and are seen by thousands each day.

Less visible are parts of the city which were destroyed or built over during the construction and expansion of the railway station.

These include Cemetry at Walker’s Croft where up to 40,000 were buried, some of whom were paupers and some were Cholera victims.

Nearly 170 years later the lost cemetery became the focus of concerns during the modernization of the railway station with the Manchester Evening News reporting in 2013 that “Human remains lying in a mass pauper’s grave under Manchester Victoria station are to be dug up”**

No less grim and still within the confines of the station is the site of the Manchester Union Workhouse.  It had opened in 1793 and fronted New Bridge Street and Ducie Street.

In the 1850s a new workhouse was built at Crumpsal and part of the Manchester site was sold to the railway company who extended the station in 1875, followed forty-five years later when the remaining buildings were cleared to expand the goods yard.

And the same expansion had seen the demolition of some of the slum properties in Irk Town to accommodate the new viaduct which carried trains out of the station.

At which point I could dig deep into the story of the railway’s presence on the site but it’s a long and a tad bewildering tale involving rival railway companies which regularly merged with others.

Suffice to say that Manchester and more specifically Victoria Railway station were at the heart of railway development. The station was opened in 1844, just fourteen years after the first passenger railway station was opened on Liverpool Road by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway company.

By the mid-1840s six railway companies operated from the station and it was one of the biggest passenger stations in Britain.

But during the 1970s and 80s the station seemed in decline. The much-vaunted Pic Vic Tunnel connecting the two railway stations had been shelved, many of the services had been diverted to Piccadilly and only a handful of platforms remained, with a chunk of the station sold off for the construction of the Manchester Arena.

All a sad end to what had once been a thriving and important railway hub, which in 1909 boasted 17 platforms and that grand exterior façade. 

To which in 1929 was added an extension linking Victoria to Exchange Railway Sation.

But as we know stories can have happy endings, and with the arrival of the Metro the station has had a new lease of life, which has included a new roof, the modernization of the concourse area which has retained the iconic wooden booking hall, and the former First Class buffet and stationer’s.

So yep Victoria has got the lot.

Leaving me just to add in an outrageous way the Station, surrounding area along with Shudehill and Market Street are the subject of our new trams book due out later next month.

It is book three in the series of The History of Greater Manchester by Tram  and will be available like the other books at Central Ref, Chorlton Bookshop, and Waterstones on Deansgate as well as from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk, price £4.99***

Which will be followed by books exploring the metro line across the city to the Etihad Stadium, Salford and Altrincham.

Location; Manchester Victoria Railway Station

Pictures; at the station, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*And yes Piccadilly Railway Station was London Road Railway Station with an impressive main entrance which was demolished for its 1960s reicarnation and subsequent makeover at the start of the 21st century, while Oxford Road has reatined its dramatic 1960s "new look" replacing the wooden shack.

**Bainbridge, Peter, A grave undertaking... Victoria Station cemetery is departing from Platform 1, Manchester Evening News, April 9, 2013, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/grave-undertaking-manchesters-victoria-station-2573159 

*** The History of Greater Manchester By Tram, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20History%20of%20Greater%20Manchester%20by%20Tram

A day in the life of Central Station …. 1978

I am back with some snaps of the city I took nearly half a century ago.

Snaps are those pictures often taken with a cheap camera on the spur of the moment, and pretty much forgotten and lost soon afterwards.

And these of the old Central Railway Station are just such.  

They were taken with a modest camera, on a day exploring bits of the city.

I have much better images in the collection, many in black and white which do much greater justice to the that stunning wall of glass and iron but these I like because they are just snaps of a stroll round what had become a car park but had all the features of its former self.

So, while there will be many who remember it’s existence as a place to park up and plenty more who will have caught a train south to the suburbs, the Peak District even London those memories will be fading.

Leaving me just to say I missed the trains by just a few months as Manchester Central closed just before I washed up in Manchester in 1969.

That said I have written about it and continue to visit the place now that it has become an exhibition centre.*

And that’s it.

Location; Central Railway Station

Pictures; Railway Station, and car park, 1978, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Central Railway Station, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Central%20Railway%20Station

That iconic viaduct at Stockport ………

The railway viaduct over the Mersey at Stockport is an impressive structure and despite travelling over it and under it for over 56 years I never tire of looking at it.

That viaduct in 1979

My Wikipedia tells me that the “Stockport Viaduct carries the West Coast Main Line across the valley of the River Mersey in Stockport …. It is one of the largest brick structures in the United Kingdom and a major structure of the early railway age. It is immediately north of Stockport railway station.

That viaduct, 2023

The viaduct was designed by George Watson Buck in consultation with the architect John Lowe for the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. 

