Wilbraham Road railway station was in

Whalley Range, Manchester Whalley Range is an area of Manchester, England, about southwest of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 15,430. Historically in Lancashire, it was one of the earliest of the city's suburbs, built by local businessman Samuel ...

, England, on the Fallowfield Loop line between and Fairfield, via

Chorlton Chorlton may refer to: Places * Chorlton, Cheshire East, in Cheshire, England *Chorlton, Cheshire West and Chester, in Cheshire, England *Chorlton-cum-Hardy, in Manchester, England **Chorlton (ward), an electoral ward of Manchester, England **Chorl ...

. Opened as Alexandra Park in 1892 by the

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grimsb ...

, it was near the junction of Alexandra Road South and Mauldeth Road West, close to Alexandra Park, and served the expanding residential suburb of Whalley Range. The railway line has since been converted into a

shared use path A shared-use path, mixed-use path or multi-use pathway is a path which is 'designed to accommodate the movement of pedestrians and cyclists'. Examples of shared-use paths include sidewalks designated as shared-use, bridleways and rail trails. ...

History

Alexandra Park station opened on 2 May 1892. From 1 August 1897 to 1 January 1923 the station was owned by the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...

(GCR). The GCR was absorbed by the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

(LNER) during the

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 ...

of 1923. The station was renamed Wilbraham Road on 1 July 1923 to avoid possible confusion with the north London suburb of Alexandra Park on the same network. The naming was an unusual choice, since the station was about a from the A6010 Wilbraham Road, and was not visible from there. During 1918–19 the station goods yard was used to receive aircraft fuselages, wings and other major components from

Avro AVRO, short for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep ("General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), was a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system. It was the first public broad ...

Newton Heath Newton Heath is an area of Manchester, England, north-east of Manchester city centre and with a population of 9,883. Historically part of Lancashire, Newton was formerly a farming area, but adopted the factory system following the Industrial Re ...

and the National Aircraft Factory No. 2 at

Heaton Chapel Heaton Chapel is an area in the northern part of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it borders the Manchester districts of Levenshulme to the north, the Stockport districts of He ...

for assembly at the nearby Alexandra Park Aerodrome, which lay to the south. Passenger services on the Fallowfield Loop line were infrequent; the line suffered from competition from alternative rail services into Manchester provided by the

LNER LNER may refer to: * London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947 * London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018 * Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a typ ...

from and later from the electric trams. By the 1930s the LNER had greatly reduced the stopping services and mostly used the line for express trains. After 1948, the line was under the ownership of the nationalised

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

. The electrification of the line was briefly considered but, instead, the local stopping services were withdrawn and Wilbraham Road station was closed to passenger services by

on 7 July 1958. However,

SELNEC PTE SELNEC was an acronym for "South East Lancashire North East Cheshire". It may refer to: *Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; co ...

continued to run a scheduled motor-bus service from the station, timed according to the now-defunct passenger timetable. Express services out of Manchester Central continued to use the line until that terminus was closed in 1969 following the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised British Rail, railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Develop ...

. For another two decades the line was used by

freight trains Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled ...

until the line closed completely in 1988. Eventually the station buildings were demolished and today only some residual brickwork of the platform edges survives. The sidings at the other side of Alexandra Road South, however, remained in use by SPD Distribution until the line closed. The track bed of the line crosses a road on the former site, and the

Station Master The station master (or stationmaster) is the person in charge of a railway station, particularly in the United Kingdom and many other countries outside North America. In the United Kingdom, where the term originated, it is now largely historical ...

's house is still in use as a private residence.

Fallowfield Loop path

Following closure in 1988, the Fallowfield Loop railway line tracks were lifted; the route became derelict and overgrown for several years. Around 2001, a new use was found for the line and the old trackbed was converted into a public

. Today, the

Fallowfield Loop The Fallowfield Loop is an off-road cycle path, pedestrian and horse riding route in the south of Manchester, England, which is one of the National Cycle Network routes and paths; it was developed and built by Sustrans, forming part of routes 6 ...

path is operated by

Sustrans Sustrans is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United K ...

; it runs from Fairfield to

and forms part of Routes 6 and 60 of the

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the cha ...

Blues and Gospel Train

On 7 May 1964,

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

transformed the disused buildings into Chorltonville, a southern U.S.-style station, for a programme called ''Blues and Gospel Train'' with

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago b ...

Otis Spann Otis Spann (March 21, 1924 or 1930April 24, 1970) was an American blues musician, whom many consider to be the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist. Early life Sources differ over Spann's early years. Some state that he was born in Jackson, Miss ...

Sonny Terry Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and oc ...

and

Brownie McGhee Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk music and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. Life and career McGhee was ...

Sister Rosetta Tharpe Sister Rosetta Tharpe (born Rosetta Nubin, March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American singer and guitarist. She gained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her Gospel music, gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spir ...

, Rev. Gary Davis and Cousin Joe Pleasant.Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe's 'mind-blowing' station show
BBC News, 7 May 2014

Railways in the area of Chorlton and Withington

Fallowfield loop line map.png, Fallowfield loop line map Cheadle, CHorlton, Heaton Mersey & Northenden RJD 149.jpg, 1903

Railway Clearing House The Railway Clearing House (RCH) was an organisation set up to manage the allocation of revenue collected by pre-grouping railway companies for the conveyance of passengers and goods over the lines (or using the rolling stock) of other compani ...

diagram of South Manchester railways showing (top) Alexandra Park station on the Great Central line to Guide Bridge, just east of Chorlton Junction

References

Notes

Sources

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilbraham Road Railway Station Disused railway stations in Manchester Former Great Central Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1892 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1958