Skelton Junction

[RogerFarnworth]

I guess this qualifies, just about, for this area of the forum as the linked post does talk about West Timperley Station. .....

What makes a good post? I am not exactly sure. Many of mine are somewhat self-indulgent. I see something I want to investigate and I write about it. ...

There are older threads about Skelton Junction and surrounding lines on www.railforums.co.uk which I reference towards the end of this post.

The reason I wanted to look at this was utterly self-indulgent.

Long ago, ... long, long ago ... I lived in Broadheath. My home was less than a mile from Skelton Junction. Doing some investigation was as much about my roots as it was about railways. ....

This short piece is the result:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/08/15/skelton-junction

The really significant piece of work was what prompted my interest in the first place - an article by Eddie Johnson in the November 2003 issue of Steam Days.

[JEB-245584/2]

Interesting article Roger, the Skelton Junction to Glazebrook line is only a few minutes walk away from my abode.
Geographically speaking Skelton is in the district of Broadheath but don't say that to the local residents, to them its Timperley!!
Officially the line is mothballed not closed and when they built the Stamford Brook estate between Sinderland Road and Trafford College the houses stopped before the railway boundary. Also an embankment and bridge had to be built to go over the railway to accommodate one of the only two access roads into the estate.

There was a proposal to reopen the line back in 2006 to serve the then Carrington Business Park. Vegetation clearance went on for a few weeks before suddenly stopping and that was that.
Possible future plans could see the line possibly reopen to Partington as part of the Metrolink network and then onto Irlam before looping back round to the Trafford centre line. These are very long term plans though and depend on the success of a large development currently on the drawing board for Carrington and the development at Port Salford being viable.

Cheers John

[DSY011]

It must be great to be able to trace your old home Roger, I have tried to trace mine, but not had much luck. I was born in Bechuanaland (now Botswana in a town called Serowe (which was the capital back in 1947). My father was a policeman back then. We move to Bulawayo when I was 3 years old, back in the days of The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Dad had joined the Rhodesian Railways. I was 10 when dad was transferred to Ndola in Northern Rhodesia. A few years later, the whole of the railway township (Westgate) was demolished, the school, the shops, even the roads were removed. There is nothing left there now apart from bush. I have fond memory's of my time in Bulawayo as I was a bit of a wanderer. Spent a lot of my time watching the Bulawayo Loco shed been built, and riding on the loco's which were shunting in the Westgate yard. One of the Greek drivers, who knew my dad would allow me to ride on the footplate, and when I was a little older, drive under his supervision. They were happy days, but there is nothing left of Westgate or the school I went to.
As a foot note, our school was about 50 yards from an Asbestos Factory. No such thing as Health & Safety in those days.

[JEB-245584/2]

20190822_093324_1.jpg

This is how the line is today, officially "mothballed" the building on the right was erected in 2018 and doesn't encroach onto the track bed, doubt anything will be running past it soon though!!!
Lindsell Road is near the trees on the horizon.

Cheers John