Walkden Colliery lines

[Michael Delamar]

come across this which may be of interest, newsreel of prince Phillip at Mosley common 1952.

 

http://www.britishpa...hilip-down-mine

[Michael Delamar]

couldnt have asked for anything better than a decent map! thank you thats great.

[woodenhead]

It's funny now when you compare that map to the luxury houses that are springing up around the old tippler basins - the estate around Worsley Canal tip is tres expensive. And the area around Boothsbank is now a haunt of premiership footballers.

 

I nearly purchased a house on the site of Walkden depot, the air shaft to ventilate what was underneath was enough to put me off and I've driven through the old railway underbridge when going to Tesco in Walkden countless times.

[Michael Delamar]

 

The line from Ashtons Field to Brackley was closed before the motorway was constructed.

 

noticed on page 61 of Colour of a lancashire triangle, a nice shot of sir robert crossing Cleggs lane, Little Hulton.

looking now on google streetview its wiped off the landscape.

[Michael Delamar]

, one branch went out south east across Linneyshaw Moss and there was an exchange siding linked with the former L&Y Manchester-Bolton line by a short branch line at Kearsley . (The only photo of this bit I’ve ever seen is on page 77 of Bob Pixton’s Liverpool & Manchester 3: Lancashire & Yorkshire Lines).

 

interesting that there is a large span bridge across the M61, I wonder how long this was used for?

[Arthur]

That's interesting Michael, is it on Google Maps? The last working colliery on the system was Astley Green which ceased winding in April 1970, the coal preparation plant closing in October that year, after which coal traffic on the system stopped. So, I don't know when the M61 opened, but the bridge would have been out of use by the end of 1970.

It links in to the 16T minerals thread where you've put some photos of the electrics at Kearsley Power Station. The arm from Linneyshaw towards Kearsley carried coal from Astley bound for the power station (and also Agecroft power Station), the last mile or so being handled by the LMS, and later BR. This traffic would have used that bridge.

[Michael Delamar]

yeah its on google earth and streetview, wikipedia states the motorway was opened 1969-70.

I have the Bob Pixton book and its interesting to see the houses still there which is nothing unusual, the abutment for the bridge the Austerity is passing over still exists also.

 

[APOLLO]

Heres an interesting site. The bridge over the M61 is in the photo of the braided interchange, at the top. The curve of the line can just about be seen

 

http://motorwayarchive.ihtservices.co.uk/en/motorways/motorway-listing/m61-manchester-to-preston/m61-worsley-braided-interchange-to-horwich-link.cfm

 

Bridge is still there, don't know its present use, but it is wide enough for a rail line & and substantially built.

 

Brit15

[Arthur]

Thanks Michael, I'd just found it myself, the bridge had a very short working life then. If you scroll just west from the view you'll find Blackleach reservoir, the railway crossed that on a causeway, and if you scroll a bit east, there's the scar which was once Kearsley power station, just by the, still present, railway line.

[Fairburn]

Pedant Mode: the M61 is marked up wrong, the two lanes disappearing off to the left are the 61, the road wrongly labelled is the dual carriageway that leads you ultimately into Bolton, in the valley behind Burnden Park (as was).

 

Driven under that bridge many times, currently painted yellow? leading me to wonder what line it had been. This thread has cleared many ponderings up - cheers to all!

 

Ian

[Michael Delamar]

one of the reasons ive been interested in the Walkden lines is from driving over the dissused rail bridges all along the east lancs road, ive often meant to find out where they all went, the Walkden ones where the last ones ive wondered after learning most of the other lines and also the footage on the B&R video.

 

is there any books on the Walkden system?

[Arthur]

The only book I'm aware of is 'Collieries and Their Railways in the Manchester Coalfields' by Geoffrey Hayes, 2004, Landmark Publishing. Geoff was an engineer with Manchester Collieries and later the NCB.

It's an enlarged version of his earlier, self published book, which I think was called 'Manchester Collieries and their Railways'. It doesn't just cover railways though, nor just the Walkden/Bridgewater Collieries system. All the local pits, their histories, their winding gear and stationary engines are covered along with descriptions of their railway systems and locomotives.

 

Without checking, I'm pretty sure that Bob Pixtons 'Liverpool-Manchester; The LNW lines' has photographs of Sandersons sidings, in fact I've seen more photos taken around there than any other location. Books by W.D. Cooper feature them in LMS and BR days and Jim Carter (a fireman at Patricroft at the time) features them, and some other nearby exchange sidings, in some of his photo albums.

The system has, over the years, been featured in various prototype magazines.

[PGH]

The bridge over the M61 at Linnyshaw Moss was indeed originally built for the NCB line and did have a very short working life for that purpose.

