ICI Blackley, Manchester.

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Are there any publications still available in which the railway connection will be mentioned?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

There's a very brief mention (and track diagram) of the one-time branch line from Abraham Moss to Blackley Dye Works (ICI) in the "Liverpool & Manchester Railway Atlas" by Joe Brown (2021 book - Crécy Publishing).

 

[Ash Bridge]

Also there is a page or so devoted to this location in “Manchester In The Days Of Steam” (Part One) by Paul Shackcloth.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

This OS map from the mid 1960s gives an idea of the track layout at the top end of the branch. It's the mid far left of the map, by the '02' grid line.

View map: Ordnance Survey, SD80SE - B - Ordnance Survey National Grid Maps, 1940s-1970s

maps.nls.uk

And this adjoining map (far right side, near to the words 'LOWER CRUMPSALL') shows where the branch line left the main line to Bury, near to Woodlands Road Halt...

View map: Ordnance Survey, SD80SW - B - Ordnance Survey National Grid Maps, 1940s-1970s

maps.nls.uk

The connection to the main line is, however, no longer showing as extant in a 1986 era A-Z of Manchester.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

This OS map from the mid 1960s gives an idea of the track layout at the top end of the branch. It's the mid far left of the map, by the '02' grid line.

View map: Ordnance Survey, SD80SE - B - Ordnance Survey National Grid Maps, 1940s-1970s

maps.nls.uk

And this adjoining map (far right side, near to the words 'LOWER CRUMPSALL') shows where the branch line left the main line to Bury, near to Woodlands Road Halt...

View map: Ordnance Survey, SD80SW - B - Ordnance Survey National Grid Maps, 1940s-1970s

maps.nls.uk

The connection to the main line is, however, no longer showing as extant in a 1986 era A-Z of Manchester.

Many thanks for the time that you have taken to provide the above map information.

In my archives, I have a Geographers Manchester A to Z, not sure of the publication date but the front cover has price of six shillings, and on page 40, the line is entered and described as a mineral railway.

 

[Springs Branch]

The Class 504 Preservation Society website has this low-resolution image of the exchange sidings, dated around 1970.

Copyright Dr Neil Clifton and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence

Also, I suspect the image link below from the Harvey Scowcroft collection on Flickr was taken from the trackbed of the connection to the ICI branch

5 Woodlands road 1

Explore Nigel Valentine's 15564 photos on Flickr!

flic.kr

(image shows steam-hauled goods train in wintry conditions passing vicinity of Woodlands Rd station)

The second is maybe a bit tangential to the OP question - but a good excuse to show steam-hauled freight using the Manchester - Bury electric line, which I suspect was a bit of a rarity by the mid-1960s.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Believe there's a Hawthorn Leslie built loco from 1919 still in existence that once regularly worked the Blackley dyeworks branch line and is now owned by the Epping Ongar Railway and still sees occasional use. More here...

Hawthorn Leslie No. 3437

www.eorailway.co.uk

Extract...

Hawthorn Leslie-built saddle tank 0-6-0 locomotive 'Isabel' was our first steam locomotive purchase. Built in 1919 to an order (number 3437) from ICI foodstuffs she was delivered new to their Blackley (Manchester) dye plant that year. Isabel was to spend the whole of her working life at the plant and withdrawal from service finally came in 1969.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There's a very brief mention (and track diagram) of the one-time branch line from Abraham Moss to Blackley Dye Works (ICI) in the "Liverpool & Manchester Railway Atlas" by Joe Brown (2021 book - Crécy Publishing).

Managed to get a copy over the weekend. It is very well detailed. Page 89 is the page in question.

 

[Springs Branch]

There's a video at . . .

. . . which has a section around 1'45" in mentioning BR trains and industrial locos at the ICI exchange sidings.


Presumably the ICI Blackley dye works was a significant contributor, back in the day, to the "interesting" colour of the River Irk when the waterway arrived at the culvert beneath Manchester Victoria station.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Presumably the ICI Blackley dye works was a significant contributor, back in the day, to the "interesting" colour of the River Irk when the waterway arrived at the culvert beneath Manchester Victoria station.

Believe the former ICI dyeworks site was (perhaps unsurprisingly) found to be heavily contaminated when it was being redeveloped in more recent years. Believe it necessitated the excavation, segregation and safe disposal of some 140,000 tonnes of contaminated soil.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I am sure that I once saw photographic images, taken at street level, of bridges over surrounding streets that the railway to the works would have used, but that would have been very many years ago and I cannot recall the item in which these were published. Did ICI ever publish any of these in a works magazine?