Work began in March 1839 and despite its scale and flooding from the Mersey, the viaduct was completed in December 1840 and services commenced the same month. 

Roughly 11 million bricks were used in its construction; at the time of its completion, it was the world's largest viaduct and a major feat of engineering. 

The viaduct is 33.85 metres (111.1 ft) high.

Since March 1975, Stockport Viaduct has been a Grade II* listed structure ; it remains one of the world's biggest brick structures”.*

2021

I first travelled over it in September 1969 when I came to Manchester as a student.

It would be a full decade later that I took my first pictures of the viaduct, and I have been drawn back heaps of times.

Of course for any one from Greater Manchester this great sweep of brick will be very familiar but given that the blog is read on every continent save the one where the penguins live, I think it’s fair to show it off.

1979

Stockport Railway Station, 1979

And for those who are curious ..... if you travel across it from Manchester and after crossing the valley the train pulls into Stockport Railway Station, which is just as  it should be.

Location; Stockport

Pictures; the Viaduct, 1979, 2021,&  from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Andy Robertson, 2021

*Stockport Viaduct, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_Viaduct

Gorton Tank ..... another story from Tony Goulding

All F.M. 96.9 the local radio station and “The Real Voice of Manchester” is running a project exploring the history of this important feature of our industrial heritage. 

As I have a couple of friends who already contribute shows to the station, I decided to research its early years.

 Gorton Locomotive Works, 1926

This works in Gorton first opened in 1848 to build Locomotives for the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne, and Manchester Railway, shortly to become the expanded Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway (1) and later, in 1897, 

The Grand Central Railway. 

Later the major reorganization of the rail network in 1923 saw the works being managed by the London and North-Eastern Railway (The L.N.E.R.) before becoming part of the nationalised British Rail on 1st January 1948. 

In its early history locomotives, such as this one built in 1905, were constructed on the site to run on the various rail tracks of the parent company, however after 1923 most new builds took place at the larger works in Doncaster; Gorton being used for repairs and refurbishment. 

It also later became a centre for the scrapping of steam locomotives as British Rail switched to Diesel / Electric operations.

GCR Class 9K (LNER Class C13) 4-4-2T 67433 

How it became known locally as “Gorton Tank” is open to question though one certainty is that it has no connection with the weapon of war, as the first use of the nickname predates, by more than 60 years, the introduction of “Tanks” on the Western Front in September 1916. 

The first record I have found of its use was in “The Ashton Reporter” of 1st August 1857 which describes a performance by The Gorton Tank Brass Band in the town’s recreation grounds the Tuesday prior 28th July.

 As can be ascertained from the above aerial photograph of the works, in the summer of 1926 it was a huge complex (estimated by The Institution of Mechanical Engineers to cover 46 acres during a visit to the site in 1929) and was a very significant employer in the area. 

This can be evidenced by the reports of the number of workers addressed on the site by the Rt. Rev. James Fraser, the reforming Bishop of Manchester. The Manchester Courier, and Lancashire General Advertiser reported the “congregation” on 10th July 1874 to be around 1,000. Seven years later the number addressed by the bishop on 25th August 1881 was estimated by The Manchester Evening News to be “--- some 1,500 of the men and youths employed ---” (2). 

There existed safety rules which were rigorously enforced with newspaper records revealing that workers were dismissed for not following them. (3) Despite this the works were a very dangerous environment. In a 25-year period spanning the end of Queen Victoria’s reign and the start of Edward VII’s there was a fatal or very serious accident virtually every year.

 As was universally the case with employers throughout the land, the First World War took a heavy toll among the “Tank’s” workforce. The “Fallen Railwaymen” database of The National Railway Museum, York records 115 hits to the search C.M.E. Gorton; the vast majority of these would have worked at the tank.

Works Plate from a G.C.R. Class 11F Locomotive

Curiously, although known for more than a century as “Gorton Tank” it is in fact located in Openshaw.

Notes: -

1) Hyde Road, the first permanent home ground of Ardwick F.C., the club which became Manchester City, was built on waste ground purchased from this Railway Company.

2) By 1907 the workforce had grown to 5,000 employees. This being the figure quoted in a report of a court case concerning the theft of copper and brass from the works; The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser of 10th May 1907.

3) In a sensational case, widely reported in the press, 65 workers were discharged on Saturday 14th August 1858. Unfortunately, no reason for their dismissal is given.

Pictures: - Aerial view of Gorton Tank (09/06/1926) by Imperial Aerial Photo Company. m67717  Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information, and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

1905 Locomotive 67433  prior to scrapping 8th November 1958; by Ruth AS CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5580155

Great Central Railway construction plate 1920 by Duncan Harris CC BY-SA 2.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85706220 

https://www.flickr.com/people/45874718@N00 

Acknowledgements: - Find My Past Newspaper Archive and National Railway Museum “Fallen Railwaymen”.

