Trains in Trafford park

[Black Sheep]

I've recently started working at a place in Trafford park, specifically 'the village'

 

I know trafford park was originally a country estate, the house turned into a hotel for businessmen to stay in while surveying the park with a view to moving there.

 

The land is essentially an island with the ship canal on one side, a 'normal' canal on the other and businesses tended to set up along either of those.

 

The village was obviously built as terrace or back-to-backs for the workers for the industry.

 

 

The other day I took a different route home and found a roundabout with a railway line running straight through it, along with the various signs warning of slow moving trains within the park.

 

Does anyone know much about the railway in Trafford Park, who built it and was it built to serve the entire park or one specific industry?

Who ran it, private or one of the railway companies / BR?

When did it stop being used?

Has anyone modelled it?

[SHMD]

I sometimes get lunch from the 'Village'.

 

The whole of Trafford Park has/had lines running all over the place serving many different factories.

There still is (at least) one train that uses part of the system.

Access is from the near the container terminal, (I think).

 

Some interesting 'fun' can be had following the lines with Google street view.

 

By the way, that roundabout, with the railway across it, sees 'a bump' every week or so!

 

 

Kev.

(I work near the 'top-end' of Trafford Park very near Man U - when I'm in the UK that is.)

[woodenhead]

That particular line served Cerestar but operations ceased many years ago, the one recently live route past Kellogs to Containerbase has also very recently ceased to be used due to a weak bridge with GBRF now using the EWS terminal next to the Liverpool to Manchester line (via Warrington central).

 

The whole estate was covered in rails during its peak but these have dwindled away as the industries closed or were redeveloped. I imagine it was pretty impressive in its heyday.

[newbryford]

Going back a few years (late 1970's). We used to park up to go and watch the stock cars at the White City dog track near Old Trafford. Coming in from the Salford side, over the large swing bridge and first road right was one of our regular spots. Always used to be a few BR 12T vans and simialr down there - even on a Saturday night.

 

There were some really sharp curves which made it difficult for long wheelbase and bogie wagons to be used in later days. Even 08's struggled. Some of the track was eased to allow larger wagons to be used - as mentioned above - into Cerestar. There was a push to reintroduce more traffic to/from the area, such as scrap metal, but these came to nothing.

 

There are a few places where the old formations can be seen - double track sized gaps between factory fences for example. Also look out for curved boundary fences at the side of the road junctions, showing how sharp the railway curves were.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Black Sheep]

I sometimes get lunch from the 'Village'.

 

The whole of Trafford Park has/had lines running all over the place serving many different factories.

There still is (at least) one train that uses part of the system.

Access is from the near the container terminal, (I think).

 

Some interesting 'fun' can be had following the lines with Google street view.

 

By the way, that roundabout, with the railway across it, sees 'a bump' every week or so!

 

 

Kev.

(I work near the 'top-end' of Trafford Park very near Man U - when I'm in the UK that is.)

Thanks for the heads up on the roundabout bump - I commute by motorbike so I'll take extra care there in future.

 

You never know, we might pass each other outside the chippy without even knowing.

[bennyboy]

There is a thread on the old forum that will tell you a lot about the railway in Trafford Park.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6877&hilit=trafford+park

[Arthur]

The railway serving the industrial estate was owned by Trafford Park Estate and originally operated by them. Later, the dated escapes me, the operation of the lines was handed over to the Manchester Ship Canal Company, whose locomotives then worked all the traffic. The MSC already owned the dock lines.

 

There was a huge amount of street running in the US style and endless level crossings. It was very busy into the early 70's when a fairly rapid decline set in. Traffic which carried on later was to and from the then new container base and Cerestar.

 

Some of the larger companies operated their own internal lines, Cerestar has already been mentioned, Taylor Brothers Steelworks and Metropolitan Vickers (later AEI) were two others.

 

The range of traffic was immense, there were heavy mechanical and electrical engineers, steelworks, oil and chemical refineries, various cereal milling plants, Kellogs cereals, sawmills, asbestos cement manufacture, cable makers to name those that spring to mind. During the war, Metro Vicks alone employed 20,000.

