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Manchester ship canal railway


herman83
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Just now, Mol_PMB said:

@JohnH, you may also be interested in my Flickr album here. Not my photos (I wasn't born) but I scanned Leslie Gordon's original slides and shared them (with permission). These are from around 1958-1960:

Vintage Manchester Ship Canal Photos

 

OH WOW.
Manchester Liners. I remember seeing those words come past, as I was waiting at Barton Bridge.
Thanks Mol.
Chris.

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2 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

@JohnH, you may also be interested in my Flickr album here. Not my photos (I wasn't born) but I scanned Leslie Gordon's original slides and shared them (with permission). These are from around 1958-1960:

Vintage Manchester Ship Canal Photos

 

Thanks very much for the link to your site Paul - brilliant!

 

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In lockdown 1 I got interested in the MSC, somewhere interesting to exercise within walking distance of home. Having seen some of my present-day ship photos, my friend lent me that load of old slides which he had saved from being thrown out about 10 years ago, and had been gathering dust since.

It was scanning and researching those slides in lockdown 2 that got me interested in the MSC Railway, and got me back into railway modelling in lockdown 3. Hence why I'm here!

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Just saw the following on Didcot's Facebook page, which today has an MSC connection:

 

On this day in history – 13 March 1919, Sir John Jackson, the railway, canal and dock engineer and former Conservative MP for Devonport, was the victim of a train robbery while travelling on the 2.10 pm train from Exeter to Paddington. Among his luggage was a crocodile leather portmanteau containing private correspondence and jewellery. When the train arrived at Paddington at 5.30 pm after its only stop at Taunton it was discovered that the portmanteau was missing.

In the portmanteau had been £40 in banknotes (£2,000 at today’s values), a jewel case containing a gold ring set with emeralds, three rings set with diamonds and a gold diamond stud. A box of cigars also went missing. Detective Inspector Savage of Scotland Yard was put onto the case.

Sir John, famous for completing the Manchester Ship Canal, railways in South America and damming the Euphrates, was to die nine months later of a heart attack while visiting his mistress in Surrey. It is believed that his stolen items were never recovered.

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23 minutes ago, Stephen Freeman said:

Hi,

I have located photo and had a play with my toys. Bit better but still unclear as to the tanker logo.

shipcanal.jpg

 

Now identified on this thread:

 

as Kraft Foods ex-Southern Oil tanks like these in this 1965 view on Westinghousd Road from the Manchester Libraries local image collection:

 

webmedia.php?irn=47150&reftable=ecatalog

 

Link for photo credits: https://images.manchester.gov.uk/Display.php?irn=70799&QueryPage=%2Findex.php%3Fsession%3Dpass&session=pass&QueryName=BasicQuery&QueryPage=%2Findex.php%3Fsession%3Dpass&Restriction=&StartAt=1&Anywhere=SummaryData|AdmWebMetadata&QueryTerms=Kraft&QueryOption=Anywhere

 

Credit to David Ratcliffe, as noted in the linked thread, for finding the image.

 

Simon

Edited by 65179
Added detail and photo attribution
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9 minutes ago, 65179 said:

 

Now identified on this thread:

 

as Kraft Foods ex-Southern Oil tanks like these in this 1965 view on Westinghousd Road from the Manchester Libraries local image collection:

 

webmedia.php?irn=47150&reftable=ecatalog

 

Link for photo credits: https://images.manchester.gov.uk/Display.php?irn=70799&QueryPage=%2Findex.php%3Fsession%3Dpass&session=pass&QueryName=BasicQuery&QueryPage=%2Findex.php%3Fsession%3Dpass&Restriction=&StartAt=1&Anywhere=SummaryData|AdmWebMetadata&QueryTerms=Kraft&QueryOption=Anywhere

 

Credit to David Ratcliffe, as noted in the linked thread, for finding the image.

 

Simon

This is a great shot, thanks.
Chris.

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Thanks all!

The diesel loco in the library photo is Fowler 4100009/1947, named 'William A Pratt' (I wonder if some wag ever scrawled 'is' on the plate...)

