arran Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 HI All The only time I managed to get a pic and this is 2012 Regards Arran 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 The Container base is very busy and would like to expand but can't due to the lack of 'paths' through Oxford Rd/Piccadilly.Most of Trafford park's old network is buried or cut off by later building.What remains is rotten and dis-jointed.Some routes are still navigable (if the lines were renewed) but why would you want to? The tight curves prohibit long wheelbase vehicles which are on the railways today.Kev. It still seems to be open, but I did read somewhere that the service that used to go to Containerbase still runs, but apparently it unloads at the nearby Euroterminal instead. ContainerBase is open but only for road based traffic. The container trains now run from the DB Schenker sidings next to the Warrington Central line. All the track in ContainerBase was lifted lasts year, weak bridge at the entrance to the MSC tracks finished it off. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 A lot of track recovery all over Trafford Park took place last year including the line to Proctor & Gamble. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 (edited) There have been a couple of articles on the history of Trafford Park in recent issues of 'Archive' magazine. The Oxford Publishing book on the Manchester Ship Canal gives a lot of information on the canal railway and how it integrates into Trafford Park. I can remember being there in the mid 80's when there was a clearing out of old wagons from the steel works site (at least I think it was a steel works?). The resulting train blocked several road crossings - but it didn't bother me! Edited February 13, 2015 by 5050 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 There have been a couple of articles on the history of Trafford Park in recent issues of 'Archive' magazine. The Oxford Publishing book on the Manchester Ship Canal gives a lot of information on the canal railway and how it integrates into Trafford Park. I can remember being there in the mid 80's when there was a clearing out of old wagons from the steel works site (at least I think it was a steel works?). The resulting train blocked several road crossings - but it didn't bother me! Was the 'steelworks' the factory that produced railway wheels? It used to be part of British Steel's Special Steels Division, then part of Alstom; not sure who owns it now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 (edited) Taylor Brothers steelworks, later part of the English Steel Corporation, then the BSC and finally owned by a Swedish (IIRC) company, ABB Wheelsets. They originally made steel by the open hearth process and from it forged railway wheelsets. After losing steel making facilities around 1970 they bought in billets, reheated them and then forged them. They had a state of the art wheel forging plant built around 1960. Complete, outbound, wheelsets on both rail and road vehicles were a familiar sight in the area. I had a school friend whose dad was a loco driver there. They lived in a small terrace adjacent to, and owned by, the steelworks. Their mains was supplied by the works power station, I don't recall the voltage but it was DC. They had to get their bulbs from the works and powering any sort of domestic equipment was impossible. It wasn't part of Alsthom Brian, their presence in the park was what had been GEC. This was the descendent of the company around which Trafford Park was built, the heavy electrical engineers Westinghouse. Later Metropolitan Vickers, then AEI and then GEC. My dad was an electrical fitter there. Edit: Google seems to show a company called Lucchini UK Ltd currently at the site. Edited February 13, 2015 by Arthur Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Thanks for that, Arthur. ABB are Swedish (ASEA) and Swiss (Brown-Boveri). Lucchini also make rails and components for points and crossings, I believe- they used to send them to Eastleigh from Italy until DBS stopped wagon-load services through the 'Tunnel. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
87023Velocity Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Hi, Lucchini UK currently manufacture and overhaul wheelsets at Trafford Park for alot of the main TOC's, class 390, class 185, 350, 444, 450 to name a few. Cheers Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 (edited) The works has been a remarkable survivor. As long ago as the 1950's, when predictions about the future pattern of British steelmaking were being made, the works was identified as one with only a short term future. This bleak outlook was due to, in comparison to other steelworks, it's small size and output. What was overlooked was the benefits of it having a specialised product and having a niche market which it has served well. Skinningrove had a similar bleak prospect yet survived again due to product specialisation. Opened in 1920, here is Taylor Brothers in 1929. The Bridgwater Canal runs left to right across the bottom of the photo. The melting shop is the wide, clerestory roofed, building in the middle. Seven chimneys in a row, one for each open hearth. The power station is lower mid left with two chimneys emerging through it's roof. Being built on a greenfield site it is very well laid out. http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw027481 The surroundings may look rural but as Trafford Park developed it was soon surrounded by other industry, and any land that wasn't developed, was scrubby wasteland. Edited February 14, 2015 by Arthur Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmrspaul Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 There were some interesting wagons in Manchester Ring Roll Products when we visited nearly 30 years ago http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/manchesterringrollproducts This search throws up a few more of the photos I have taken in the estate. http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/?q=trafford%20park Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Sheep Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 Is the containerbase closing? The track on the other side of Park way appears to still be there, so it just appears to be the track on the inside of the containerbase. Streetview still shows a lot of containers at the site - July 2014 is the date on the images so has anyone been and looked more recently? Not sure exactly where you're refering to, if you can pin-point it on google maps I'll go have a look at lunch Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 Not sure exactly where you're refering to, if you can pin-point it on google maps I'll go have a look at lunch ContainerBase is alive and well just not accepting rail borne traffic any longer. I suspect it will move to Port Salford in due course and allow expansion of the Trafford Centre in some way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennyboy Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 Hi, Lucchini UK currently manufacture and overhaul wheelsets at Trafford Park for alot of the main TOC's, class 390, class 185, 350, 444, 450 to name a few. Cheers Simon I was aware that there was a railway wheel plant on the site in the past, but I've always presumed that it closed decades ago as that whole area is now covered in modern warehousing. I've been looking at the site on Streetview and funnily enough the current facility is on a relatively new road called Wheel Forge Way! