1990s Bolton Area False Memory?

[L+Y]

Born in 1991, my earliest rail memories are of my local lines in West Lancs. I can just about remember loco hauled Club Trains on the Southport line, and more clearly "green stripe" 156s and a plethora of 150 and 142 liveries.

I've got a memory that doesn't quite fit though, and I think must be false- but thought I'd check here. Sometime around this period, I distinctly remember travelling back from Manchester with parents, and overtaking a class 56 hauled freight in the Bolton area. This was an overtake, not a simple pass of a train moving in the opposite direction. At the time as a kid, I remember being very excited at the prospect of this train following us and passing through Parbold station where we then lived.

I had cause to think about this memory today, and I can't think where it would have been- I don't think there were any loops still in place in the Bolton area in the late 90s? One possibility is the siding around Westhoughton: was that then still in use?

What are the possibilities- or is this whole story just a false memory?

 

[Spartacus]

It couldn't have been just as you were approaching Wigan parallel to the WCML could it, or perhaps your train was diverted via Eccles? The only other place I can think of as a possibility is back towards Salford

 

[mike57]

Just north of Salford Crescent there are the Tarmac sidings, and just south of Salford Crescent theres a short strech where where the Windsor chord and the line from Victoria merges.

 

[driver9000]

Burnden loops between Bolton and Moses Gate survived in use until the area was remodelled for electrification.

 

[randyrippley]

Wasn't there a coal mine with loop sidings parallel to the main line just west of Bolton?

 

[Howardh]

Burnden loops between Bolton and Moses Gate survived in use until the area was remodelled for electrification.

Just looked at an O/S map of the late 50's of Bolton and clearly there were branch lines for goods/coal etc going southwards towards Moses Gate and Northwards form Burnden into the station. Presumably some were still around by the 90's so goods going northwards could run on one set of tracks, pax another and a third free, especially if one train were destined for the wes and another for the Blackburn line??

I'd love to see a rail lines map of the 70's > 90's of that area, I've tried google earth but I'm afraid that doesn't help!

 

[Trackman]

One possibility is the siding around Westhoughton: was that then still in use?

Chances are it was, although its primary use was for the Metal Box factory.

 

[Springs Branch]

As well as the Tarmac Roadstone terminal on the east side of the line near Agecroft Jn, in the same area was the Brindle Heath 'Binliner' siding (operated by Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Agency, according to Quail Maps). The Binliner terminal was on the west side of the line; passing a train loading in the siding there would likely have been perceived as an 'overtaking move', as the OP mentioned.

In fact, if that was the train the OP saw, it would (eventually) have followed his unit through Parbold. At that time the GM Binliners from Brindle Heath or Dean Lane ran first to Burscough Bridge, where they reversed, then returned and set back into a siding at Appley Bridge & unloaded at the landfill site there (a disused quarry)


Westhoughton Metal Box siding is another very plausible possibility. I've been unable to find when railborne deliveries of steel to the Metal Box factory (= tin cans for food industry) finished - deliveries switched to road for a few years until the factory finally closed - but rail was probably just hanging on in the early 1990s. The few times I saw a goods train in the siding while passing Westhoughton, I'm sure it was Class 37 hauled, and not of a size requiring Class 56 superpower - a handful of wagons of steel coil tripped from Trafford Park, IIRC.

As @driver9000 says, the loops at Burnden would have been in operation at the time too, and the freight (whether a Binliner, Metal Box steel coil trip, or something else) could well have been looped there.


[EDIT] As the OP was born in 1991, they would not have seen a Binliner which subsequently followed them through Parbold en route to Appley Bridge (via Burscough Bridge). It seems the landfill site at Appley Bridge was full up by 1993. After this date the Greater Manchester Binliners operated to Roxby Gullet near Scunthorpe.

Did the Pendleton / Brindle Heath Binliners need to run to Burnden Jn / Bolton to run round and reverse before heading for the Calder Valley or Standedge lines? Maybe this was where @L+Y overtook the train?

Some Class 56-hauled examples shown (on the other side of the Pennines) here on Flickr.

 

[Adrian Barr]

Did the Pendleton / Brindle Heath Binliners need to run to Burnden Jn / Bolton to run round and reverse before heading for the Calder Valley or Standedge lines?

No, they were able to run round in the loop at Brindle Heath and depart towards Manchester. In the late 90s the only freight I can imagine using the loops at Burnden might have been engineering trains. During the West Coast Route Modernisation project (late 90s / early 2000s) I have vague memories of some weekends when engineers trains ran from Crewe via Manchester and Bolton to Preston, to divert around other possessions on the WCML. 56s would have been fairly common on possession trains in the area around this time.

One possibility is the siding around Westhoughton: was that then still in use?

After some delving, I'm surprised to find that this siding was in use in the late 90s. Although rail deliveries of tinplate to Westhoughton (from Ebbw Vale and Trostre) had ceased in the early 90s, they resumed during the EWS "Enterprise" era of the late 90s. In Paul Shannon's book Wagonload Freight Since 1968 Westhoughton is shown as part of the 1999 Enterprise network, and this picture shows EWS-liveried 37707 in the Metal Box terminal at Westhoughton in 2003:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuarts-phots/5585410349/

Apparently the factory closed in 2003, so that photo would have been from the last year of operation. An RMWeb thread suggests it produced the cans for the local Heinz factory in the Wigan area.
The connection into Westhoughton Metal Box parallels the main line for a fair distance, and from a passing train would give a similar visual impression to a loop (possibly the original layout included a loop here): https://www.flickr.com/photos/35891004@N05/50681931936/
Booked traction was probably a 37 but it's easy to imagine a 56 being substituted on the day for one reason or another.

