Manors Railway Station, Newcastle

[60041]

I know that this is getting off topic, but one more point:

Well Berwick council have made reopening the station a priority -

http://www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk/new ... 4779239.jp

Berwick council does not exist any more, since April we have had a unitary authority, Northumberland County Council, the very council that "forgot" to include Belford in the transport policy. There was a lot of pressure to reopen Belford a couple of years ago, but it all seems to have gone quiet now, Northern Rail do not seem very keen and the council is also cool.
I do not know how much use the re-opened station would get, it is easy for people to show support when planning such things, but this is different from people actually using the trains. As 52D states, the station is not in a very good location, being about a mile from the village on the wrong side of the main road. Another problem would be the fares; the single fare from Alnmouth to Newcastle is now nearly £11, so Belford would be getting on for £15 which is rediculous for 45 miles, it is possible to get from Newcastle to Sheffield for less! It does not do much to encourage the local service. We desperately need a good local service of stoppers, but at these fares no-one can afford to use the trains.

[PinzaC55]

Oh dear! Well if it is up to Northumberland Belford station will be turned into a Maccy D's I guess.They have been "talking" about reopening Ashington to Newcastle for about 20 years now......

[redtoon1892]

Considering you can travel from Newcastle Central to Manchester airport for £15 the Belford fare seems very excessive.

[60041]

The standard fare from Alnmouth to Newcastle is £10.90, and for some reason the northbound fare is subsidised and costs £7.50. That is for a 30 mile trip that takes about 35 mins. The "Duo" fares do not apply north of Morpeth, so that is the price you pay, take it or leave it. I keep getting emails from the Train line, Northern Rail etc offering good deals to all sorts of destinations from Newcastle, but when you factor in the cost of the trip to Newcastle it often doubles the total fare.
Alnmouth is well used, and I would think that a re-opened Belford station would pay its way, but most travellers are commuters who have no option, these fares are not doing much to encourage the leisure and family market.

[PinzaC55]

Part of the problem is the crazy franchising system where different train companies "own" stations.For instance no "Crosscountry" trains can call at Northallerton and the fares between York and Leeds are determined by NXEC even though they only run one train a day between York and Leeds.

[pasco]

OK - if I can ask a question about Manors then...

Is it just the clock tower/cupola that was transferred to the Tavistock in Shields (the Marsden Rattler that was)? Or is it any of the fixtures/fittings etc too?

[PinzaC55]

I know several of the cast iron columns were stored in the yard at the former Forth Goods Station and another railway themed pub ( The Pullman Lodge) was opened at Seaburn about the same time (mid 80s).The latter has a canopy which looks suspiciously like the one from Manors platform 6.

[Jonathan1973]

I haven't been in recently, but while operating as the 'Marsden Rattler', the three windows from the northern ticket office were installed behind the bar. Several of the cast-iron pillars (complete with the City of Newcastle motif), were also inside the place supporting a section of glazed roofing).

Jonathan

[Crosslea]

Dear Adam,

Manors station was an amazing place. Its demise coincided with the start of my teenage years and I visited whenever I could once I had the freedom to travel on my own. Born in 1965, I was already very aware of a whole world that was disappearing around me. At the age of 7, I was persuading my grandmother to take me on a ride (twice!) round the Riverside line (via St.Peter’s) before it closed in 1973 and was sad to see stations like Felling and Pelaw lose their roof canopies around that time.

I often was fascinated by seeing Manors out of the train window on family trips to the coast and the strangely pointless bay platforms (3-5) that didn’t seem to be ever used. By the age of 13, I was free to travel on trains on my own and found unnecessary reasons to catch DMUs to or from Manors! Very few other people used the station.

This was mainly after platforms 1+2 had closed to make way for the Jesmond side of the Metro. Whilst there were still frequent trains on 8+9 to/from Tynemouth via Wallsend, stopping trains were very rare on 6+7 to/from Morpeth. I did once manage to get off at platform 6, but most of my time was spent on the 7+8 island and it was sad when its roof disappeared before the others – making way for the current apology of a station. The 1930s signal box on the platform was also intriguing.

I was strangely unaware of the main line trains. After all, they didn’t stop at Manors! HSTs had taken over the services by
then. I had been in the cab of the one that was displayed at Central just before operations started, but wasn’t really interested in them. Odd to think that I now go out of my way to ride on the Grand Central ones!

Manors station seemed very isolated. It wasn’t easy to get to or near anything, so I could see that there was little reason for anyone to use it. Approaching from Worswick Street bus station, you had to cross the very long footbridge over the main road. I often approached in the other direction by the Holy Jesus Hospital, which in those days was the John George Joicey Museum with fascinating period rooms and wood carvings – sadly closed on the pretext of not having disabled access.

Coming that way, I discovered and always used the very long “short-cut” up and down the stairs under platforms 7-9 (that I’ve only just discovered - and must see! - were used in the Get Carter film). This was a most mysterious route which I loved and no one else ever seemed to use. Just to Michael Caine’s left in the photo, were more stairs going up to platforms 7+8. I was amazed and thrilled once to find them open. I must have been there in rush hour. There was actually still a ticket office open at the top of them! This was a mystical experience, as I never found that entrance open again – though I always looked to see if it was!

