Joint Line Operation Around Manchester and in South Yorkshire

By Bob Pixton

Joint Operations Around Manchester and in South Yorkshire, is the latest volume in a series of books by Robert Pixton, covering the lines across the Pennines, especially those of the former Great Central. This volume looks at the joint lines that once served the area from Lancashire to Yorkshire, serving heavy industry and providing an intense passenger service in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The lines and services declined on many of the branch lines and some of the cross country lines by the 1950s, heralding there final demise in the early 1960s, as a result of the Reshaping of British Railways. Today there are still a few important corridors crossing this area of the north of England, which have become increasingly important in recent times as roads become more congested and bus services are cut back.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781526735966

Bob Pixton

Bob Pixton is a WW2 ‘Baby Boomer’, spending his early days around Manchester’s stations and sheds. The impressions of youth persisted, despite his parents moving to the heart of GWR territory. His working career has almost exclusively been in the public sector in health, education, local democracy and youth justice. His numerous published works have mostly been line histories, often in several volumes, their extensive captions and picture selection are the result of dedicated research, in this case, of over a decade. He is perhaps less well known for his historical fiction works.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Map of joint lines around Manchester.

This volume originates from there being so much material under the ‘M’ for Manchester and ‘S’ for Sheffield volumes it was deemed best to put the joint lines in those areas that the MS&LR (Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway), later GCR (Great Central Railway), had an interest in. Those joint lines around Manchester were chiefly movers of passengers, as typified by the to Altrincham, which was electrified from 1931 to cope with the numbers. Those in the White Rose county were completely different. Most were concerned with moving vast quantities of coal. This they transferred to cities and factories as well as to the east coast docks for export. As anyone who has tried to capture the spirit of a line knows, pictorial evidence is plentiful for those lines with plenty of passenger trains, but sparse, sometimes non-existent, for goods only lines. Hence some lines have many more illustrations than others, and those with few, tend to be of fixed objects, e.g. infrastructure rather than trains. Maps can play a part in helping the reader follow a journey along a line as well as provide a narrative of the line’s history. I have, apart from the electric line above, tried to have only pictures from the days of steam and so the sad liturgy of commenting on line closures has been largely avoided.

Map of joint lines in South Yorkshire. Even with many of the lines removed the map resembles a tangled web. I have highlighted those lines featured in the book in an attempt to clarify matters. Sheffield would be in the lower left corner. Such was the desire to connect collieries with as many railways as possible, lines were built when it appeared there was no room and alliances developed in an attempt to reduce costs. The picture following illustrated how there was always room for one more line.

Hexthorpe Junction, early 1910s. The contractors, Logan & Hemingway, started work here in 1911 building a GC and H&B Joint line line from Braithwell, to the south, to Aire Junction in the north. Although most of its almost 26 miles went through Yorkshire countryside, here it had to cross the existing GC main line from Mexborough to Doncaster and the recently completed (by the same contractor!) Doncaster avoiding line. To achieve this the builders excavated a deep trench either side of the existing lines. A framework was constructed and in a flourish the main lines were removed, the framework lowered into position and the lines replaced-sounds simple! I suspect a large workforce was used. The whole line opened in 1916. (J Law)

MANCHESTER SOUTH JUNCTION & ALTRINCHAM RAILWAY

London Road, 1849. The origins of this line stems from the reluctance of those early railway companies to see a bigger picture other than the immediate dividend for their shareholders. So, proposals for a station central to Manchester were rejected by the Liverpool & Manchester and the Manchester & Leeds Railways, who instead built their connection down Miles Platting incline to a new station at Hunt’s Bank, later Victoria. This left the Manchester & Birmingham (M&B) and especially the Sheffield, Ashton & Manchester (SAM) Railway, without any opportunity to access Liverpool and its docks, marooned in London Road station.

Consequently, these two companies decided to build a line, 1¾ miles long, from just before their station that they shared as landlord (M&B) and tenant (SAM), at South Junction, to meet the Liverpool & Manchester Railway at Liverpool Road Junction, just short of the level crossing for Ordsall Lane. A branch to the town of Altrincham from Castlefield Junction was also added to the proposals almost as an afterthought, close to and paralleling the Bridgewater Canal for much of the way.

