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The Woodhead Route


Ramrig
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Diary notes for 10/3/81) Derailed at 11.30hrs but carried on until all train derailed. 47 290 arrived with breakedown crane.....Wigan MPD steam crane in attendance during lifting at night. DMU local servce put on at 15.05hrs. (Dinting). And the rain poured down relentlessly!

(Larry Goddard Copyright).

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Yes the pants was a typo. However on the question about height of wires, I've checked out the drawings for the 1907 electrification at Lancaster and yes they were up to 17 and 18' in the stations then down to 15-16' out on the line with a minimum of 13'6 under bbridges. This was for a pioneer high voltage overhead and they went to the trouble of covering all the roof's of the emu's in chicken wire which was earthed, just in case of a wire coming down.

(for my model i've discovered that bridal veil material looks just great as a sub for chicken wire with the correct hexagonal mesh and I got all that I need for 6 vehicles for 50p.)

 

Even with the high wires in the staion area obvioulsy some of the loco crews didn't read the notices. I have an accident report about a fireman who went onto the tender to trim coal and got a flashover. Fortunately for him it was raining hard and he was wearing a flat hat and greatcoat with the collar turned up and the juice earthed through to the tender via the hat, collar and coat. He was knocked unconcious and woke up the next morning in hospital otherwise unsacathed apart from a headache. Not bad for 6,6oo volts. They had obviously thought about such things when they planned Woodhead.

 

Jamie

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6600 Volts??????????? I thought it was 1500v, still not a toy to be played with willy-nilly.

 

Richard

 

Yes the Lancaster/Morecambe/Heysham line was 6,600 AC at 25Hz intended as a testbed for Derby to Manchester for freight. BR later changed the switchgear and stock in the 50's and ran it at 6.25Kv 50Hz as a test bed for general 25Kv electrification and installed a stretch of experimental overhead to several different designs. They used the original overhead but just changed the switchgear and stock. I'm modelling it in the 20's with the original stock (See Lancaster Green Ayre in the Layout Thread)

 

Jamie

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Even in 25 Kv depots e.g Sheilds Rd Glasgow, the wires were raised quite substantially to allow work safely above platform/solebar levels.

 

Can't remember how high the wires were, but check out photos on line and you will see what I mean.

 

Regards

Ian

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  • 2 months later...

Just to give this topic a boost, here are some pics of E27004 in blue and E27005 in green at Manchester Piccadilly on their last Saturday in service. They had all been withdrawn by the following Monday. Bit of a fluke really as we had been photographing fire-and-water machines at Chinley but the weather was hopeless (fortnight at f/2.8 with CT18) so went into the big city (well Manchester anyway) to see what was happening there.

 

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Interesting to note that, of the two GUVs behind E27004, one is lined and the other apparently not.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This is the very last photo I took on the final day of Woodhead, 76022 ambling through Newton Station in pouring rain en route to Guide Bridge to be switched off for the last time, 17th July 1981.

 

I chose this location because Newton was my birthplace, in fact I was born not far away in the Aspland during the war. My nearest station was actually Hyde North, but I saw much of Newton as a small child...... the C13 4-4-2Ts and J11's on local passengers trains, plus the heavy stuff. I even photographed an electric hauled freight at Newton in the mid 1950s....can't think why!

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Interesting thread re an interesting route.

 

More pictures can be seen of the accident in the book "Great Central - Main line north of Nottingham" by A.R.Kaye (Lowlander publications ISBN 0 946930 07 4). In the book he suggests excessive speed of the loose coupled train was the most likely cause. Even a shot of the train approaching Dinting with smoke billowing from the fourth wagon !.

 

Three brilliant books on this line are Foxline (scenes from the past series) Woodhead parts 1 & 2 and Woodhead - The electric railway. A must for any modeller of these lines.

 

I only travelled this line a couple of times, in my trainspotting days. Last time was on 3 Jan 1970, next to last day of passenger operation. How about this for a day out. (Still have tickets - total cost 39 shillings (£1.95 !!). Yes, this day was cold, snowy, and carriages unheated and misted up !!!

