On Tuesday, 12th March 2013, I joined a group from the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester for a tour 'behind the scenes' at Manchester Piccadilly Station. This had been arranged by Adrian Bailey, a regular volunteer on the railway at the Museum having retired from the 'Big Railway'. Thanks go to Adrian and the Network Rail staff we met for a most interesting evening.
We met just after 6.00 p.m. on the Concourse, near the Network Rail Reception. Before the tour could start, we each had to provide a 'Photo I.D.' to the receptionist who entered our details onto the computer system and took a photograph. Seventeen individual passes were then printed, fitted into a holder and issued. Security is taken very seriously.
Once we all had our passes, we were welcomed by the Station Manager and Duty Station Manager. After a brief introduction, we moved upstairs to the station control room.
Announcer's Room
The station control room is often called the Announcer's Room but its duties are much broader and, in the event of an incident, it takes command of all actions. Train announcements are now issued by a computerised system. All possible announcements are pre-recorded, stored digitally and then issued automatically according to the timetable, unless the operator intervenes on his computer screen as is frequently necessary. The operator not only has access to displays showing the identity, location (and lateness) of all trains in the immediate area but also further away. The operator can examine in detail the planned and actual timing of any train throughout its journey. The Station Manager was proud of the fact that the announcements are recorded not by a professional actor but by a lady Network Rail employee from the offices with a suitable voice. The system also controls the large number of PIDs (Passenger Information Displays) around the station.
A large station like Manchester Piccadilly (whose 14 platforms handle more movements daily than Euston with 18 platforms) is a potential terrorist target. The whole station is searched for suspicious packages every hour. The effectiveness of these searches is tested periodically by the Department for Transport, who place test 'suspicious packages' on the station for the staff to find. Manchester Piccadilly has a good record for promptly locating such test packages.
Closed Circuit Television plays an important part in keeping passengers safe. The station has over 400 colour cameras, all available on the various monitors in the Announcer's Room. The smaller monitors normally cycle through a number of cameras. The whole system is controlled from computer screens which can display scale plans of each area showing the location and identity of the cameras.
Comprehensive Fire Detection systems are installed throughout the station area. In the event of an alarm, the first action is to detail a member of staff to investigate. Evacuation only occurs after a confirmed alarm or multiple alarms. Again, computer screens display scale plans of each area showing the location, identity and status of detectors.
The Announcer's Room also controls the staff who provide assistance to disabled or elderly passengers.
Manchester Piccadilly Undercroft
The Trainsheds covering the platforms and the Undercroft on which they're built are listed structures and efforts have been made to retain as much as possible. In contrast, the concourse, offices and retail outlets are very modern. We descended to the Undercroft from the Announcer's Room via modern, grey-painted steel stairs.
View showing original columns supporting the Trainshed above and access road for delivery vehicles.
In areas built using brick arches, the original arches have been restored and then modified for their present uses with blockwork. The Undercroft has allowed a secure road network to be created allowing the retail outlets to receive deliveries by road and hold the stock in individual store rooms underground. As required, stock is taken to the shops by wheeled crates, minimising disruption in public areas. The undercroft is a rabbit warren of roads, car parks and passages and, by the time we had finished, I was thoroughly disorientated. We left through a pair of doors directly onto Piccadilly 'Metrolink' tram station, and I felt a little like the rabbit emerging from the hole in 'Alice in Wonderland'. We walked back to the concourse of the main station and took a non-public lift up to the third floor.
Manchester Piccadilly Signalling Control Centre
A huge illuminated display of the area controlled dominates the room. The control method is 'NX' ('eNtrance-eXit') but, whereas a 'classic' control panel would combine the indications and control pushbuttons in a single track diagram at which the signallers worked, at Manchester all indications are presented on a very large, vertical illuminated track diagram of the area with the control pushbuttons grouped onto five smaller non-illuminated track diagrams, one for each of the five control zones. These pushbutton panels are arranged horizontally in front of the five signallers, allowing the signaller to work whilst seated, if preferred. Each signaller has a desk immediately to their left, with a computer screen enabling a wide range of data to be readily accessed. Presumably the separation of the pushbuttons from the illuminated diagram was intended to make the signaller's task less strenuous - a large 'classic' 'NX' panel involves a lot of walking up and down and reaching up to access pushbuttons as required.
Of course, there are plenty of other computer screens for various purposes. Each signaller has a touch-screen telephone concentrator (the screen top right in the picture above).
One further extension to the area controlled by the Signalling Control Centre is in hand. The Atherton Line to Wigan Wallgate will be controlled from Piccadilly, abolishing existing boxes at Crow's Nest Junction, Atherton Goods Yard and Walkden. By complete co-incidence, I'd travelled that line from Wigan Wallgate earlier in the day to reach Manchester. Display screens at the Shift Manager's desk were displaying the future extension.
References
Manchester Piccadilly (Wikipedia).
Manchester Piccadilly (Network Rail).
My Pictures
Manchester Piccadilly Announcer's Room.
Manchester Piccadilly Undercroft.
Manchester Piccadilly Signalling Control Centre.
Manchester Area Rail.
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Manchester Piccadilly Station - Behind the Scenes
By Rail to Manchester
Sundry Notes and Musings, divided (approximately) into two periods
Pre-1980:
I don't believe I travelled to Manchester in the steam era, so I only know the line as it was around Manchester from photographs. Back then, the main services from my nearest station, Wolverhampton, were routed via Stafford, Crewe, Sandbach and Stockport.
