Hyde Road | |
---|---|
General information | |
Location | Gorton, Manchester England |
Coordinates | 53°27′34″N2°9′51″W / 53.45944°N 2.16417°W |
Grid reference | SJ892959 |
Platforms | 4 |
Other information | |
Status | Disused |
History | |
Original company | Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway |
Pre-grouping | Great Central Railway |
Post-grouping | London and North Eastern Railway |
Key dates | |
2 May 1892 | Station opened |
7 July 1958 | Station closed |
Hyde Road was a railway station in Gorton, Manchester, England, on the Fallowfield Loop Line. It opened in 1892 and closed in 1958, when local passenger services on the line were withdrawn. [1] [2] The station was sometimes advertised as Hyde Road for Belle Vue, given its close proximity to Belle Vue Zoo which was about one mile away. [2] The line was closed completely in 1988 and the track was taken up. The station has long since been demolished and the site was partly redeveloped. The former trackbed is now a popular shared use path called the Fallowfield Loop.
The station was named after Hyde Road, which begins at the east end of Ardwick Green South in Ardwick and runs east towards Hyde. At the boundary between Gorton and Denton, it continues as Manchester Road. [3]
The initial section of the Fallowfield Loop line was opened by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (Cheshire Lines Committee) between Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Fallowfield on 1 October 1891. The following year, the remaining section between Fallowfield and Fairfield, including Hyde Road station, opened on 2 May 1892. [4] [5] The line provided a new route for the MS&LR to run trains from Sheffield into Manchester; local stopping services ran from Fairfield and Gorton on the Hope Valley line to Manchester Central via Hyde Road, Fallowfield and Chorlton-cum-Hardy before joining a section of line from Old Trafford to Manchester Central. [6] [7] [8]
Hyde Road station comprised a set of brick buildings on an embankment on the north side of Hyde Road. The northbound platforms were mostly wooden structures. The Great Central Railway built two bay platforms at Hyde Road to accommodate excursion trains to Belle Vue Zoo, which were in use until at least 1914 but were eventually taken out of use. The station had a large goods yard on its east side, consisting of four sidings and a five-ton crane, controlled by a signalbox on the northbound platform, and a second box controlling the north junction to Gorton. These were later replaced by a single new box on the west side of the line. [8]
In 1897, the MSLR became the Great Central Railway and, in 1923, the line was absorbed into the LNER. Over this period, the Fallowfield Loop line suffered from competition from faster rail services into Manchester provided by the LNER, from Belle Vue or Gorton and Openshaw, and later further competition arrived in the form of the Manchester Corporation Tramways. By the 1930s, the LNER had greatly reduced the stopping services and mostly used the line for express trains.
After 1948, the line was under the ownership of the nationalised British Railways. Briefly, consideration was given to electrification of the line; however, the local stopping services were withdrawn instead and Hyde Road station closed to passenger services on 7 July 1958. Hyde Road goods yard remained in active use as a depot for local coal merchants. Express passenger services out of Manchester Central continued to use the line, until that terminus was closed in 1969 during the implementation of the Beeching cuts. For another two decades, the line was used by freight trains until the line closed completely in 1988. [9]
Shortly before its demise, in 1987, the Fallowfield Loop line played an important role in the early development of the Manchester Metrolink system, when the stretch of track at Debdale Park on the site of the former Hyde Road railway station was used for a public demonstration of Project Light Rail. This was the working title for the development of a new light rail tram network in Manchester. The event made use of a Docklands Light Railway train, DLR P86 no. 11, on loan from GEC Transportation Projects, prior to its introduction onto the fledgling Docklands system in London; it was the first ever light rail vehicle seen in operation in Manchester. The event was staged jointly by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, British Rail, British Rail Engineering Limited, GEC, Balfour Beatty and Fairclough Civil Engineering; it was opened formally by David Mitchell MP, Minister of State for Transport, on 10 March 1987. [4] [10]
Demonstrations were held on 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22 March 1987 at a specially-constructed railway station at Debdale Park. Ticket holders were treated to a short ride on the DLR vehicle along a 1-mile (1.6 km) stretch of track, from just north of the Hyde Road junction to just south of the closed Reddish Electric Depot. The DLR train was specially fitted with a pantograph and powered by overhead line; it was driven manually rather than in automatic mode, which was to be normal practice when in operation on the Docklands system. The test track was closed to normal heavy rail traffic on demonstration days and, at night, the DLR train was stationed in a siding and the line was re-opened to freight trains. An exhibition also exhibited examples of street track, overhead line and platform facilities. [4] [10]
After the public event, Debdale Park station was dismantled and the timber platform was used to build the new Hag Fold railway station near Wigan; the electric overhead line equipment was taken down and re-used at the Heaton Park Tramway on the lakeside extension. The demonstration train DLR no. 11 was transported to London, where it was put into operation on the Docklands Light Railway. It served as the Royal Train, transporting the Queen and Prince Philip on the formal opening of the DLR. In 1991, DLR no. 11 was the first of the P86 fleet to be sold to the City of Essen, Germany, where it is in service today on the EVAG Stadtbahn. [11]
Following closure in 1988, the Fallowfield Loop railway line tracks were lifted; the route became derelict and overgrown for several years. Around 2001, a new use was found for the line and the old trackbed was converted into a public shared use path. Today, the Fallowfield Loop path is operated by Sustrans; it runs from Fairfield to Chorlton and forms part of Routes 6 and 60 of the National Cycle Network. [12] [13]
The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated light metro system primarily serving the redeveloped Docklands area of London and providing a direct connection between London's two major financial districts, Canary Wharf and the City of London. First opened on 31 August 1987, the DLR has been extended multiple times, giving a total route length of 38 km. Lines now reach north to Stratford, south to Lewisham, west to Tower Gateway and Bank in the City of London financial district, and east to Beckton, London City Airport and Woolwich Arsenal. Further extensions are being considered.