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 (edited) I was reminded of the 1967 film by Lindsay Anderson, 'The White Bus'. Anybody familiar with his work will not be surprised when I describe it as a strange film. It's the story (in the simplest sense) of a young woman returning to her home city in the north, where she joins a motley collection of civic dignitaries on an open top bus tour, the white bus. The mayor is played by Arthur Lowe and the whole film is on YouTube. What, you may ask, has this to do with Trafford Park? Well, it was filmed in Manchester, very much the Manchester of my childhood, and there is a short section filmed in Trafford Park. If you scroll to 18 minutes in, and watch for about four minutes, the section starts against the backdrop of Corn Products. It moves on to Metropolitan Vickers/AEI and shows the tour party in the heavy machine hall of the steam turbine division. A brief visit to what I presume to be Manchester Cold Storage followed by Taylor Brothers. Initially we see the 8000 ton hydraulic press, then men forging axles under a steam hammer, shots of finished wheels being moved, a hexagonal bloom being moved under the 8000 ton press (where it will be forged into the wheel blank) and some shots of the open hearth furnaces ending with us staring into one of the open charging doors. http://youtu.be/90M_oKso3yA An odd film but it captures the look of 1967 Manchester very well. Watch from about 14 minutes in and you'll see the backdrop of Salford Docks and a bit more of Trafford Park. Edited February 17, 2015 by Arthur 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugsley Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 An odd filmIt certainly is - I can tell it's weird just by that 4 minutes! The Taylor Brothers part is interesting though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennyboy Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 I've just discovered some amazing pictures of the TP network on the Branch Line Society website. A lot of them were taken during a railtour in the 70s and it's a proper old school one with blokes standing up in open wagons! There's also some really rare pictures on the MSC network such as the coal tippler at Partington Basin, the Swing Bridge in Trafford and some shots of the Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 at CPC. https://www.branchline.uk/album-new.php?id=365 There's also this one which is an interesting take on the concept of a shunting plank! https://www.branchline.uk/photo-new.php?id=365&pid=1263&seq=14 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 The site of Containerbase has been flattened and they're laying out foundations for something. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
62613 Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Drove across the Park for the first time in a couple of years a few weeks back coming from The Lighthouse Church to the M60 J9. I noticed that the Parkway roundabout is being remodelled, and what appear to be tracks for the Metrolink Trafford Centre extension running right through the middle of it. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Drove across the Park for the first time in a couple of years a few weeks back coming from The Lighthouse Church to the M60 J9. I noticed that the Parkway roundabout is being remodelled, and what appear to be tracks for the Metrolink Trafford Centre extension running right through the middle of it. Going to be a park and ride, no more roundabout. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
62613 Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Going to be a park and ride, no more roundabout. Where will the car park be? Surely it's quite well hemmed in with buildings around there? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lankyphil Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 The site of Containerbase has been flattened and they're laying out foundations for something. Maritime were running Containerbase, it's moved to their old yard on John Gilbert Way now. Drove across the Park for the first time in a couple of years a few weeks back coming from The Lighthouse Church to the M60 J9. I noticed that the Parkway roundabout is being remodelled, and what appear to be tracks for the Metrolink Trafford Centre extension running right through the middle of it. Yep, it's going to run down Wharfside Way, Village Way, through the middle of the Parkway Circle roundabout, across the canal with park way then fall off the edge of the embankment and head to the Trafford Centre Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Where will the car park be? Surely it's quite well hemmed in with buildings around there? In the middle of what was the roundabout I believe, it's quite spacious there, maybe this one will be more popular than the other M60 park and ride at Sale Water Park. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckymucklebackit Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Don't know if this shot is of any interest, I had been for an interview at GEC Traction and was at Trafford Park Station waiting for a train back to Manchester City Centre (to head on a trip to Barry Scrapyard). The picture was taken looking north from the station, the date was 18th March 1981 If you look carefully you will see what I later found out were two class 84 locomotives in the GEC Traction works yard, never found out why they were there though. Jim 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Kelloggs train possibly being drawn out. According to Wikipedia '84002 and 84010 were purchased by GEC for experiments, but scrapped soon afterwards.' Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 To my utter regret at the height of my interest in trains I never got on my bike and rode to Trafford Park and had a look round - it was still a working port, it had trains and was a hive of industry albeit decaying. I used to watch the trip workings from there pass my house and never went to see where they actually ended up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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