The Great Steam Loco Adventure at Edgeley Stockport.
Vložit
- čas přidán 25. 12. 2023
- The final years of main line steam action at Edgeley Steam Depot, Stockport from 1967 to 1968. Including massive oil trains from Stanlow oil refinery double headed by two mighty 9F's heading for Leeds.
From the latter part of this wonderful recording the line ran from Cheadle onto Northenden Junction, then Baguley, where I spent most of my loco spotting time and beyond to Skelton junction where lines split three ways. It was 1967 and steam still abounded. On one particular Saturday, two well dressed photographers turned up from 'down south' with cine camera's and asked which of the three routes still had steam trains running, delighted to be told all three. Saw them later beaming at the steam fest that had all but disappeared where they lived, they asked if we knew any details on the double headed oil train, Crosti and standard 9F. On telling them it was a Stanlow Leeds, train and the route; including water stops at Arpley, Stockport Edgeley, crew change, then on over the Pennines via Stalybridge, my mate and self were rewarded with half a crown, duly spent at the near by fish and chip shop on Moss Lane bridge. Wonderful memories released by your superbly evocative posting.
Thank for the story. Those were the times when goods trains abounded on our mainlines.
Sadly a site that will never be seen again ,Great you captured it wen you did..
I worked there as a cleaner in 1964 before my family mived to Bristol, i love every inch of that shed and there engines i cleaned , Tonga. Hood, Bahamas and the odd black 5. hated seeing old emgines dragged to Crewe for scrapping.. i always made a point of cleaning the cab side before they left as a small mark of my love and respect . steam is in your blood abd it never leaves you. thank you for the memories.
I'm pleased you enjoyed it. Steam is an important part of my life too.
Steamers and jets in one picture. Stellar stuff
Great piece of history saved here. Even the sound recordings seem not to have deteriorated much in all these years, they add a hugely important dimension to the film material. Great that you did have access to this equipment as a young lad then, recording apparatus wasn't cheap then and most would be limited to a note book and maybe a cheap still camera.
Edgeley Sheds. Home of 8Fs and Black 5s, home of the legendary John Axon.
Great footage, this!
Thanks for the memories. I walked through a small door next to a wall and down the cinder path with my father who was a goods guard to the Edgeley engine shed to collect his wages. I must have been about ten at the time. I remember the smells of the steam and seeing the remains of the fires after they had been dropped from the engines, and the sooty faces of the engine cleaners as they emerged after cleaning the boiler flues.
There was nothing like the smells and sounds of a working steam shed.
Fondly remembered. The locos were alive even when standing still. 😊
Outstanding stuff by you and your Dad, so glad you took the time to film this history in the making... All the best
One of my regular haunts in the 60s, we just wandered around the shed, just waiting to be told to clear off...although we were just looking at what was inside, and fascinated with all the action..I remember sitting at the top of the wooden steps, hearing the bells from the signalbox..and then wander down the path..where often we would see one or two of the sheds 3 Jubilees, and occasionally a named B1 from the Eastern..little did I know back in the mid 60s, that in 1980, I were to work as a signalman in Edgeley 2 signalbox, for just short of 10yrs, and was the best move I ever made in 1974 joining the railway..I moved on to the station boxes, as a reliefman in 1990, then in 1992 regular at No.2 box, until 2007, enjoying the best view over Stockport, on a par with crossing the viaduct..This video really does capture my childhood memories, and it always make me smile, when I see E2 box in steam days, and my memories being there, when in the 80s had been, obliterated. The only surviving building from steam days being the train crew relief cabin opposite E2, that was still in use in the 80s. I recall seeing a message scribbled on the wall in there one day, which was something like "Steam drivers, when the men were made of steel, and the wagons were made of wood, Diesel drivers, where the the wagons are made of steel, and the men are made of wood"...no doubt a steam man comment indicating, that you need to be a real man to drive steam. I grew up near Heaton Mersey shed, until that closed, but the draw for me was always Edgeley, as I were then fascinated with the electric locos in striking blue livery, which reminded me of the Midland Pullman livery, which I saw regular at Cheadle Heath station..
Alway good to hear from a railwayman who worked in the area, thanks.
Fantastic! The 9F double header was impressive. Thanks for sharing.
I was 13 in '67. Steam had long disappeared from the softy south by then. The first loco I remember seeing up close there was a 9f just out of the works at Stratford, fresh paint and everything. . It just rolled past light engine, but still rocked my 5yr old world...
This footage is pure gold, many thanks and blessings.
