NK writes:

An article of rail interest, which I published just a few years ago in one of the magazines that I used to produce for the Old Boys' Association of The Hulme Grammar School, Oldham, and written by Old Boy and RVR Member, Geoffrey Hilditch, is worthy of inclusion on this website, being especially topical now that Oldham has ceased to be connected to the main rail network in readiness for the extension of Manchester's Metrolink through to Oldham and Rochdale et al.

Geoffrey has admitted that he has had a life-long interest in transport, in particular trams, a hobby, which sometimes interfered with his school studies, and, after leaving school in 1942, he started work at the LNER Gorton works, progressing upwards and sideways to become Transport Manager for Halifax, as well as Great Yarmouth, Leicester, and other transport authorities, and, to a certain extent, culminating with several years being spent in Whitehall working with the Ministry of Tranport under Nicholas Ridley, during which time he was responsible for the concept of improving disabled access and transportation of wheelchairs on "low-level" buses.

In his later years, he has written many books about his experiences in transport, as chief engineer and later manager, and in a style, often with wry humour, that can be appreciated by those with no particular interest in transport.

Updated: 19 October 2010

Since this article first appeared on the RVR website, it has proved to be one of the most frequently accessed and popular features, and I am delighted Geoffrey, now approaching the age of 85, and without a computer, has managed to respond to the many requests for an extension.

To view photographs of the line taken on 8 October 2010, click here

NK

Updated: 19 April 2011

 

MENU Start Part Two x xx Mills of Delph & further reminiscences Part Three x xDelph Donkey Today   Detailed Railway (with roads) Map of Saddleworth   Timetables xx1910 & 1938 Greenfield - Delph xx1910 LNW Manchester - Oldham - Greenfield - Leeds   Lees Shed Allocations   Author's Bibliography

 

 

 

When I, as a then-resident of Delph, first entered Oldham Hulme Grammar School in those now long-gone pre-war days, there were two ready means of undertaking my daily commuting journey.     The favourite was to catch a bus from the side of the wall that marked the boundary of the property of the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company’s Delph Station premises, but more of this establishment and its competitive services later, although when it came to frequencies, the buses won hands down. There were two such services to be found at Delph Station. The first, at a quarter to every hour, ran to Piccadilly Bus Station, Manchester, travelling through Oldham via Yorkshire Street, the Market Place, and George Streetbefore gaining Hollins Road and the main road from Hollinwood to Manchester.

Luxury bodies also came to figure in North Westerns new standard single-deckers. With Gardner five cylinder diesel engines, and crash gear boxes, they were rugged, reliable but noisy, vibrating when pulling hard. Travel, when in over-drive, gave, however, a totally different experience.

This was always worked by the North Western Road Car Company, using from about 1936, a luxurious-bodied Bristol single decker that was powered by a Gardner 5 cylindered engine. On the climb to Scouthead, this provided noise and vibration in full measure, but, on favourable stretches of highway, the driver would engage overdrive with a satisfying “clank”, when vibrations disappeared completely, and 50 mph was not impossible.

The evening Measurements double-deck working, circa 1938, was usually entrusted to a 1935 Leyland/Roe vehicle and similar to 116 (only this had an experimental metal-framed-body). Riding from the GPO. to Delph on a double-decker bus and just waiting for its 5.00 p.m. departure from Greaves Street, was itself, circa 1937/8, quite an event. Riding upstairs was much rougher, and vehicles of this vintage were devoid of heaters.

The second service, of a circular nature, was also worked by North Western, this running to Greaves Street for the GPO. It left Delph at quarter past the hour. In the return direction, the bus from Manchester left the Market Place (Burtons stop at a quarter to the hour, buses being provided alternately by Manchester and Oldham transport undertakings. The usual Oldham vehicle was number 18, a Roe-bodied Leyland single decker, fitted with a full front and side window glasses permanently fixed, that travelled along the legendary Manchester Piccadilly – Oldham - Uppermill via Scouthead road, so it was in effect route-bound. The corresponding circular service left Greaves Street at a quarter past the hour and was again always worked by an Oldham single decker. Delph seldom saw a double decker at this time except for a single working that left Greaves Street at 5-00 pm and travelled, via Delph, to the Measurements Works to provide finishing time travel facilities for the workers there.   Now, if one had to be at Hulme for school starting time, the favourite way was to catch the 8-15 a.m. departure from Delph Station and board the Tilling-Stevens petrol-powered four-cylinder bus normally allocated to the working. These came in two forms, either with original circa 1931 bodies, or with the luxurious Eastern Coachworks body with high-back seating, as found on the Bristols. Now four cylinders did not offer much in the way of vibration, and even less when it came to urge but this was just as well as these Tilling-Stevens chasses did not possess front-wheel braking systems, and how drivers ever stopped those wartime conversions, fitted with perimeter seating that oft times loaded up to sixty persons plus, was always a mystery to me, but fortunately at that time most of the customers, and this scribe were unaware of any braking deficiencies. Then, when Tillings advertised the express Mark 11 chassis, they said “IT was designed with a policy of simplicity in mind”. They were not wrong.

