IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Burnett Close, MANCHESTER, M40 8LN

Gates accessing the old railway sidings.

The view toward Miles Platting and the major junction at Oldham Road. The first railway bridge once carried goods lines from Manchester's Oldham Road goods depot. The main lines from Victoria station are beyond where the road dips. The brick wall on the right marks the one-time boundary of Brewery Sidings. Neither sidings, nor brewery have existed for many years.

A very busy manual signalbox at a key junction. An Oldham loop local train approaches. Separate, dedicated goods lines at one time existed from Collyhurst Street signalbox in the distance and continued towards Baguley Fold Junction on the Ashton line. Until the 1980s, the 1970s Arndale Tower and 1960s CIS Tower (Co-operative Insurance Society) were the only high-rise buildings in Manchester's city centre.

The 17.37 Manchester Victoria-Leeds train approaches Miles Platting junction and its already aged signalbox. For about a decade, this was the only train using the old Lancashire & Yorkshire line across the Pennines which called at Miles Platting station. In 1977, Manchester's skyline had just two high-rise blocks, both of which are visible in the photograph. On the left, the much-derided Arndale tower from the early 1970s; to the right the CIS tower from a decade earlier. Compare with my photograph from the same spot a decade later!

Grim entrance in a pretty grim neighbourhood. Most of the surrounding houses and industry had gone by 1989 and the station was slated for closure with minimal fuss. The poster on the left is promoting season tickets, not fare dodging!

The small door to the right of the bridge marks the former entrance to Miles Platting station, abandoned as unviable in the 1980s. Once a major railway site, changes since the late 1980s have removed all trackside traces of the station and its extensive offices. The coloured brickwork marks the course of the sloping access to the Ashton-Manchester platform, one of four at the station.

The very tight curve of the branch line to Ashton diverging from the original Manchester-Leeds railway line is readily apparent, as are the long sloping access ramps to each of the platforms. Railway operators may notice that the signalman at Miles Platting Junction has replaced his signals to danger remarkably quickly.

The station area as seen in early 1989. The former Area Manager's offices and all station buildings had been demolished by this time (see here for photo of the main station building http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1009589). Tickets had to be purchased on the train, though passengers boarding or alighting were a distinct rarity. In the left distance, the dome belongs to a former cinema on Oldham Road, by 1989 in use as a bingo hall.