Not on the Waterloo - Bournemouth route! 9th July 1967 was the last day of official steam working!
@@telmas7183 Yeah, I never generalize. Ever ...
I did actually see a Bullied Pacific at Swanage quite late on. There was a footbridge near our holiday caravan site. Normally DMUs then. 64-5ish I'm guessing.
Ta.
I was also 13 in 1967. Luckily steam ended in my neck of the woods [the Brighton Line] in 1965, despite being one of the first electric railways. I only ever got hauled by steam in 1963, when on holiday on the Isle of Wight. My grandfather bought a rover ticket, and we spent the week riding up, and down the 2 lines there.
Corfe Castle 1966 my first and last steam on BR. In from Norfolk
I adore the shot of the WD, such overlooked locos yet they are so elegant for what they are. Thanks for sharing!
My boyfriend gave me the best description for the WD I've ever heard when I showed it to him, "It looks how dirty feels. It's perfect!"
A window into another world! Magnificent stuff indeed. I was born in ‘68, so my earliest recollections are of diesels in BR blue. A big thank you for having the foresight as a teenager to preserve these amazing scenes of the dirt and grime at the end of the steam era - AND for your professional presentation of them today. Brilliant! 😄
Being born in South Wales in 1965 my only experience of steam traction was the loco that still worked alongside the 08 diesels at the colliery where my dad worked (a Pannier, #9600 that's still with us in preservation) and the now legendary Barry Scrapyard that I used to visit on day trips to Barry Island.
By the time I was old enough to ntoice usch things, the coal trains were worked exclusively by class 37s (which are now a firm favourite) and passenger trains by DMUs. But I've always been captivated by steam locos.
Excellent video. I like your documentary-style and personalisation.
As a fireman I took the last steam engine off Holbeck shed 30-09-67. I believe it was a stand by for a steam special in West Yorkshire with the Duke of Edinburgh on board. It was a black 5 in immaculate condition. I think is was later preserved.
It’s always been a great sadness to me that I was born too late to see steam operating on the mainline, but beautiful films like this give a wonderful hint of what it was like 😊
The trouble is, that it is now so long ago that memories become somewhat faded.
Oh I remember clearly the 1960s demise of steam locomotives from the age of 10 until 17. I toured the last sheds in Lancaster in July 1968 to witness the last few remaining black 5s and 8fs in service, all the standard class locos had been withdrawn by then. It was such a shame to find such magnificent machines with useful life left being scrapped. The BR yards were full of withdrawn locos waiting to be towed away to a scrap merchant's yard.😢
Hello - greetings from Poland
What a fabulous video. You brought back some incredible memories for me. I'm an Altrincham lad, leaving there in April 1964. We used to catch the North Western bus to Stockport. My mates and I spent many happy hours spoting in Stockport Edgeley shed area. I'm now 75 years old. Thanks to you, you put a huge smile on my face - a million thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Another fantastic piece of filming preserved for all to see. Witnessing the end of steam must have been something as special as it was sad.
A most valuable and welcome bit of Boxing day steam viewing. Thank you.
Great videos, being a Western Fireman and Driver, used to have quite a few 9F’s, fired 92220 from Hereford to Stourbridge 84F in early 1962 on a train of tanks,Kind Regards. 7:00
My home station was Romiley, but I used to go to Edgeley shed quite often up until 1965-66. one of the highlights for me was seeing a couple of GWR County class locos seemingly awaiting scrapping in the sidings to the south of the shed. It was always a bit hit or miss whether we were allowed in the shed or unceremoniously booted out, great memories.
I was living in West Didsbury at the time and visited the shed many times often travelling there and back on the long seated double decker bus. Heaton Mersey shed was close by and was usually visited at the same time. Manchester was a great base to see the last of BR steam. It was then possible to travel from Manchester to Oxenholme, Tebay and Shap stations, later I had to access Shap by train to Kendal and then bus
When i eventually got the courage to visit Tebay a couple of weeks after Christmas 1967 my mum phoned up the shed and was told it had shut as well as Kingmoor. I was gutted.
Wonderful sights and sounds. And great memories too. I knew steam as every day too. My local shed was Tyseley ex GW, south of Birmingham. The Blue Pullman became our star attraction on weekdays. I missed working with steam, begining work on BR in June 73. So long ago yet clear in the memory. Thanks for sharing 👍👍👍👍
This is fantastic footage; you have really brought those days to life. You have captured something that is missing in most of the DVDs I have watched. Cine film was expensive, with a running time of a little over three minutes, I think it made better photographers of people, than much of what we see today. Well done.
