Olympic freight terminal near ardwick.

[plugwash]

There used to be a place called olympic freight terminal, in the V formed where the line from Picadilly towards guide bridge, splits off from the line towards stockport, near ardwick station. I would see it every day as I went past on the train into Manchester. It has recently been demolished, I notice it is close to HS2, but I don't know if the two are related (HS2 is in a tunnel in that area).

Strangely despite being a container freight yard right next to a railway, I didn't notice any evidence of rail access. Was there a connection that I just missed? did it have a connection in the dim and distance past but not in the recent past? or was the location next to the railway just a coincidence?

 

[high camera]

I remember that yard, don’t think it was rail connected as it was much lower than the adjacent line. It looked more like a container storage yard with an attached scrap yard swimming in mud and guarded by alsations.

The nearest container yard was opposite Longsight depot where the Eurostar shed was built

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Strangely despite being a container freight yard right next to a railway, I didn't notice any evidence of rail access. Was there a connection that I just missed? did it have a connection in the dim and distance past but not in the recent past? or was the location next to the railway just a coincidence?

Looking at 'RailMapOnline' there appears to have been access at one time but no idea how long ago.
What looks likely to be to be a headshunt (presumably on a fairly steep falling gradient) running parallel and immediately to the south of the line to Guide Bridge, then various sidings fanning back from that headshunt, several of which pass under the line towards Slade Lane just south of Ardwick Junction into the area of what is now the bus depot and some slightly to the north of that.

I can only ever recall it as a container storage site and when passing yesterday noticed it was being cleared. Is this to do with HS2? I've no idea, but potentially it might be a construction compound for that project.

 

[zwk500]

Looking at 'RailMapOnline' there appears to have been access at one time but no idea how long ago.
What looks likely to be to be a headshunt (presumably on a fairly steep falling gradient) running parallel and immediately to the south of the line to Guide Bridge, then various sidings fanning back from that headshunt, several of which pass under the line towards Slade Lane just south of Ardwick Junction into the area of what is now the bus depot and some slightly to the north of that.

I can only ever recall it as a container storage site and when passing yesterday noticed it was being cleared. Is this to do with HS2? I've no idea, but potentially it might be a construction compound for that project.

I suspect it's more likely to do with the various housing proposals that have been made: https://www.manchesterworld.uk/news/new-homes-plans-revealed-for-man-citys-old-stadium-3807096

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

The area was originally the p-way depot and yard for Manchester Corporation tramways - with access to the Hyde Road tramcars sheds under the viaduct of the Stockport line. There was a steeply graded line descending to the yard in the vee of the Stockport and Guide Bridge routes for delivering supplies which survived to the late 1970s. A lot of the tramcars were scrapped and burnt here when the system closed in 1949, and was then used as a sort of test area for the buses. It was then sold off, and then used for storing and scrapping of redundant containers.

You can see the layout on the 1935 25in OS Map

1935 OS

 

[pharrc20]

The NLS National Libraries of Scotland Side-by-Side map viewer shows a set of sidings in the vee, that if the mapping is right diverged off the main lines in the vee and dropped down. Named 'Bennetts Sidings' and linked under the main lines to a yard with a travelling crane in a goods and mineral yard

 

[high camera]

RAF survey photo from 1953

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Dec 2022 ==

That photo is off the Historic England aerial photo library

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Dec 2022 ==

Google maps still shows it as a container yard

 

[Springs Branch]

The NLS National Libraries of Scotland Side-by-Side map viewer shows a set of sidings in the vee, that if the mapping is right diverged off the main lines in the vee and dropped down. Named 'Bennetts Sidings' and linked under the main lines to a yard with a travelling crane in a goods and mineral yard

There's an image from 1968 (so a couple of years after Longsight Freightliner Terminal had opened), which shows a Class 40 with containers in a somewhat dilapidated Ardwick West Yard. Presumably this is the yard and travelling crane mentioned by @pharrc20.

http://www.sutherland.davenportstation.org.uk/aaprint/man.html#68-02

The photographer's caption reads: "04.10.68 Ardwick West yard. D377 to take Freightliner to Harwich to Piccadilly to reverse. 5 wagons (to join Liverpool portion at Crewe). 1BR, 3 private containers".
From J Wallace Sutherland collection. Low-resolution image reproduced with permission of Mrs Sutherland & hosted at Friends of Davenport Station website.


Some time ago, I was investigated what trains might have regularly used the connection between the MSJ&A platforms at London Road and the LNWR main line towards Ardwick Jn. in the days before re-construction (as Piccadilly 13/14), 25kV electrification and through running between Oxford Rd and the south.

A correspondent informed me that during the steam era, when some of the stations on the ex-MSJ&AR line still had small goods yards, the link was used by daily freight trips between the ex-LNWR Ardwick Goods Yard and the stations on the Altrincham line.

Maybe this was the yard referred to? Certainly, the yard's warehouse in the south-western corner facing Devonshire St. North (on the OS map attached to @Sir Felix Pole's post) looks like it was a substantial multi-storey brick construction. The warehouse is still standing and shown on Google Maps and Street View.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

There's an image from 1968 (so a couple of years after Longsight Freightliner Terminal had opened), which shows a Class 40 with containers in a somewhat dilapidated Ardwick West Yard. Presumably this is the yard and travelling crane mentioned by @pharrc20.