 

The NCB/BR Exchange sidings comprised 7 tracks all connected to the NCB line at the south end and the BR Kearsley Branch at the north. There was also once a connection at the north end to the disused Kearsley Chemical Works, the origin of the chemical waste tip which had to be disposed of during the motorway construction. The exchange sidings lay directly in the path of the motorway and were lifted and replaced by a single track over the two new bridges in 1970, the work probably beginning in early 1970. I walked the line in May 1970 and at that date the single through track occupied the most western of the former 7 sidings and was on a narrow ridge of undisturbed ground crossing the motorway excavation. Alongside approximately on the route of the most eastern of the 7 sidings was the new (longer) bridge in course of construction. Beyond this the line did a dogleg to the east to reach its final route and crossed the second (shorter) new bridge which had by then been completed. So the line over the new bridges was probably not finally completed until June or July 1970, and the last train crossed on 2^nd October 1970, so it saw very little rail use.

 

The new arrangement resulted in a different method of working that end of the line. Before 1970 the steam locos had worked through to Linnyshaw Moss Sidings via a reversal of direction at Ashtons Field. From early in 1970 the steam locos only worked as far as Ashtons Field. A Yorkshire 0-6-0DE that had been at Walkden Workshops for repair was used from Astons Field to Linnyshaw Moss. At that time coal for Kearsley Power Station was being blended at Ashtons Field with coal brought in by road from Agecroft Colliery, so extra shunting would have been required as wagons were unloaded and reloaded at the blending plant. However I think the diesel was also used to assemble trains for BR, work which would formerly have been done at Linnyshaw Moss Sidings, as in April 1970 I photographed it on a train complete with BR brakevan. I don’t know where the actual exchange from NCB to BR took place at that date. There were still a couple of short dead end sidings each side of the new bridges where the locos could have been exchanged, although that would have required a co-ordinated effort with both locos present, or whether the BR locos were allowed to run on to the NCB line as far as the causeway across the Blackleach Reservoir where there was a long loop line.

 

A interesting point about the working of the coal traffic in these latter years from Astley Green Colliery to Kearsley Power Station is that three different operators were involved using three different forms of motive power – NCB steam, BR diesel and CEGB overhead wire electric.

 

The best published account of the Walkden Railways is “The Industrial Railways of Bolton, Bury and the Manchester Coalfield – Part 2 The Manchester Coalfield” published by Runpast Publishing 1995.

“A Lancashire Triangle – Part 2” by D.J.Sweeney published by Triangle Publishing in 1997 contains many black & white photos of colliery railways including the Walkden System (plus some of the main line if you are that way inclined !)

[APOLLO]

The above two mentioned books are excellent, I have both of them.

 

I became interested in the Walkden Colliery lines in the mid 1960's. My uncle, a Wigan collier lived in Walkden having moved there when the colliery at Mosley Common was modernised. He lived quite close to Walkden NCB works & loco yard, and I would have a walk round (outside the fence) and take a look whenever I could. Allways an interesting site. Of course it was allways Sunday when we visited, so 'nowt working !. Later in June 1969 a couple of friends and I cycled from Wigan to Walkden, and down to Astley colliery. We saw several austerity 0-6-0 locos at work. By that time all our local Wigan colliery lines had closed. (except Bickershaw of course, but thats more Leigh than Wigan).

 

They might have been "good times" for us young uns, but my uncle had pneumoconiosis after a lifetime breathing coal dust, and was in a bad way towards the end. We bash health and safety today at our peril, the "good old days" weren't allways so.

 

Interesting to note that the motorway interchange site was a chemical dump - there is a part of the embankment fenced off with Danger - Keep Out - Contaminated Land" signs visible, quite near to the bridge talked about earlier.

 

In the 1960's (and well into the 70's) a train ride from Wigan to Manchester either via Bolton & Kearsley or direct via Walkden on the L&Y mainline (4 track 'till 1966 or so) gave view to quite a number of interesting industrial railways, all now gone.

 

Not colliery line related, but here is an interesting site

 

http://www.walkdenst...rg.uk/index.htm

 

Brit15

[Michael Delamar]

nice shot of an ex works loco at Walkden, even the buffers have the stripe painted on them.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64353697@N07/7045273279/

[Arthur]

even the buffers have the stripe painted on them.

 

 

Must spoil the effect if the heads rotate....

 

I checked Bob Pixtons LNW lines book, it doesn't cover Sandersons Sidings as they're on the Eccles-Wigan line, not a Liverpool to Manchester route. There are some nice colour photos in Jim Carters Atlantic Publishing booklet, 'From the Footplate' in their Colour of Steam series including a picture of an immaculate Harry at work near Moseley Common.

