Walk from Broadbottom station to Dinting Station. Distance 3 Miles
Godley
I previously covered the Cheshire Lines Committee Godley to Tiviot Dale and Tiviot Dale to East Didsbury. The Cheshire Lines Committee was a collaboration between the Great Central, Great Northern and Midland Railways with the aim of breaking the monopoly of the London & North Western Railway in the north west. At Godley Junction the CLC met the Great Central's mainline, the Woodhead Route. The original station at Godley Junction was replaced with the current one a short distance to the west that opened in 1986. I visited the original station site on my walk from Godley to Tiviot Dale.
When the Woodhead Route closed as a through route in 1981 part of the line remained in use as far as Glossop and Hadfield for Manchester suburban services. There are a couple of interesting sites of the important mainline that once ran here that I visited with the remaining suburban train services and a bit of walking.
Broadbottom
We took the train as far as Broadbottom and walked along Mottram Road and Lower Market Street to Long Lane where a footpath runs along the south side of the surviving railway line through the site of the large Mottram Yard.
Below - Our train at Broadbottom.
Below - The former Broadbottom goods shed. Note the gantry for wires on the line in to the goods shed.
Mottram Yard was a large marshalling yard established in 1935 prior to the proposed electrification of the Woodhead route (which would not be completed until after the war). It was a convenient location to split off and attatch wagons heading to and coming from Manchester with those heading to and coming from the further west via the CLC line around the south of Manchester from Godley. The entire site was on a gradient of 1 in 85 so it could be gravity shunted without needing a hump. When the Woodhead route closed in 1981 Mottram yard was also closed as the line through it no longer saw freight traffic from across the Pennines.
Below - A small platform in the former yard, I couldn't find this on the old map. It looked as if it had been a cattle dock as there were the remains of fencing on the platform, though as far as I know the yard just dealt with re-marshalling wagons.
Below - The large Glossop Road bridge that spanned the narrower part between the arrival yard and sorting sidings.
Mottram Staff Halt
Below - A view from Glossop Road bridge looking west. All the land seen to the left of the surviving running lines was once occupied by sidings. The platforms of the staff halt can be seen. Though appearing to be an old station the platform was for the exclusive use of railway staff working in the yard.
Dinting
Though there were paths along the site of the yard east of the Glossop Road bridge we continued on Glossop Road to Dinting Vale as the footpaths were a bit muddy.
Below - A 323 unit crosses Dinting Viaduct. Note the seemingly random arrangement of the piers of the viaduct, this is due to extra piers being added as the weight of trains increased.
A path along the bottom of Dinting Viaduct leads to paths through the site of the Dinting Railway Centre. The railway centre closed in 1991, the three road display hall was demolished and nature has taken over the rest of the site since.
Dinting Junction (original station)
Dinting was where the branch line to Glossop met the mainline from Sheffield via Woodhead. Originally the junction faced the Sheffield direction so passengers travelling from Glossop to Manchester had to change at Dinting Junction station. Soon realising there was greater demand for travel towards Manchester than Sheffield, the station was rebuilt to form a triangular junction with platforms on the corner of the triangle facing Manchester. The original alignment of the line from Glossop was used for an engine shed and engineers' sidings. It was this shed and sidings that in the 1970s and 80s formed the Dinting Railway Centre.
Dinting Railway Centre
Below - A video about the Dinting Railway Centre.
Below - The site today.
Below - The former coaling stage.
Below - The single road maintenance shed.
Below - Lean to buildings on the side of the original shed building. Old pictures of the site show this building with a refreshment room sign at the entrance as this was a tea room for most of the preservation era but was replaced by a cafe near the display hall in later years.
Below - Remains of buildings that stood at the eastern edge of the line on which brake van rides were operated.
Below - The floor of the three road display hall, the tracks sat between the sections of concrete floor.
Below - Rubble at the western end of the three road shed. In the background the former station building on one of the disused platforms of Dinting station can be seen.
Below - The disused station building. Originally this was on the platform used by trains from Glossop to Manchester but since the closure of the Woodhead route as a through line the lines around the triangular junction have been reduced to single track. With trains using the opposite platform the buildings on this platform were used by the railway centre.
Below - Remains of one of the buildings near the station associated with the engineers' sidings.
Below - The platform constructed by the railway centre to give brake van rides along the site.
Below - Section of wall at the access from the car parking to the platform and display hall.
Below - At the eastern end of the site was the gate on what was once the car park entrance.
Below - At the eastern end of the site the site of the mainline connection in to the railway centre can be seen.
Below - The hut at the mainline connection to the site.
Below - The footbridge at the Dinting Lane crossing. The level crossing is now closed so the footbridge is the only access across the line at this point now.
Dinting (second station site)
From Dinting Lane we continued on Dinting Road to the current station site. As mentioned before it is a shadow of its former self, once the juntion between the Glossop branch and the GCR's mainline from London Marlybone to Manchester via Woodhead today it just sees commuter trains from Hadfield and Glossop in to Manchester.
Below - Nearly all trains now call at Platform 2. Originally this platform was used by Manchester to Glossop trains.. With the three sides of the triangle being single track now the trains call at this platform in both directions, towards Hadfield and towards Manchester. After calling at Glossop trains to Hadfield pass the station site again on the north side of the triangle which has no platforms on their way to Hadfield. Dinting does still have a ticket office, though with limited opening times.
Below - The disused building on the former platform for trains from Glossop to Manchester that was previously part of the railway centre. It can be seen that this building is bigger than that on Platform 2, there being more passengers heading towards Manchester.
Below - The former mainline side to the triangle with buildings bigger still as more of the trains once stopped here. The former platform for trains from Manchester towards Sheffield was on the left and has since been removed and the building has become a house. Platform 1 is the former platform for trains to Manchester from the Sheffield direction, this now just has one train in a morning that misses out Glossop.
Below - Dinting Station signal box on Platform 1, the last survivor of signal boxes that sat at each of the three corners of the site.
Below - Looking towards Manchester on the former mainline platforms.
Below - The south corner of the station with platform 1 on the left and platform 2 on the right with a train for Manchester calling at Platform 2.
Below - A train for Glossop at Hatfield at Platform 2.
Glossop
Below - We caught a train to Glossop and Hadfield, it is seen here at Glossop. Just one platform of the terminus station remains. On the right former goods shed buildings are now in use as a supermarket.
I have previously cycled the former Woodhead route from Hadfield to Penistone but I intend to go back and walk the route so will likely feature Hadfield onwards in due course.
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