A 1931 Tilling-Stevens North Western single-decker of the sort to be found working the Saddleworth Area in pre-war days. Powered by a four-cylinder petrol engine and devoid of front wheel brakes, they never offered a sparkling performance even downhill for a wise driver enjoyed a lower gear when descending gradients, say from Lydgate or Austerlands, but they were remarkably reliable.

To digress, these services remained as set down until 1940 when double deckers began to work all Uppermill circular services plus the Manchester route, only this was cut to a two-hourly frequency, leaving Oldham and Delph at quarter to the even hour. Now I did, at the outset, suggest one had a choice, but at this stage forget the word. The bus fare from Delph to Oldham was 9d return for an adult or 5d return for a junior but this was expensive. The cheap day return fare by train was 6d for an adult and 3d for a junior, or even less, if ones parents purchased a term-long contract. If, however, one was attending Hulme after gaining a West Riding scholarship, a railway travel contract came with the award so the LMSR had a captive customer, and, that contract gave free travel in the holidays. Unfortunately, there was a down side - there was not a half hourly version of the Delph Donkey to be seen against the Delph Station buffer stops.

DELPHx STATION in full working order One of my friends lived at the house at the end of Bailey Mill, and had, in effect, his own private entrance to the station. NK writes: The siding, which veers off to the far right, was originally part of the tramway, which extended as far as Castleshaw Reservoirs above Delph, and was used when these were being constructed. Now little trace remains of this extension but this is just one of the topics that is covered in Part 2 of this article.

The only convenient train left Delph at 7-48 a.m., this being the second departure of the day, and was scheduled to arrive at Clegg Street at 8-12 a.m. when one was faced with a walk across the Goods Yard, over Park Road, through a maze of mean and smelly streets, to cross Ashton Road before the hike over Chamber Road.

In 1935, North Western began to re-body many Tilling-Stevens chassis luxurious high-backed seats for 31 passengers, concealed lighting and curtains, were standard fittings but did nothing to improve the power/weight ratio. Some were withdrawn as early as 1939, but most ran through the war years, some being fitted with perimeter seating to increase overall capacity.

This was not much fun on a wet morning for the bus traveller on arrival at the GPO via the 8-15 from Delph could catch the “A” bus there and pay 1d to ride to Chamber Road, or walk to the Star Inn and catch the same vehicle for only a halfpenny ........ and have half an hour longer in bed in the bargain. The train however did not always make it on time as there could be problems en route.

In 1937, Oldham Corporation purchased six Daimler, C.O.G.6 chassis, which had six-cylinder engines and pre-selector gear boxes, the only ones of the type to be operated pre-war days, fleet numbers 168 to 173. They were allocated to the Greenacres - Chapel Road “A” service, and so took generations of Hulmeians to and from School. Smooth running and boasting heaters, they carried shapely Roe-composite framed bodies.

The train was always made up of four coaches, no two of which were ever identical but all were of the corridor type, and some actually possessed toilet facilities only these were now firmly boarded up, and so a typical formation consisted of an ex-LNWR compartment coach that was devoid of doors to the compartments, and so was decidedly draughty. Then came a second such vehicle that did have doors, to be followed by an open saloon with blue-red upholstery, and had recessed end doors, and which must have seen better days. The last vehicle was another open saloon only this had a central door, which had once been a composite with an enclosed former first class section. This had, for Delph purposes, been down-graded to all third, some having moquette seating, others rattan weave.

A Webb coal tank. The apparatus on the side of the smoke-box is the vacuum regulator valve. When the driver so wished, he could cut-off the steam supply to the cylinders from his cabin at the leading end of the train, hence the two flexible pipes carried on the buffer beam. One was for braking purposes, the other to control cylinder steam supply when in pushing mode.