 

Where, or what, is the village? Is it the block of terraced houses around first, second and third avenues?

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Hi BS,

 

...by coincidence I was looking at the 1970 Rail Atlas of Britain by Baker today and came across the Trafford Park estate network. The railway system was impressive and showed a through route between the Glazebrook/Irlam line and the Chat Moss route at Eccles via Weaste and the lines of the estate.

 

SBN 86093 046 7 if you want to track down a secondhand copy.

 

I have books on the Manchester Ship Canal which describe the early days of the estate railway and show some interesting pictures. 'A Hundred Years of the Manchester Ship Canal' by Ted Gray ISBN 1 899181 85 7 is a good starting point

 

Cheers

 

Dave

Edited April 27, 2013 by Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71

[Arthur]

Dave, I think that you may be referring to the Manchester Ship Canal system there.

 

Does the route you mention run east-west on the north bank if the Ship Canal? That was the MSC 'mainline' which ran from Salford Docks, through Eccles, Irlam and onto Latchford near Warrington. There were interchange sidings with the L&Y in Salford, the LNWR at Weaste and the GC at Partington. The latter were largely busy with coal traffic from local pits to the coaling basin on the Ship Canal, and with traffic to and from from Lancashire Steel at Irlam.

 

The linked Trafford Park system was all south of the Ship Canal.

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

...apologies Arthur...I'm no expert on the network therein and assumed a common ascendency. 

 

ATB

 

Dave

[Arthur]

On a map, the two systems would be hard to separate Dave, as they just merge together south of Salford docks.

[Black Sheep]

Where, or what, is the village? Is it the block of terraced houses around first, second and third avenues?

yes, that's 'the village'

 

It was at one point big enough to require a school (there's a building that looks school like with the stone blocks announcing junior and infant entrances) but I think it's a newer build re-using stonework. There is a tin chapel and a community centre but a quick Wikipedia browse tells of the village being made up of terraces etc, being not too far from old trafford it's not too isolated in the middle of an industrial complex but I can imagine it feeling a bit like how Poplar is portrayed in 'Call the midwife'

[Arthur]

Ah, right, those houses were built by/for George Westinghouse who owned a large heavy electrical engineers in the US and was the first to open a factory in Trafford Park. The houses, school etc. were built to house his workers. When built, apart from the new works, they were relatively rural but, as the industrial estate built up around them, they became lost amongst heavy industry.

 

It was Westinghouse's US roots which gave rise to the naming of the grid of streets in the American fashion, first, second and third avenue etc. the works later became Metropolitan Vickers, then AEI and finally GEC. Known locally to some as 'the big house' it was for many years the estates biggest employer. Their main office building, on First Avenue, was a listed building so is probably still there.

 

Though the works hadn't been owned by Westinghouse since 1910 or so, even into the seventies, local busses serving the works still carried the name Westinghouse on their destination blinds.

 

In the fifties I think, may have been earlier, a turbine shaft on high speed rotational test broke up and bits weighing up to half a ton or so were flung several hundred yards around the park. The test house walls bore the scars till closure in the eighties.

 

 

A double track estates line ran down the middle of First Avenue, not on the road surface, there were two separate carriageways either side of the tracks.

[Black Sheep]

First avenue must have changed then, it's too narrow now to have done so,

 

However, one road to the east, has a double track (or space for) running next to the dual carriageway.

[Arthur]

I may have got the road wrong, it was probably the one you mention, I cannot recall what is was called but it was essentially the boundary between the Westinghouse works and the houses.

 

Edit: Just looked on Google Maps, wrong orientation, it's, not surprisingly, Westinghouse Road.

Edited April 27, 2013 by Arthur

[PhilJ W]

I have a book called 'Transport Treasures of Trafford Park'. Published in 1973 ISBN 0 903839 01 6. This is a photo album of Trafford Park from the late Victorian period until 1973. It was published to commemorate Transpo '73, a transport exhibition held in the docks as part of the Festival of Manchester. I would suggest seeking out a copy as it has many illustrations of activity's in the park.

