BR in the 1980s Manchester Victoria Station in April 1987
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- čas přidán 21. 08. 2024
- MANCHESTER VICTORIA STATION in APRIL 1987
Upon this visit to Victoria station I captured several of the Trans Pennine services being hauled by class 45's and the odd 47. The old Bury services can be spotted in the far distance utilising the class 504 EMU class. Quite a mixture of class 31 locomotives milling around on several duties and the DMU scene slowly being taken over with Sprinters and Pacers.....still yet an interesting scene then..
Thank you, I was only a boy in the 80's with no money and no way to travel, my Dad used to take me to Victoria, Preston, Wigan, Crewe etc in the 80's and this brings back many happy memories.
You're most welcome and many thanks....Mark
This is so good to see again.
Many thanks....Mark
Yet another piece of history caught in this footage is at 01:51 when the announcer calls out the train to Blackburn, it is routed via Pendleton and would use the Bridle Heath to Agecroft Junction chord which would soon close, mainly due to the opening of Salford Crescent station later that year allowing trains to "turn off" at Windsor Bridge instead. It's just one of those little things that can slip through but are great to be noticed to bring back memories :)
I think the Brindle Heath chord closed with the May 87 timetable, so this would have been its last month in use.
Spent many a happy hour at Victoria station with my late wife, so many memories come flooding back. Thanks for posting.
Glad to have brought back fond memories...especially of those departed.....my best wishes to you....Mark
Thank you for sharing some railway history from a wonderful era that I hade the pleasure of being part of through the 1980's. This footage brings back some good memories from my many trips in/out of Victoria from Leeds.
You are very welcome and I am happy to have brought back fond memories....My best regards...Mark
Another absolutely first class video, your really treating us with the stuff you’ve uploaded recently. It makes you realise how lucky we were to be trainspotters then. Thank you
You're so very welcome....My best wishes....Mark
You're not kidding. Then one day they were gone...
@@BibtheBoulder Just like that as the famous and talented Tommy Cooper would say...best regards to all....Mark
Another great video from your archive! Good memories from the location in the blue/grey era, the variety of traction, heritage dmus, rolling stock and types of freight train. Please keep them coming and thanks for sharing. Great to think those 142/150 dmus have now been around as long as the 'heritage' units they replaced - for comfort and ride, I know which ones I would prefer to be travelling on!
And me, albeit they were dusty......many thanks and my sincere wishes to you....Mark
PS Look out for my European Railways in the 1990s series....Much appreciated......Mark
I'm fortunate enough to remember Manchester Victoria before it was culled. Probably one of the biggest mistakes ever to be made in Manchester.
I could never understand why the metro took over the main Bury line....shame....best wishes to you....Mark
@@spompey The class 504 EMUs were life expired and (I think) quite different to normal third rail EMUs, with a different shoe system collecting the current. Guessing it would have taken quite some investment to convert the third rail and bring in standard EMUs from southern England or Merseyrail. Would BR have been granted the investment to convert the line to 25kV overhead with no link to Metrolink, leaving the line marooned until Victoria was properly electrified about 20 years later? Personally I doubt it. A third scenario might have seen the electrification discarded and the line handed over to pacers and sprinters. An interesting counterfactual and I can kind of see where you are coming from. Metrolink is frequent and convenient, with the disadvantage of being slower and uncomfortable, I wonder what the commuters on the line preferred?
@@kevinfowkes2327 Many thanks for your info Kevin.....much appreciated by all.....Mark
All these views are history, Manchester Victoria has changed beyond recognition, and the Cheetham Hill loop is no more too. Not a Buddliea bush in sight either! Great film and thanks for sharing it.
You are very welcome and appreciated....Best wishes...Mark
Love to see the peaks! Great video thank you 👍🏼
Much appreciated....Many thanks for your comment.....best regards...Mark
Just watched your Preston and man vic videos, brought so many memories from my teenage sporting years , spent many a Saturday on both stations being from Bolton great
Many thanks for your kind comment.....best regards...Mark
Thanks for the memories. I used to go to sales meetings at Nat West's then head office in King Street in the late 80s and make my way home via Victoria.
Many thanks Garth and best wishes...Mark
That took me back a bit. I was in The Signaling School in the summer of 1990 which was based upstairs in the Station Building. I was there for six weeks and it was when the Strangeways Riots were going on, we could see them on the Roof from our classroom. Platform 11 and a bumpy ride on a 142 back to Liverpool Lime St. Happy days 👍
Yep were good times........many thanks....Mark
Great to see the sheer variety of locos, especially the peaks. Good selection of DMUs too just as the Mark 1s were beginning to disappear. I always remember Victoria seemed to be lumbered with far more pacers on local routes than Piccadilly where the 101s hung on.