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Fallowfield is a suburb of Manchester, England, with a population at the 2011 census of 15,211. Historically in Lancashire, it lies 3 miles (5 km) south of Manchester city centre and is bisected east–west by Wilbraham Road and north–south by Wilmslow Road. The former Fallowfield Loop railway line, now a shared use path, follows a route nearly parallel with the east–west main road.
Gorton is an area of Manchester in Greater Manchester, North West England. It is to the southeast of Manchester city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw.
Ashburys railway station is in Openshaw, Manchester, England, on the Manchester-Glossop Line at its junction with the Hope Valley line and the freight line to Phillips Park Junction. It has been open since 1855 and is the nearest railway station to the City of Manchester Stadium.
Fairfield railway station serves the Fairfield area of Droylsden, Tameside, Greater Manchester and is located 3.1 miles (5 km) east of Manchester Piccadilly station. It was opened by the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway in 1892, when the Fallowfield Loop to Manchester Central opened; it replaced an earlier station that had opened on the line in 1841, west of the present site. For a suburban station, Fairfield has very low passenger usage.
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Docklands Light Railway rolling stock is the passenger trains and service vehicles used on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), which serves the London Docklands area in the east of London.
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Fallowfield railway station is a disused station that is located on Wilmslow Road in Fallowfield, a southern suburb of Manchester, England. It was on the Fallowfield Loop railway line, a suburban railway which looped around the south of the city and terminated at the former Manchester Central railway station. The station closed to passengers in 1958, but its building still stands on the corner of Wilmslow Road and Ladybarn Road.
The Fallowfield Loop railway line was a local railway route in south Manchester, England. Trains on the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) line from Sheffield Victoria and Guide Bridge used the Loop to access Manchester Central railway station. Some express trains, including the Harwich-Sheffield-Manchester-Liverpool boat train, used the line.
Wilbraham Road railway station was in Whalley Range, Manchester, England, on the Fallowfield Loop line between Manchester Central and Fairfield, via Chorlton. Opened as Alexandra Park in 1892 by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, it was near the junction of Alexandra Road South and Mauldeth Road West, close to Alexandra Park, and served the expanding residential suburb of Whalley Range. The railway line has since been converted into a shared use path.
St Werburgh's Road is a tram stop on the South Manchester Line (SML) and Airport Line of Greater Manchester's light-rail Metrolink system in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. It was built as part of Phase 3a of the network's expansion and opened on 7 July 2011.
Debdale Park is an inner-city park, located in the Gorton area of Manchester, England. At around 45 acres (18 ha), it is one of the largest inner-city parks in the City of Manchester.
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The history of Manchester Metrolink begins with its conception as Greater Manchester's light rail system in 1982 by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, and spans its inauguration in 1992 and the successive phases of expansion.
The Fallowfield Loop is an off-road cycle path, pedestrian and horse riding route in the south of Manchester, England, which is one of the National Cycle Network routes and paths; it was developed and built by Sustrans, forming part of routes 6 and 60.
The South Manchester Line (SML) is a tram line of the Manchester Metrolink in Greater Manchester running from Manchester city centre to Didsbury. The line was opened as far as St. Werburgh's Road in 2011 and then to East Didsbury in 2013 as part of phase three of the system's expansion, and runs entirely along a former railway trackbed.
Fallowfield Loop Line | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Key | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
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Levenshulme South Line and station closed | LNER Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Fallowfield Loop | Gorton Line closed, station open | ||
Fairfield Line closed, station open |