peanuts

i hear thee F.A. have asked Duran Duran for help with there euro championship single "his name is Rio and he watches from the stands " LOL

i dont remember the derailment but i know do who caused it hes married to our sister ! can remember seeing the train tho you need either a flicker or photobucket account and you link them from there bro late afternoon between the "showers " supprised how much is left down there to be honest tho the warehouse is beggining to realy deteriorate now lots of slates blown off the roof etc . the engine shed further up is slowly being destroyed by the local vandals tho the coalstage/fuel point is still in pretty good nick

pretty much spot on kev the micklehurst loop was lifted around 1972-3 can remember the lifting trian coming past the bottom of my garden at uppermill the junction to millbrook went around 79 the siding in the center road was used when york mail used to split there on the way to stockport think that went around the time the attochem siding was installed talking of millbrook was down there yesterday looking at the warehouse the coal drops are still there complete with the mechanism to open bottom doors someone has excavated the steps down to the conveyor underneath sadly they have scavenged all the bits of conveyor from in there and are busy collecting any bits of scrap they can find to "way in"

know what you mean about the 40s used to be able to here them coming up the valley on the dewsnap - healy mills goods every evening deltics were fairly quiet in comparison didnt usualy here them untill they cleared greenfield station the 40s you could hear as far back as mossley .once watched a very late running dewsnap healeymills which was very heavily loaded come up the valley around 11pm and you could see flames coming out of the class 40 exhaust from the otherside of the valley it was being worked that hard glorious . 37s could give a good show but the ultimate was a class 25 hauling a failed peak and 8 bogies on a liverpool - york realy being worked hard think it was terminated at leeds was passing stalybridge today and noticed the goods loops have been completley dug out and theres a huge pile of earth near the tunnel entrance so there cracking on with the remodeling also theres an new LED banner repeater between mossley station and scout tunnel

had alook at the new signals today and they appear to be two lens searchlight 4 aspect signals ? odd as the rest of the signals on the route are 3 aspect ?????? are they all going to be changed to four aspect ? anybody got a diagramme for the new layout yet ?

as i said theres space for a loop between moorgate crossing and saddleworth viaduct where the formation of the Delph branch ran along side the mainlines or heres a radical thought run through stalybridge no2 tunnel then curve around on a new embankment to reconect near printworks road bridge ? tunnels in good condition http://www.nwex.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6918&highlight=stalybridge

room for a loop between moorgate and the viaduct maybe room around heyrod but other than the tunnels cant see where capacity could be increased ? lots of room at diggle for a station island platform under either ward lane or sam road bridges just on the slow lines with the 184 turning there good conections for locals + room for a sizable car park make diggle THE station for the whole of saddleworth ot just another bloody halt

oh come on gordon theres the whole of the viaduct from carr lane to friezland thats near enough half a mile to rienstate plus the tunnels at royalgeorge and ryfields then you have all the problems in the micklehurst - millbrook area something like half a mile of bridges and viaducts to again reinstate plus cant see laings giving up the land around millbrook goods shed cheap .would make abetter route tho gentler curves higher = line speed

as an aside to all this whilst i was signaller at greenfield in the early 90s had a visit from a team from gmpte who were investigating the possibilty of reopaning the micklehurst loop .they were doing a an onthe ground visit and enquired as to where the line ran ?. i pointed out that it ran across the floor of the valley on a now demolished viaduct thats now a cyclepath also theres a swimming pool and sports centre at uppermill plus a factory at mossley blocking the route plus two of the tunnels had been filled in and the viaducts at millbrook and stalybrige had also been demolished ! at this point the leader of the group decided they had better head back to manchester and forget it for those of you interested in buildings the goods shed at millbrook along with the engine shed and coaling stage may not have much longer left as the plans to build a park and housing have been published with a planning application submitted.

used to be very common used to sit up and listen for it heading to stalybridge if it had a deltic would phone the signalman at diggle for the number next morning on the way to school also got to see them regulaly whilst a box lad at heaton norris working the york mails from stockport after a traction change .my first encounter was on my first days train spotting when my brother dragged me to york for a days number snatching in 77 .best day was coming back from york to manchester with meld on the front had briefly chatted with the driver at york told us to look out at huddersfield whereupon he invited us to cabride from there to stalybridge extacy !got a pic somwhere of koyli on her last service trip over the penines the thursday before the last day at stalybridge (that weekend railtour engine always did a york -liverpool - york run on the thursday before )think im gonna have to digging for those pics aswell .many an english lesson would be interupted by all the train spotters trying to sureptisiosly crane there necks to see the return working on saddleworth viaduct with out mr cheshire catching us lol