AN UNUSUAL ROUTE TO STOCKPORT

Just to the east of Manchester Piccadilly station was a fine Hyde's pub, the Jolly Angler. It's gone now, a great shame (Photo in my collection, photographer unknown).

 

Further east is the suburb of Bradford, where the Duke of Edinburgh pub could be found. It was demolished in 1992.

A local independent bus company operated in this area. Ashall's were using this Leyland Lynx in Clayton (see the map here) in 2001.

Ashall's depot was in nearby Gorton.

Beyer Peacock had their locomotive building works in Gorton. Here's the internal shunter.

WR 0-6-0PT 9663 is seen outside Beyer Peacock's works, alongside the Woodhead route.

The Great Central Railway also had their works and engine shed at Gorton. GCR 361 is seen there when in new in 1906.

Twenty years later and LNER 0-4-0ST 6430 was found at Gorton shed.

Gorton MPD was still open in 1961, when 41203 photographed there.

The Gorton Arms, a Banks' house in Gorton, has long since closed.

Panic not! The Vale Cottage in Gorton is still open.

Onwards now to Denton. Three pubs to visit here, all still open at the time of writing: The Chapel House, the Jolly Hatters and the Lowes Arms, the latter once brewed its own beer.

The Hornbeam Brewery in Denton was still in business in 2009.

On the main Manchester to Stockport railway is Longsight loco shed and maintenance depot, seen here in LNWR and LMS days.

EE type 4 diesel no. 40012 at Longsight.

Manchester tram 457 in Levenshulme.

Stockport trams also served Levenshulme. One is seen outside the railway station.

Stockport trams connected with buses at West Point, Levenshulme.

On the railway, the last stop before Stockport was at Heaton Chapel.

In the outskirts of Stockport, on Wellington Road North, was the Hope, a pub selling Fool Hardy Ales. Sadly, it's now become a fish shop.

Luckily, just down the road, there's a great boozer called the Magnet. It even has its own micro brewery.

That's a great place to conclude this post. Next time - Stockport town centre.

PICCADILLY

In this post we'll look at Piccadilly Gardens (the main bus interchange in the city) and Manchester Piccadilly railway station. However, first we'll visit the Grey Horse, Portland Street, a Hyde's pub handy for Piccadilly Gardens. 

Even in tramway days, Piccadilly Gardens was a transport hub.

SELNEC/Greater Manchester Transport was the main bus operator in the 1970s.

Into the short-lived GM Buses era.

Firstbus was to become the dominant operator in Piccadilly Gardens.

Other companies have served Piccadilly over recent years.

Then came the Metrolink tramway. Here is a view of construction in 1990.

The first generation of Metrolink cars has now gone, to be replaced by the newer type.

The Piccadilly pub used to serve cask ales, but no longer.

It's a short walk to Piccadilly station and, before we ascend the slope to reach the trains, there's time to have a pint in the Waldorf.

At one time we could have also called into the historic Coach & Horses, now demolished (Geograph.org.uk - Creative Commons License).

Here's the station approach to what was then Manchester London Road station.

Shuttle buses providing a service around the city centre start on the station approach.

Also on the slope is the Piccadilly Tap, with some pretty good beers.

London Road station was served by the LNWR and the GCR, with the North Staffordshire paying an occasional visit.

By the late 1960s, London Road station had become Manchester Piccadilly. Here, a DC EMU arrives from Glossop in 1967.

Woodhead line trains ceased in 1970, but there was the occasional excursion, such as this one with 76027 & 76023 in 1979.

On the other side of the station, a couple of shots from around 1971.

Now it's 1995 and some of the former Clacton units had been transferred to the Manchester area.

Class 323 units took over local electrified services.

Intercity services were operated by Virgin Trains.

2002 saw the famous DMU Daisy still operating.

Back in 1982, services to Sheffield were operated by class 123 DMUs.

Today, class 185 units are used on these services.

That's it for this post. Next time, we'll leave central Manchester behind.