At the Oldham end of this coach was the driving compartment, which accommodated the driver on the pushing run to Oldham, where that worthy was able to control the regulator, the brake, the whistle, and also indicate to the fireman, who remained on the engine, the direction of travel required, and if the valve gear should be notched up or not. At the Delph, or business end, was to be found the motive-power, or, prior to 1938, an ex-London and North Western Webb designed “coal tank” that had been adopted for push-and-pull working, when it was always pull to Delph and push to Oldham. This prime piece of motive-power was based at the Lees shed, which, at this time, had an allocation of six or seven out of 20 locomotives in total. Almost three hundred coal tanks were built from September 1881, being typical Victorian side-tank engines, with small diameter low-mounted boilers, carrying large funnels and sizeable domes. They were considerably smaller in size than the coaches they were coupled to, and, as they approached Delph station, it was easy to see how the coupling rods on either side were set on different quarters of the driving wheels. This small size, plus lack of adhesion weight (12 tons 10 cwt. on the driving axle, led oft times to problems occurring in Lydgate tunnel. This had to be entered from a Grasscroft halt standing-start when travelling towards Oldham was on a continually-rising gradient, and was more than a little wet. Very soon, after entering the tunnels, Grasscroft end, portal slipping would become apparent to the passengers, and, if the sanding gear was not up-to-par, this could be of a prolonged nature. The only good thing here was that, as the coal tank was pushing, smoke and steam might be left behind but do not bank on it. Eventually, after what seemed an age, a series of “clonks” announced the operation of the Grotton audible-warning distant signal, and thereafter, it needed only a few more slips before daylight was again reached. From the end of the tunnel it was downhill all the way to Clegg St. with a surprising number of passengers boarding at Grotton and at Lees, despite the much more intensive bus service both places then enjoyed.   Return to the Start of Feature Return to RVR Home Page

GREENFIELD Down Main Line Platform The metal plates in the foreground show the location of the subway. Go under the line by it and then walk towards the signal box in the background to gain that Bay Platform. It was quite a hike!   GREENFIELD TRACK DIAGRAM circa 1935   The Bay Platform was used mainly by Stockport / Oldham to Greenfield trains. However, I recall well an evening Oldham to Delph train running into it. A down Manchester to Leeds train arrived in the Main Platform, and, after it had left, the "Donkey" chuffed out to replace it, stopped, picked up any transferring passengers and then left for Delph, having suffered a 10 - minute delay, or longer, as the Leeds train had been running late, but, around the year 1935, time-keeping was usually good.     GREENFIELD "Remote" Bay Platform The “remote” bay platforms at Greenfield, photographed after the tracks on the line, thence to Oldham (closed on 11 April 1964), had been lifted. From this platform departed the 8.20 a.m. for Stockport, as mentioned in the text (see below).   Return to the Start of Feature Return to RVR Home Page   From a HuImeian point of view though, the worst hazard was the Guard. This official patrolled the train selling tickets to passengers boarding at Measurements, two trains per weekday from Oldham, one in the evening in the reverse direction, Dobcross, Moorgate, and Grasscroft, which, as halts, were unstaffed. These gentlemen were not going to tolerate any exuberant schoolboy horseplay, so discipline was the operative word, and peace was maintained.   Fraternising with the young ladies, heading for the establishment next door, was not encouraged even if they were game, when purdah and a seat in a female section of the train might be decreed.   Even worse was the situation occurring when some misguided member of the Girls School staff decided to take up residence in the Saddleworth Area, and then travel to school by train - this really was too much, so an alternative had to be adopted.     Fowler 2-6-2 tank engine number 56 stands on Lees Shed. Seventy of these locomotives were built from 1930. They had a theoretical tractive effort of 21.485 lbs against the 16.530 lbs of the Coal Tanks, and certainly did seem to slip less when negotiating Grasscroft Tunnel. Nicknamed “Bread Vans”, they were unpopular with their crews, who complained of excessive heat in the cabs. The vacuum-controlled regulator valve does seem though to be much neater then that carried by coal tanks.

