Hi my name is Phil I did 50yrs on the footplate 8yrs on steam i started at edgeley shed in 1961in 1962 I moved to Trafford Park shed as a fireman in 1964 I moved back to edgeley so I worked over these lines.I finished my time out at longsight as a driver in 2011 Regards Phil.
Hi Phil, I used to live round the corner from Warwick Road station in the 50's/60's and had trips on the footplate quite a few time on the push and pull service from Oxford Road to Ditton if I remember correctly. Mr Horsley was a driver on the old electric form Altrincham to Oxford Road and he used to let me ride with him too. Doing the round of sheds too , Trafford Park, Edgeley Longsight, Heaton Mersey , Patricroft, Agecroft et al. Great days
Thankyou for great video I grew up in Latchford and I nearly fell through one of those holes in the viaduct when i was 11 in 1982....we used to use the railwa y as a quick way over to Thelwall........the road bridge over the ship canal is called the Cantilever Bridge and was paid for by Lord Parr so he didn't have to wait for the swing bridge at Latchford when they built the ship canal
Great video. I travelled on the line once in the seventies when I was a secondman at Newton Heath on a light engine run from Springs Branch. My driver requested to go this longer route as a refresher to keep it on his route card. I also took many pictures during the 80s upto it closing in July 1986.
I have photographs of Dunham Massey signal box and trains on the last day of working. The signalman was present along with his wife but the box had been stripped of equipment several days earlier and was on block working. Not many years earlier the bridge over the river into Warrington had been replaced to handle the Soda Ash trains. A terrible waste of money. Shortly after the closure some incident on the alternative route caused major disruption to the service!
Thanks for this. Lymm feels like it's prime for a railway (or metrolink if you could get county join up). Reckon would be 40 minutes to Manchester and 15 to Warrington if they built a Metrolink.
Ha, I just checked the quickest public transport route from Lymm to Manchester and it's 1h10m with a bus to Altrincham and the Metrolink the rest of the way!
Great video. I've ridden the TPT many times on my bike and will take more notice of the places you pointed out. As others have said it's Wilderspool, not Wilderspoon (you must be spending too much time in Wetherspoons :-) That high level road bridge near the old Latchford station is built in the cantilever style and is known as "the cantilever". I can remember the trains going back and to from Arpley to Latchford. They used to slow down to look at the score when they passed the old Wilderspool Stadium if there was a game on. It's amazing to see how nature is slowly taking back control.
Some plans for HS3 show this line as a potential route from liverpool via the disused Fiddlers ferry power station line then Warrington low level (lever bros factory closing soon) then via latchford and lymn to Manchester airport (join HS2 to Manchester ) then via stockport and Denton to Stalybridge and new HS3 transpennine line to Huddersfield and Leeds and a new line to York.
I was lucky enough to travel on this line with a rail tour, a long time ago. I still have the itinerary of the tour, which was immensely long. Have any other viewers also travelled on this line ?
Remember the locos crawling slowly over Latchford Viaduct in the early 80s when I was a kid. Also remember the long coal trains bound for Fiddler’s Ferry on the high embankments passing Boteler Grammar School overlooking the site where Latchford station would have been (before my time). Think this line was closed to freight in the mid 80s?
15:23 on the other side of the bridge on the right side the white cottage was were the level crossing guy lived on the old line into warrington before it was all changed to make way for the MSC
From some prospective plans I've seen there is the chance part may reopen under Northern Powerhouse Rail, which would be a great option linking from HS2 at Manchester Airport Interchange and using some of this old route towards Liverpool. I also live right next to this line in Latchford.
I'm sure the line at Wilderspool Bridge is srill used for freight trains going to Fiddlers Ferry power station needing to reverse on to Arpley low level from Warrington Bank Quay station and then underneath the WCML via Arpley Yard and then on to Fiddlers Ferry rail yard.
It is for now! I was speaking with the signalman at Warrington he told me there are plans to build a spur to connect freight and fiddlers directly outside Arpley box
I've heard Fiddlers Ferry power station is closing at the end of March anyway so I can't envisage the need for a rail link after this happens anyway unless you can shed some light on this?
Thanks I live like 0.1 miles away and every day when I come back from school I can see the tall trees sat where a depot was. Also how did you get on there and are you allowed
I think you've got it wrong at 4:33 ? ... The white building with the big chimney is facing 90 degrees from the old railway line. ... Where you are filming on the road at 4:41 was still the road - not a railway line, so I don't think there were any sidings in the gentleman's gardens ?
