Astley Green and Walkden Railway adventures, Part 8

[@michaelpilling9659]

I've watched all 8 videos about Ashley Green and Walkden Railway with the associated coal pits etc. The stars of Harry, Stanley and Respite stand out but the biggest thanks must go to you for making these incredible videos telling their story.

[@DJunclepaul2nd]

All excellent videos here. Thank you

[@mikeyratcliff3400]

Thank you so much for this wee series- I grew up in the kent coalfield ( grandad was at betteshanger from its opening) and the austerities captivated my imagination from an early age- sadly not seen much footage of betteshanger or snowdown (apart from open days...) but the fact that you filmed whole rakes of 16 tonners really sets it apart- I salute you sir! Written from my 1941 kelvin j4 powered narrowboat, possibly the only one with a model railway in the boatmans cabin of a kent coalfield circa 1974 complete with j94s and avonsides !

[@howardpearson-tn3qj]

Just watched your films they were great ,thank you for a great job.

[@clagfest]

Just watched all the Astley Green videos. Fantastic stuff. I've visited the former colliery site on numerous occasions, as I lived until a couple of years back near Leigh. Unfortunately the railway and colliery were long gone on my visit, I'm only 48. Just imagine, the Railwaymen of today having to put up with these conditions. Slipping and sliding everywhere, and constantly caked in muck. It's real railway work you've captured in these videos, and it's wonderful. If you've any more footage, it would be fantastic if you posted it. Astley Green back then, looked for all the world, like a little bit of Sandoling, in South Lancashire.

[@GandyDancerProductions]

Thanks Clagfest for your comment, it was a very different world in those days. I would say the scenery surround Astley Green was a little more picturesque than Sandoling but the action just as exciting.

[@admiralcraddock464]

My grandparents came from Swinton in the Manchester area and holidays in the sixties would often be a week up there with them. With my dad we visited an either closed Ashworth or Pendlbury colliery. This was before the days of security guards so we were able to wander about at leisure and before wanton vandalism so the enire site was virtually untouched; just as it had ben left on closure. The narror gauge coal wagons were all there on their tracks as was a standard gauge tank engine, just left in a siding completely untouched. Back then no one though this, and many other industrial relics, was anything special but all of a sudden it was gone.

[@tankmicr00man]

Just discovered these films by accident. An excellent record, well presented and beautifully shot and edited. Thank you so much for doing these for us out here, and if you could produce any more is the series that would be fantastic! Micr00mann

[@GandyDancerProductions]

Hi Tim, thanks for your comment and there is much more to come. I've recently moved continent so there's a little bit of a delay editing the films and getting it out.

[@iansmith5576]

Superb. Keep it coming!

[@nablicman]

Facinating films stunning quality for 8mm Im gessing you had a very good camera and with sound to thats quite unusual loved watching them please keep them coming. 😊

[@d7106]

Hi Jonathan, thank you for sharing and narrating your reels of Astley Green. I had never heard of this fascinating colliery so thank you, I have been glued to my screen. :)

[@Zentron]

Really great videos, I've been exploring the remnants of these lines frequently these last few years and come across quite a few things, buried amongst the trees, bushes and mud. I now live just a stones throw away from Cleworth Hall Colliery in Tyldesley (have visited the capped shafts etc), but lived from 1988 until 2019 I lived beside the site of Tyldesley New Gas Works. I've always been interested in the history of the town and the surrounding areas, especially the railways, though it's tricky to find contemporary videos of the rails when the were in operation, so these vids are great, as I'll be able see how things relate to what I can see on the ground. Many thanks!

[@GandyDancerProductions]

Hi Zentron, thanks for your comment there's more to come and an article in a German steam mag in 2021 maybe get pick up by a British one. You couldn't live in a richer area for old railways and buildings just pity they're disappearing.

[@Zentron]

@@GandyDancerProductions It is quite unfortunate, Wigan Council don't exactly care about heritage beyond a photoshoot or two! I managed to locate parts of the platforms and station infrastructure at Little Hulton and Walkden Lower Level railway stations during the first lockdown period, though I've been spending most of my time over in Gorton at the site of Hyde Road Railway Station, as I found the chamber that went into the underground passenger subway, sadly the subway is unexplorable, however the other week I found a third chamber, with what looks like either a fireplace or bottom of a coal chute, so I'm now excavating that.

[@GandyDancerProductions]

@@Zentron I heard Wigan are dragging their feet over helping with the renovations of Astley Green museums head gear. That museum could be a real asset to the area. Hope you're taking picture and video of your excavations they'd make an interesting channel.

[@jasonsanderson324]

Thank you for these videos! I found them interesting to watch.The museum now has it's own miniature railway like yours!! It's worth a visit. :)

[@perrysimpson7466]

Thanks again Jonathan. Just played 7 and 8. Looking forward to 9,10, and ?? Truly excellent as always

[@chriskirton9395]

Great video again, as I grew up in this area in the Seventys. We did the same as you in this video when the Astley Green winding engine was running, we walked up to where the bridge was, and also to Vicars Hall lane where you filmed all those years ago. Even though it was just before I was born, I find it fascinating what used to go on around the area where I grew up. Many thanks.

[@davidgillispie4431]

Hi there my name is David. First off I want to say i really in joy your video's and I like how you show and talk about how you maintain your locomotives you give a lot of good information and advise on how you do things. I hope you do a video on how you maintain your track and do the maintenance on it. There's not a lot of videos out there on track maintenance.

[@grego3150]

Another great video thanks for sharing

[@TonyKitchen471]

Thanks found it interesting.

[@GandyDancerProductions]

Hi Tony, thanks for the comment. Here is more to come in a little while so stay tuned.

