Map Tour! - Manchester in Transport Fever 2

[@ewanhetting]

Absolutely Love this series. cant wait for it to continue. A metro link station mod would be absolutely amazing. I believe CW_315 was going to do one but never got round to it

[@badgerrhax]

Thanks!

[@Karoti]

you sir are some sort of a magician I would pay good money to have this route

[@zapperwocky2504]

How have I only just found this. This is amazing. Great work.

[@bazzamackenzie8022]

Thanks for the tour. It is an exceptional project!

[@badgerrhax]

Thanks!

[@knownothing5518]

Stepford County Railway, step aside!

[@AbsurdShark]

Jawdropping work.

[@sonoafafayon]

This is incredible

[@badgerrhax]

Thanks!

[@impy1980]

I've really enjoyed catching up on your videos since I discovered you had KZbin channel a few days ago. I'm building on the Liverpool to Leeds map, started about 6 months ago, work on it every so often, and I'll look on the workshop every now and then to see if there's new trains or relevant mods, and saw your MetroLink station, so subscribed to the mod and watched the video; at the end it showed a link to the "build lower bridges" video and I thought, hmm maybe you have other stuff, so went to your channel and discovered you're crazy and building Manchester haha. You've definitely given me inspiration and build ideas, and what assets to use, or where to find them, coz unless you're familiar with all the assets, and sub assets that are hidden a lot of the time, you don't even know stuff exists unless you've seen it or seen it used. I assume you're aware of Don Coffey's KZbin channel? Where he posts a lot of real cab ride footage, a lot around the Manchester area, including a couple of MetroLink recently, Geoff Marshall (who does a lot of London Underground related videos) has a a good MetroLink video where he visits every single MetroLink station, in case you need a ground level view of many of them. I assume the Warrington to Wakefield freight train is the "binliner" train, and it looks like you got it routed spot on, after veering left to avoid Ashton under Lyme it heads towards Victoria then goes north through Moston and Mills Hill. There's also another binliner train that goes between Wakefield and Knowsley, that comes down the same Mills Hill / Moston line, through Victoria (routed platform 3), through Salford Central Station, by passes Salford Crescent Station down the goods line at the back of the station, then veers off through Swinton Station along the Southport line, if you wanted to add that for extra freight traffic. And the stone facility (CEMEX) between Salford Crescent and Salford Central, that has freight coming from Peak Forest (near Dove Holes / Buxton - off the map), I'm not sure on routing, but looking at OpenRailwayMap I'm assuming through Stockport, Reddish South, Denton, left around Guide Bridge, through the junction west of Ashton Under Lyme, and through Victoria and Salford Central, although on a second look it could go through Reddish North, then Ashburys and use the branch line north of Ashburys to the Victoria line, which may actually be the less passenger disruptive route. Personally I like to see a bit of freight on my maps, especially if routed through certain bits of track, or held (using the "invisible" station/depot mod) in various places, just adds a bit of variety when on cab rides. I'm not aware of any other freight traffic as I've yet to leave Liverpool on my map and research, but I have definitely discovered random freight terminals whilst watching cab ride videos. Loved the videos, and I look forward to seeing more, and being silly enough myself to do a detailing map, I have a real appreciation of how time consuming, and sometimes frustrating, not to mention the learning curving, that the building process can be.

[@badgerrhax]

Thanks a lot! Yeah I've used Don Coffey's cab rides as reference material for building much of this map, as they are one of the best sources of ground level footage and really allow a detailed recreation. I was super excited when the Metrolink cab rides appeared! Thanks so much for the detail on the freight lines, I'm definitely going to add a few more - I've got the warrington-wakefield binliner going all the way up past mills hill now so it weaves its way through the whole map now. I rode it the other day and it took a full 45 mins to ride in one direction. Best of luck with your build!

[@brucemcc2303]

Fantastic work, very inspiring!

[@badgerrhax]

Thank you!

[@MrRockwellrob]

Incredible work

[@badgerrhax]

Thanks

[@bbacher95]

Amazing work!

[@badgerrhax]

Thanks!

[@lrvproductions]

This is amazing! Keep it up!

[@badgerrhax]

Thanks!

[@Cartbs229]

I don’t know if I said this in another video but for trains do you use real time tables

[@badgerrhax]

Not at the moment, no

[@bklynrich3304]

love this series so much, i really appreciate the detail. One question, Are you planning on using the "Train Storage" MOD? so you can have the trains run off the map and loop back?

[@badgerrhax]

Thanks! I was looking for that mod recently and couldn't find it - do you have a link to it?

[@Northerner_Transport_Hub]

I dont mean to be a wet blanket, but the East Lancashire Railway's depot is a bit further down the track, that and I dont really see any steam locomotives.

[@badgerrhax]

I might have got it wrong, but I thought the depot was on either side of baron st, and the bit I built has an ELR sign on it on street view, but yeah I didn't build the other side of it, nor the station further up the line. If this bottom bit isn't ELR, what is it? I'm keen to know maps.app.goo.gl/AeYJQFwZ9SfgjWLd8

[@Northerner_Transport_Hub]

@@badgerrhax it's an extensive yard that ends with a single track run-round loop. Google Maps arent always 100 percent accurate. Take it from a true Mancunain.

[@impy1980]

​@@badgerrhax No, you got it pretty much right, what you built is Buckley Wells Loco (Works) Yard and the Grade II listed shed, and the entire site north and south of Baron Street is owned by the East Lancashire Railway, since 1993 brought from BR. A planning application submitted to Bury council in 2007 was to raise some of the land to level it for "compatible use" (it was disused allotments previously), the ballast that was used in the land levelling process came from used ballast from the MetroLink line that runs along side when they renewed the ballast on the metro line. The application also stated that "The East Lancashire Railway has aspirations to further develop their Buckley Wells site into a Regional Heritage Railway Centre attraction". Also in April 2021 ELR announced plans for a major restoration and further development of the Buckley Wells site, an application was submitted to restore the Grade II listed shed, build a new shed and workshop on the site of the original shed that BR demolished in the 70s (next to the Grade II building on the west side of it, looking at a aerial photo from 1935), and a rework of the track layout to accommodate rail access to the new building, although it seems in August there were objections as it appears there is a desire for Buckley Wells to become an interchange, which may involve a new Buckley Wells South platform. So it's 100% ELR property, and is most definitely their primary stock storage area, as the siding before the station aren't that large. The old shed south of Baron Street is the Grade II listed building I mentioned, it believed to be the oldest continuously operational locomotive works in Britain, I believe this is primarily the carriage shed, that's what it's listed as in documents anyway and further research does show that ELR restores carriages and wagons in that build, as well as being the steam loco shed, the Flying Scotsman was restored in that building, and would appear ELR still uses it for steam locos according to an article written in 2020 by Phil Harrison, a retired train guard, who says the Flying Scotsman still visits regularly for servicing. So maybe you could work a Flying Scotsman visit into one of your videos. The lifts are also in Grade II listed building so a diesel may find it's way into the shed if the body needs to come off for bogie work, apparently the shed houses one of only a few 75 tonne diesel cranes in the country. The newer shed north of Baron Street, that you also included, my assumption from my research would be that's the ELR's diesel operating locos general maintenance shed.