(Life after Gorton and Crewe)
To a trainspotter in the 50s and 60s, a visit to Reddish 'Bo+Bo' sheds was certainly a different experience than a visit to any other sheds. Reddish ETD was purpose built in 1954 to cater for the shedding, maintenance and repairs to the then fleets of new EM1 (Bo+Bo) and EM2 (Co-Co) classes of main line electric locomotives specially built at Gorton Tank for the new 1500V dc electrified line between Manchester, Sheffield and Wath on Dearn, The depot also was home to the Manchester, Hadfield and Glossop suburban electric multiple unit stock.
By way of different, it was a total departure to the predominent steam sheds of the day in so much that there was no mounds of coal ash, broken firebars, worn brake blocks scattered all over the area, also there was no years of soot and grime and safety valves blowing off every few minutes, and also there wasnt that lovely smell of steam and oil that dominated the air.
Reddish was new, clean, light, airy and quiet. This is what the "Modernisation of British Railways Programme" was all about.
The uniqueness of the classes of locomotives based at Reddish attracted enthusiasts from far and wide. They came to see the locomotives that were the motive power for "Britains first all Electric Main Line", this was the home base for the locos west of The Woodhead Tunnel. This was the railway line that weaved its way up some of the steepest gradients and through some of the most desolate, rugged and beautifull scenery in England by way of the Woodhead Tunnel and on to Sheffield. This was the 'WOODHEAD LINE'.
Reddish sheds was easy to get around, (a bit different than Gorton, which was like trying to get into Fort Knox).
I usually visted Reddish on my push bike after school, it used to take about 15 minutes to get to the depot from my home in Higher Openshaw.
Apart from trying to 'cop' locos I always hoped that the prototype, 26000 'Tommy' would be on shed and a couple of EM2s. At this period the shed was also home to the 'Midland Pullman' diesel electric Pullman train, another draw card for the depot.
I often wondered what it must have been like to have seen the LNER Coronation, Silver Jubilee, West Riding Limited or the LMS's counterpart the Coronation Scot. They must have been magnificent sites. To me the the "Midland Pullman" was probably the nearest I could compare to them. The 'Blue Pullmans' as they were known were (and still are) to me what streamlined trains should look like.
Shortly after the depot was completed, a wheel lathe was installed in the Depot at the North end of the main repair bay. This 'attracted' rolling stock from other parts of the immediate area including the Merseyside area DC electrics, passenger stock and those new 'things' that had started to cause the mass scrapping of the suburban tank locomotive, the dreaded DMU
The shed was built at the Southern end of the 'Gorton Triangle' just to the south of Hyde Road Railway Station.
The shed was built on land known as Mellands Playing fields at the end of Waylands Road. Part of the land had to be drained of water before building started as there was a small reservoir on the site. During the building it was thought that because of the sites watery history the structure had started to subside. When bolts were taken out of the steelwork, they were found to be 'loose' in their bolt holes indicating that no movement had taken place and it was decided to continue with construction.
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