Shame this route was closed as it was well used by freight trains going to Manchester, instead of clogging up the Chatmoss line or going via Northwich & Knutsford. I don’t suppose much traffic goes west to Liverpool on this line these days unless they use it to remove scrap from demolishing Fiddlers Ferry power station.
Hi jack, the video is edited.... after walking the disused line I walk round to Arpley box, the signalman gave me permission to walk the track and so I walked back down the line to the end and started filming from the buffers, the line is officially live and without permission you risk prosecution.
Another very interesting video! Love the urbex of the bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal.
Thank you taking me back 50 years to my trainspotting days and sitting at Skelton Junction. It was a fascinating film.
Hi my name is Phil I did 50yrs on the footplate 8yrs on steam i started at edgeley shed in 1961in 1962 I moved to Trafford Park shed as a fireman in 1964 I moved back to edgeley so I worked over these lines.I finished my time out at longsight as a driver in 2011 Regards Phil.
Hi Phil, I used to live round the corner from Warwick Road station in the 50's/60's and had trips on the footplate quite a few time on the push and pull service from Oxford Road to Ditton if I remember correctly. Mr Horsley was a driver on the old electric form Altrincham to Oxford Road and he used to let me ride with him too. Doing the round of sheds too , Trafford Park, Edgeley Longsight, Heaton Mersey , Patricroft, Agecroft et al. Great days
Thankyou for great video I grew up in Latchford and I nearly fell through one of those holes in the viaduct when i was 11 in 1982....we used to use the railwa y as a quick way over to Thelwall........the road bridge over the ship canal is called the Cantilever Bridge and was paid for by Lord Parr so he didn't have to wait for the swing bridge at Latchford when they built the ship canal
Great video. I travelled on the line once in the seventies when I was a secondman at Newton Heath on a light engine run from Springs Branch. My driver requested to go this longer route as a refresher to keep it on his route card. I also took many pictures during the 80s upto it closing in July 1986.
I have photographs of Dunham Massey signal box and trains on the last day of working. The signalman was present along with his wife but the box had been stripped of equipment several days earlier and was on block working. Not many years earlier the bridge over the river into Warrington had been replaced to handle the Soda Ash trains. A terrible waste of money.
Shortly after the closure some incident on the alternative route caused major disruption to the service!
Great vid, explored this a few times.
Thanks for this. Lymm feels like it's prime for a railway (or metrolink if you could get county join up). Reckon would be 40 minutes to Manchester and 15 to Warrington if they built a Metrolink.
Ha, I just checked the quickest public transport route from Lymm to Manchester and it's 1h10m with a bus to Altrincham and the Metrolink the rest of the way!
Great stuff, I live in Warrington, but all the old stations were before my time here
Love this video great commentary thanks a million. Think you really enjoyed this walk thank you so much for posting.
Great video. I've ridden the TPT many times on my bike and will take more notice of the places you pointed out. As others have said it's Wilderspool, not Wilderspoon (you must be spending too much time in Wetherspoons :-)
That high level road bridge near the old Latchford station is built in the cantilever style and is known as "the cantilever".
I can remember the trains going back and to from Arpley to Latchford. They used to slow down to look at the score when they passed the old Wilderspool Stadium if there was a game on.
It's amazing to see how nature is slowly taking back control.
You showed a building through a fence at 7 minutes. I worked there in 1998 when it was Lymm Plant/Premier Industrial Floors
And Warrington's first station here was called Wilderspool, after the local area (i.e Wilderspool Causeway), not Wilderspoon. FYI ;-)
Some plans for HS3 show this line as a potential route from liverpool via the disused Fiddlers ferry power station line then Warrington low level (lever bros factory closing soon) then via latchford and lymn to Manchester airport (join HS2 to Manchester ) then via stockport and Denton to Stalybridge and new HS3 transpennine line to Huddersfield and Leeds and a new line to York.
Just found your channel absolutely loving your videos
Thx
they was a pub at heatley called the Railway next to the crossing
I was lucky enough to travel on this line with a rail tour, a long time ago. I still have the itinerary of the tour, which was immensely long. Have any other viewers also travelled on this line ?
Remember the locos crawling slowly over Latchford Viaduct in the early 80s when I was a kid. Also remember the long coal trains bound for Fiddler’s Ferry on the high embankments passing Boteler Grammar School overlooking the site where Latchford station would have been (before my time). Think this line was closed to freight in the mid 80s?