The line from London Road to Ordsall Lane, as well as the first part of the Altrincham section, is entirely on viaducts, averaging fifty feet high, crossing many streets, canals and rivers and consuming around 300,000 cubic feet of stone and around 50 million bricks. Having had the line passed fit for use on 7 July 1849 (apart from, amongst other things, a turntable at Ordsall Lane), passenger trains ran from Altrincham to Oxford Road – the passenger terminus for the next thirty years – on the 20th of that month. The two sections from Oxford to London Road and from Castlefield Junction to Ordsall Lane had to wait until the first of the next month, with goods trains flowing from the east to Liverpool’s docks and a shuttle service connecting London Road with Liverpool bound trains at Ordsall Lane. (Ordnance Survey Crown Copyright: Godfrey Edition)

London Road, 1915. A comparison of the two maps shows the southern expansion of London Road main station almost obliterating parts of Birmingham Street (now Fairfield Street) and Travis Street as well as the smaller streets and courts in between. The South Junction line now has platforms. A double track extension of this line, again to the south, enabled terminal facilities to be offered to the trains from Altrincham, at the expense of the more closely packed together houses arranged around courts. Note the locomotive servicing area well above Fairfield Street. (Ordnance Survey Crown Copyright: Godfrey Edition)

Joint line entrance, 1958. The MSJ&A platforms had their own entrance from Fairfield Street, dating from the 1882 enlargements to this side of the station. This doorway under the nice arch led to a glass roofed, white tiled passageway using one of the arches the station is built upon. This side of London Road was almost like a separate station with only infrequent passenger trains using them as a through route – most unlike today’s affair. The addition of a viaduct crossing both line and road is a rather large and sturdy bridge from Platforms 5/6 in London Road to Mayfield station, on the other side of the road. Handling passenger and train numbers, in what was effectively three stations, must have been a nightmare for managers. (RCTS no. CUL1393)

South Junction, early 1950s. It needs to be remembered that the rationale for this line was as a freight connection. Consequently, there were no platforms on the joint line at London Road for seventeen years, until 1866. Originally, the facilities for the few MSJ&AR passenger trains consisted of a single face on the other side of the L&NWR departure platform. The two lines here operated as two bi-directional lines. Sounds chaotic? However, there were only a few passenger trains using the platform at that time so there was only congestion along the two-line section (same as today really!). To free up the line for freight trains a pair of lines were built south of the main lines for terminating passenger trains. Looking east from No. 2 signal box shows a passenger train entering the MSJ&A platform hauled by an unidentified ‘Crab’ 2-6-0. On the left is the terminal face of the platform with the turntable just making a showing. In the background are the train sheds for the L&NWR side of the station. Of great interest are the throngs of schoolchildren at the ends of the platforms, some undoubtedly in their school uniform. The ‘ABC’ of locomotives where enthusiasts marked off the engines they had seen only appeared in 1942 – a surprising action given the paper shortages and the secrecy surrounding train movements during the war. While most of the children chatted and engaged in harmless activities, a number fooled around with platform trolleys. This led to the limiting of numbers at Leeds City in 1953, then later that year a complete banning at Crewe and the next year at Willesden and from here at the end of the year. (Raymond McCarthy)

London Road, no date. Held at the signals, waiting to proceed, probably onto the former L&NWR shed at Longsight along the main line, south, is 0-8-0 No. 9387. Notice the GC signal box on the left, with a cylinder for operating the electro-pneumatic points. Intensive as the passenger service was along the line, it was heavily used by freight trains, all day long. Indeed, their continuous stream outnumbered the passenger trains. The 1914 Appendix to the timetable states, ‘Eight coupled engines must not be sent on to the M S Jc. and A line. This instruction does not apply between London Road and Ordsall Lane and Deansgate Junction and Altrincham.’

This engine was built in 1902 as a G1 class, No. 1047, then the LMS (London, Midland and Scottish) re-numbered it 9387 in 1927. The next year it was allocated to Farnley shed. It was transferred to Huddersfield in 1945, by that time converted to G2A class (1940). It kept its BR number, 49387, until demise in 1959. (BPC)

London Road, around 1914. Heading south, probably with a transfer freight from Ordsall Lane to Longsight, is L&NWR 18in ‘Cauliflower’ class 0-6-0 No. 1010. The wagons are interesting in that their contents are sheltered from the weather by tarpaulin sheeting. Unless properly tied down, when the train was going at speed these sheets could be lethal to workers. (R. Carpenter)

London Road, no date, probably around 1910. B class 0-8-0 No. 1091 is held by the signals at South Junction. This 1902 engine underwent a conversion to G1 class 0-8-0 in 1928 followed by another to G2A class in 1939, lasting until 1949.