Many thanks for the comment and info....mark
Another cracking Video Mark, brought back many memories for me and the old man. Many thanks for shearing. All the best...Steve. P.S. I really do dislike the nodding donkeys!!😆
You are most welcome Stevie as always ....best wishes...Mark
BR and Manchester Council may have 'improved' Victoria architecturally but it is such a pity that they tore it's heart out at the same time. Yes! The station was old and dilapidated but can you honestly say that the new version is better?
It seems a little clinical and clean to me....lost the character the station once had for so long....many thanks....Mark
Thanks so much for sharing this, I travelled in and out of Manchester Victoria pretty much every working day from 1985 through to 2020, it's a very familiar scene, with 45's and sometimes 46's on the Newcastle, 142 Pacers and 150 units new in service, and the Calder Valley units still working, most evenings I'd get one of those into Victoria from Castleton, they were regularly late! 31s and 25s were still around, the 25s providing pilots and bankers for frieghts up Miles Platting bank, we still got the odd 40 in 85 and 86, 40009 being a regular. Newspaper trains running in and out of Redbank, which is mostly now a forest, apart from the Metrolink depot, thankfully trams run to Oldham and Rochdale up part of the old line. Red Star still operating, such a busy station. The white portacabin, just visibkle outside the East Signal Box, was for the team removing asbestos from the East Box. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for your recollections...Most interesting and nostalgic...Many thanks....Mark
Excellent video brings back many happy memories great video
Much appreciated for the kind comment....Mark
I really miss that railway station I miss it so much , it has a lot of sidings lines going towards red bank carriage, sidings , in that picture it looks fantastic, loco hauled trains, now it’s like extinct. I have never been back since 1996, because I’m not happy what they did a magnificent railway station, and it’s Old, Architecture , It took the Victorians a long time to build it, all it needed was painting and a bit of tic, instead of knocking it all down, if I had a billion pounds, I would buy that station, and I would go to the council, and see what the old plans were like, I would get that that railway station rebuilt to has it wax , all over again to has it was ? The metro link I would put outside, it would still link to Bury , then I would add another separate line to Bury so passenger services could restart from there again, I would definitely reopen the Oldham loop and rebuild Oldham mumps to had it was, and if I had another billion pounds I would definitely open the Clegg street railway shed in Oldham, I would link to the Oldham Ashton guide bridge railway. And I would put 5 lines connecting to Manchester Victoria, 3 for the metro link and another two for the Oldham loop . And once again everyone in Oldham would see parcel trains back has it was in 1970s . U would see a three class 08 shunters and lots of parcel vans wooden and metal ones, I would create jobs in Oldham, I would get people to work for me to drive those trains, A new train factory would be built, in Oldham, so they can build those wooden wagons. I would bring back the cotton mills. In Oldham and everywhere .Oldham would get a new signal box built , once again the railways would come back if I was in charge.
Sounds very ambitious Deepak, If I too had a billion to spare I would donate as well towards the cost.....Many thanks for sharing this inspiring dream, maybe one day.....Best wishes to you and again many thanks....Mark
I remember back in the late 70s and early 80s a ticket called a "Peak Wayfarer " it gave you cover for trains and buses in the Greater Manchester area slightly beyond after 9am.
Great for haulage bashing, spent many an hour going back and too from Victoria to Stalybridge.
The railway do not seem to do any special offers nowadays such as the "Merrymakers" which I used a lot....£3.50 for a trip to Llandudno from St Pancras back in the 70s Peak haulage all the way....best regards to you....mark
@@spompey In the 70s and early 80s the railway had masses of old stock hanging around doing nothing and not very many passengers...plus an integrated business structure which didn't much care about the cost of every little activity. All those things are basically the opposite today - no spare stock, masses of passengers, routine overcrowding, a fragmented privatised industry structure obsessed with identifying costs to the smallest detail. I doubt Merrymakers would fly today. Incidentally many normals went on them as well as enthusiasts.
@@kevinfowkes2327 I agree Kevin....they would never make money with Merrymakers, but every one I went on was packed to full capacity...Many thanks for watching and for your comment....Best regards to you.....Mark
Man vic is unrecognisable now , just a modern concourse with a few through tracks. No character. I remember my dad telling me when he used to spot there back in the mid 60s. There would be black 5s and 8fs parked up waiting to bank trains up miles platting.
I'd love to have chatted to your Dad about the locations he visited....superb....Mark
Class 45s on the Transpennine Route North (Liverpool Newcastle / Scarborough) were truly superb. I used to travel on the 06.00 from Kings Cross to York, to get 3 return trips in to Leeds and back (6 x 45s if you were lucky). This section of the route, allowing high speed running. Great to record such scenes.
Again great times Vic....Many thanks...Mark
Cheers Mark. Thanks for posting your video and evoking such memories.
