The main girder structure of the station footbridge was removed over
the night of 20-21 March and taken away for refurbishment. There was an
idea at one time to move it to the car park and work on it there, but
this has not happened. The scaffolding arrangement supports the cables
for the information screens, which were previously carried in trunking
fixed to the bridge.
23 March
A Deltic to Edinburgh with Retro Railtours
Locally based charter train organisers Retro Railtours and running an
excursion from Stockport to Edinburgh on 31 May, with adult fares from
just £49.50. The train will be hauled by celebrity 'Deltic'
locomotive 55 022 Royal Scots Grey.
Details
and online booking at www.retrorailtours.co.uk
A 'Western' though Davenport
An excursion hauled by preserves 'Western' class diesel-hydraulic
locomotive D1015 Western Champion
will be passing through Davenport on Saturday 20 March. Some timings
are: Stockport
(pass)
12.24,
Hazel
Grove (pass) 12.30, Buxton arrive 13.05, depart 16.15,
returns a different way, via Peak Forest (17:05) and Edale.
If you take a picture of this train, please send it to us for display
here.
18 March
The Great Western Express
Our friends at the Mid-Cheshire Rail Users Association are running an
excursion to Oxford, Bath and Bristol on Saturday 8 May which picks up
at Stockport. Full details and online booking at www.mcrua.org.uk.
10 March
Easter Farmers' Market in Cale Green Park
On Easter Monday, the Friends of Cale Green Park will be hosting the
first ever farmers' market in the Park (opposite Davenport station.)
There will be an Easter Egg Hunt, but the real attraction will be the
produce at the stalls ... The market is the one that used to take place
at Heaton Mersey Park. More details at: www.calegreenparkresidents.org.uk
10 March
Newsreel
Lifting out the footbridge for refurbshment is clearly not going to
plan, as it is still there on 12 March and looks likely still to be
there for a couple of weeks yet. The picture shows some men in orange
suits looking at the problem, or maybe waiting for something....
Building of the two 'affordable' homes on the empty site in Oakfield
Road is proceeding at great speed. The red colour is the plastic
protecting the timber framing. Notice how close the frontages are to
the pavement, although the developers have increased this distance to
1.7 metres after their original planning application was refused. The
council's other objection, that future residents would suffer noise and
inconvenience from the workplaces opposite, would seem to still apply.
Apparently the houses will have cycle shed, solar panels, and wind
turbines! (Here
is
an
interesting
document concerning this site.) As usual, the
picture shows parked vehicles obstructing the pedestrian area.
At Stockport station, sturdy fences have been erected to stop people
walking off the ends of the platforms. Why?
Some peace and traquillity: model sailing boats on Edgeley Reservoir.
Model Railways at
Chapel-en-le-Frith
The New Mills Railway Modellers are holding their annual exhibition on
27 and 28 February. It will be held at Chapel-en-le-Frith High School, Long Lane, Chapel, ten
minutes' walk down the road from Chapel-en-le-Frith station.
There should be 23 layouts attending
in
a
variety
of
scales,
and
also a good dose of traders/preservation
stands.
It
will be open from 10 am until 5 pm both days and light refreshments are also
available. More info at www.nmdrm.co.uk
25 February
More about the Davenport footbridge
The project to refurbish Davenport's station footbridge is under way,
as you may realise from the signs that have been posted. The intention
had been to lift out the bridge span on 20 February, until it was
realised that trunking carrying the connections to the information
screens was attached to the bottom of it. The 'big lift' is now
planned to happen, all being well, over the night of 26-27 February.
From next week passengers will need to access the platforms via the
ramp and stairs direct from the road.
25 February
Bramhall Lane website
Our very own main street, Bramhall Lane, now has its own website - www.bramhalllane.co.uk -
complete with a Twitter feed! Why not pay it a visit?
10 February
Mosley Street station to close?
The Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority are proposing to
close and remove the one-way Manchester Metrolink station at Mosley
Street, which exists to a more frequent service from the Piccadilly
area towards Altrincham than is offered in the daytime (as services
from both Bury and Piccadilly station can call), despite surveys which
show that on average 36 passengers board there in the peak period.
The new trams do not have steps for low platforms, so if a coupled pair
of them was to call at this stop, the whole platform would have to be
built up to high level like the one at St Peters Square has been
already. Apparently this would cost £1.2 million, compared to
£300,000 for removing the station altogether. There is also
a concern that stopping there when far more trams are running in the
future would cause congestion.
For some unexplained reason, there are some small changes to the times
of Sunday morning trains from Davenport with effect from 7 February.
The first train on Sundays now leaves two minutes earlier at 09:02 and
continues through to Manchester Piccadilly instead of terminating at
Stockport. The following trains to Manchester are 11:06. 12:06 and
13:08, then at 08 minutes past each hour until 22:06. Towards Buxton,
departures from Davenport are 09:13 (20
minutes
earlier
than
previously), 10:09, then at 09 minutes past
each hour until 23:09.
1 February
Travel in Style
If you fancy a pleasant day or evening out, using an especially
comfortable train,
consider one of the services on Mondays to Fridays which are
scheduled for one of the 5-coach 'class 180' trains currently on loan
to Northern Rail, which have plenty of seats, including some
ex-first-class ones, and air-conditioning. The trains to look for are:
09:37 from Davenport to Manchester Piccadilly, Oxford Road,
Deansgate, Salford Crescent, Bolton and Preston. This is the first
train of the day on which Cheap Day Returns are valid.
14:23 from Preston via Bolton (14:56), Salford Crescent
(15:09), Deansgate (15:12), Manchester Oxford Road (15:14) and
Piccadilly (15:21) to Hazel Grove (calls at Davenport 15:39)
16:35 from Davenport to Manchester Piccadilly, Oxford Road,
Deansgate, Bolton and Preston - note that this departs Davenport
earlier than the normal
xx:37 or 38 timing for some unknown reason.
Updated 30 January
More departures
Following on from the recent announcement of the resignation of
Northern Rail Managing Director Heidi Mottram (taking her OBE with her)
we hear of further departures from among the Northern Rail upper
echelons.
Paul Salveson, the guru of the 'Community Railways' idea, is taking up
a post with Grand Central, the 'open access' company which runs a few
trains a day between Sunderland and London Kings Cross.
Also heading for pastures new is Ruud Haket, Northern's Engineering
Director, who, as his name suggests, came to Northern from the
Netherlands Railways, joint owners of the franchise. While rumour has
it that he was not universally popular with the staff at Newton Heath
depot,
neither have he and his staff had an easy task looking after the
assorted collection of ageing stock that forms the Northern Rail fleet.
In any case, the franchise system itself, with companies created for a
life of just a few years, does not encourage senior managers to stay.
Northern started in November 2004 and has the franchise for 8 years 9
months. What happens after that is anyone's guess.
Updated 30 January
Welcome to 2010
Congratulations to Northern Rail for keeping a train service running on
our line, even to Buxton over one of the highest summits in England,
through
the snowy weather.
7 January: Cold conditions are affecting some trains this morning. See
the Live
Departures website. (To find out about Hazel Grove - Preston
Trains, you will need to check 65 minutes before your planned departure
time to see if the incoming train from Preston is running.)