Leave the 7-48 a.m. at Greenfield, arrival 7-56 a.m., go under the subway, walk the long length of the down main platform, and so reach the bay platform located at the Oldham end of the premises. From this rather remote location departed the 8-20 for Stockport, made up usually of two elderly compartment non-corridor coaches, horsed either by an ex Lancashire and Yorkshire 2-4-2 tank engine, also based at Lees or an 0-6-0 tender locomotive from the same Horwich/Lees stables. This would run tender first to Oldham, giving the crews a goodly bout of very fresh air on a cold and frosty morning, or a continuous shower on a wet one unless the sheet that ran from cab-roof ....... cabs were very spartan....... to the front of the tender had been placed in situ when some protection was offered. My first ever footplate trip took place on one of these engines, working the morning goods train to Delph that arrived about 11-00 a.m. and then departed Mondays to Fridays at about 12-10 p.m. I had never previously appreciated how basic steam engines could be. Non-corridor stock was also basic, but no guard could now monitor schoolboy behaviour, and so various nefarious activities could continue unmolested. This train arrived in Clegg Street at 8-35 a.m. and so gave sufficient time to undertake the aforementioned goods yard - Park Road - Chamber Road hike to Hulme. School finished at 4-15 p.m., so, if one came from stations up to and including Greenfield, one could catch the 4-35 p.m. due to arrive at the latter station at 4-50 p.m. but for those travelling beyond, the 4-53 p.m. departure was the rule This reached Delph at 5-18 p.m. and so gave this eleven year old a rather long day.   On Saturdays, with a noon school-finishing time, it was simply not possible to catch the 12-10 p.m. from Clegg St. Those heading for all points to Greenfield were favoured with departures at 12-31 p.m. and 12-48 p.m. , but, for those of intending to travel further, a wait until 1-10 p.m. was called for, our coal tank pulling its four assorted coaches, not coming to rest before the Delph buffer stops until 1-44 p.m. so those Saturday mornings at school with their four lessons were a real drag and certainly cut considerably into the weekend.   Towards the end of 1938, as I remember, came modernity to the Delph branch. The LMSR had been introducing electric trains on certain lines in the Wirral area and this released several Fowler designed 2-6-2 tank locomotives for use elsewhere and so numbers 56 to 62 inclusive took up residence at Lees shed, ousting completely the coal tanks in the process. On the face of it, these were quite modern engines with outside cylinders and valve gear, and so must have been a boon to the shed staff, who no longer had to dismantle inside big-end bearings when these were suffering from excessive wear, or find steam gland blows difficult to eliminate, as I later found out during my training spell as a locomotive shed fitter. These new Lees residents were larger than the coal tanks but could never be said to be sprightly performers, so timetables were not accelerated, nor were any extra trips provided.

LEES (Oldham) SHED (Latterly coded 6F)   LEES SHED (possibly in the early 50s) Re-roofed and reduced to five roads in 1955 as the passenger services were withdrawn, it lasted until 11th April 1964, when the last locomotive, a wartime austerity, left for Ashton Moss Freight Yard.   Opened in 1878 with 6 roads to replace a small earlier estabishment, which had been located in Oldham between Clegg Street and Glodwick Road Stations. Turntable removed later but date not recorded. Partially re-built, re-roofed, and reduced to five roads in 1955.   Originally built by LNWR, transferred by LMS, after grouping, in 1931 to Central (ex L&Y) Division when L&Y locomotives began to replace most the the-then LNWR stud. Lost much passenger work as from 30 April 1955, when Oldham, Greenfield and Delph services were withdrawn.   Last such services ceased after 2 May 1959, when the Oldham to Stockport or Guide Bridge trains were discontinued. Shed finally closed on 11 April 1964 - last engine off, Austerity 90708, with the complete closure of the line from Oldham to Greenfield.   For shed allocations, click here

