Starting Point - Stockport station. Finishing Point - East Didsbury station. Distance - 4 Miles
Below - Image found on Facebook post by Manchester History Revealed showing an engineers train emerging from the tunnel from Tiviot Dale station.
Stockport Tiviot Dale
Continuing my walk on the orbital line south of Manchester from where I got to the previous day at Stockport Tiviot Dale station. As mentioned previously, the line went in to a tunnel after Tiviot Dale station immediately after passing under the Lancashire Hill bridge. At the other end of the tunnel it emerged after passing under Hatton Street. Hatton Street has been truncated by the construction of the motorway but where it was a footbridge now crosses the motorway from Great Egerton Street to the Heaton Norris Park (shown as the Recreation Ground on the old map). It emerges on to a stone path that was once a part of Hatton Street.
Below - Looking over the wall the parapet of the tunnel can be seen. The railway emerged in to a stone lined cutting. The tunnel mouth is partly filled in and fenced over.
Another path across the recreation ground emerges on to Wellington Road North alongside the former railway.
Below - Alongside the railway cutting the concrete fencing and sleeper fencing used to fence off the cutting can be seen.
Below - The line passed under Wellington Road North in a small tunnel which can be seen through the fence.
The line was still in a tunnel when it passed under the viaduct. Above the tunnel was a goods depot. The A5154 cuts through where the tunnel once was.
Below - A piece of wall from the goods depot above the tunnel of the Tiviot Dale line and under the viaduct of the LNWR line.
Below - The LNWR viaduct. Lines in to the goods depot would have run in to the goods depot under the arch in the centre of the photo. On the left the A5145 cuts in to the trackbed just before it would have emerged from the tunnel it entered before Wellington Road North.
Below - Emerging from the tunnel the line climbed steeply to cross over George's Road, a section of retaining wall can be seen.
Below - A series of bridges took the line and the connections to the nearby sidings across George's Road.
Below - Looking back along the course of the railway. Where the cycle path climbs the line would have entered the tunnel under the viaduct.
Below - The former bridge over Lower Bury Street. A number of car dealerships now occupy the site of Club House Sidings.
Below - The bridge that took Didsbury Road over the railway.
The above bridge has been filled and on the south side of the road is now a plain retaining wall, a pet store and gym occupy the site of the railway. The course of the railway can be picked up again from a footpath off Didsbury Road. The path runs sandwiched between the Mercades Benz dealership and the motorway so it's not very apparent that it was a railway, though alongside the motorway is some of the concrete fencing often used on railways.
The path curves off from the trackbed to follow the motorway up to the river crossing, turning off on to the path signposted as part of the Transpennine Trail takes us back on to the railway trackbed. Around this area a large area, now partly lost under the motorway, was taken up by Heaton Mersey Sidings.
The path runs through Mersey Vale Nature Park, the park contains the remains of the top half of a scissors junction between the Midland and the Cheshire Lines Committee routes. The Midland came from south of the river crossing over the the river and the CLC, the north abutment of this viaduct can still be seen.
Below - North abutment of the line that carried the Midland route over the River Mersey and the CLC route.
Below - After passing under the Midland line the CLC also crossed over the River Mersey on a metal viaduct. The south abutment of this can be seen on the other side of the river.
South of the river the CLC line continued to Glazebrook Junction where it met the line through Warrington Central. Beyond the missing river bridge a section of the line remains in situ as far as the connection with the Altringham line near Timperley, it now accessed south of the river via the Midland's "Loop Line" that connects it with the route from New Mills. Further east, to the north of Gatley, it is joined by the passenger line to Altringham and Chester via Stockport.
The rest of today's walk is along Midland lines rather than CLC lines. Firstly heading up to the top of the abutment of the Midland bridge there is a footpath along the former line.
Below - East of Vale Road looking back towards the bridge over the CLC and the Mersey, the site of Heaton Mersey Station Junction can be seen. There is a less well defined path along the north side of the triangle to Heaton Mersey East Junction, I also followed this path though it is quite overgrown.
Heaton Mersey
The bridge over Vale Road has been removed and the path descends to road level. Around the site of Heaton Mersey station the embankment has been levelled and built on with a row of retail units. I followed Station Road on to Green Pastures. From there a cycle path, National Cycle Network route 55, follows the former railway route although the cutting has been partially filled in.
Below - The bridge under Parrs Wood Lane / Didsbury Road.
Below - Between Parrs Wood Lane / Didsbury Road and the bridge under the LNWR line is now the East Didsbury terminus of the Manchester Metrolink. From here to the former Manchester Central station is now a Metrolink tram route.
From here I continued to the nearby East Didsbury station for a mainline train home.
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