[Jenny Emily]

I seem to recall 2000/2001 as a date for the last trains up to the Cerestar plant. For a few years afterwards a Thomas Hill shunter was dumped on the double track section on the road up to the plant. I presume it was the loco used to shunt trains in and out of the works? I have a photograph somewhere of it in around 2004. The line up to the Cerestar plant still exists in its entirety, with a section even relaid recently after a new development. There are also still lines linking to where the TDG cold store is, though these haven't been used in a long time as far as I can tell. The name Holden transport services rings a bell as the last company to deal with rail at this site.

 

There is also a link line down to a scrap yard down one of the adjacent roads, and this may have generated the scrap traffic in the 1990s. There used to be a line that headed straight across the park from a triangle with the line to Cerestar which then ran as double track adjacent to where MEN used to have its printworks. The connecting line was lifted sometime after 2004, and the double track section adjacent to the road was lifted in the last couple of years. Off this there is still a line that went to a chemical plant, though this doesn't look like it has received any traffic since at the latest the 1990s. There used to be an abandoned wagon on a set of sidings hidden away between the factories, but this I presume was cut up on site when the rails were lifted. The level crossing still exists across Mosely Road, but has no track either side of the road.

 

I vaguely remember other disused bits hidden away. On the opposite side of the road from the currently extant line to the container terminal by the Trafford centre there is/was lines hidden in the undergrowth. I haven't looked to see if they are still there. The level crossing heading out from by the Kellogs plant existed IIRC in 2004, but has since been removed. I think that you can/could see where it was by a strip of newer tarmac heading across that road junction. The line to the container terminal still crosses here. I also remember in around 2000/2001 rail lines that ran down one other road by where Business Post at the time had a depot. I have not been able to locate where this was, as it is a long time since I had cause to go to that company there.

[Coach bogie]

The Trafford Park line to Corn Products was still using Steam in the late 1970's

 

Shots taken at Corn Products at the end of Trafford Park Road.

 

Note the 'Hornby' Sentinals that had brought the wagons in.

 

Mike Wiltshire

Edited May 3, 2013 by Coach bogie

[newbryford]

I was in The Works at The Lowry shopping centre the other day (forced there against my will - honest) and there was a book about the Trafford Park estate and the development of it. I only had a couple of minutes perusal, but there were maps of the system as it grew.

 

A quick google reveals "Trafford Park, the first hundred years"

 

Cheers,

Mick

[cromptonnut]

There's a few Youtube videos that may be of help.

 

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=trafford+park+rail&oq=trafford+park+rail&gs_l=youtube.3..0.2156.2723.0.2982.5.2.0.3.3.0.106.186.1j1.2.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.7iZSgyDvN9E

[Coach bogie]

A few more pics from the late 1980's

 

Mike Wiltshire

[bennyboy]

I was looking at the Trafford Park area yesterday using Streetview and it looks like the track in the Containerbase facility has been lifted, so that means there's no hope of any rail services returning to the area. Even the track that ran along Ashburton Road West has finally been lifted and and about 50% of the track alongside Trafford Park has now gone. It can't be that long until only the embedded rails in the road crossings will give any clue of the rail network that used to exist here.

[Jenny Emily]

Is the containerbase closing? The track on the other side of Park way appears to still be there, so it just appears to be the track on the inside of the containerbase. Streetview still shows a lot of containers at the site - July 2014 is the date on the images so has anyone been and looked more recently?

[SHMD]

The Container base is very busy and would like to expand but can't due to the lack of 'paths' through Oxford Rd/Piccadilly.

 

Most of Trafford park's old network is buried or cut off by later building.

What remains is rotten and dis-jointed.

 

Some routes are still navigable (if the lines were renewed) but why would you want to? The tight curves prohibit long wheelbase vehicles which are on the railways today.

 

 

Kev.

[bennyboy]

Is the containerbase closing? The track on the other side of Park way appears to still be there, so it just appears to be the track on the inside of the containerbase. Streetview still shows a lot of containers at the site - July 2014 is the date on the images so has anyone been and looked more recently?

 

It still seems to be open, but I did read somewhere that the service that used to go to Containerbase still runs, but apparently it unloads at the nearby Euroterminal instead.