Institution of Mining Engineers - North West Tour - 21st September 1991

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Railtour map drawn by our member Dave Mellor.<br>[&copy; Dave Mellor 1991]	Railtour map drawn by our member Dave Mellor.<br>[&copy; Dave Mellor 1991]	Railtour map drawn by our member Dave Mellor.<br>[&copy; Dave Mellor 1991]	Railtour map drawn by our member Dave Mellor.<br>[&copy; Dave Mellor 1991]	1986 map 1:50,000. The WCML to Liverpool/Preston is off middle left with Hartford station bottom centre and to Crewe. The Mid-Cheshire line to Chester is lower left corner and to Altrincham and Stockport upper right (Northwich station). Lostock Soda Ash works is beyond. The triangular junction, far right middle is for the Middlewich and Sandbach line. Greenbank is the third station (lower centre right); just east is Hartford West Jn, then East Jn with North Jn at the apex. The 'spot' is the far end of the Wallerscote Light Railway headshunt (the other end is Winnington).The Winnington branch is now fenced off past the A533 overbridge (the main road above the 'pl' in 'Hospl') above the 'ICH' in NORTHWICH. The unusual Anderton Canal Lift is top middle right (worth a visit).	The front of the tour at ICI Winnington; ahead is the Wallerscote Light Railway to Gorstage Yard (Wallerscote Sidings) by the West Coast Main Line.<br>[&copy; Ian Mortimer 1991]	A May 1977 picture with a Class 45 on a mixed freight approaching Harpur Hill on its way to Buxton. The scenery is typical of this rather bleak (and at times cold) part of the Peak District.<br>[&copy; Ian Mortimer 1977]
Briggs Sidings, the tour is reversing here short of the complex pointwork ahead. The line continuing on to Dowlow was eventually covered by our 'Caldon Peak' tour on 14 Apr 1994.<br>[&copy; Ian Mortimer 1991]	The other end of the tour train at Kelbit Bitumen Sidings as they were in 1991.<br>[&copy; Ian Mortimer 1991]	On the sharply curving Kelbit branch.<br>[&copy; Ian Mortimer 1991]	In May 1977 a pair of Class 25s (common on this working) with a train of oil tanks on the 1968 connection from the West Coast Main Line, passing Edge Green Jn, going to Haydock Oil Terminal. The former Great Central Railway line to Glazebrook went off the right but no trace remains. The formation (left) curving to the left by the front loco is the Edge Green Colliery branch. It was relaid 10 years later in 1987 to serve Kelbit Bitumen works.<br>[&copy; Ian Mortimer 1977]	37706 at Bickershaw Colliery end of line with the tour - if you did the branch in the cab of a coal train you would have been a whole train length from here as they propelled in due to there being no run round facility.<br>[&copy; Ian Mortimer 1991]	Mar 1978. NCB steam locos were in use until the early 1980s and MGR trains were split! Loaded wagons on the steeply graded line from the colliery to the exchange sidings.<br>[&copy; Ian Mortimer 1978]	Looking back from the front of the train leaving Parkside Colliery for the main line.<br>[&copy; Ian Mortimer 1991]
The tour passed close to a couple of Lancashire pits that had already closed. On 30 Apr 1981 a Class 47 hauled MGR train awaiting departure from Sutton Manor Colliery - including a brakevan! On the right is our member David Clark (from Derby) - a Story that can now be told we suspect...?<br>[© Ian Mortimer 1981]	Also on 30 Apr 1981, a Class 40 awaiting departure from Cronton Colliery on an MGR train.<br>[&copy; Ian Mortimer 1981]