Consequently Delph station continued to see its nineteen arrivals and departures each weekday with twenty on a Saturday but train travel on a Sunday from Delph was not possible, no Sunday service being offered, but the buses, Sunday or not, still offered a thirty-minute frequency from the side of the station wall. Additionally they did so on weekdays during the period when there was a nasty gap in the train service, for once the 10-09 a.m. pulled out from Delph… well actually all the driver needed to do was to release the brakes, and then free-wheel almost all the way to Moorgate Junction ....... the platform did not see another Oldham bound service until 1-18 p.m. In this morning gap was to be found the daily goods working that reached Delph at about 11-00 a.m. which stayed to approximately 12-10 p.m. When the war started, which was to have a more profound effect than it had had in its earliest days, the train service to Delph was cut and ticket prices were increased. This came to affect passenger loadings, and they never really recovered, so that two-coach formations became the invariable rule. The Delph station master did his best and Sunday trains, offering nine trips a day, were introduced in the summers of 1953 and 1954, but it was all too late, the end was in sight, and so the last train ran to and from Delph on Saturday 30 April 1955. I was a passenger on this working, which did have four coaches, and which left Clegg Street at 11-10 pm. Goods traffic continued on an ever-decreasing scale until the 4th November 1962 when final closure was effected, and by August 1964 the branch track had been lifted. When the Delph trains were terminated, the service from Greenfield to Clegg Street, with certain extensions to or from Stockport, was also withdrawn, Grotton, Lees and Glodwick Road stations, the latter almost a total ruin, were closed. Clegg Street, also in a mouldering condition, continued to serve as the terminus for trains from Stockport, and also those very few that started their journey at Guide Bridge, and which, in better days, had terminated at Glodwick Road. This was a service I used daily from 1942 until 1947, seeing ever fewer passengers until Saturday 2nd May 1959 when I purchased the last ever ticket to be issued from Clegg Street station. Lees shed and the line from Greenfield to Clegg Street was still operative at this date, but the Lees Shed closed in April 1964, and with it went the branch when Lydgate Tunnel became redundant.

An ex-LYR 0-6-0 tender locomotive with its spartan cab, which could give a breezy tender-first ride on a Greenfield to Stockport local. They also for years worked the daily goods train to Delph. Lees lost its final such residents in April 1962, and so departed a once very familar sight.

During my school commuting days, I was never in any doubt that the bus represented the best way to travel to and from Hulme. However the train did have one positive advantage. Thanks to its more stable running, one could do ones homework on it, whilst the Clegg Street waiting rooms, with a blazing fire in winter, provided an ideal location to complete at least some of the tasks set for that night when co-operative efforts were not unknown. Such joint activities could, though, attract retribution. Our ferocious French teacher, on more than one occasion, would hurl your homework book back towards you with the abrasive comment. “Another Clegg Street study circle effort - pity you not only got it wrong, but also identifiably wrong". Then the storm began. It is now over 70 years since I, as an eleven year old, first travelled from Delph to Hulme via the “Delph Donkey”. Now there are no trains, and no West Riding scholarship pupils being issued with a rail travel pass, but, thankfully, Hulme continues, and perhaps in another seventy years, a former pupil, like this scribe, will be able to describe in that days’ school magazine what it was like to be a young commuter in the days of yore, or 2007. Finally, all the timings mentioned in this article, are taken from a free booklet that I obtained from Delph station as I started to use the train, a booklet that, by some miracle, has remained in my possession ever since.

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Goods traffic during the years that I travelled frequently on the branch, i.e. from 1931 to 1953, was quite bouyant, and the terminus was well equipped to deal with what came in, and what was to go out, there being in these years several dead-end sidings, plus

a cobbled road serving two of these.

a crane with a wooden jib situated thereon.

a stone-built single-tracked goods shed with a small attached office.

a range of coal drops, accessed from the Uppermill.....New Road.

a run-round loop of respectable length.

The two dead-end roads nearest to New Road though had an interesting history as they had, in earlier years, been linked to form another run-round loop. From the resulting single track from there ran the rails of the Castleshaw Tramroad.

This was built around 1887, the rails passing through the station gates, crossing the Tame river bridge, to front the Bell Inn and then climb up the steepish gradient of Huddersfield Road New Delph, presumably in the centre of the carriageway, as the stone dwellings, fronting the highway, would be largely built by this date, until just beyond the last house on the left the rails did an "S" bend to continue on the wide verge, still to be seen from the start of the cricket field walls until they reached the point where the road from the village centre, running via Cobblers Hill, met the Huddersfield Road.

At this point the tramroad veered to the left to continue down what is now the private road to the Castleshaw reservoirs (that is still known locally as the "tramroad"), which were then being built by Oldham Corporation. This took some six or seven years to reach completion, and, in that period, New Delph saw several trains a day puffing along the highway carrying materials and men needed at the construction sites.

There must have been several terminal layouts at Castleshaw during the building period but no trace of these appear to have survived, whilst building must also have obliterated the remains of the Roman road that ran from the Castleshaw marching camp to Outlane, and thence, in due course, to York, (Ebercorum, as it was known to the Romans).

After the tramroad closed, Delph settled down to receive the daily goods train, which, by 1931, started from Oldham to arrive, Sundays excepted, at around 11:00 a.m. Motive pover at this time was always provided by an ex L & Y 0-6-0, running chimney first to Delph.