@@vicsams4431 You're most welcome Vic.....mark
The short-sightedness of the Government and BR management in the 1980s and 90s in firstly trying to cram almost all services into Piccadilly (which is at/beyond capacity), and reducing the though platforms at Victoria from 6 to 4 (which are now a bottleneck) is almost beyond belief. Yes, there was a need for fewer East-facing terminating platforms (now only 2, could be 3 or 4, but they just about manage), but no West facing terminating platforms? And to get more through platforms at Picc will cost many multiples of what it cost to take out 2 at Victoria. Mindless!
Many thanks for the comment....best wishes....Mark
Manchester City Council wanted a big cheap central site to plonk their arena onto. Arguably much of the blame lies with them, especially for not ensuring that space was available for easy future expansion underneath the Arena if it became needed. They were more bothered about the kudos of an arena than long term planning for local rail capacity. On that point perhaps it was a bit of quid pro quo for the heavy investment in the Metrolink. Timing was also highly unfortunate. The early 90s recession left the railways at a low ebb financially just as the arena was approved. BR and the government were scrabbling around to sell off any spare land they could get away with.
Fantastic! Used to love a Saturday morning here, in 1985-87. Good Times.
Many thanks for your comment...best wishes...Mark
Remember it well 1978 to 1987 as a guard at springs branch 1989 to 1991 as a driver before moving to Warrington on the closure of bickershaw colliery. Great footage of a great era
You are most welcome and appreciated....best wishes....Mark
Love the peaks class 46 greatings from the netherlands
You are most welcome....Many thanks for the comment....best wishes....Mark
great video, thanks for sharing
Many thanks...and best wishes.....Mark
Nice to see Victoria how it used to look
Many thanks for the comment....Mark
This was the last month of loco haulage on the Liverpool-Scarboroughs and also the trains to Holyhead and Hull. All went over to 150/2 Sprinters in May 1987. The Liverpool-Newcastles remained loco hauled until around 1991/92 I think but were officially Class 47 only from May 1987, so you have the last official month of Peak haulage at Victoria here as well.
the timing was not intentional, but I am so pleased I captured this piece of history to share.....so many thanks to you for your interest in my channel...Mark
@@spompey At the time you likely heard about all this and visited just beforehand, even if you've forgotten it now, it was well publicised in all the magazines etc if I remember.
@@kevinfowkes2327 Yes I was an avid magazine collector I admit....I was also advised by other enthusiasts so you could well be right....Many thanks as always....Mark
Dirty trains run down stations ,different today marble floors and shiny trains,still like the old though.
Far too clinical nowadays......Many thanks and best wishes....Mark
Am I right in thinking that Victoria could be quite an unpleasant place at times back then? Have heard a few friends talking about how it had a reputation for being a bit sleazy. I suppose like so many other train stations back then, Kings Cross being the most famous example.
It was a bit of a dark looking place, but always of interest...A lot brighter now and safer.....Many thanks and best wishes....Mark
Peak perfection! 🚂👍
Many thanks Dave.....much appreciated.....Mark
It used to be a great location, and just a short DMU ride away from Rochdale where I lived.
Many thanks....mark
Great vid, very grateful!
Many thanks and my sincere gratitude to you....Mark
Wow how much has changed in 36 years.
Totally agree.My best regards....Mark
Terrific video, i love watching the old train videos, and this is quality stuff. Can anyone answer a question for me? What class were the DMU's?
Many thanks for watching and for your comment best wishes...Mark The DMU's were I believe 108.....
Shown in this video are 101s, 108s, 142s, 150s, the parcel DMU hauled by a 31 is a 128. The third rail EMUs are 504s.
THE CAT AT 23:43 COULD OF BEEN A TRAINSPOTTER WORKMEN ON TRACK IN THEM DAYS DIDN'T WEAR HI VIZ COATS OR HELMETS
36 years later the pacers are now finished. not bad for a stand in unit.
Many thanks for watching and for the comment...my best regards...Mark
Wow - 15 platforms - There;s only 4 now is there not including Metrolink...
Been redeveloped a lot since this video was taken...
Many thanks for watching and for your comment best regards....Mark
Fantastic video of the old Victoria. Is it me, or is that GMPTE liveried 142 working the Bury line vice the usual EMU?
Not noticed that....maybe some one will say....best wishes....Mark
Departures towards the east for Rochdale and that sort of direction used the east end bay platforms too
What a joy
many thanks for the comment....best wishes to you....Mark
where did the line go to the left of the station, there is no track there now and ive often wondered
Redbank, Radcliffe or Castleton once upon a time.....Many thanks Stuart....Mark
@@spompey thanks, loving the videos. brings back great memories
They shouldn’t have destroyed Manchester Victoria station
There is a cats head poking about at 23.43 bottom left rather strange otherwise a good video.
Yes I see it now Meowwww......and many thanks for watching and for commenting....best regards...MARK