| These are pictures of the closed railway from Gorton to Throstle Nest Junction known as the 'Fallowfield Loop'. The lines main purpose was to provide the Manchester,Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (which later became the Grand Central) with a connection to Manchester Central station. It was built in 1891 and closed in 1988, although it had lost passenger services as long ago as 1958.
In the 1950's a Electric Locomotive Depot was built at Reddish to service the EM1 & EM2 (later Class 76 & 77) locomotives for the newly 1500V DC electrified Woodhead line. As a result the line was electrified from Gorton/Fairfield to the depot. The line was partially singled in the late 70's and was mostly used for access to Reddish Depot and Freighliner trains to Trafford Park. Reddish Depot closed in 1983 and the final train ran in October 1988. The line was then slowly dismantled a few years later which is when I took most of the pictures. Since then Reddish Depot has been flattened and sections of the line have built upon or converted to a cyclepath, so hopefully this site will provide a record of how it used to be. If you want to see pictures of the route in it's heyday may I recommend this book - "The Fallowfield Line" by E.M.Johnson (Foxfield Publishing). Also you can visit George Nixon's site about Levenshulme in the 50's http://www3.telus.net/public/nixonkg/index.htm For some pictures of how part of the route is today you can visit this site http://www.thewoodheadsite.org.uk/ N.B. If you can work out the exact location of some of the unlabelled pictures could you please email me! montyburns56(at)yahoo.co.uk |
This is behind the platform at the closed Fallowfield station, where the goods loop used to run. When I visited the station in the late eighties there was a coal merchant on the site of the goods yard complete with old fashioned coal staithes and I've often wondered if it was still rail served when the line was open. Buy Print |
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A shot of Fallowfield station taken from between the main platforms Buy Print |
A long view of Fallowfield station taken from the ends of what remains of the platforms. To the left there used to be the goods loop with a small goods yard which was still in private use until the early 1980's. Today the site looks very different as it is occupied by a car park for a Sainsbury's supermarket which retained part of the station building. Buy Print |
Fallowfield station as viewed from under Ladyburn Lane. Buy Print |
A view looking back at Ladybarn Lane bridge. Buy Print |
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It is a little known fact that the line not only had overhead electrification, but had 3rd rail as well :-) Joking aside the line curved sharply after the junction from Gorton requiring the use of a check rail for some distance. Buy Print |
Hey Lane Bridge. Buy Print |
This section of the line was in a cutting which has now been completely filled in! Buy Print |
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