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Manchester/Salford docks


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1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

Kelloggs was an open crossing right across a major road junction and there was usually a slow arrival or departure during the rush hour!

 

The roundabout crossing served the scrap and cargill traffic, the curve of the track there is now reversed as it is now a Metrolink crossing point

 

So has Metrolink reused some of the railway there? I've not been anywhere near that area for quite a while.

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1 hour ago, Reorte said:

So has Metrolink reused some of the railway there? I've not been anywhere near that area for quite a while.

No, the new track cuts across the old track, I think it it would be if you turned the old track through 90 degrees.

 

There is a bridge over the Ship Canal that track used to go under that has track again and some other old routes may have been partially used but none of the alignment for Cargill or Containerbase has been used.

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20 hours ago, adb968008 said:

Do they give you a graphical bingo card, so you can mark off what debris you spot ?

car tyre, sofa, rusted car, shopping trolleys, industrial pipe, sunken boats, some foul smelling yellow liquid, dead fish...

 

ive got to admit my memories of the canal in the 1980’s/90’s put the grim into north for me. I remember Manchester bid for the Olympics in 2000, Sydney made a video comparing Sydney to Manchester including shots of Sydney Harbour bridge or Manchester Ship Canal bridge, the weather, the beer etc.

 

:-)

 

 

 

To be honest there's so little traffic and heavy industry on and around the canal, that's it seems to be fairly clean these days. Although you may need sunglasses if you go on one of the trips and not for the reason you'll be thinking...

 

http://www.shipsofthemersey.me.uk/picture?/16135/category/130-manchester_ship_canal_runcorn_manchester

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7 hours ago, Reorte said:

The track's lifted now, and trundling across some of those open road crossings for some sort of preserved railway would definitely raise a few eyebrows (can't recall if the one by Kelloggs was an open crossing but the one that went straight through a roundabout was, wasn't it?)

 

Yeah, but there's the embedded track on the Containerbase to get them started and it wouldn't be too difficult to relay the track as it was only lifted a few years ago. As for the Kellogg's crossing, I was thinking that they could just use it for access to the engine shed and not actually have the passenger carrying trains crossing it. Also the roundabout crossing (Village Circle) was on the TPE network which was separate from the MSC owned Containerbase line.

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On 10/05/2019 at 13:16, 62613 said:

On the first paragraph, I think the second case. Since Metrolink in Oldham was diverted from the rail route to run along Union Street, the tracks across the road junction at Mumps Bridge have not been removed. I suppose another reason might be that closing the roads in question to take the tracks up could cause traffic problems.

On another note, I can remember the track across Tenax Road being refurbished and all the new signage being put up, IIRC in the late 80s/early 90s, when I was working at Ciba-Geigy, also the footbridge across the road when it was widened - I drew the outline plan for it.

 

On the topic of Ciba Geigy do you ever remember their sidings being used as when I photographed the area about ten years ago they were still in situ which suggested that they were still being used until fairly recently.

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35 minutes ago, montyburns56 said:

 

On the topic of Ciba Geigy do you ever remember their sidings being used as when I photographed the area about ten years ago they were still in situ which suggested that they were still being used until fairly recently.

No, they'd fallen out of use by the time I started there (mid-January 1985). I saw pictures in the archive of them in use, but when I was there, the end nearest the storage area was being used for the electrical and mechanical contractors' offices and workshops. After the sidings being actually active, some tank wagons were parked there for a time, for use as static storage.

 

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The Manchester MetroLink rails are very "heavy" in cross section. The areas where the MetroLink is being laid on top of old/existing lines the old "small" cross section rail is ripped up easily and then a great deal of care/effort is spent on laying the "foundations" for the new Metrolink "light" rail!

 

I think the contract states that "works" are to last 120 years!

 

 

Kev.

 

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31 minutes ago, SHMD said:

The Manchester MetroLink rails are very "heavy" in cross section. The areas where the MetroLink is being laid on top of old/existing lines the old "small" cross section rail is ripped up easily and then a great deal of care/effort is spent on laying the "foundations" for the new Metrolink "light" rail!

