Reddish Electric Depot was an electric traction depot located in

Reddish Reddish is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester city centre. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census, the population was 28,052. Historic counties of England, Historical ...

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

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 was situated on the west side of the Fallowfield Loop line between Hyde Road and Levenshulme South stations; however, neither of the Reddish stations (

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

) were sited on this line. It was built to service the

electric locomotives An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

and local

electric multiple units An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number ...

(EMUs) that were employed on the Woodhead Line between

Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Piccadilly is the main railway station of the city of Manchester, in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, England. Opened originally as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchest ...

, Hadfield,

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

and

Wath WATH (970 AM broadcasting, AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Sports radio, Sports format. Licensed to Athens, Ohio, United States, the station is currently owned by Total Media Group and features programming from CBS News Radio, Fox Sports R ...

Access to the depot

The Fallowfield Loop line, which the depot was sited on, was not electrified; so, to enable electric locomotive and EMU access to the depot from the Woodhead line, part of the line from Fairfield Junction as far as the depot was electrified overhead to 1,500V DC.

Depot allocation

The depot had an allocation of EM1 and EM2 electric locomotives and Class 506 EMUs. The EM2 locomotives were deemed surplus to requirements when the Woodhead line's inter-city passenger services were withdrawn in January 1970; they were sold subsequently to the Dutch national railway operator

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (, , NS ) is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operato ...

, where they became the NS 1500 Class. When the Woodhead line was closed to goods services in July 1981, almost all EM1 locomotives were sold for scrap. The Class 506 EMUs remained at Reddish until the depot's closure, as 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 ...

was retained for local services between Manchester,

Glossop Glossop is a market town in the borough of High Peak (borough), High Peak, Derbyshire, England, east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock. Near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Mancheste ...

and Hadfield. In addition, some other traction visited the depot for maintenance, although they were not allocated here; for example, Class 40

diesel locomotives A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

Closure

The Woodhead line was closed beyond Hadfield in July 1981, when the EM1 locomotives were withdrawn. The depot continued to host the Class 506 units and service visiting traction, but its workload had reduced significantly. Reddish depot closed in April 1983. The Class 506 units then had to be diesel-hauled to Longsight Electric TMD for servicing, due to their incompatibility with the available 25kV power supply. In December 1984, the Glossop line was converted to the standard 25 kV AC overhead system and the Class 506 EMUs were withdrawn, following the last run on 7 December. The depot lay derelict for several years before demolition; in the late 2000s, the site was redeveloped for housing.

References

Railway depots in England Rail transport in Greater Manchester {{England-rail-transport-stub