Stockport Tiviot Dale – London Rail

Stockport Tiviot Dale

Stockport Tiviot Dale

Stockport Edgeley (nowadays plain Stockport) was so named because Stockport had another station not too far away. This was the one known as Tiviot Dale (alternatively Teviot Dale as it was sometimes called). The route was operated by the Cheshire Lines Committee and formed part of the old route from Manchester to London via Romiley, Marple and New Mills. (The new went via Cheadle Hulme and Hazel Grove instead.) The general train service (at least in 1910) through Tiviot Dale was from Manchester London Road to Hayfield. During the formative main years until the 1960s services were to Liverpool, Manchester Central, Warrington, Sheffield, Derby and of course London. The final years of passenger services before these ceased in 1967 consisted of a service from Manchester Central to Sheffield via Didsbury and Tiviot Dale. The latter years years of the line was dedicated to freight and coal traffic. These ceased in 1980 when it was found that during construction of the adjacent new M63 motorway damage had occurred to the tunnels west of the station.

Images showing Stockport viaduct and the former CLC route and how it looked on old maps.

Stockport Georges Road

April 1979 sees Clan Line at Georges Road having emerging from the Wellington Road tunnel. View looks east to Stockport Viaduct. Almost the same spot today on Google Streets.

The tunnels (going west to east towards Tiviot Dale station) were: 1) Wellington Road 2) Dodge Hill 3) Tiviot Dale. Whilst Tiviot Dale tunnel remains fully intact it is largely infilled and part of the central section has a steel frame built within to support the church and other buildings above. The other two were swept away for development however traces of these can still be seen. Dodge Hill railway tunnel was adjacent to the other Dodge Hill tunnels which were actually air raid shelters.

The damage that occurred to Tiviot Dale was due to work strengthening the headland around the church sited above because the M63 motorway was so close the hillside had to be stabilised. That work can be seen on Flickr. Some sources say the damage was in fact a crane or large excavator which fell into a cavity above the tunnel during that strengthening work – and it was this incident which caused damage to the tunnel. Hence the Tiviot Dale route was closed with immediate effect.

Nice picture showing Georges Road junction in 1964. It seems the tracks to Wellington Road depot had fell out of use by then. Georges Road signal box can be seen at right.

Georges Road Down Distant - Summer 1974

Even though the line had closed the distant signal for Georges Road junction remained! In the distance is the short Dodge Hill tunnel just before the Wellington Road tunnel. Some distance behind the photographer is Tiviot Dale tunnel. The 1970s building seen at top right is the present Mandale House at 30 Wellington Street Stockport and this can be seen on Google Streets.

Trains at Stockport Tiviot Dale.

D5709

Metrovick D5709 passes through Tiviot Dale. Possibly a train from Sheffield or Derby. It is said these were regular passenger workings and not trial runs.

Tiviot Dale after the station had been demolished.

How the area once looked. Today its almost unrecognisable.

This picture is on the west side of Stockport viaduct and roughly at a point before Georges Street junction.

The end of the alignment through Stockport Tiviot Dale.

A small part of Tiviot Dale’s platform remains to the north of the motorway.

This shot is from Martin Zero, who among many others, has explored the former CLC lines and tunnel through Stockport Tiviot Dale. The steel frame supports are directly beneath the church. Here’s the link to his Youtube video.

Great Central Wanderer April 1978

Elsewhere (Woodhead Electrics) I have mentioned the Great Central Wanderer trip which took us round about Manchester and via the Woodhead tunnel to Sheffield, Tinsley etc. A post by Woodhead Route shown below depicts our train at Godley after having traversed the former CLC lines from Altrincham and that gave me the notion for a post featuring Tiviot Dale!

We passed through Tiviot Dale in the early part of the trip en route to Goodley Junction and the Woodhead tunnel, and in the later part of the trip (after a sojourn at Dinting Railway Centre) we passed Tiviot Dale again, this time going over Stockport Viaduct. The main feature image is of our train about to pass under the church by way of Tiviot Dale tunnel. Two further images of the trip are shown below. It must be said the whole day was dark and pretty miserable (the trip wasn’t of course) hence the photography conditions were considerably poor.

This picture I took is of the ramp at Georges Road junction towards Wellington Road tunnel and Tiviot Dale as our train descends the slope to the tunnels. The tracks to the nearby goods depot at Wellington Road had been gone sometime – and were last used probably early 1960s. There were two sets of tracks either side of the CLC route. The northern ones led to Georges Road sidings whilst the southern set led through the viaduct to Wellington Road depot.

This image (from the Twitter post shown earlier above) illustrates the situation at Georges Road junction near the Stockport viaduct – evidently this was the early 1980s after the CLC route through Tiviot Dale had closed. One can see the ramp down to the Wellington tunnel and Tiviot Dale. The tracks in the foreground led to Georges Road sidings. The ramp’s side walls are those which can be seen in my picture looking towards the viaduct.

One the way back from Dinting Railway Centre the Great Central Wanderer’s run was over Stockport viaduct (and via Macclesfield, Stoke on Trent etc) gave us an opportunity to see the Tiviot Dale line yet again – plus the initial stages of the new M63 motorway. That new motorway construction would soon be the reason for the closure of the railway through Stockport Tiviot Dale.