New Mills Central - some questions

[dr tim]

I'm looking at a possible layout based on New Mills Central during the BR Blue era (mid 70s - mid 80s). The more I look, the less I understand...

 

The questions:

- The local DMUs from Manchester used to turn back using the stub of the Hayfield branch (in the tunnel) and the crossover between the station and the tunnel. When did this stop? (I believe it to be after my chosen period but would like confirmation)

- When was the track removed from the Hayfield branch tunnel and also the crossover between the station and the tunnel?

- When was the small building removed from platform 2 (and replaced with a bus shelter?)

- I understand that at one time the DMUs from Sheffield terminated at New Mills Central and went back to Sheffield. When did this stop, and how did they get from platform 1 to platform 2?

- When were the semaphore signals replaced with colour lights?

- Which section (or sections) of the working timetable covered New Mills Central in the late 70s and early 80s?

 

Thanks

 

Tim

 

 

[colin.divall]

I'm looking at a possible layout based on New Mills Central during the BR Blue era (mid 70s - mid 80s). The more I look, the less I understand...

 

The questions:

- The local DMUs from Manchester used to turn back using the stub of the Hayfield branch (in the tunnel) and the crossover between the station and the tunnel. When did this stop? (I believe it to be after my chosen period but would like confirmation)

- When was the track removed from the Hayfield branch tunnel and also the crossover between the station and the tunnel?

- When was the small building removed from platform 2 (and replaced with a bus shelter?)

- I understand that at one time the DMUs from Sheffield terminated at New Mills Central and went back to Sheffield. When did this stop, and how did they get from platform 1 to platform 2?

- When were the semaphore signals replaced with colour lights?

- Which section (or sections) of the working timetable covered New Mills Central in the late 70s and early 80s?

 

Thanks

 

Tim

Tim

 

Probably too late but....Going from memory here, since I’m over 230 miles away from any photos or notes. The Hayfield stub was used for reversing well into the late 1980s and possibly into the mid 1990s. I used to work in Manchester and commuted from NMC from 1989 until 1994, and for at least some - probably most - of that time the stub was in use. It was taken out when the crossover at the Manchester end of the station along with one of the former freight layby sidings were renovated, allowing removal of the crossover by the signal box as well as the connection to the stub. The resignalling saw the end of the semaphore bracket by the bridge and installation of the colour-lights which are still there today.

 

The Sheffield local trains were still turning back at NMC when I moved to the NW in 1979 but I can’t remember when the through Manchester-Sheffield service was introduced. But it might well have been tied up with the diversion of fast trains on the Hope Valley via the new Hazel Grove Chord in the mid 1980s.

 

I have one or two photos from that era tucked away somewhere if you’re still interested

.

Colin

[62613]

The colour lights were certainly there in 1983; I can remember catching a train from there to Edale then. The Hayfield line stub was still there then, as well.

[Jim76]

I’ve always wondered if the stub was retaining with all the signalling and cost of maintaining the tunnel why the Hayfield line wasn’t retained. I understand the unit would sit in the tunnel for the duration of the path to Hayfield & back.

[colin.divall]

Yes, there was a colour-light signal in the early 1980s but only at the Manchester end of the station, for working towards Marple/Romiley. The absolute block to New Mills South Junction was controlled by semaphores, at least as far as the signal near the bridge/station box was concerned - the distant might well have been colour light by then. The remodelling when the stub was taken out and a new colour-light replaced the bracket semaphore also introduced bi-directional working on what had been the Sheffield-bound platform; yet another new colour-light signal, at the Manchester end of that platform, allowed passenger trains to reverse and depart for Marple over the existing crossover. 

 

As for the Hayfield branch itself... well thereby hangs a tale that I've extensively researched and really must write up. Closing the branch did mean the end of two other boxes, Tunnel End Junction, at the far end of the tunnel, which controlled the entrance/exit to the single line, and Hayfield station box. BR wanted to get rid of the latter before the branch closed, to save money, but was prevented by the Ministry of Transport for reasons to do with the wider politics of the closure process. TEJ box could've been  abolished, but only at the cost of altering NMC box, something that BR wasn't overly keen to do given the branch's rather poor finances.... So while a reasonable case could be (and vociferously was) made for keeping the branch on the basis of what we'd now call the wider social and economic benefits, the financial reality in the late 1960s was that it had no future. The final nail in its coffin was SELNEC's decision that it had no role in its plans for public transport in Greater Manchester and the surrounding area.