Ashburys railway station serves the area of

Openshaw Openshaw is a suburb of Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, about three miles east of the Manchester city centre. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Lancashire, Openshaw was incorporated into the city of Manchester in 1890. ...

, in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is a stop on a junction of the

Glossop Line The Glossop line is a railway line connecting the city of Manchester with the towns of Hadfield, Derbyshire, Hadfield and Glossop in Derbyshire, England. It formed part of the historic Great Central Main Line between Manchester Piccadilly rail ...

, the

Hope Valley line The Hope Valley line is a trans-Pennine railway line in Northern England, linking Manchester with Sheffield. It was completed in 1894. Passenger services on the line are operated by Northern Trains, East Midlands Railway and TransPennine ...

and the freight line to Phillips Park Junction. It has been open since 1855 and is the nearest station to the

City of Manchester Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium, currently known as Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, and commonly shortened as The Etihad, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., Manchester City, with a domestic football capacity of 53, ...

History

The station was built and opened in 1855 by the

Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway The Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway was an early British railway company which opened in stages between 1841 and 1845 between Sheffield and Manchester via Ashton-under-Lyne. The Peak District formed a formidable barrier, and ...

, on its line from Manchester Store Street to . First appearing in

Bradshaw's Guide ''Bradshaw's'' was a series of Rail transport, railway Public transport timetable, timetables and travel guide books published by W.J. Adams and later Henry Blacklock, both of London. They are named after founder George Bradshaw, who produced ...

in July, it was referred to as Ashburys for Openshaw in November and then as Ashburys for Belle Vue in August 1856. There is no place of this name near this station. It was named after the Ashbury Railway Carriage & Iron Company, which built it for £175 in 1855. This company flourished from 1841 until 1902 when it moved to Saltley in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, merging with the Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage & Wagon Company. Examples of its rolling stock survive to this day on preserved railways all over the world. It became part of the

Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grims ...

following mergers in 1847, changing its name to the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its Great Central Main Line, London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company ...

in 1897. Joining the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It ope ...

during the

Grouping Grouping generally refers to the creation of one or more groups, or to the groups themselves. More specifically, grouping may refer to: * Shot grouping in shooting sports and other uses of firearms * the use of symbols of grouping in mathemati ...

of 1923, the station passed on to the

London Midland Region of British Railways The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irela ...

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

in 1948. East of the station, towards Gorton and Belle Vue, there were two engine sheds. The larger was the GCR's Gorton loco shed (1879-1965) and the smaller was the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

's Belle Vue loco shed (1870-1956). The Gorton shed had a ferro-concrete

coaling tower A coaling tower, coal stage, coaling plant or coaling station is a facility used to load coal as fuel into railway steam locomotives. Coaling towers were often sited at motive power depots or locomotive maintenance shops. In the early years o ...

. When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by

Regional Railways Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982 that existed until 1997, two years after Privatisation of British Rail. The sector was originally called ''Provincial''. Regional Railways was the most sub ...

under arrangement with the Greater Manchester PTE until the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the Rail transport in Great Britain, railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, the process was largely compl ...

. The main station buildings, subway and a third platform face survived until the end of the 1980s, but all have since been removed.

Electrification and signalling

The line was electrified at

25 kV AC Railway electrification systems using alternating current (AC) at are used worldwide, especially for high-speed rail. It is usually supplied at the standard utility frequency (typically 50 or 60Hz), which simplifies traction substations. The dev ...

on 10 December 1984; it replaced the 1500 V DC electrification, which was inaugurated on 14 June 1954 by

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

as part of the Manchester-Sheffield-Wath scheme via the

Woodhead Tunnel The Woodhead Tunnels are three parallel trans-Pennines, Pennine long railway tunnels on the Woodhead Line, a former major rail link from Manchester to Sheffield in Northern England. The western portals of the tunnels are at Woodhead, Derbyshire ...

. There was also a signal box here, which controlled the junctions and various sidings. The signal box, opened in 1906 by the

, closed in 2011, when control was transferred to the Manchester East signalling control centre. The new WCML North

Rail Operating Centre A rail operating centre (ROC) is a building that houses all signallers, signalling equipment, ancillaries and operators for a specific region or route on the United Kingdom's main rail network. The ROC supplants the work of several other Signal ...

is located a short distance east of the station, next to the line to Guide Bridge. This opened in 2014 (one of 11 such centres either built or being planned in the UK) and will eventually control signalling across most of the routes across the

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

, including the northern end of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

and the entire Manchester area network.

Facilities

The station is unstaffed and has no permanent buildings (other than standard waiting shelters) or ticket provision, so all tickets must be bought on the train or prior to travel. Train running information is provided by digital display screens and timetable posters. No step-free access is available, as the station is above street level and the only access offered is via staircase and footbridge.

Services

Northern Trains Northern Trains, Trade name, trading as Northern, is a British train operating company that operates Commuter rail, commuter and Inter-city rail, medium-distance intercity services in the North of England. It is owned by DfT Operator for the Dep ...

provide the following services that stop at Ashburys: * Half-hourly trains between and on the

Glossop line The Glossop line is a railway line connecting the city of Manchester with the towns of Hadfield, Derbyshire, Hadfield and Glossop in Derbyshire, England. It formed part of the historic Great Central Main Line between Manchester Piccadilly rail ...

* Hourly services between Manchester Piccadilly and on the

, via ; there is one service in each direction on Sunday * Hourly services between Manchester Piccadilly and on the Hope Valley line, via ; there is no service on Sunday. Other services pass frequently through the station without stopping.

Future

Under the

Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund The Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund was a failed bid by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) and Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) to secure £1.5 billion from the Transport Innovation Fu ...

programme, Ashburys would have received improvements. However, despite TIF not going ahead, it is still to receive safety, security and passenger information improvements, when funding can be obtained. Other long term proposals include the Manchester-Marple Tram/Train scheme, which was on a 'reserve list' of TIF projects. Significant new infrastructure works would be required between Piccadilly and Ashburys station, known as ''Piccadilly Link''. It would be incorporated within a major

mixed-use development Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...

by Grangefield Estates, known as ''Chancellor Place'', around the former station site.

References

Sources

*Radford, B., (1988) ''Midland Though The Peak'' Unicorn Books * *
Station on navigable O. S. map

External links

1936 aerial view of station and street entrance
{{Railway stations in Greater Manchester Railway stations in Manchester DfT Category F2 stations Former Great Central Railway stations Railway stations served by Northern Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1855