A day at Todmorden

[Claude_Dreyfus]

This weekend Mrs Dreyfus and I ventured north. When up there, I had a few hours to kill in Todmorden. As this is the first time in 20 years I have been to the town, and in view of the various changes taking place over the next couple of years, I found a couple of suitable locations, and took some photos.

 

First up was a nice and quiet footbridge a little to the west of the station.

 

150203 approaches with the 2E07 10:38 Manchester Oxford Road to Bradford Interchange.

 

158903 on an east-bound service. I am not 100% certain of the working, but suspect it is the 2E45 11:17 Manchester Victoria - Bradford Interchange.

 

158742 on the 2U26 10:26 Leeds - Manchester Victoria

 

156428 with the 2F81 11:20 Blackburn - Wigan Wallgate

 

150223 with the 2U25 11:26 Manchester Victoria - Leeds

 

185108 with the 1F85 09:50 Scarborough - Manchester Victoria

 

150139 with the 2M08 11:43 Bradford Interchange - Manchester Victoria. A passing 185 disappears east on its way to Newcastle

 

142007 on what I believe is the 2U28 11:26 Leeds - Manchester Victoria

 

Moving into town, a class 150 crosses the viaduct. Not 100% certain of the unit, but it is likely to be 150115 on a Blackburn - Kirkby service

 

Afterwards I wandered west, and spent a couple of hours sitting on the hillside watching trains passing across the two bridges over the Rochdale canal.

 

A pair of pacers head west.

 

An unidentified 158 heads east

 

A pair of 185s on a Trans-Pennine service; this time next year this may well be in the hands of class 68s.

 

Back to the footbridge towards the end of the day for a couple of final snaps.

 

 

Okay, so they are all units, but for me (with my usual diet of class 377s, 455 and 700s), it makes a nice variety.

Edited April 23, 2018 by Claude_Dreyfus

[Iron Horse]

Nice collection of pictures there, thanks for sharing 

[beast66606]

Nice photos - thanks.

 

The "pair of sprinters" should be a "pair of pacers"

[roundhouse]

There are a number of ex FGW class 150s around there at the moment. You can clearly see where the branding has been removed.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Nice photos - thanks.

 

The "pair of sprinters" should be a "pair of pacers"

Oops. Duly amended...

[black and decker boy]

The bridge and viaduct to the west are Gauxholme Viaduct, once created as a model by Rochdale Model Railway Group (and still in existence in south Manchester).

 

Nice Pics. If you go on a weekday you get quite alot of freight again now, Drax biomass, Coal to Fiddlers ferry, Binliners to \ From Knowsley, Biffa waste \ spoil from Collyhurst and aggregates from Arcow quarry plus the bitumen to Preston.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

There was a single freight train timetabled on Saturday, however it was cancelled, so no joy there. I suspect there may be an additional trip there later in the year, which may be on a week day, so I could go freight hunting in the future.

[beast66606]

There was a single freight train timetabled on Saturday, however it was cancelled, so no joy there. I suspect there may be an additional trip there later in the year, which may be on a week day, so I could go freight hunting in the future.

 

 

A ballast passed through on Sunday

[4630]

Nice set of images there.

 

You picked a good weekend to visit as the Calder Valley line was busier than usual. The Standedge route via Huddersfield to Manchester Piccadilly was closed for engineering work at Marsden, resulting in class 185 TransPennine Express services being diverted along the Calder Valley. Plus the Sunday bonus of a freight as Beast66606 mentions above - GBRf 66755.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

That's interesting. I did see that the traffic on the route was particularly heavy...there was no more than a 15 minute gap between services; in some cases the gap was as little as 5 minutes. I only spent the Saturday there...Sunday was over the border in Lancashire and then back south.

[4630]

I was taking photos on Saturday and Sunday a few miles further east of you around Brighouse and I imagine the Calder Valley was pretty much at capacity during day light hours. Certainly the signallers at Hebden Bridge and Milner Royd Junction ‘boxes will have had particularly busy shifts over the weekend.

 

Both boxes are due to close in October, together with those at Halifax and Mill Lane Bradford, as part of the Calder Valley re-control project that sees responsibility move to York ROC.

Edited April 23, 2018 by 4630

[LBRJ]

Thanks for posting the pictures _ Its looking very nice in the spring sunshine