There was also a very, very long staircase down from platform 9 which joined Michael Caine’s staircase at the bottom. This was always closed and did look as if it hadn’t been used for a very long time. It must have originally been used in the morning rush hour.

With the subterranean entrance to the island platform always shut (I would have loved to have been able to use it a second time), the only alternative was to make the long walk through the dank road tunnel under the station with its dripping water and pigeon droppings to the entrance to the old platform 1 and then cross back over the footbridge to get back to where you started. It was a very long way around and rather scary going through that tunnel. No one else was ever around, but what if someone was around!

Having moved away from the North East 20 years ago, I do occasionally find a pointless reason to catch a train from Manors. One more recent one took me on the early evening train to Widdrington to see where some of my ancient ancestors are buried. The return mid-evening train seemed even more pointless than my journey, stopping at all the stations – Pegswood,etc – without any likelihood of finding a passenger – though I have a feeling that it didn’t stop at Manors. The return journey was a special experience – having the train entirely to ourselves – a bit like visiting Manors in the late 1970s – though I’m not sure that my wife could understand the point of this peculiar trip!

I did take a small number of photos in the late 1970s with my childhood camera which took square pictures. I wasn’t given a 35mm camera until I was 14. They are buried in the mass of boxes in my garage “archives”. If I ever uncover them, I’ll publish them here. I also once managed to buy, from a railwayana stall, a certificate celebrating Manors’ success gaining second prize in a station garden competition around 1950. It’s a treasured possession, but also lost deep within my so called archives.

So thank you, Adam, for prompting me to set down my memories. You missed an amazing ghost town called Manors. Though you also missed the intense sadness that I felt at watching one of my favourite places disappear.

David
London
9th January 2010

[PinzaC55]

Although not very good quality this picture shows the installation of the connecting line to Manors North in 1909, taken from Manors signalbox. Of note are the spectacularly tall signals - they must have had balls of steel to change the lamps - and the power station chimney.

[bobser]

Hi everyone.

Did you all know that the old Manors was the station that had the most through platforms between Finsbury Park and Edinburgh/Aberdeen with 6 platforms.

The 6 platforms were - Up & Down Blyth &Tyne. Up & Down Main. Up & Down Tynemouth.

Now I never said they were all on the East Coast Main Line but you could get to and from the ECML from the Blyth & Tyne by using the North West Curve at Benton.

I can't remember how many through platforms Finsbury Park had but I am sure it had at least 6.
Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Northallerton and Newcastle had 3.
Most of the Suburban Stations out from London had 4 as did York, Edinburgh and Haymarket.
All the other stations had 2 although at one time Thirsk had 4.

[StevieG]

At its maximum, Finsbury Park had platforms numbered 1 to 10 (with no gaps in numbering), but there was a catch :

They served only 7 roads : Three of them had platform faces on both sides - the Up Slow (2 & 3), Down Slow No.1 (6 & 7), & Down Slow No.2 (8 & 9).

Actually Wood Green (now Alexandra Palace) then had six platforms as well; but for 5 roads (the Up Slow here was also 2 & 3).

[hhodgetts]

It always amazes me just how much of an old railway route is visible from the air. I got as much of the Manors area and Metro lines in (Metro ECS curve) as I could and marked them on this Google Earth image. To say so much has gone, a lot is still there in some respects. The route is still traceable.

Have a squint. It is much better to look on G. E. so that you can manipulate the map and see where the various lines go.

[bobser]

Hi StevieG.

Thanks for the update on Finsbury Park and Wood Green. I appreciate it.

Regards.

bobser

[StevieG]

More like a past-date really : Since the 1970s resignalling and rationalisation, they have had only 6 and 4 operational platforms respectively.

Fins Park's old 1&2 island has been disused and devoid of all buildings/structures for many years*, the old 9&10 island was demolished, and the remaining six platforms renumbered from 1.
That means that the current Down Slow (old 6&7) still has two faces, numbered 3&4, but 4 is barely used; - something to do with, I believe, the EMUs' (which are Driver-Only Operated) sliding door controls, where if the doors were open on both sides at the same time, not having the facility to close on one side only, independently of the other.
* [ No.1 platform had, in fact ceased to be usable by through, service, passenger trains from withdrawal of the last 'Northern Heights' services, those from the branch to (the original) Alexandra Palace, in 1954, being accessible only from what then became all non-passenger lines (Up Goods 1 & 2, and the High Barnet/Highgate line), although passenger trains could still originate from that platform, formed off arriving ECS, and I think this was utilised for some later, starting, excursions.]

At Wood Green, the 1970s remodelling/rationalisation saw 1&2 island demolished and the rest renumbered 1-4, with the station being renamed Alexandra Palace sometime in the (early?) 1980s, at an official ceremony in which Diana Dors participated.

[ Edit : for inclusion of additional info. (in bold).]