Two steam locos had previously worked here, both named SCOBRIT (Southern Cotton Oil BRITain). The Industrial Railway Society has a photo of the later one of these in their archive; I have purchased a copy but cannot share here.

For those of you with a copy of Don Thorpe's book on the MSC Railways, page 165 shows some of these tanks off the rails.

Regards,

Paul

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  • 3 weeks later...

I went to Ellesmere Port today and explored part of the remains of the MSC railway system there.

It looks like nothing has been used for years, but intriguingly 2021 google images appear to show a rake of 21 wagons at the far end of the line to the former Bowaters wharf. They might be VGAs or similar.

A few photos:

It was true once!

 

Railway Divergence

 

Lights on but Nobody Home

 

End of the line

 

Does anyone know when a train last ran here? Looks like a few years at least, the track's in a poor state and very rusty. But some of the signalling still seems to work!

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16 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

I went to Ellesmere Port today and explored part of the remains of the MSC railway system there.

It looks like nothing has been used for years, but intriguingly 2021 google images appear to show a rake of 21 wagons at the far end of the line to the former Bowaters wharf. They might be VGAs or similar.

A few photos:

It was true once!

 

Railway Divergence

 

Lights on but Nobody Home

 

End of the line

 

Does anyone know when a train last ran here? Looks like a few years at least, the track's in a poor state and very rusty. But some of the signalling still seems to work!

Considering how fast the metal theives descended on parts of the Trafford Park system, I'm amazed at how complete it is!

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From Google Earth, the wagons weren't there in June 2018, 23 wagons were there in Sept 2019, they were reduced to 21 wagons and a couple of gaps opened in the rake (so I assume shunted) in April 2020 and no change in the most recent image dated 2 June 2020. (The image copyright date is not the date of the image, by the way.)

 

Narrows the dates in traffic down somewhat. - E

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1 minute ago, enz said:

From Google Earth, the wagons weren't there in June 2018, 23 wagons were there in Sept 2019, they were reduced to 21 wagons and a couple of gaps opened in the rake (so I assume shunted) in April 2020 and no change in the most recent image dated 2 June 2020. (The image copyright date is not the date of the image, by the way.)

 

Narrows the dates in traffic down somewhat. - E

That’s interesting - many thanks. I had found that the coal traffic finished in 2015 but clearly something has happened since. But not recently from the look of the rails. 

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A couple of pics of the veteran crane barge 'M.S.C. Buffalo' which was working at Barton Locks today. Here passing the former sludge loading berths at Davyhulme sewage works.

M.S.C. Buffalo, Davyhulme

Unfortunately, it's not feasible to extend my layout forward and add a ship or boat, but if it was the 'M.S.C. Buffalo' would be a strong contender for the vessel to model as she is very distinctive and a manageable size in 7mm scale.

'M.S.C. Buffalo' is 53 years old this year so she would just fit my 1960s period. Still in daily use looking as smart as when she was when brand new, she is clearly well cared for by her crew.

 

Here she heads off into another blizzard (weather has been very changeable today). I'm standing on the former MSC Railway trackbed at the site of the future Port Salford. The site of my layout's prototype is just beyond the distant pylon about half a mile away.

Buffalo Wake

 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

A couple of pics of the veteran crane barge 'M.S.C. Buffalo' which was working at Barton Locks today. Here passing the former sludge loading berths at Davyhulme sewage works.

M.S.C. Buffalo, Davyhulme

 

 

I wondered what they were, they're at the edge of the Millenium nature reserve, which probably means the reserve is built on old sludge beds doesn't it - no wonder it's so green!!  So you're on the Salford side there, have they cleared all the trees from that bank now?

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6 hours ago, woodenhead said:

 

I wondered what they were, they're at the edge of the Millenium nature reserve, which probably means the reserve is built on old sludge beds doesn't it - no wonder it's so green!!  So you're on the Salford side there, have they cleared all the trees from that bank now?

Yes, that basin and the loading gantries were a relatively late addition - 1970s I think, replacing the previous sludge loading wharf nearer Barton Locks.

You're absolutely right about the nature reserve being built on the former water treatment beds (with their associated narrow-gauge railway).

