The end of the line?

The Manchester Ship Canal needs no introduction – and to those interested in industrial railways neither does it’s significant sprawling web of rails – not only dock side but real lines linking places and businesses to both the canal and the wider rail network.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Ship_Canal

 

By the early 1980s the system and the canal were in serious decline, and the small fleet of diesel hydraulic Sentinels and diesel mechanical Hudswell Clark's were mainly involved with oil and containerised traffic, with hubs reduced to Ellesmere Port (serving the oil refineries at Stanlow and Eastham) and Mode Wheel (serving Lancashire Tar Distillers and Trafford Park). When the Barton Railway Swingbridge no.2 was shut in 1981 it was inevitable that Mode Wheel would shut (1988) and new facilities were established at Barton Road (next to Kelloggs) and at Lancashire Tar Distellers near Weaste junction.

In 1991 Peel Holdings acquired a declining, derelict and run down canal and railway system and looked to re-vitalise the Trafford Park area and re-develop the docks. The railway eeked out an existence and saw in it's centenary during 1994, but with closure of the Lancashire Tar Distillers facility railway operation north of the canal ceased in the same year. Operations at Ellesmere Port lasted a few more years but in 1996 the lines were mothballed with a decline in rail traffic to the refineries and the engines sold on to new homes. So, without fuss or ceremony ended 102 years of the Manchester Ship Canal Railway.

Timeline of decline...

• 1967 - Line to Eastham laid at Ellesmere Port
  
• 1972 - Salford dock railways closed
  
• 1978 - Through route from Weaste to Cadishead shut
  
• 1981 - Last locomotive uses Barton Railway swing bridge No.2 - system severed
  
• 1981 - Partington Coaling Basin closed
  
• 1982 - Barton Dock Road shed opened (next to Kelloggs) for Trafford Park
  
• 1988 – Mode Wheel closes
  
• 1991 – Peel Holdings
  
• 1994 - Centenary of Canal and Railway
  
• 1994 – Operation North of the Canal ceases with Lanc Tar Distillers closing
  
• 1996 – Ellesmere Port operation ceases
  

Photos of the prototype...

http://j-eyres.fotopic.net/c1374075_1.html

http://murrayliston.fotopic.net/c1027937.html

http://industrialrailwaysofthenorth.fotopic.net/c1711248.html

http://www.shipsofthemersey.photos.me.uk/c1777293.html

http://glazebrookeast.fotopic.net/c1547689.html

http://www.geoffspages.co.uk/raildiary/nwind/index.htm

http://picasaweb.google.com/montyburns56/TraffordParkEstatesRailway?fgl=true&pli=1#

Photos taken at Ellesemere Port, February 2010...

Rail operations at Ellesmere Port have re-started with imported coal being brought in, not from the original Cawoods dock facility, but at a wharf at the old Bowaters plant. A Freightliner 66 was observed hauling a loaded train away from the facility, a shadow of the former MSC Railway - but not forgotten.

Next up is the concept... comments, questions, help, advice, memories - please post them all up for me - they'll all help