It left at 12:10 p.m., when I saw it almost every day. By good fortune, those of us, who attended what was then Uppermill Senior Selective School, living in Delph and who went home for lunch, were allowed to leave at 11:55 a.m. to catch the noon bus out of the square. This conveniently, like the goods train, kept immaculate time so they came to pass at the end of the Delph Station throat, where the highway and the single line to Moorgate, were within a very few yards of each other.

The loads in and out usually consisted of from 12 to 20 wagons when coal trucks, full or empty, invariably made up some 50% of the total.

By 1935/6, all the district mills were working full time, although during the slump from the late nineteen twenties, part-time running, usually in the textile factories, was the order of the day.

Sadly, there was one very unforunate casualty in the shape of Warp Mill Dobrcross. This was a calico printing establishment that decided to fall down, rather than close in the more usual way,
blocking the highvay in the process.

However, conversely, Eagle Mill, Delph, that had closed after a fire, was reopened as a textile sewing unit finding additional employments for the young, and not so young, ladies of the village.of Delph.

Pingle Mill at Carcote also came back to life, producing more specialised products for the upper end of the market, but Linfitts Mill was not so lucky, and, in due time, its quite substantial buildings were totally demolished.

All the working mills, except the Eagle, were steam-powered and
so needed a continuous supply of coal, coal that came by rail.

The longest delivery was made from the coal-drops to the Vale Mills, at Denshaw, of Edmund Butterworth and Sons, who used their Foden overtype steam-wagon, dark blue in colour, to do the work.

This chuffed daily through the village to gain its destination via a private lane that led off the Delph to Denshaw road some quarter of a mile from the Junction Inn. Now overgrown, it still exists, but the Calico printing works is no more, closing around 1938, when its work was transferred to Lumb Mill, Delph.

During the war, the machinery was taken out and the buildings were used to produce camoflaged netting for the forces, but, after 1945, this worked ceased, the premises fell into decay, and now housing covers most of the site.

I missed the Foden as the driver was a relative of our next door neighbour, and so on occasions, I was treated to a ride on the machine, and, when its working life came to an end, I was given a copy of the drivers' instruction manual that, sadly, has been lost over the years.

Interestingly, in pre-steam days, as one descended the Tame Valley, Denshaw Vale / Old Tame, Linfitts, Pingle, Raspin, and Eagle Mills all had water wheels, some of which were still in existence but no longer in use in 1939, and, even today, if one looks at the mill-sites, one can see the remains of the culverts that took the river flow to the then power source.

The shortest deilvery run was, of course, to the now disused Bailey Mill that stands right by the station, and had its own private siding, the track running into the boiler house that contained two Lancashire-type boilers, these feeding steam to the 1897 Tanden compound engine "Diamond Queen".

Several wagons per week, black in colour and bearing in yellow the word "Airedale" would be placed in situ, and here was another footplate opportunity.

The Mill's engineer, Mr. Shackleton, happened to be the father of my best friend, and school holidays would often find us in or about the engine or boiler houses, when the owners of the establishment would make no adverse comments about our presence.

Mr. Shackleton knew all the Lees drivers, who worked the goods trains, and so invitations to have a ride were frequently extended to us.

As we shuttled up and down the various goods roads, we would be told what the various controls did, I, never dreaming that, in a very few years, after gaining expenence in Gorton Works, on the footplate at Gorton shed I really did find out just I really did find out just what hard work really was, and I would learn much more about steam, engines and their foibles than I ever anticipated.

Other wagons to be seen in the goods yard were CWS trucks for the Delph Co-operative Society, which had a thriving coal supply business, whilst the red units, lettered in white "Harry Sykes Coal Merchant, Greenfield, were almost always in evidence. even though his fleet could not have been very large.

Shunting completed, the goods train set off down the Valley to return to Oldham, in those days, making its first stop at the private siding that led to the now demolished Bankfield Mill, of Messrs. Sykes & Campinot.

For safety's sake. the engine, was always at the Oldham end of the assembly so if there should be a runway. the motive power could perform a long or short stop, as circumstances demanded. Such events had occurred in earlier days but no such excitements came the way of us schoolboys.

What would have given even more excitement might have occurred when the Bankfield Shunt was over, and the guard had failed to secure properly the points. If such a failure had occurred, we might have seen an errant Delph Donkey running amok along the tracks of that private siding, rounding the curve, and taking out some of the partner's premises, but nothing of the sort took place, and another source of railway revenue passed into history around 1939/40.