 

On the Salford side, the canal bank has been cleared from Barton Locks down to nearly the Hulmes Bridge Ferry. The land behind has also been cleared back to the A57, and that clearance extends up to the edge of the A J Bell stadium. A small wild portion remains on the bank alongside the A J Bell stadium, and in recent weeks I have seen loads of wildlife there (some no doubt displaced from the rest) including a wide variety of small birds, Weasels and Peregrine Falcons.

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

On the Salford side, the canal bank has been cleared from Barton Locks down to nearly the Hulmes Bridge Ferry. The land behind has also been cleared back to the A57, and that clearance extends up to the edge of the A J Bell stadium. A small wild portion remains on the bank alongside the A J Bell stadium, and in recent weeks I have seen loads of wildlife there (some no doubt displaced from the rest) including a wide variety of small birds, Weasels and Peregrine Falcons.

 

Maybe that's to gather them all together for moving somewhere else, the birds could simply fly over the canal and onto the waterworks site, plenty of trees and woodland there for them.

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I recently bought some original medium-format negatives on ebay and thought I would share the images here.

I don't know the original photographer I'm afraid; I think they date from the mid-1970s.

They feature a railtour in Trafford Park with 4002 and a fairly short rake of five steel highs. 

Well worth a close look for the variety of ladders used for getting in and out of the wagons, and the children messing around with one of them or wandering over the track.

There are some great classic gricer outfits and some impressive sideburns!

 

From an operational point of view, this train had no continuous brakes or indeed any brakes operable from within the train - the highs are vac-fitted but the loco only has air brakes.

There are several variants of steel high: two have Morton brakes and hence a tiebar between the axleboxes, one of these has the later body variant with a rib along the bottom of the sides and no curb rail. Two types of axleboxes are visible, one wagon has odd wheelsets with different axleboxes at each end of the wagon. Two of the wagons have reinforced doors while the others do not. And of course they all have different lettering styles.

4002_railtour_1.jpg.ad76148e2774561d4b64e4e867dcb32f.jpg

 

4002_railtour_2.jpg.0e454a714182f16fff07ee37fa1e1d4e.jpg

 

4002_railtour_3.jpg.6f02ead455c36e21877f523be6df6e08.jpg

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14 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

I recently bought some original medium-format negatives on ebay and thought I would share the images here.

I don't know the original photographer I'm afraid; I think they date from the mid-1970s.

They feature a railtour in Trafford Park with 4002 and a fairly short rake of five steel highs. 

Well worth a close look for the variety of ladders used for getting in and out of the wagons, and the children messing around with one of them or wandering over the track.

There are some great classic gricer outfits and some impressive sideburns!

 

From an operational point of view, this train had no continuous brakes or indeed any brakes operable from within the train - the highs are vac-fitted but the loco only has air brakes.

There are several variants of steel high: two have Morton brakes and hence a tiebar between the axleboxes, one of these has the later body variant with a rib along the bottom of the sides and no curb rail. Two types of axleboxes are visible, one wagon has odd wheelsets with different axleboxes at each end of the wagon. Two of the wagons have reinforced doors while the others do not. And of course they all have different lettering styles.

4002_railtour_1.jpg.ad76148e2774561d4b64e4e867dcb32f.jpg

 

4002_railtour_2.jpg.0e454a714182f16fff07ee37fa1e1d4e.jpg

 

4002_railtour_3.jpg.6f02ead455c36e21877f523be6df6e08.jpg

Fascinating. If it was around 1974 I was probably on that tour. Not only did it explore the Trafford Park railways, but also went down the Ship Canal Railway as far as the tar works at Cadishead.

 

Jim

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3 minutes ago, jim.snowdon said:

Fascinating. If it was around 1974 I was probably on that tour. Not only did it explore the Trafford Park railways, but also went down the Ship Canal Railway as far as the tar works at Cadishead.

 

Jim

Thanks Jim - I wonder if you're in any of the photos?

There are a lot more pictures of a 1970s BLS tour online here:

https://www.branchline.uk/album-new.php?id=365

 

I am definitely planning to model a few Highs with loaded with gricers for my MSC layout!

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