Ardwick West was on the opposite side of the Guide Bridge lines to the sidings referenced in this thread and remained in use into at least the late 1980's and is now partly covered by the extension to Ardwick Depot sidings - Ardwick East was at the Ashburys end of what is now Ardwick Depot.
Ardwick West was also well below track level and latterly accessed via Ashburys although RailMapOnline does show a historic connection from Piccadilly at Ardwick Junction which again must have been on a severe gradient.

 

[billh]

The yard the OP refers to was a coal yard "Beatties, Kobo sidings"(sp?) accessed via a very steep incline at Ardwick Junction, opposite the station. I have a copy of the LNER sectional appendix with reference to specific intructions to access the yard, limits on the number of wagons allowed in a train and max speeds. I can just remember coal stacks and wagons in the yard but never saw a train entering or leaving. The remains of the incline can still be seen. I am pretty sure there was no container traffic by rail ever handled there. I did buy a container from there about 30 years ago, it was delivered on a lorry!

 

[Springs Branch]

Ardwick West was on the opposite side of the Guide Bridge lines to the sidings referenced in this thread and remained in use into at least the late 1980's. . .

Ah yes . . . I see the 1935 OS map linked above shows those sidings, clearly labelled as "Ardwick West Goods Depot".

In fact, the next in the series of J.W. Sutherland's photos on the Davenport Station site is another 1968-vintage shot taken in the sidings at Ardwick West.
It shows an elderly ferry van wagon still lettered 'Hired to LNER' (a mere 20 years after the LNER ceased to exist). So that should have given me a clue as to which side of the tracks Ardwick West Yard was on

 

[MisterSheeps]

what trains might have regularly used the connection between the MSJ&A platforms at London Road and the LNWR main line towards Ardwick Jn

don't know if you came across it, but my David & Charles reprint of April 1910 Bradshaws Timetable shows various Oxford Road - Wilmslow services; also through worked coaches Euston 12:10pm, Stockport 3:50pm, London Road 4:00pm, Eccles 4:10pm, Bolton Great Moor Street 4:32pm, carriages detached (by the timing) at Stockport. The return working maybe via Victoria.

 

[Springs Branch]

don't know if you came across it, but my David & Charles reprint of April 1910 Bradshaws Timetable shows various Oxford Road - Wilmslow services; also through worked coaches Euston 12:10pm, Stockport 3:50pm, London Road 4:00pm, Eccles 4:10pm, Bolton Great Moor Street 4:32pm, via Eccles 11:3711:50, carriages detached (by the timing) at Stockport. The return working maybe via Victoria.

Thanks, I didn't know about that Bradshaws - did those Oxford Rd/Wilmslow services run via the new (at the time) Styal line?

Mentioning Bolton Great Moor St reminded me that one of the Lancashire Triangle books by Dennis Sweeney reproduced an early (April 1875) timetable for the LNWR's Bolton - Eccles - Manchester line.

The timetable showed morning and afternoon through carriages between Bolton Great Moor St and Euston, apparently attached and detached at Ordsall Lane station off trains to/from Manchester Victoria (Exchange not having been built at that time). The London portions had times shown for stops at Manchester London Road and based on journey times obviously went from Ordsall Lane via the South Junction line and the MSJ&A connection towards Ardwick.

 

[MisterSheeps]

The timetable

Re Bolton through coaches, see attached, the London bound train seemed to go via Victoria, 11:37 Eccles, 11:45 Victoria. Sorry about typo on Eccles in my post. Am not 100% convinced these were via the MSJ & A given no stops along it.

via the new (at the time) Styal line

yes, see attached, 'c' means the MSJ & A platform. Note also the 10:40pm from London Road not from the MSJ & A but via Styal.

 

[Taunton]

I walked around this land once around 1980, pretty rough cinders etc surface. It was then used as an extension to the main Manchester bus garage on the other side of the Stockport line viaduct, for storing old buses and for basic training of new drivers, I understand that previously it had been the permanent way yard of the city tramways, with deliveries of tram rails etc by railway, and until the 1920s much of it had been the Manchester City football ground before that moved elsewhere. There had also been a low level freight yard on the opposite side of the Stockport line, next to the bus garage, which was reached by a reverse shunt through this yard and then passing under the main line viaduct.

A moment's look around showed this Wikipedia page about the onetime football ground, which gives the complete history of the land, fortunately consistent with what I'd already written, plus it says the land originally belonged to the Great Central line's predecessors, the Guide Bridge line on the north side, who didn't seem to have tracks down to it.

Hyde Road (stadium) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[SJL2020]

until the 1920s much of it had been the Manchester City football ground before that moved elsewhere.

Hyde Road (stadium) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The stand in the top RH corner was known as the Lad's Stand. Rail tracks leading to the Galloway's Boiler Works lay between this stand and the pitch.

I've read reports telling of rail wagons being moved in front of the Lad's Stand during games but I've never found any photographic evidence that shows (i.e. proves) this happening.