 

Wigan Wallgate to Manchester Vic DMU

Man Picc to Sheffield Vic E26053

Sheffield Midland to Retford DMU

Retford to Doncaster D 1507

Doncaster to Retford D1103 + D9011 (ex works), double headed, both loco's working !!

Retford to Sheffield Mid DMU

Sheffield Vic to Man Picc E26057

Man Vic to Wigan Wallgate DMU

 

This line was closed for a (wrong) reason. The steel industry was in decline, and plans where afoot (long before Scargill) to decimate the UK coal industry, and import coal for large power stations such as Fiddlers Ferry. This plan took quite a few years to hatch, but don't forget Woodheads major traffic was coal and steel.

 

When Woodhead was closed. other important routes also closed, either immediately or shortly after. Godley-Stockport Tiviot Dale - Altrincham - Latchford (Warrington) route of the Fiddlers Ferry coal trains. This was an unbelievable closure as expensive CWR had been laid from Warrington to Lymm on this line just prior to closure. Many level crossings thru' Lymm village where renewed also in this period. (Gates to Barriers).

 

Politics !!!

 

Edited to add - just noticed the 6 wheel tanker coupled to the Springs Branch Wigan breakdown crane lettered "Not to be used for milk" !!! - Being a Wiganer myself, I'll wager it was full of Walkers Best Bitter !!

 

Brit15

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I'd love to know what the guard in that brake van at Dinting was thinking as his train disintigrated in front of him blink.gif

There was nowhere for him to jump clear so it must have been a case of hanging on and hoping for the best. The lower stepboard on his van was demolished so he must have felt something of the impact as the van scraped along the displaced platform edging slabs.

 

It was unfamilarity that took me by suprise. Walking onto the platform around the corner of the building, I was confronted with a wagon propped up against the front of the building. My reaction was total bewilderment....It was all so unreal. I then screwed my Mamiya 645 onto the monopod and casually proceded to take pictures while chatting to some of the railwaymen who were beginnig to appear at the scene. Looking down into a waist-level viewfinder is what wedding photograhers used to do, and I suspect it gave the impression I was officlal or at least knew what I was doing! biggrin.gif

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On the last day I went with a friend to see the Woodhead route; I'd been over it once on a diverted passenger but had never had the time to stop and take photos.

Here are some of them showing locations not featured heavily so far.

We called in at Guide Bridge station where 2 x 76s were shuttling up and down a siding, after a couple of pics we then went to Guide Bridge East box to see the box and this signal.

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The box

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It was closed at the time so I took this of the frame and the diagram through the window

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While we were there 47 103 passed on a Manchester (?) bound parcels train

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Next stop was Dewsnap Sidings box

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Followed by Godley Junction

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Where a slight detour took us to Brookfold box on the branch to Woodley Jcn.

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Hadfield was the next stop

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Torside was next

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An Inspector was in the box and he reluctantly let us take a couple of pics in the box

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We then doubled back to Valehouse box between Torside and Hadfield.

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A view towards Hadfield

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and Torside

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The box was closed so another view through the window

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We set of for Woodhead , on the way crossing the trackbed of the Manchester Corporation Water Works railway

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Finally we reached Woodhead

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Flood lit discs in the sidings

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A view through the box window

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Finally one of the tunnel before we set off for home

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We came back the following week and carried on to Penistone but they're not scanned in yet

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Fascinating signalboxes Keith, especially the interior of Guide Bridge East with the slides instead of levers. I assume these are like the ones at Stockport Junction which let the signalman defeat the interlocking and cause a serious accident.

 

 

Scary stuff!

 

The box at the top of the frame (behind the lever numbers) in my pic is presumably the result of the Inspecting Officer's findings.

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Coming up to date, I just had a bike ride round the remaining "branch" N of Wadsley Bridge towards Stocksbridge, and there's not a lot to see. Most of the views from the footbridges over the line are identical - a curving single track between lines of trees.

 

At Oughtibridge, the station building is still there, as a private house, here from the road bridge (bit of a dangerous spot to hang around because of the traffic on the steep hill from Grenoside):

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And there's the tall viaduct with vandalism and vegetation at Herries Road:

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