London Road, no date. Waiting at South Junction is MS&LR J58 0-6-0ST No. 276. It may appear odd for the train to have cattle wagons in the middle of a busy city; however, there were facilities for handling livestock at the GC’s Ardwick depot. Some companies used such wagons, after suitable lime wash cleaning, for moving crowds of people to, for example, race meetings; hence the modern term, ‘cattle class’. In 1991 there were 188 freight trains in the working timetable using some part of the joint railway each week, many using the connections from Trafford Park to Piccadilly and others using the furthest section from Deansgate Junction to Altrincham and beyond. (W. A. Camwell, The Stephenson Photographic Collection)

An AT tank, no date. Initially, MS&LR 2-2-2 engines were used to haul passenger trains along the joint line. However, they couldn’t keep to the demands and were soon replaced by engines with driving wheels of 5ft 6in, being 6in larger. Examples were Sharp engines, Flora (No. 78), Venus (No. 73) and June (No. 72). They were replaced by similar No. 1 class tanks, a 2-4-0WT arrangement designed by Sacre, from 1860. A subsequent design, specifically for the line, was built at Gorton in 1880/1. This example, No. 24 , although probably not on home territory, is one of the eight class 12AT 2-4-0T (Altrincham Tank) engines. These were built by one of the partners in the line, the MS&LR, in 1881, and were leased to the line at the rate of ten pence per mile. (BPC)

London Road, no date. Waiting at South Junction is N4 class 0-6-2ST No. 633; note the company name, ‘Great Central’, written on the side tank. It may well have been performing the twice a day ‘Ardwick Goods’ which plied the joint line to Altrincham and back, picking up and dropping off wagons at stations along the line. (W. A. Camwell, The Stephenson Photographic Collection)

London Road, no date. Although the line was originally intended for freight, some passenger trains used it from Ordsall Lane to London Road. Heading east from the joint line towards the South Junction is L&NWR compound Jubilee class 4-4-0 No. 1911 Centurion with empty coaches in the company colours: ‘plum and spilt milk’. In the 1920s the loco was renumbered 5112 and rebuilt as a simple engine of the Renown class. (Real Photographs)

1910 timetable – Ordsall Lane branch only. Probably also starting from here around that time was an L&NWR service via Altrincham, Northwich and Crewe to London, lasting until 1933. By the 1920s the service boasts: ‘Through carriages between Manchester (Oxford Road) to London (Euston) Luncheon car, Crewe to London’ in the up direction. Down trains also had through carriages and: ‘Teas served between London and Crewe’.

London Road, 1938. In the 1880s station enlargements, a pair of lines were built south of the main lines so that Altrincham trains, previously terminating tantalisingly close at Oxford Road, could end here. An island platform was created with a down platform on its northern face, and a bay. It was practice to end the Altrincham trains in the bay, and there was a facility for releasing the engine that had brought the train in, with a small turntable beyond. After electrification there were times when the OHW (Overhead Wires) needed maintenance and so steam engines deputised, using this run-round set up. On the right is the 450ft island platform which stuck out almost to the ex-L&NWR engine servicing area. At 20ft wide the island platform was thought generous, although today it is probably the most congested and busiest part of the station.

The line was electrified in 1931 at 1,500v DC, but there was no electrical connection between this and the Sheffield systems despite both of them both having the same OHW voltage and being separated by less than 100 yards.

So successful was the electrification that in 1939, eight extra trailer cars were added. A variety of sources provided them. Two were new from Wolverton works, five were displaced from the Liverpool to Southport line (ex-650volts third rail) and one from the Watford line. The extra coaches were used to counteract the comment, ‘Why don’t they put an extra coach on?’ Lengthened trains were underpowered and increased the journey times by three minutes and so the trains couldn’t keep to the tight timetable. Consequently, the seven-coach trains were reduced to their original six-car formation and only two cars, as spares, were retained. (E.R. Morten)

Manchester Exchange, Platform 1, 1940. Enemy action on 22 December left this result: the remains of Platform 1 and the refreshment rooms. Many trains from the North Wales coast were supposed to terminate here. As a consequence, they were diverted at Cross Lane, just under two miles to the west, to pass via Ordsall Lane and Castlefield Junction to terminate at London Road’s MSJ&AR terminal facilities. A shuttle also ran from Exchange to Cross Lane for passengers. (BPC)

London Road, no date. Prior to electrification the L&NWR’s small tank engines were that company’s contribution to the motive power for the joint line. A Webb-designed engine, No. 6831, previously No. 80, waits at the island platform for a trip to Altrincham. The rather large construction across the background is a footbridge to the station’s extension at Mayfield. We are stood practically under another footbridge that connects the island