Another excellent vid spent many happy hours at Arpley & Bank key back in the day again always wondered were the original line went.😊
WILDERSPOOL! best wishes and take care
Thx Jimmy I know fat finger syndrome...
15:23 on the other side of the bridge on the right side the white cottage was were the level crossing guy lived on the old line into warrington before it was all changed to make way for the MSC
Tahnk you, because give many new information for me.
Do you know of Martin Zero and Bee Here Now?
Very nice video it's a shame they shut this line Glad u got on the bridge near deansgate lane not been up there for years keep up the good work.
From some prospective plans I've seen there is the chance part may reopen under Northern Powerhouse Rail, which would be a great option linking from HS2 at Manchester Airport Interchange and using some of this old route towards Liverpool. I also live right next to this line in Latchford.
Its a shame the line was closed it would be of use today.
I have always wanted to know whether the station at Lymm was still there. Thank you so much.
I believe that the Liverpool end of the line us still in use to feed a power-station site, but that'll soon be gone for good, like the rest of it.
Government are talking of reopening the warrington to stockport line as passenger all the way to ditton too
I dont recall any tunnel nr the m6 ... theres a nice viaduct there
Sorry, not Wilderspoon, but Wilderspool, and the "waterway" is the river Mersey.
I'm sure the line at Wilderspool Bridge is srill used for freight trains going to Fiddlers Ferry power station needing to reverse on to Arpley low level from Warrington Bank Quay station and then underneath the WCML via Arpley Yard and then on to Fiddlers Ferry rail yard.
It is for now! I was speaking with the signalman at Warrington he told me there are plans to build a spur to connect freight and fiddlers directly outside Arpley box
I've heard Fiddlers Ferry power station is closing at the end of March anyway so I can't envisage the need for a rail link after this happens anyway unless you can shed some light on this?
one manc I think it was last year I went that way on the curvy weaver rail tour
@@xxxyorks Supposed to building a new line from Liverpool along this route to Warrington Bank Quay using the lower line at this station.
Nice one Allan
good video
Thanks I live like 0.1 miles away and every day when I come back from school I can see the tall trees sat where a depot was. Also how did you get on there and are you allowed
i strongly condone trespassing, all my trips are carefully planned, gaining relevant consent from appropriate bodies prior to traveling.
18:33 how on earth did he get to the other side of the barrier?
14:44 thats were the orignal line went before MSC was built
Great vlog have you any idea when the line was closed and lifted?
I think you've got it wrong at 4:33 ? ... The white building with the big chimney is facing 90 degrees from the old railway line. ... Where you are filming on the road at 4:41 was still the road - not a railway line, so I don't think there were any sidings in the gentleman's gardens ?
I guess it would have been more expensive to lift the old rails, than their scrap value was worth?
Wilderspool, not Wilderspoon.
Shame this route was closed as it was well used by freight trains going to Manchester, instead of clogging up the Chatmoss line or going via Northwich & Knutsford. I don’t suppose much traffic goes west to Liverpool on this line these days unless they use it to remove scrap from demolishing Fiddlers Ferry power station.
Just 1 train a day on the Widnes line.... shame really.
How did you get on the latchford bridge
The cameraman walked on as the fencing was missing, I believe it has been replaced since the visit.
@@onemanc I was there yesterday and it had a black Baird up and the fence
14:38 stockport rd bridge
How did you get down to Skelton Junction
NR key via Newstead terrace gate
@@onemanc cos I can go down the road that’s beside the pub and There’s a gate that’s at skelton jn but no acces point
the path your on is the Trans penine trail
Was this easy accessible or did you need special authority to walk the line near arpley?
Hi jack, the video is edited.... after walking the disused line I walk round to Arpley box, the signalman gave me permission to walk the track and so I walked back down the line to the end and started filming from the buffers, the line is officially live and without permission you risk prosecution.
@@onemanc brilliant thanks for getting back to me.
I reckon that bridge at 11:29 is dated 1965 ? ....... not 1866. ... The uprights are too modern for the Victorian era.
On google earth if goes under Warrington bank quay
The signalman would not let me go beyond his signal box, you are right the line does go under wbq and onto fiddlers and beyond...
A homeless man was living on that bridge I went up There and shat me self
That's not very respectful, he would have preferred a McDonald's I expect.
How did you get on the latchford Skelton