Other 56-hauled freight in the area might have been the Knowsley trips, but the terminal didn't open until 2001 and Bolton would have been an unusual routing (normally through Wigan Wallgate, over the link onto the WCML to Golborne & Chat Moss, or direct to Warrington Arpley). 56117 is seen taking the Chat Moss route in 2002: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8arail/50892092772/

***

Some more detail on the Westhoughton trips:

In the 1987 freight working timetable, there's a 6P82 08:15 Warrington Walton Old Jn to Horwich Speedlink trip. It runs north to Wigan on the main line and takes the connection into Wigan Wallgate before running round in the carriage sidings beyond Wallgate station. It then calls at Westhoughton Metal Box, passes through Bolton to run round at Bolton Burnden Junction, passing Bolton again before reaching Horwich works at 11:11. It then forms 6F82 12:05 back to Warrington Arpley, calling at Chorley Royal Ordnance Factory, running round on the Down Goods at Preston and then direct back to Arpley. In addition to the run rounds at Wigan, Bolton and Preston, all of the sidings served require awkward propelling movements.

The 1984 equivalent of the same trip working is seen at Bolton behind 25032: https://www.flickr.com/photos/25762703@N03/40661033182/
A nice shot of 40160 at Lostock Junction in 1984 with the same working: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lickeybanker/51283504555/

Quoting from Paul Shannon's Wagonload book mentioned earlier:

Trainload Metals transferred most of its wagonload steel traffic from Speedlink to its own discrete network in 1989 in an effort to contain costs and increase accountability in the rail freight business

The "Freight Only Yearbook Vol 1" describes how the Westhoughton trip became a dedicated Metals service from Trafford Park from October 1989 (with Horwich no longer being served by Speedlink, and Chorley ROF served from Blackburn). At this time the Trafford Park railway system was a new origin point for scrap metal traffic to ASW Cardiff, so there was a trunk Cardiff - Trafford Park service with the same loco used for the trip onward to Westhoughton. The 1991 Freightfax (pocket freight timetable) gives the workings:

6M46 Cardiff - Trafford Park (Man Picc pass 04:46)
6F65 Trafford Park - Warrington (Man Picc pass 06:38, Man Vic pass 07:40, Warrington pass 10:51)
6H65 Westhoughton - Trafford Park (Man Vic pass 13:17, Man Picc pass 14:12)
6V46 Trafford Park - Cardiff Tidal (Man Picc pass 20:28)

The daily metals train from Trafford Park to Warrington runs via Ashburys (reverse), Manchester Victoria, Bolton and Wigan (reverse), and its purpose is to serve the Metal Box factory at Westhoughton

As written the workings don't quite make sense, I suspect 6F65 called at Westhoughton (takes 3 hours from Manchester Victoria to Warrington) and 6H65 started from Warrington, but you get the general idea...

From Paul Shannon's book on Bulk Freight since 1968:

BR carried out a comprehensive review of its Trainload Freight business in 1992/93... the less-than-trainload network established in 1989 was a heavy loss-maker. The decision was therefore taken to close down that network... a few low-volume traffics were lost, such as tinplate from Ebbw Vale and Trostre to Wisbech and Westhoughton.

The freight WTT for May 1993 doesn't have a Westhoughton trip; it had probably ceased earlier the same year. As already mentioned, the Westhoughton traffic resumed during the golden years of EWS Enterprise in the late 90s, so could be the explanation for your mysterious 56-hauled freight.

 

[Springs Branch]

There's another interesting (though undated) snapshot on the Westhoughton Metal Box traffic in this thread on RMWeb.

Yes, steel coil in vans (VDA?) was a Man Vic turn , nice canteen at Metal Box. The train came up from Cardiff overnight, Vic driver travelled out on the last Picc Crewe passenger then walked up to Gresty Lane relieve cabin , the train rolled in around 4am. Now this is where it gets complicated as there was nominally traffic for Trafford Park , steel coil wire in SPA's but it was rare traffic in the train .

From TP it was back through Picc to Ashbury's for quick run round then via Philips Park and Miles Platting into Vic for relief and bed. The train was booked up the Styal line from Wilmslow.

If it was just Metal Box traffic I would ask to go via Stockport and Denton straight into Vic and tie the train down as the relieve booked on around 7am.

From Vic the train normally ran via Bolton to Westhoughton but I have run over the Atherton line and run round at Wallgate! Shunt the factory have a good breakfast in the canteen and back to Vic, now I'm pretty sure we worked empty vans back to Vic (Exchange) and got relieved by Warrington crew. The job only ran for about 18 months through Vic and was a rehash of an ex-Springs Branch trip working.

This account tickled my fancy because of its mention (twice) of the Metal Box factory canteen.

I suspect the Metal Box Co. at one time used to be one of those paternalistic manufacturers who provided their workers with generous 'welfare' facilities. A mate worked at their Westhoughton factory for a short time during university summer holidays. He never mentioned anything about inbound rail workings - but, like this train driver, he had many-a-tale to tell about enthusiastically stoking his belly in the Metal Box canteen!