Thanks for your memories and sharing your film which is remarkably good quality for the time. I do remember the 8mm movies of the 60s and fhey weren't cheap either. I love seeing films of the period, they have an atmosphere and sense of purpose which cannot be recreated on preservation lines.
Wonderful and very poignant films of the end of steam.
Being born in 1954 in Sussex, I can remember two 4MT tank locos coupled together running light engine at speed through our village station back to their shed at Three Bridges every night at around 9pm, what a sight, what a sound, never forgotten... 😊
I was also born in 1954, and lived in Horley. I was a driver at Three Bridges EMUT depot from 1978, until 1986, when I transfered to Norwich.
Brilliant portrayal of the shed and surrounding lines of that time.
Thank you for posting.
Great pictures, great sound but no ones captured the third dimension, the smell... yet. It almost seems like yesterday but one wonders now if it was just a dream, till you see pictures like this.
I can smell that smell from watching these images 😉😁
@@stephensmith799 I'm dreaming, preservation may be good but its never the same. The last years of BR steam may have been of decay, neglect, grim, depressing and nostalgicly the saddest day of my life yetwere equally amazing.
@@rsqyoung Yes indeed. Sad but also grimly magnificent…. Like the 9Fs at Shotton Steelworks
I remember standing on bridges, just so I could smell the locos passing underneath! Nothing quite like the feeling of being enveloped in that heady cloud of smoke, steam and oil...
@@paulhaynes8045 Age three, I climbed to the top of the playground slide to watch the locos ‘sleeping’ quietly on shed and waiting for the Cambrian Coast Express to come by. Too much orange squash on a hot afternoon and the inevitable happened in the excitement of its passing and whistling. Due to soggy trousers there was a lot of friction and I had to haul myself downwards with a sort of rowing action on the sides. Embarrassing in front of the other children. Worth it? You bet!
Double headed 9F’s , it doesn’t get any better ! Thanks for sharing . 👍🏻
Great filming and marks a hugely missing gap in railway photography, freight trains. Thanks for this.
The steam locomotive. A nightmare in the summer, but a god blessing in winter
WOW !!! You have recorded so much history . I really enjoyed watching your film. And you did it with your dad too ! Well done. 😀👍
this is the one of your vids I rewatch the most. Maybe it's the 9F's, or maybe it's because it's the first I saw. But all of these vid's are masterpieces. a seeming ancient era despite it being barely 60 years.
Truly fabulous to watch and listen to! Thank you so much for posting!
Glad you enjoyed it!
There's nothing like the sight and particularly the sound of a steam loco at work. Folks of my era 1946 onwards will forever remember them well! The saddest day when mainline steam ended.
Dirty, noisy, smelly and environmentally unfriendly, those engine's may have been, but how I miss them!
Well said.
They're not especially environmentally unfriendly. It was their enormous maintenance needs that killed them off.
Absolutely awesome 👏🏻 Happy memories 😊 my gran lived in Gee Cross Hyde so she would take me to Stockport station train spotting just at very end of steam 😢 I was only 11 in 68. Wasn’t there a viewing window in the railway bridge on Booth St……🤔 I also spent a lot of time at Woodley junction station and occasionally I got into the signal box 😀 It was very busy back then. It’s always a pleasure watching your videos. Merry Christmas and all the best for 2024 👍🏻
There was a viewing window opposite the Armoury.
Very cool moment with the young lad, I bet he was super excited he got to help!
Thanks very much. Great documents of a lost time. How i long to be transported back to those days.......
All those flowers next to the lineside as goods trains pass made for a very picturesque shot!
Thanks for archiving these beautiful machines.
Nice to see the VC10 go over as well. My dad worked on them - at the old Vickers factory in Weybridge. I well remember my visits there, as it was built in the middle of the old Brooklands racetrack!
Great memories of the steam era, though I didn't visit that shed back then sadly.
In 1966 I was 9 and at Broadheath Primary school backing on to the Skelton to Partington tracks I spent most of my time that year daydreaming and watching Crabs, Black fives, 8f’s 9f’s and a few named Britannia’s hauling coal and limestone to Irlam steel works the one Britannia I do remember was Polar Star, I think Earl Haigh was also seen! The sun always seemed to shine that summer great video brought back memories
You were luck seeing all those locos. Now even the track you mention has been lifted.
Another great video of days gone by. Im sad I never got to witness anything like it. Looking forward to your next one!
