A photographic record of a journey from Sheffield Midland to Guide Bridge, via Romiley, one weekend in 2003. At this time the services were entirely worked by fNW (First NorthWestern) Class 142 'Pacers', the last of the legendary Class 101 first-generation units, built in 1959, having been withdrawn not long before.
Click on any picture to enlarge to full size, 3.1mpx.
This double-faced little island bay is the traditional starting point for the Hope Valley services.
The Sheffield - Hope - Manchester service runs directly from Romiley, along what's left of the Peak Forest Main Line, to Hazel Grove and thence Manchester via Stockport, but by bailing out at Romiley and waiting for a service coming in from Rose Hill, the passenger can opt to travel in via Guide Bridge instead.
Romiley Junction Signal Box.
Note the traditional double track junction
just past the box, left for Hazel Grove,
straight on for Guide Bridge.
Romiley station is a pleasant place to
while away a little time watching the trains
go by. Note the trailing crossover in the middle
the station itself, necessitated by the closeness
of the junctions at either end of the layout.
Guide Bridge. A name from history. Once, this was one of the more important junctions on the famous Woodhead route, forever associated with the Class 76 and 77 1500vDC electrics, and the great tunnel below the summit of the pass.
By 2003 the station felt more like a ghostly ruin than part of the working railway, the Woodhead passenger services having gone decades before and the main line closed altogether in 1981, leaving just the local stoppers on the truncated Hadfield line, plus the Rose Hill service, and what remained of the Stockport to Stalybridge locals, which had once been a fairly frequent DMU shuttle, but by 2003 had dwindled to one train a week, in one direction only!
A slight revival had occured with the diversion of the Trans Pennine Express services from Manchester Victoria to Picadilly, which meant that the smart maroon and gold TPE 158s ran through, even if they didn't stop, but the station itself, surrounded by acres of abandoned railway land, long disused and massive catenery structures standing stark against the sky, was clearly a relic of a more prosperous past.
Worse was to come, as most of the station structure shown below was burned to the ground by an arsonist in 2006, but in 2003 the old Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway's pedestrian and luggage bridges, with associated stairs and lift towers, still stood.
Note: By 2003 there were only two platforms at Guide Bridge, which I've simply referref to as "North" and "South". Originally there were more, but I don't know the original layout or numbering, and platform numbers do sometimes get changed. The North platform is the one directly under the station buidings, the South is the remains of what was once No2 platform.
Looking through the stairway's lattice
girders to the abandoned south trackbed.
The pedestrian footbridge, looking North.
The luggage bridge. The pedestrian bridge
is to the right.
The luggage bridge and south lift tower,
seen from the pedestrian bridge.
A rather nice Victorian church across
the road from Guide Bridge Station.
The outside of the two bridges, from the South.
The pedestrian bridge is the right hand one.
The station bridges seen from the adjacent
road bridge. This shot, and the preceding
one, were taken 'blind' by holding the camera
above the bridge parapet, hence sub-optimal
views.
Guide Bridge station entrance.
The luggage bridge, from the North.
Station interior and booking office.
Prophecy? Something's been set on fire
leaning against the girders here. Was this
a forerunner of what eventually happened?
View east from the pedestrian bridge.
Straight ahead is the original MS&L main
line to Sheffield via Woodhead. The old 1500v
caternery structures have been re-used to
electrify the remaining Hadfield stump at
25kV for modern EMUs.
Looking up the stairs from the South platform.
The two station bridges, and the road
bridge beyond, from the South platform.
The long-abandoned lift tower on the North
platform, luggage bridge to the right, road
bridge to the left.
Some shots of the massive girderwork carrying the substantial blue brick and steel road bridge across the western end of the station. The main structure consists of enormous longditudinal main beams, spanning the full wdith of the cutting, supported in the middle by riveted steel columns. Transverse girders span between the main beans, carrying brick jack-arches on their lower flanges. This is a classic 19th century engineering structure, and with basic maintenance and waterproofing, such bridges should last more or less forever. Unfortunately, it appears that maintenence is being skimped at Guide Bridge, as the evidence of corrosion in the photographs shows.
A station exists for trains and passengers, shown below are some of the services calling at Guide Bridge in 2003: A couple of Trans Pennine Express 158s running through, another fNW Pacer, and lastly a Class 323 EMU from Hadfield on its way to Manchester Picaddilly.
TPX liveried 158 810 heads East towards Leeds.
The abandoned South trackbed.
Ex ScotRail 158 750 runs through westbound,
heading for Manchester Picadilly.
142 030 pauses at Guide Bridge on its
way to Rose Hill via Romiley.
323 227 rolls to a halt, westbound to
Manchester Picadilly.
Class 323 door control button.
For more information on Guide Bridge see Wikipedia: Guide Bridge Station.
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