The branch had once boasted two other ports of goods train call, the first being situated at Dobcross, parallel to the platform of that halt. Long disused, all that remained in my day were the former track bed and a set of moulding buffer stops, so obviously trade could never have been brisk to Bridge Mill.

It certainly had been hard by Delph Junction and Moorgate Halt, where a set of tracks ran to the Ladcastle Quarry loading bay.

The quarry was obviously once of considerable size as its remains above Uppermill still testify. The siding had been controlled by a ground-frame, but, according to the locals, the despatch of stone ceased about the end of the First World War, when the quarry was worked out.

Thanks to a combination of goods and passenger traffic, the staff at Delph Station were not in pre-war days short of work. True the arrival of frequent bus services had resulted in a loss of passengers, but Delph trains, prior to 1939, were made up of four coaches when the railway hit back.

The return bus fare to Oldham was 9d for an adult and 5d for a child but the LMS offered half-day tickets to Oldham for 6d and 3d respectively, and seemed to sell a considerable number of them.

We always travelled by train when going to Oldham on Saturdays, thanks, in part, to the low fares, and also because one could always find a place on a late train, even the last one, which was not the case by road as the single deck buses, used in those days, only carried 32 seated passengers with perhaps 8 standing.

After the outbreak of the war, fares by train rose quite steeply and there were some service reductions but goods traffic tended
to boom.

Around 1940, Lumb Mill had a fire, which destroyed part of the works, and, just as important, much of its stock of copper rollers, Calico printing came to an end, and the buildings were taken over by the Royal Navy and converted into a naval supply stores.

To service this, Delph now came to have two goods trains a day, the second appearing in the early evening, when Stanier black fives and 2-6-4 tanks were to be seen on an almost daily basis. Where these trains originated and their destination, was a closely-kept secret....well not too close, for this is Delph after all, where everyone knew everyone else when information, or was it gossip, was invariably exchanged.

The end of the war saw the cessation of this traffic, and from then on a decline began. Full bus services were restored .... every hour to and from Manchester, instead of every 120 minutes, double-deckers, introduced during the war, were to stay, and, for some time, bus fares undercut those on the trains. . . . . now down in the main to two coaches only, with an unfortunate gap in the morning timetable.

For two summers 1953 and 1954, a new Station Master managed to have a Sunday Service introduced for the first time ever, but the weather on the whole in both years, was not conducive to encouraging one to spend an afternoon in the Delph countryside.

The service did not also seem overly reliable, certainly on two occasions when my family and I tried to use it, we were inconvenienced by a cancelled train, whilst, to worsen the situation West Riding pupils on scholarship to Oldham Hulme Grammar School ceased to be issued with yearly train contract tickets, something I possessed from September 1937 until 1939, when we moved into Oldham.

Goods traffic, too, faded as the local mills closed, or road transport took over so it was no surprise when the passenger service was withdrawn after Saturday 30 May 1955.

Goods traffic lingered on until the 4 November 1963 when Bailey Mill ceased to require those boiler house coal supplies, the plant being turned over to be worked by electric pover and Mr. Shackleton ceremoniously stopped "Diamond Queen" for the last time, an occasion that caused him no little distress.

It looked for a time as if trains might return to Delph as some track was retained by the station platform, a passenger coach arnved as did a small steam engine. Later on, in May 1974, that locomotive, once employed at Hartshead Power Station, ran for the first time, but it was too good to last, and the original good intentions were never realised, all the equipment being dispersed.

Today, in 2010, Bailey Mill stands derelict. The station buildings
remain whilst the rest of the station area is now largely built over.

The Goods Shed is no more, whilst the oddly-shaped Station Master's house was demolished in June 1974, the site being used to improve the access at the junction from New Road into Oldham
Road.

It is now incredible to realise that, not only are there no goods trains to Delph but that they can no longer serve Oldham itself, thanks to Metrolink construction and closure of other rail links, but I am glad that I knew the local lines when they were in full operating order, and that I am now able to share these notes with those of you interested in by-gone things.

Geoffrey Hilditch

18 Sept 2010

These stone steps were built to give access from

Ladcastle Road to Dobcross Halt.

They remain in situ to provide access

to the bridle path formed on the old track bed.

Looking towards Delph from the top of the steps.

The sign board proclaims Dobcross Halt Platform stood here.

Budge Mill Siding and Coal Drops were on the right.