Man United FC Station

[61653 HTAFC]

The Manchester United Football Ground station is (was) alongside the South Side stand at Old Trafford, which is pitchside, so it's not at one "end" or the other as such.

Wasn't sure of the exact orientation (obviously) but the area where the access to and from the station is, was mostly populated by the other team's fans. Huddersfield fans on that day caused enough trouble fighting among themselves so I wouldn't want to go wading into where the Posh lot were!

 

[D7666]

Oops! A Lancashire Day Ranger isn't valid via Warrington Central either. Reckon we're drifting off topic though. Certainly be interesting to know what the service provision to/from Manchester United Football Ground station was, if any, on Saturday 28th October 2017.

But a Cheshire day ranger would be; is that a possible confusion source ?

Anyway, back to topic, I thought I had the date of the last muf working amid my notes but I have yet to find it. I am sure it was posted at the time on a now demised io group, and it was a 323 (or different 323s on the same date).

 

[Mcr Warrior]

A bit of a difference to 1949. A newspaper article in the Manchester Evening News of 26 August reports

for the first time in 10 years the railway station at the Old Trafford ground will be opened tomorrow to ease rush traffic for the Manchester United v West Bromwich Albion game

Steam trains booked to leave Manchester Central at 1.45, 1.55, 2.05, 2.15, 2.25, 2.33 and 2.40.

First Saturday home league match that Old Trafford had staged (for the Manchester United first team that is) since the ground had incurred significant bomb damage during WW2. Slightly surprised though that there hadn't been any service provision to the halt next to the ground for the prior Wednesday evening's home league fixture vs Bolton.

 

[Par]

Image below taken from the official match-day programme for the United v Aston Villa game played on Wednesday September 13th 1950, carrying a BR advertisement for (amongst others) the Saturday service pattern for special services between Manchester Central and the football ground halt.

Services departing pre-match from 1.22 and then at regular intervals up to 2.40
Services departing post-match from 4.35 and then at regular intervals up to 5.06

Third class fares 6d return and 3d single.

Also advertising augmented regular services from London Road, Oxford Road and Knott Mill to Warwick Road.

Return fares for those services 7d (London Rd) and 6d Oxford Road and Knott Mill. Single fares 4d and 3d respectively (third class).

 

[Whisky Papa]

...
A quick look at the planned platforms for the 09:34 Crewe to Manchester United Football Ground, suggests it was booked to use:
Crewe - platform 1
Manchester Airport - platform 2A
Piccadilly - platform 14
Oxford Road - the lesser used platform 1

Platform 1 at Oxford Road used to be the preferred platform for ticketing reasons. A special add-on ticket 'should' have been purchased for travel to the ground and I believe was checked by staff on the footbridge, but how this was enforced on those through journeys rather than dedicated shuttles I really don't know.

I sat next to the person responsible for diagramming these trains during my time in Northern's service planning office in 2007/8, but never got involved directly myself. Through workings were required for evening midweek matches, utilising units and crews that would normally have come to the end of the day's work - there were simply not the spare units to run anything extra until this point in the day. At weekends there were sufficient spares to diagram units just for this work. They were always virtually the last trains to be diagrammed, not helped by the weekend fixtures being altered relatively late to suit the tv companies.

 

[DarloRich]

I have only used this station a couple of times ( Darlo haven't played Manchester United for a few years ) but I am sure I had both diesel, perhaps a 156 and electric units.

 

[Par]

Quoting from post #35 above.

“At weekends there were sufficient spares to diagram units just for this work.”

From the image shared in my post above (#34) it seems that in weekday provision was even a problem in 1950, given that the advertisement mentions “Saturdays only”.

 

[Trackman]

I have only used this station a couple of times ( Darlo haven't played Manchester United for a few years ) but I am sure I had both diesel, perhaps a 156 and electric units.

I've been once, it was a 323, well over 10 years ago, first time I had been on a Northern 323 as well.

 

[EZJ]

Back in my Northern days I believe I worked one of the last specials to Old Trafford, it was for the Super League Grand Final in 2017, think it was October or early November?? It was a 3 car 323 that worked off Longsight, through Piccadilly, Oxford Road then to the stadium, think it was 3 times in each direction then back to Longsight.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Back in my Northern days I believe I worked one of the last specials to Old Trafford, it was for the Super League Grand Final in 2017, think it was October or early November??

Would have been Saturday 7th October 2017, so not that long before the station ceased to be served on match days. Evening kick off at 6.00 p.m. for this RL fixture.