HYDE CHESHIRE

Harry Rutherford's
Festival of Britain Mural




Monday 6 August 2012

Godley train turntable.

 This fabulous photo was lent to us by Joe Lloyd and comes via David Stafford.

What a quality photo. I hadn't ever seen a train on the turntable before !
Am I right in thinking that men used to push the turntable by hand, as shown on the photo?

GodleyGCLTurntable

The CLC turntable in use at Godley Junction with much other activity. In one of the early air raids on the Manchester area, a bomb exploded some 25 yards to the right of the turntable, just in the field beyond the railway boundary fence. Extreme left behind the main line up-side sidings, stand the Signal Shop the building of which was authorized by the MS&LR Board in 1873 and completed in 1875. The newer brick building was Walls Meat Products Factory, now Kerry Foods and the extensive housing development on the skyline is the Hattersley Housing Estate built post-war by Manchester City Council.


Photobucket

14 comments:

westarsteve said...

wow what an excellent picture we used to play on this when we were kids then one day we went and they had removed it and all that was left was the big circle its nice to actually see it as it was with a steam train on it many thanks steve

Tom said...

One of the best pictures I've seen on here in quite a while... What a great scene of a bygone era.

Werneth Low said...

Thank you for posting this brilliant photo.

J.Stafford said...

Fantastic pictures from the era of the steam train, would enrich any photographic archive. We will never see the likes of this again. Brilliant.

David said...

Hi
Thanks for the comment I will pass them on to Joe
I have more pictures of Godley and Hyde junction siding
I will get them scanned and posted as soon as I can
Thanks again
David

Anonymous said...

Wow!

ceecee said...

what a great picture of the turntable brought- back memories of standing at the fence at the side of Tyms pond watching the engines being turned round.( was Tyms pond where the bomb landed?)have sent some pictures of how it is now totally unrecognizable.Thanks for all these trips back in time to the people who keep sending the pictures in.

David said...

Hi
No Tims pond was there before the bomb dropped according to the information Joe give me.
David

Tom said...

I've been told that quite a few incendiary bombs were dropped around there... would this be the ones that Joe as mentioned?

Tom said...

Just come across this information on Wikipedia.
Godley was the temporary terminus of the route to Sheffield when the first section of the Woodhead Line was opened on 17 November 1841, but the original station was located about ¼ mile further west. This temporary station was named Godley Toll Bar and closed on 11 December 1842 when the line was extended to Broadbottom.
Godley East once had four platforms - two on the Manchester-Glossop Line and two linking the Woodhead Line with the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) route to Apethorne Junction (Woodley). The branch opened in 1866, after which Godley became known as Godley Junction.[1] The CLC platforms were only ever lightly used. The station and sidings were controlled by a single mechanical signal box which was located at the east end of the 'up' (Hadfield) platform.

Bill Lancashire said...

So finely balanced that a couple of men could turn a gigantic locomotive like it was a toy.

That's a tribute to the precision engineering (and the engineers) involved.

waterman said...

Superb picture, more please David!!

Unknown said...

That's a great photo especially with the flats in the background. I'm guessing it was taken during the early 70s as I wasn't even born!

Bill Wood said...

The photo was taken before August 1968, that's when steam loco's were finally finished with by British Rail.