[@davewolfy2906]

I stood on the footplate of one of these engines near our house at the bottom end of Newarth Rd in Walkden, it had derailed. I remember Mosley Common shutting in 1968 (probably), I was eight years old. Something else, I reckon that our accents have softened (I left Walkden in 1973 and Manchester in 1976).

[@jonathanguilbert8658]

Hi Dave, like you I left Manchester in 1975 living in the USA for a time. In a little while I'll be posting more on the Walkden Railway system and one of the scenes was shot along the embankment that ran parallel to Newearth Road.

[@davewolfy2906]

@@jonathanguilbert8658 I thought so, I did not wave though.

[@Steven_Rowe]

Often wonder if we could go back in the Tardis complete with HD video equipment, what would we think? Would seem just as grand, or even grander? . The rather crude cine film, and even black and white photos ads a certain amount of mystique which many of us relate too Would i go back to the late 50s as a young boy and watch A4 and A3 pacifics ripping through Hornsey on there way north, escaping the london area as if escaping the gravitational pull of the earth. I think i would, buti think just like you Jonathan I believe were nostalgic old gits. Ah remember those black and white daze(days) Keep the videos comimg, I love em

[@GandyDancerProductions]

Hi Steven, if I'd shot these film on HD video all that time ago there would be nothing to see now. The video would have degraded, the software to play them wouldn't exist anymore and the digital image on the hard drive would have disappeared into the magnetic ether. I love digital video, don't get me wrong, but it has no archiveable properties. I do miss the atmosphere of the everyday working steam railway.

[@danielwalker2613]

Just a quick question ...... What is a con-colliery at 1:48 ?

[@GandyDancerProductions]

I'm pleased you're enjoying these films, Daniel. I'm just saying colliery with a bit of a stutter.

[@clearprop]

Great stuff.

[@parthobasistha6135]

Hello sir. How are you doing. It's me partho from India. What was the mode of communication between the master and banking locomotive while climbing the gradients. I had been waiting for your videos on tank wagons in the old British railways. Hope to see them soon.

[@GandyDancerProductions]

Hi Partho, they used their whistles to communicate. There were basic codes for start, stop or I'm in trouble.

[@DillonTrinhProductions]

What's your favorite Hunslet Austerity?

[@GandyDancerProductions]

Hi, I don't have one but i do prefer the ones with the Giesl Ejectors.

[@steamandsmoke97]

Excellent video as always! Is the Winding Engine for the pit headgear still in the Engine House Jon? And are the boilers still there too or have they been taken out?

[@GandyDancerProductions]

Hi, thanks for your comment. The winding engine's still in the building and they run it on compressed air, the boilers have long since gone. It was one of the most powerful winding engine in the country, rated at 3,500 hp, I believe.

[@peterflitcroft9756]

It's going to be running this Saturday 2.15. 10th March

[@majorpygge-phartt2643]

If those wagons with the X were for internal use only then how did they get the coal out of the pit network to where it needed to go?

[@GandyDancerProductions]

Hi Mark, they were used to take coal to the blending plant, to the canal tipler and moving colliery waste to the dump. All these places were within the system.

[@DillonTrinhProductions]

Did you shot any industrial steam in the late 70s and early 80s.

[@GandyDancerProductions]

I shot a lot of still in the late 70's but after I finished making 'The Day Stan Left' in 1974 I mader no more movies of industrial steam in UK.

[@dduck1585]

@@GandyDancerProductions assume you never filmed normal run of the mill trains during the 70s, as previously mentioned your camera technique is superb. Was you a professional film cameraman for TV or film?

[@GandyDancerProductions]

@@dduck1585 I was an apprentice working on a power station when I shot these films but late on I got a job in television as a director and cameraman.

[@terrific-bats]

Like. Thumbs up

[@philburton6111]

On two occasions I saw passenger trains passing my house at Boothstown I could watch the trains from my bedroom window. My dad said they were workers trains and those put on for visitors that were viewing the system, that was in the fifties and early sixties. Some one I new had seen King George the fifth on such a train at Walkden waving from the cab of the engine.

[@GandyDancerProductions]

Hi Phil, they did do a brake van tour I believe in the early 1960's and at the end a tour using wagon for the enthusiasts. Never heard anything about coaches being used.

[@chrispritchard3775]

Hello phil yes there was as a miners paddy train towed by loco Francis starting from worsley calling at Mosley common pit ,ellesmere colliery , Ashton fields colliery but this finished in the 1920s if your interested there's a book Manchester collieries

[@philburton6111]

@@chrispritchard3775 I need to buy that book, been meaning to, thanks for the information.

[@chrispritchard3775]

@@philburton6111 hello phil it's a bit of a good book it's by geoff hayes describes the pits and railways and if memory is correct the underground canal system (try ebay) there's three other books to by triangle publications leigh (tom sweeney) absoultley excellent books and the paper back book by Atkinson the canal Duke the worsley canal system very good regards chris

[@philburton6111]

@@chrispritchard3775 Thanks Chris, I'll get my son to buy them for me off ebay.

[@jasonsanderson324]

Do you have any Videos off the railway running through lilford? Past Higher Folds, Leigh then up to Manchester.

[@jonathanguilbert8658]

Hi Jason, the railway didn't go near any of these places. It went up through Boothstown, Walkden Then Kearsley the opposite direction to Leigh.

[@jasonsanderson324]

@@jonathanguilbert8658 when it left the yard and crossed the canal. Where'd it go?? Up to the east lands??

[@jonathanguilbert8658]

@@jasonsanderson324 It went straight South across Chat moss to connect to the Manchester to Liverpool mainline.

[@StormySkyRailProductions]

Cool stuff.

[@terencebennison6275]

Oh how I miss those filthy beasts!

[@stephensmith799]

b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l