A Tale Of Tunnels (4)

Like many big cities, Manchester was blessed with multiple railway companies and multiple stations. In simple terms (very simple!) they were as follows:-

Central     : Cheshire Lines Committee
              representing Midland Railway
              Great Northern Railway
              Great Central Railway

Exchange    : London & North Western Railway

Victoria    : Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway

London Road : Great Central Railway
              London & North Western Railway

London road was renamed Piccadilly after rebuilding in the 1960s. Before that the two companies (and the subsequent B R routes) had separate stations joined side to side.

Exchange and Victoria were joined end to end.

The juxtaposition of the four stations is shown on this old map.

Central was, obviously, a dead end terminus ...

... as were most of the platforms at London Road. With rationalisation, Central and Exchange were both closed, concentrating services on London Road (Piccadilly) and Victoria.

Thus it was in the 1970s that SELNEC (South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire) PTE came up with a cunning plan to join the two main stations with a tunnel under the city centre.

It was dubbed the Picc-Vic Line ...

... and, thanks to the lack of railway knowledge of the graphic designers, was shown as being operated by London Underground Victoria line trains!

The tunnels were, be assured, to be big enough for full-sized "proper" trains.

The other oddity was the route.

Why, to keep costs down, did it not run direct from Picc to Vic; why the diversion which missed a possible Piccadilly gardens bus/rain interchange and didn't quite make it to Oxford Road?

At the time, the politicians talked effusively about providing better access to the whole of Manchester's city centre and cultural facilities but there was, almost certainly a much more intriguing reason for the "bulge". 

The PTE management were unable to explain the real excuse, it is reported, as they were obliged to sign the Official Secrets Act! The secret ceased to matter as the project was cancelled in 1977.

But before cancellation, the problem lay, not with railways, but with another sort of tunnel.

Wander along George Street, roughly south from Piccadilly Gardens and you might notice a set of black gates ...

... and a door numbered 55. The elderly and obviously disused block has an unusual addition ...

... a tall ventilation shaft. A look on Google Earth shows a very odd chunk of red brick ...

... which looks totally out of kilter with its surroundings. Had you been able to see it when it was being built ...

... you might have spotted a huge shaft leading deep down into the bowels of the Manchester earth.

This was one of the entrances to the top secret "Guardian Telephone Exchange"; but it was much more than that. 

In addition to telephone equipment, here were huge generators ...

... air filtration control ...

... an artesian well for fresh water ...

... plus sleeping and dining facilities.

Apparently this was all a part of a Government plan to provide a national communications network "hardened" against nuclear attack. The scheme included the Post Office Tower in London and a chain of microwave stations all over the country.

An example is the tower at Charwelton, a short distance from Catesby Tunnel...

... visited in the first of this series of blogs.

Those that know about these things will tell you that you really don't need as big and bold a tower as the above - unless you are expecting someone to blast it with an H bomb!

Whatever, "Guardian" was decommissioned in the late 70s. although the tunnels remain in use for rather less critical cable runs.

Back up above, the Castlefield curve (a k a the Ordsall chord) was built to allow trains to trundle through Victoria, call at the through platforms at Piccadilly and trundle on to, say, Manchester Airport.

The curve/chord joins the two lines in the centre of this old map extract, one from Victoria and one from Piccadilly.

Here it is courtesy Google Earth ...

... and here it is from the big ring road which passes below.

In part, this link does join the two stations, BUT, the route is now so congested with trains that plans are afoot to reduce the number of paths. It would also be painfully slow for local travel!

You can, of course go from Piccadilly to Victoria by tram, before that by minibus even, and the tortuous route via the curve/chord doesn't really slice up Colman's bright yellow relish!

Which is probably why Manchester Metro Mayor Andy Burnham ...

... has been thinking hard about trains in the city.

His report is highly aspirational, lacking in hard-nosed detail and, some would say, totally lacking in practicability. But an almost throw-away panel proposes this:-

Sounds a bit like Andy's visionary remake of the Picc-Vic line?

And will it still need to avoid the remnants of the Guardian telephone exchange?

Does Andy know about the Guardian telephone exchange tunnels?

Hmmm?

Tomorrow we look at a line which once  crossed the A5.

 Next Atherstone blog : Tuesday 9th June