Reddish Electric Depot was an electric traction depot located in

Reddish Reddish is an area in Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. south-east of Manchester city centre. At the 2011 Census, the population was 28,052. Historically part of Lancashire, Reddish grew rapidly in the Industrial ...

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was situated on the west side of the Fallowfield Loop line between Hyde Road and Levenshulme South stations; however, neither of the Reddish stations (

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

) were sited on this line. It was built to service the

electric locomotives An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas t ...

and local

electric multiple units An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number ...

(EMUs) that were employed on the Woodhead Line between

Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Piccadilly is the principal railway station in Manchester, England. Opened as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchester Piccadilly in 1960. Located to the south-east of Manchester city ...

, Hadfield,

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

and

Wath Wath may refer to: Places in England * Wath, Cumbria, a U.K. location * Wath (near Ripon), a village in Harrogate district, North Yorkshire * Wath, Ryedale, a village in North Yorkshire * Wath-in-Nidderdale, a village near Pateley Bridge in Har ...

Access to the depot

The Fallowfield Loop line, on which the depot was sited, was not electrified; so, to enable electric locomotive and EMU access to the depot from the Woodhead line, part of the line from Fairfield Junction as far as the depot was electrified overhead to 1,500V DC.

Depot allocation

The depot had an allocation of EM1 and EM2 electric locomotives and Class 506 EMUs. The EM2 locomotives were deemed surplus to requirements when the Woodhead line's inter-city passenger services were withdrawn in January 1970; they were sold subsequently to the Dutch national railway operator

Nederlandse Spoorwegen Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS; ; en, "Dutch Railways") is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The Dutch rail network is one of the busiest in the European Union, and the ...

, where they became the

NS 1500 Class The Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) Class 1500 were built by Metropolitan-Vickers in 1953–1955. They were originally built for British Railways (BR) as Class EM2 (later Class 77) for use on the Woodhead Route between Manchester and Sheffield. T ...

. When the Woodhead line was closed to goods services in July 1981, almost all EM1 locomotives were sold for scrap. The Class 506 EMUs remained at Reddish until the depot's closure, as the

Glossop line The Glossop line is a railway line connecting the city of Manchester with the towns of Hadfield and Glossop in Derbyshire, England. Passenger services on the line are operated by Northern Trains. The line is the surviving section west of the ...

was retained for local services between Manchester,

Glossop Glossop is a market town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is located east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of the county town, Matlock. Glossop lies near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Manches ...

and Hadfield. In addition, some other traction visited the depot for maintenance, although they were not allocated here; for example, Class 40

diesel locomotives A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...

Closure

The Woodhead line was closed beyond Hadfield in July 1981, when the EM1 locomotives were withdrawn. The depot continued to host the Class 506 units and service visiting traction, but its workload had reduced significantly. Reddish depot closed in April 1983. The Class 506 units then had to be diesel-hauled to

Longsight Electric TMD Longsight Electric TMD is an AC electric railway locomotive traction maintenance depot situated in Longsight, Manchester, England. It is one of the largest train depots in the United Kingdom and can hold 179 carriages at any one time. Histo ...

for servicing, due to their incompatibility with the available 25kV power supply. In December 1984, the Glossop line was converted to the standard 25 kV AC overhead system and the Class 506 EMUs were withdrawn, following the last run on 7 December. The depot lay derelict for several years before demolition; in the late 2000s, the site was redeveloped for housing.

References

Railway depots in England Rail transport in Greater Manchester {{England-rail-transport-stub