By 1845 it was obvious that the situation with the works was getting critical and larger premises were required.
The S,AuL&M Rly turned to Richard Peacock, their senior locomotive man (engine driver No1) to seek a more suitable and larger site to build a locomotive and carriage and wagon works.
The site selected was a piece of land in Openshaw, approximately two and a half miles East of Manchester. During the mid 1840s Openshaw was a small village of a population in the region of 2,200 and was not at that time part of the Manchester urban sprawl. The land was ideally situated at the side of the railway line between the Manchester terminus and Guide Bridge. At this point the land was at the same level as the terrain as up to this point the railway was elevated. another added bonus was that the land taxes that far out of Manchester were nowhere near as high as they would have been had the site been closer to the city, also the land bordered the Stockport branch of the Ashton canal giving the proposed works a plentiful supply of water for domestic and industrial use. The site was aquired from local landowners, namely George Cornwall Legh, and consisted of approximately 20 acres, some of this land was for houses for works employees. Cornwall's name was to live on to present times with the naming of the main road passing the works being called 'Cornwall Street' and one of the local public houses in the immediate area being named the 'Legh Arms'. Peacock was responsable for the planning and design of the works, which at the time of completion covered about 20 acres with land left over for further expansion. The locomotive shed / roundhouse was unique in that it had two roads instead of the customary one with a pillar in the centre supporting the glazed roof. The "rotunda" building was to last until the works closed down in 1963, but by then it had become part of the loco works and served as the 'Smithy' and housed the large steam hammers. The hammers were the product of "B & S MASSEY", who had their factory at the North end of Cornwall Street on Ashton Old Road, and bordered onto the same canal as the loco works.
By the time the works were completed very early in 1848 the S, AuL & M Rly, through an amalgamation with other smaller railway and canal companies in the region had now become the 'Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway' ( M,S&L Rly), This eventuated on Jan 1 1847. in those early days, work carried out was mainly concentrated on the repairs of locomotives, carriages and wagons.
The locomotive workshops were at that time adjacent to the roundhouse on its Western side, with the carriage and wagon shops on the other side of the loco shops and extended South to the main railway line. The paint shop was to the South of the loco shed and flanked the main line also. A reservoir was constructed at the Southern end of the railway cottages and was directly adjacent to the canal and main line.
Gorton works expanded in size quite considerably during the first years and, by the end of the nineteenth century had more or less assumed the form that was to see it through to it's closure in 1963.
Richard Peacock left the employ of the M,S&L in 1854 and, along with Charles Beyer formed the world famous locomotive company "Beyer Peacock" known locally as 'Gorton Foundry'. Gorton Foundry was built directly opposite Gorton Works on the Southern side of the M,S&L railway line.