 

I think the contract states that "works" are to last 120 years!

 

 

Kev.

 

Luckily they appear to be getting good at laying the Metrolink lines, remember the rectification works on the original tracks through Manchester in the early 90s.

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23 hours ago, 62613 said:

No, they'd fallen out of use by the time I started there (mid-January 1985). I saw pictures in the archive of them in use, but when I was there, the end nearest the storage area was being used for the electrical and mechanical contractors' offices and workshops. After the sidings being actually active, some tank wagons were parked there for a time, for use as static storage.

 

 

Right thanks, it's surprising that they are still in place in that case.

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23 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Would it be wrong to assume all the wagonload traffic went at the end of Speedlink in the 90s

 

i can't remember the last time I saw anything within Trafford Park since that time

 

There was an article in Rail Express April 2009 that says that the last traffic was around 2000.

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On 14/05/2019 at 20:14, SHMD said:

The Manchester MetroLink rails are very "heavy" in cross section. The areas where the MetroLink is being laid on top of old/existing lines the old "small" cross section rail is ripped up easily and then a great deal of care/effort is spent on laying the "foundations" for the new Metrolink "light" rail!

 

I think the contract states that "works" are to last 120 years!

 

 

Kev.

 

Off street, Metrolink's rails are pretty much the same as any other railway - typically the 56 kg/m flatbottom section previously known to all as BS 113A. The rail used for street track is a little heavier, typically 59 kg/m, but looks a lot heavier, being a girder rail section. Off street track is generally ballasted, with standard concrete sleepers, but on bridges and a few other locations, it can be concrete slab track.

 

Jim

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16 hours ago, jim.snowdon said:

Off street, Metrolink's rails are pretty much the same as any other railway - typically the 56 kg/m flatbottom section previously known to all as BS 113A. The rail used for street track is a little heavier, typically 59 kg/m, but looks a lot heavier, being a girder rail section. Off street track is generally ballasted, with standard concrete sleepers, but on bridges and a few other locations, it can be concrete slab track.

 

In places that were converted from rail to tram I got the distinct impression that the track hadn't been changed, just some wires put up and that was about it (although I'm sure there must've been a bit more to it than that). Years ago when I lived in Sale and used the tram from time to time they certainly rattled and bounced on that track, it didn't feel at all new.

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1 hour ago, Reorte said:

 

In places that were converted from rail to tram I got the distinct impression that the track hadn't been changed, just some wires put up and that was about it (although I'm sure there must've been a bit more to it than that). Years ago when I lived in Sale and used the tram from time to time they certainly rattled and bounced on that track, it didn't feel at all new.

It's been replaced since, the track between Sale and Trafford Bar was awful.

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I recall a transport event in the docks about 1973, Flying Scotsman may have been there, with the preserved Mancheter tram. There was lots of traditional dock railway still there.

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8 hours ago, Reorte said:

 

In places that were converted from rail to tram I got the distinct impression that the track hadn't been changed, just some wires put up and that was about it (although I'm sure there must've been a bit more to it than that). Years ago when I lived in Sale and used the tram from time to time they certainly rattled and bounced on that track, it didn't feel at all new.

That's true. It was done to keep the costs down, but rather in ignorance of the fact that once BR knew that the two lines, and particularly the Bury line, were going to be taken over, maintenance was reduced to the bare minimum. It was already fairly tired by then anyway. The Altrincham line was a bit of a different problem. It was was the one place on the system where the trams could reach relatively high speeds, sufficiently high for the bogies to start hunting. The Bury line was indeed the subject of major track renewal works at least a decade ago, if not earlier.

 

Jim 

 

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3 hours ago, Dava said:

I recall a transport event in the docks about 1973, Flying Scotsman may have been there, with the preserved Mancheter tram. There was lots of traditional dock railway still there.

I can remember doing a rail tour, in open wagons, around almost all of the Trafford Park and Manchester Ship Canal system in 1974 or 1975. We didn't do the inner parts of the Salford Docks systems, but the Ship Canal railway was intact as far as Cadishead, if not Irlam.

 

Jim

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