Wow... love that in those days there was no fencing so you could almost touch the trains! Health and safety officers would be having cold sweats watching this 😂
Was that the same planet or even universe we live on now.
This is great footage, so glad you were there to capture it.
In April 67, two trains ran from Paddington to Birkenhead as the service really became redundant after the WCML service to Liverpool and Manchester opened a year earlier.
We have Clun Castle from Banbury to Chester then a standard 5 to Birkenhead, it was interesting to see the remnants of steam and how forlorn Birkenhead was.
Sadly I never had a camera back then.
It's hard to believe that steam finished in 1968, now I'm old ,the relentless march of time goes on.
Awesome raw footage thank you. Like the way you framed engines through the stop block!
Thanks for posting, & I noted the filthy state they are in just as I remember the ol Bulleids & Stds in Plymouth 63/64 oh & that smell. Wonderful.
I am a big fan of the 9Fs. I was brought up on the Dorset coast but as my mother was Welsh, I used to go for summer holidays to Crumlin in the Ebbw Valley in South Wales. The double header shot at about 3:05 reminded me so much of the heavy iron ore trains that came up the valley to go the Ebbw Vale steel works. It was uphill a lot of the way and as they came through Crumlin they would be working hard and going at about the pace shown in your video. It was always two locomotives although some times one was at the front and another at the back.
There was as a small cafe overlooking the station where my parents would take me some evenings. My dad was a railway enthusiast as well. You could hear those trains approaching from some distance and the cafe would tremble slightly as they passed through the station.
I still have my Ian Allan combined volume from 1960/61. Altogether I have about 70 9Fs underlined but pride of place for me are 92000 to 92007 inclusive as the first batch of 9Fs were allocated to that route and I saw them all in Crumlin.
Thanks for the comment.
Great video, did this shed in November and December 1966 but have no photos brings back memories of visiting 9b,still have the list of locks I saw
I was really pleased to get a notification of a new video. I particularly enjoy the Gandy Dancer Productions on BR steam (I enjoy the others very much as well)... a wonderful historical record. Hopefully you have some more in your collection that we can see in due course. It's not just the filming of the great steam activity but the commentary and explanation of locations and access that help to build the story. This must take some time. I am absolutely sure the viewers appreciate it. Thank you!
Thank you very much! I have a few more films in the editing.
I certainly do.......
Great memories for me as my 'Uncle Syd' was running foreman and my long suffering Dad used to take me on a Saturday afternoon for a ride up and down the shed roads if any had a bit of steam left. One day a class 40 was fired up and I had my first diesel footplate ride.
can you imagine the lad who helped push the coal waggon these days even being on site unsupervised? Absolutely magical.
I bet your uncle was one of the staff I asked permission from to go round the shed.
Maybe he was!! Blue smock and very dark, thick rimmed glasses plus plenty of Brylcreme. Thanks for your reply. David@@GandyDancerProductions
@PeterSnape-dc6wf Thank you for your memories. Sadly the world has changed in the intervening years.
Wonderful - thanks. I'm a few years younger than you, so didn't realise exactly what was happening on the railways. I had grown up watching the steam-hauled Atlantic Coast Expresses thundering through my local station, and there nearly always seemed to be a steam shunter or a goods engine, steaming quietly in the background at bigger stations. Then suddenly, they were all gone. It was truly amazing just how quickly it happened - from the end of 67, they just disappeared, almost overnight. At the time I was shocked at saddened, but now my main reaction is amazement that such a huge change was managed so well. On the SR, we were mostly electric anyway, so it was only the last few expresses and a few goods engines, but in other parts of the network, practically everything must have from steam to diesel in just a few months. Mind you, after Beeching there were quite a few less lines to worry about...
Fantastic made my Xmas and there was I around the early sixties by the bridge near Cheadle heath station watching the steam engines the deltics and the Pullman on four lines with my Ian Allan ticking off the numbers of the locos ,great times
Probably mean a EE type 4, not a Deltic. I doubt very much if a Deltic ever graced this stretch of line during BR days!
You've captured my favorite British steam. The 9F! Thank you for uploading these films. I'd like to model this era in 00.
Fantastic unseen footage. I would be on my dads shoulders hoping a steam engine would go on the roundabout about the same era (he wasn’t happy as I was 28 at the time!) we always stopped to look at the engines on the way to County back in the day….still going to County but alas no more sheds.
what i would give to go back and be apart of the steam era, ive managed a lot in this day and age, full time steam fitter, paid reserve firemen, regular volunteer firemen. but it would all be nothing compared to what it really used to be like, id feel right at home in all the dirt grime and noise. its strange to be nostalgic for something i never got to experience
There were quite a few enthusiasts took up firing in the last days of steam. BR were quite short of man power at the end of steam.