A Railwayman’s View ...… 40 years of railway history .... the unique collection

I am looking at a collection of one man’s photographs, made over four decades chronicling the remarkable variety of steam, diesel and electric locomotives that operated out of Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station.*

They are the work of Ronnie Gee, who began his railway career in Longsight in 1943, but quickly moved over to working in a variety of signal boxes across south Manchester.

And because of the unique position high up in a signal box and armed with his camera he took thousands of pictures of the passing traffic, many of which are stunning “action” shots.

When he died in 2016 his collection was bequeathed to Manchester-based enthusiast and author, Eddie Johnson. 

Working with Ronnie's negatives and transparencies, Eddie and fellow Manchester Locomotive Society member, Ian Simpson, have produced a magnificent album of Ronnie's Images..

The book, simply entitled A RAILWAYMAN's VIEW is a wonderful collection of some of the 2500 black & white negatives and colour slides which Ronnie took over those three decades.**

As well as a stunning set of pictures from the steam era, there are plenty of diesel and electric locomotives, along with many that record the changes that took place, including the electrification of the line from Manchester to Wilmslow that took place in the 1960s.

The majority of photos date from the steam era and are in black & white, but a selection of colour images from the 1960s and 1970s are also included.

You can get the book direct from Eddie Johnson, price £15.95 plus £2.95 postage.

Cheque or cash only.  Available direct from E. M Johnson, 10 Tirza Avenue, Burnage, Manchester, M19 2JY,  email; tirza10@btinternet.com

*London Road Railway Station.

** A RAILWAYMAN's VIEW: The Photographs of Ronnie Gee, 2020, by: E. M. Johnson & I. Simpson, ,  ISBN: 9781527272798

Railway architecture …….. no. 1 .......

Now not all railway architecture needs to be grand or be particularly memorable.

But I like this one, which carried one of the railway lines into the Great Western Warehouse.

Today it is just one of a number which occupy a space used for car parking off Bridgewater Street.

Location; off Deansgate

Picture; railway arch, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Mr. William Huskisson …. tell us how you would like to be remembered?

Now, as any railway enthusiast knows, Mr. William Huskisson is commonly known as the world's first widely reported railway passenger casualty having been run over and fatally wounded by Robert Stephenson's locomotive Rocket” at the official opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830.

Dreadful Accident, 1830

And that is a distinction which I doubt he would have wished for, and not one his contemporaries would necessarily have recognized.

Instead, it is more likely that had he not come into contact with the passing railway locomotive, any obituary would have begun with recording that aged just 19 he was in the thick of the French Revolution.

In 1790 he delivered a speech on the policies of the new Revolutionary Government to address imminent bankruptcy which resulted in him being seen as an expert on finance, and pretty much soon after came to the attention of Henry Dundas, the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger.

Over the course of the next 40 years, he was MP for various constituencies, and held high office in a number of important Government posts, from Secretary of War and the Colonies, to Leader of the House of Commons, and President of the Board of Trade.  Although my favourite is the less important but delightfully named, First Commissioner of Woods and Forests.

But before I get carried away with Mr. Huskisson, I have to say he was a man of his class, and as such opposed a minimum wage for weavers in 1826 arguing that any legally binding contract would be an intrusion between employee and employer in regulating pay.

In the same year he proposed the revised Consolidated Slave Law, which sought to mitigate concessions to those who were held as slaves, which had been instituted after the slave revolt in Barbados, and effectively gave the slave owners what they wanted.

Mr. Huskisson's letter, 1826

And at a time when sections of the media and the present political class clamour for more immigration controls it was Mr. Huskisson who oversaw the introduction of the Aliens Act which sought to regulate and monitor those seeking asylum from the upheavals in Revolutionary France.

All of which brings me to this envelope dated 1826 which was connected to the said Mr. Huskisson and comes from the collection of David Harrop.

It is the nearest I will get to the man himself, and is a reminder that bits of the “great and good”  remain in circulation.

Taking the strain, 1830

But of course, for most of us it will be that “dreadful accident" which stays with us.

That said I wonder how many “dreadful accidents” occurred on those earlier railways which ferried coal and other heavy goods but were yet to acquire the glamour of steam locomotives or the prestige of the first passenger railway line.

Picture, from the Observer, 1830, the first passenger carriage in Europe, 1830, George Stephenson´s steam locomotive, Liverpool and Manchester Railway, envelope connected to William Huskisson, 1826, courtesy of David Harrop

*Dreadful Accident to Mr. Huskison, The Observer, September 20th, 1830