A really interesting topic for me as I live within a couple of miles of this area and as I have grown up I have seen its demise as changes in approach to transporting goods and the loss of manufacturing in the area have taken hold. I always really consider it as three different sections:
Manchester Ship Canal Railway:
I remember this running to the north of the ship canal, the docks in Manchester had a spider’s web of lines running through them and indeed close to the Lowry Theatre you can still see a steel swing bridge in situ, just about the last remaining relic of a bygone age. So much development has gone in Salford Quays and Media City since the docks closed that it’s almost impossible to imagine a line ran there but it did and as a previous correspondent commented it ran parallel to the ship canal almost to Warrington. From memory there were links to the national rail network near Weaste (this link is still there to the cement works albeit I haven’t seen any use of this line since the summer of 2017) and also near to Glazebrook. I’m not sure when the last trains ran but the track which has all now been lifted was still in existence and had limited use in the mid 1980’s around the area of Barton Locks as I saw rolling stock on the lines there then
Trafford Park Railway:
As a youngster Trafford Park was somewhere you rarely went largely as the road infrastructure took you away from that area heading in to Manchester but with the opening of the Centenary Bridge and road improvement it’s now an arterial route to the cities of both Manchester and Salford from the M60 motorway and the Trafford Centre. When I did go through there though the railway lines were full of freight wagons mostly moved by shunters, the lines were often double track and one of the biggest areas of movement was coal wagons to the (now demolished) Barton Power Station. I can recall the sidings there being full of wagons and shunting going on; these were situated on what is now the B&Q car park close the Trafford Centre. Except for a few level crossings presumably not removed in order to avoid traffic disruption virtually all the tracks have been either lifted or tarmacked over in the last few years. The last line to be used was that originating from Cerestar (now Cargills) which ran from under Centenary Way and along Trafford Park Road before crossing Village Circle, going down Europa Way and joining the Manchester International Freight Terminal (MIFT) line at this point. Nortons had a siding on Mellors Road and another business on Moseley Road occasionally had wagons on a short spur there too but the last movement I saw was in early 1996. This was a handful of tankers being moved by (I think) a class 08 shunter from Cerestar towards MIFT. Progress was painfully slow, no more than 5mph due to the poor state of the track and because the line was used so infrequently by then people had a habit of parking their cars on the tracks! I don’t know the last time the tracks were used but ii wouldn’t be much after then. A couple of shunters were stabled at Cargills and a few tankers too but they were rarely used and eventually the link was cut by work completed on a junction on Trafford Park Road resulting in the tracks being tarmacked over
Freightliner Railway:
This ran from the Containerbase site adjacent to the Trafford Centre, under Parkway (where it was double track), parallel to Barton Dock Road and then across Park Road alongside Kellogg’s and via a link joined the other line previously mentioned in to the MIFT. Forty years or so ago Kellogg’s also used this line and I can remember Railfreight wagons in sidings alongside Kellogg’s Barton Dock Road plant. In later years it was solely container freight that used the line. Usage went in peaks and troughs but typically there were two trains, one in a morning and one around 6.00pm in an evening fully loaded from the Containerbase and a couple of “empty” trains went back, one at night and the other normally late morning. The main feature of these trains was their length and how slowly they moved, again no doubt due to the poor state of the track. If you got caught at the level crossing at Park Road you could literally sit there for 15 minutes whilst the train crossed! Until the last few years of operation the trains were moved by old Manchester Ship Canal diesels that were stabled by Kellogg’s with one unit at the front and one to the rear. Latterly I saw what were, (again I think), class 08 shunters doing the work. The Containerbase has gone through many changes of ownership in recent times and whilst it’s still operating clearly it became uneconomical to maintain the track for what became no more than ad hoc movements of trains and a decision was taken to move everything by road. I stand corrected but I think the last trains ran in 2013 and in recent times much of the track has been lifted. Ironically for a long time this line was promoted as the ideal way to get shoppers to the Trafford Centre from the national rail network, now it’s gone and £millions are being spent building the Metrolink line instead!
I hope this at least provides a bit more background for you?