I have made contact with a committee member of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Society, as the line in question branched off from the LYR Manchester to Bury line, but was told that the society had never published any articles on the line in question.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

There's a video at . . .

. . . which has a section around 1'45" in mentioning BR trains and industrial locos at the ICI exchange sidings.

Was the branch line loco seen in the video clip (= "The Lady Armaghdale"?) the same type/specification as "Isabel" which was referenced upthread in post #7 or a similarly named replacement for one that'd been retired?

 

[Springs Branch]

Was the branch line loco seen in the video clip (= "The Lady Armaghdale"?) the same type/specification as "Isabel" which was referenced upthread in post #7 or a similarly named replacement for one that'd been retired?

I'm wondering whether the ICI Blackley branch managed to slip into the Runpast Publishing book The Industrial Railways of Bolton, Bury and the Manchester Coalfield - Part 2 by C.H.A. Townley et al.?

I don't have this volume, so cannot check myself, but if anyone has a copy on their bookshelf, it may be worth a quick squiz. The book's description says . . .

Part 2 of this definitive work on the industrial railways of this area of Lancashire covers the colliery railways that served the Manchester coalfields as well as the private lines that served gas works, electric works and chemical works (mostly in and around Salford). . . . . With locomotive rosters and list of rolling stock. 252 pages with indexes for both Part 1 and Part 2. Invaluable reference work for anyone interested in industrial railways or industrial archaeology.

I know Blackley is not in Salford and ICI was not a colliery - but similar works by the same authors covering the Wigan Coalfield are quite loose in their geographical boundaries; they included detailed information about private industrial railways well beyond the boundaries of Wigan.

I'd guess there's less than an evens chance of any mention in Townley, and that series of books tend to be difficult and expensive to acquire. But if there is something, it's likely to be a thorough and definitive account and include the locomotives used.

 

[Springs Branch]

I am sure that I once saw photographic images, taken at street level, of bridges over surrounding streets that the railway to the works would have used, but that would have been very many years ago and I cannot recall the item in which these were published.

The Manchester Local Image Collection has a number of online archive photos taken during the demolition of some significant bridges which carried the Blackley branch through Lower Crumpsall. Some examples are: -

here

here

and here.

-------------

Was the branch line loco seen in the video clip (= "The Lady Armaghdale"?) the same type/specification as "Isabel" which was referenced upthread in post #7 or a similarly named replacement for one that'd been retired?

The short answer is the loco in the video is the replacement for the first Lady Armaghdale.

The long answer goes as follows:-

• 1919-vintage Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0ST "Isabel" was delivered new to ICI. Her history is summarised here:
  
  

  Hawthorn Leslie Works No 3437 Isabel 0-6-0ST

  This locomotive was built by Hawthorn Leslie in 1919 for Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) foodstuffs she was delivered new to their Blackley (Manchester) dye plant that year. It was given the nam…

  preservedbritishsteamlocomotives.com
  
  
• The first "The Lady Armaghdale" was another Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0ST, built in 1920 also for ICI and withdrawn after a runaway accident at Blackley around 1963.
  Image #12 at this site shows that loco at work there in 1953:
  
  

  IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES LTD. - Paul Johnson

  Blackley - THE LADY ARMAGHDALE - 0-6-0ST - built 1920 by Hawthorn Leslie & Co., Works No.3455 - 1962 withdrawn with damage - seen here in May 1953.

  transportsofdelight.smugmug.com
  
  
• The second / replacement "The Lady Armaghdale" - and the one seen in the video - was a Hunslet 0-6-0T built in 1898 for the Manchester Ship Canal Company's railway and had originally carried the name "St John" after Port Saint John in New Brunswick, Canada. This loco was withdrawn by the MSC in 1962, then sold to ICI in 1963 where it was re-named and replaced the first Lady Armaghdale in preference to repairing the damaged Saddle Tank. It's now in preservation.
  
  

  Hunslet Works No 686 MSC 14 The Lady Armaghdale 0-6-0T

  This locomotive was built in 1898 by Hunslet Engine Company. It was the second of ten such locomotives ordered by the Manchester Ship Canal (MSC). It carried the name St John after Port Saint John …

  preservedbritishsteamlocomotives.com

Another photo (with an unfortunately mis-spelled caption) of the second (Hunslet) Lady Armaghdale at work at Blackley in March 1968 is here:

75 The Lady Armadidale

Works numberHunslet 656 built in 1898 , originally manchester ship canal 14 up to 1962 seen here at ICI Blackley 160368

flic.kr