When you put up a video like this Gandy it’s like finding a gem in a spoil heap …
Love your coverage and content…
More please ❤❤
Thanks for sharing
Wonderful footage and historical record - thanks for sharing ✌️👍💜😊
Well captured and preserved timepiece of film, thanks for uploading. One of the biggest disappointments in the preservation era is not allowing 9F's on the mainline after Evening Star in the late 1980's. At least some were saved and we had a double header on the NYMR recently.
Yep, 9Fs are my favourite with Dutchesses and Britannias. Never saw any Dutchesses under BR though.
Thoroughly enjoyed that travel back in time. I was a frequent Edgeley visitor a couple of years earlier so bags of nostalgia for me for which I’m very grateful. No signs of Bahamas though!!
Me too: thank you for sharing these memories! :-)
You earned my "Thumb Up" for your great use of Google Maps and StreetView.
To those mentioning the WD engines: here in the Netherlands, WD engines were quite important in rebuilding our railways from 1945 on. I have noticed footage here on CZcams of that time, but we had our last steam loco entering the museum in January 1958. - Coming to think of it, Dutch steam of the 50s must have been quite a patchwork: we'd have had some of our own pre-war stock (including British and German designs), three types of WD-stock, old Swiss ones, replicas of Swedish ones.
Somebody mentioned the smell of steam. Agreed, that would have mattered much. - On the other hand, aren't there enough heritage railways in Britain? That's where coal can still be smelt, mixed with the sweat of those voluntarily labouring to keep all aspects alive.
The preservation societies do a great job re-creating those day though the engines aren't ever that dirty.
Your photographs belong in a book mate, they are awesome. 👍🏻
I’m surprised with the oil tank train for it to not have couple of barrier wagons and also not to have the vacuum brake working as the brake van had the bag not on the dummy! Lovely video!
Partly fitted.
Also oil 🛢️ not as combustible as petrol which always had to have a couple of safety wagons
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a piece of video footage from the UK with a double header of freight locomotives pulling tonnage. I have seen Australian, American and Canadian but this is a first. Nice!
a lot of steam besides electrified railway lines...Great peace of history.Have a healthy NEW YEAR and greetings from Germany !
Thanks.
And memories of being with Dad doing what you enjoyed
Priceless Thank You so much for sharing
My memories with Dad are with cars but are memories I hold very dear now he has gone over 20 years..
The funny thing was I had a deal with my dad. If I when to watch Blackburn Rovers with him on home games the alternate weekends he'd take me in the car to a steam depot.
Excellent video; those were the days I used to visit too.
Glad you enjoyed it
Amazing video, very well done. I hope more will follow in a similar "documentary-like" fashion.
Stunning, thank you.
Hi this video is. good I started at edgeley in 1961 until it closed and then I went to Longsight I finished in 2011 my name is Phil.
Hi Phil, I wish I'd visited Longsight when the Britannia's were there.
great footage of the last days of standard gauge steam on BR
Fantastic video, and very professional filmig, especially from a 15 year old.
Wonderful stuff! Thank you!
Thanks a lot for the memories.
Great video, thanks
Just fantastic amazing footage. Thanks
Excellent loved every second
Thank you so much!!!
Excellent!!
Thanks for posting.
Excellent, thankyou for sharing
Really lovely stuff to watch is this, Thankyou so much.
This is fantastic. Thanks for sharing!
Another brilliant video, thanks for sharing
Absolutely cracking footage. Lovely memories.
Brilliant, glad to see you uploading again! 😁
Wonderful historical record, thank you for uploading it
Great old film. Well done.
Thank you for sharing this great video.
Really fascinating footage
Yayyyy finally a new video thank you I always look forward to them even the live steam ones as well as your vintage footage.
Thanks for preserving a piece of out history
Thank you so much for this. Another fascinating video. Can’t wait for more.
Super stuff well done mate
Great footage, well done😀
Great work back in the day, great history and great to watch all these years afterwards. Thanks for the memories.
Good vid mate.I remember having problems watching county because of smoke and steam coming on the field on a misty november friday night(county night lol)
Thanks.
Great memories thank you. My favourite engines - 8F Superb video to be kept forever.
thanks! the doubleheaded 9fs were great