Glazebrook & Partington Ellesmere RJD 138

Glazebrook East Junction–Skelton Junction line was a railway line from

Glazebrook Rixton-with-Glazebrook is a civil parish in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England. Historically part of Lancashire, it lies to the east of Warrington and borders Cadishead, and is largely farmland. It has a railway station at Glazebrook ...

Skelton Junction Skelton Junction is a complex of railway junctions to the south of Manchester in Timperley, near Altrincham. Both the Cheshire Lines Committee's Liverpool to Manchester line, via the Glazebrook East Junction to Skelton Junction Line and the LN ...

in Greater Manchester.

History

The Glazebrook East Junction to Skelton Junction line was part of

Cheshire Lines Committee The Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) was formed in the 1860s and became the second-largest joint railway in Great Britain. The committee, which was often styled the Cheshire Lines Railway, operated of track in the then counties of Lancashire an ...

(CLC) as a branch line of their main

Liverpool–Manchester lines There once were four direct railway routes between Liverpool and Manchester in the North West of England; only two remain, the two centre routes of the four. The most northerly and the most southerly of the four routes are no longer direct li ...

. The line carried on through Skelton Junction and terminated at

Stockport Tiviot Dale Stockport Tiviot Dale was one of two main railway stations serving the town of Stockport, Cheshire, England; the other being Stockport Edgeley (now simply referred to as Stockport). Tiviot Dale was named after Teviotdale in Scotland. Prince Cha ...

. It opened in 1873, serving the towns of

Cadishead Cadishead is a village in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 10,739 in 2014. Within the historic county of Lancashire. History The earliest record of Cadishead date to 1212, and show that the whole of Cad ...

Partington Partington is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, it lies on the southern bank of the M ...

and

West Timperley Timperley is a suburban village in the borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. Historically in Cheshire, it is approximately six miles southwest of central Manchester. The population at the 2011 census was 11,061. History The name Ti ...

before joining the

Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway The Manchester South Junction and Altrincham Railway (MSJ&AR) was a suburban railway which operated an route between Altrincham in Cheshire and Manchester London Road railway station (now Piccadilly) in Manchester. The MSJ&AR line operat ...

(MSJ&AR) at Skelton Junction, which was also part of the CLC at this time. In the 1890s the line was deviated due to the building of the

Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...

. It was raised on an embankment around a mile in length from Glazebrook East Junction to be high enough to clear the Ship Canal, with the Cadishead Viaduct was built in 1892 to span the canal. The line saw little change in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and it remained part of the CLC in the 1923

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

. On nationalisation it became part of the

London Midland Region of British Railways The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irela ...

in 1948 at the final demise of the CLC. The line called at the following stations: *

As part of the London Midland region of BR, It remained a busy line with trains from

Liverpool Central Liverpool Central railway station in Liverpool, England, forms a central hub of the Merseyrail network, being on both the Northern Line and the Wirral Line. The station is located underground on two levels, below the site of a former mainline ...

and Warrington Central up until the mid-1960s. It was only on the withdrawal of these stopping passenger services in 1964 that all the stations closed along the line. The line carried on as a freight only line until 1983 when the Cadishead Viaduct was in need of serious and costly repair. British Rail decided to close the viaduct and mothball the line rather than repairing it. The tracks were lifted in the mid-1980s from Glazebrook to Partington. As the line was closed prior to the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the industr ...

, only Glazebrook East Junction and the line from south of Partington to Skelton Junction were passed over into

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

ownership, which in turn passed to

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

. The trackbed from Cadishead to Partington remained (and remains to this day) part of the

Historical Railways Estate The Historical Railways Estate (HRE) is a group of over 3,200 structures—predominantly bridges, but also including tunnels, embankments, and other works—associated with former railways in the United Kingdom. The structures are owned by the Depa ...

Today

Glazebrook East Junction

Today, Glazebrook East Junction is still intact and remains part of the national network. The junction towards Cadishead on the original deviation is also still in place with a powered signal lamp showing a permanent red signal. This short section of track from the still live passing loop at Glazebrook East Junction towards Cadishead on the original non-deviated line is permanently point locked. The short section ends near a

barrow crossing There are around 6,000 level crossings in the United Kingdom, of which about 1,500 are public highway crossings. This number is gradually being reduced as the risk of accidents at level crossings is considered high. The director of the UK Rail ...

shortly before a bridge carrying a

bridleway A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding horses, riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now s ...

above.

Skelton Junction

The tracks from Skelton Junction to the south east of Partington were left and remained intact for chemical trains for a local chemical plant. These trains continued to use this route until 10 October 1993. To this day however this part of the line is intact but disused; the signal lamps at Skelton Junction remain powered red. Also in 2005 this part of the track saw some work; vegetation clearance took place for the line to reopen for freight but this fell through.

Reopening plans

In 2010 the Liberal Democrats announced plans to reopen thousands of miles of disused and abandoned tracks and it was hoped this line will reopen sometime in the future. This appeared to be an easy process as all the infrastructure of the line was still in place, bar the tracks and signalling. However, it would cost millions of pounds to bring Cadishead Viaduct up to a safe and usable standard along with all the other decaying bridges along the line, which have seen little or no maintenance in 26 years since the line was closed. In 2017, businessman Neil McArthur launched a campaign to reopen the line as a heritage railway, with an adjoining footpath and cycle track. In January 2019, Campaign for Better Transport released a report identifying the line which was listed as Priority 2 for reopening. Priority 2 is for those lines which require further development or a change in circumstances (such as housing developments). In March 2020, a bid was made to the first round of the Restoring Your Railway Fund for a feasibility study into reopening the railway line, but this was unsuccessful. In April 2020,

Railfuture Railfuture (formerly the Railway Development Society) is a UK advocacy group which promotes better rail services for passengers and freight across a bigger rail network. The group's national policies are determined by its national board of dir ...

noted that reinstatement of the line would relieve the

Castlefield Corridor The Castlefield corridor (also known as the Deansgate corridor) is a railway corridor between Castlefield junction and Fairfield Street junction in Greater Manchester, England. The corridor forms the eastern end of the southerly Liverpool–Ma ...

of freight traffic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glazebrook East Junction To Skelton Junction Line Rail transport in Greater Manchester Railway lines opened in 1873 Railway lines in North West England Beeching closures in England