[APOLLO]

Interesting map of Walkden shop area

 

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/showimage/?f=/community/Personal-Album-54-Image-66671/

 

Brit15

[Dampflok]

A very interesting thread which reminded me of a couple of shots in my collection, given to me by John Edgington (who was my photographic mentor when I first started taking photos in 1962). I knew they were taken on the Walkden system, but had no idea what this was like, until now. The details of NSR 0-6-2T No. 2 are also very interesting.

 

Accordingly, I have looked out the photos of No. 2, they were taken on 3rd August 1964 during a visit and tour behind No. 2 by the Birmingham Locomotive Club (Industrial Railway Society). I'm not sure which of the two shots comes first, there is one taken at Walkden Yard and the other at Astley Moss. If anyone can throw further light on the locations that would be wonderful!

 

At Walkden Yard:

 

 

At Astley Moss:

 

 

Cheers, Geoff

[Arthur]

Superb Geoff! What a lovely locomotive. I've always been a little surprised that there's never been a kit for one. Brings back memories of my first visit to the Bridgewater Collieries system and seeing No. 2 for the first time, around 1963.

 

A mate and I had cycled up to visit Worsley Woods and in the woods we came across a very long, concrete, pedestrian underpass (PGH will probably remember it). It was such an incongruous thing to find in such a sylvan setting. We climbed up the short bank by the entrance to be greeted by a complex of sidings and running lines, one set running off to the right, another dropping away to the left and a third heading off, over a bridge, away from us. This was the Sandersons Sidings complex. We had a good look around, I remember standing by a 16t mineral and being surprised how tall it was, on my Hornby Dublo these were 'small' wagons. After a short while there was the sound of a hard working locomotive approaching, we stood aside, and No. 2 hove into view, from over the bridge, hauling a lengthy coal train. It was shunted down to the exchange sidings, No 2 returning a short while later with empties.

 

Your second photo, on Astley Moss, is only the second one I've seen from that location. The other is, again, in Jim Carters Atlantic Publishing booklet, 'From the Footplate' in their Colour of Steam series, and shows a Stanier 8F pulling away with a coal train for Margam. Yes, coal to South Wales, presumably for blending at the Steel Company of Wales coking plant.

 

Arthur

 

Edited to correct the Jim Carter book reference.

[Arthur]

It's perhaps worth mentioning the proposed line to the Manchester Ship Canal.

 

Pre WW1 it was planned to build a line from the Boothsbank Canal Tip (see PGHs map) to a loading wharf on the Ship Canal at Salt Eye Lay By, essentially the site where the new Salford City Stadium is, between Makro and the M602 high level bridge at Barton. The land was acquired and some earthworks completed but the plan came to a halt around 1918. The route would have been from the coal basin at Boothsbank, southwards across the moss, passing under the LNW mainline, over the A57 road,and on to the wharf at Salt Eye. Most of this route is still rural and the connections to the LNW line would have been where the line currently passes over the M62.

 

In 1947 the plan was resurrected, this time including exchange sidings at the LNW crossing, but it was not pursued.

[Dampflok]

Thanks Arthur, glad you liked the photos of No. 2 and some interesting memories there!

 

Cheers, Geoff

[Edwin_m]

It's perhaps worth mentioning the proposed line to the Manchester Ship Canal.

 

Pre WW1 it was planned to build a line from the Boothsbank Canal Tip (see PGHs map) to a loading wharf on the Ship Canal at Salt Eye Lay By, essentially the site where the new Salford City Stadium is, between Makro and the M602 high level bridge at Barton. The land was acquired and some earthworks completed but the plan came to a halt around 1918. The route would have been from the coal basin at Boothsbank, southwards across the moss, passing under the LNW mainline, over the A57 road,and on to the wharf at Salt Eye. Most of this route is still rural and the connections to the LNW line would have been where the line currently passes over the M62.

 

In 1947 the plan was resurrected, this time including exchange sidings at the LNW crossing, but it was not pursued.

 

It's been resurrected again, sort of. A branch is planned from the LNW line southward to the new Port Salford, which is a little west of the stadium.

[Michael Delamar]

from the mineral wagon thread, Boothstown.

[Arthur]

Somehow missed that on that on the mineral wagon thread, thanks for adding it here Michael (and thanks to Porcy for finding it, interesting website too). Looks in remarkably good condition that mineral, must have been in there for at least 20 years. When it dropped in I wonder if they told BR "one of your minerals is missing".

[Arthur]

Arthur, here is your third photo of Astley Moss Sidings – a rather less interesting view

 

 

 

Thanks PGH, that interesting enough! I only went there twice, once on the footplate and once on foot from Astley Green. I remember the 2' gauge line, we spent a bit of time pushing a couple of wagons up and down. More trees about than I remembered though. I always thought the Moss a bit of an odd place.