Stafford
In the '50s and '60s I travelled as far as Stafford many times and was amazed by the Stanier 'Pacifics' rushing through the station with 'Named' expresses. The section 'Some Related Posts in this Blog' (below) has links to a couple of posts describing Stafford in that period.
Crewe
Less frequently, I travelled from Wolverhampton as far as Crewe - it was a 'Mecca' for me and I've written a number of posts featuring Crewe, listed in the section 'Some Related Posts in this Blog' (below).
Sandbach
In the 1960s, travelled as far as Sandbach on the Manchester line from Crewe. This was after the Euston to Manchester route had been chosen for the first major 25kV a.c. overhead electrification project. My trip to Sandbach was for an official visit to the new Power Signal Box (arranged by a kindly manager at Crewe). The power box was just north of the station on the Up side.
Sandbach Power Signal Box (now demolished)
after electrification of the line.
(Stephen Craven) / CC BY-SA 2.0
Westinghouse Brake and Signal installed a 'One Control Switch' ('OCS') panel at Sandbach. Track circuit and signal indications were on a vertical, geographical display. Controls were on an inclined, modular panel in front. Each signal had at least one thumbswitch (red for main signals, white for subsidiary) which was turned to clear the signal. Where there were additional routes beyond the signal, additional thumbswitches were provided, one for each route. The thumbswitches for each signal were stacked in a vertical column, where the top thumbswitch selected the 'leftmost' route. Any required point movements were automatically 'called' by turning the signal thumbswitch, although there were also 3-position individual point thumbswitches, black in colour (Normal, Automatic, Reverse).
Westinghouse installed similar new 'OCS'panels at Wilmslow (where the Styal Loop diverged from the main line through Stockport) and at Manchester Piccadilly (see below).'OCS' did not remain in favour much longer and 'Entrance-Exit' (enjoying the rather odd acronym 'NX') became the preferred approach for later power box schemes.
Stockport
Oddly, the Stockport area evaded signalling modernisation during electrification and the conventional signal boxes at Cheadle Hulme, Edgeley Junction No. 1, Edgeley Junction No. 2, Stockport No. 1, Stockport No. 2 and Heaton Norris remained for some time with mechanical operation of points although colour light signals replaced the earlier semaphore signals. They were all L.N.W.R. boxes (except Heaton Norris, which had been rebuilt with a B.R. Standard frame).
Manchester
In 1908/1909, the station (then called Manchester London Road) was re-signalled with the 'Crewe' All Electric system installed in three signal boxes. There's a brief description of the system here.
Manchester London Road No. 2 box in 1957.
These three boxes survived until electrification of the line, when Westinghouse Brake and Signal installed a 'One Control Switch' ('OCS') panel, similar to Sandbach and Wilmslow, in a new building on the Down side.
The Manchester Piccadilly Signal Box housing
the 'OCS' panel (Photo: John Hillmer).
Post-1980:
It was the 1980s before I started to travel regularly to Manchester, initially for a series of business meetings and later to reach what was then called 'Manchester Museum of Science and Industry' (now MOSI and part of the Science Museum). I became involved as a 'Railway Volunteer' at the Museum and there are a number of posts in this blog about the museum to which there's a link in the section 'Some Related Posts in this Blog' (below).
As you'd expect, having electrified the route, traction in the 1980s was electric - either Mark I coaches locomotive hauled or the lively Electric Multiple Units. Over the years since then, both the pattern of services and the rolling stock has changed quite a bit. Now, addition to modern EMUs and Pendolinos, DMUs and Voyagers are common 'under the wires'.
The north end of Wolverhampton Station in 2007.
My journeys in the 1980s started from Wolverhampton which, by that time, had been provided with a Power Signal Box and an 'NX' signalling console by Westinghouse Brake and Signal during electrification of the area.
This 2008 view Wolverhampton Power Box shows that it is little altered externally and (unlike some similar Power Boxes like Trent, Saltley and Derby) retains its flat roof. Larger overhanging fascias have been fitted since its initial construction, presumably because of difficulties viewing the signalling console in strong sunlight
Signal boxes between Wolverhampton and Stafford had been abolished by Wolverhampton Power Box although Littleton Colliery box survived as a Shunting Frame until the pit was closed in 1993. Stafford had been reduced to two boxes - Number 4 at the south end of the station on the Up side and Stafford Number 5 at the north end on the Down side.
There was then a fairly small power box with an 'NX' panel at Norton Bridge then (although the ground floor relay room remains, the operating floor has now gone). At Norton Bridge there were two possibilities - continue on the former L.N.W.R. main line to Crewe then turn right for Manchester or turn right at Norton Bridge and follow the North Staffordshire Railway route, joining the line from Colwich at Stone and continuing through Stoke-on-Trent to Cheadle Hulme where the L.N.W.R. route from Crewe was rejoined for the remaining journey through Stockport to Manchester.
Approaching Stockport from the south, the Buxton line converges from the right at Edgeley Junction No. 1.
After a few hundred yards, the line from Chester converges from the left at Edgeley Junction No. 2.
The line continues through a cutting to Stockport Station. This was originally a tunnel but was opened-out during electrification to improve clearances for the overhead catenary. A further two highly-modified LNWR signal boxes look after Stockport Station itself - Stockport No. 1 at the south end and Stockport No.2 at the north end.
Stockport Number 2 in 2008.
The terminus in Manchester was called 'Manchester London Road' until 1960 when, in a fit of modernisation, British Railways changed the name to 'Manchester Piccadilly'. British Railways had a lot of bright ideas like this. In 1965 British Railways finally lost their 'way' (geddit?) and became modern, thrusting 'British Rail'. The signal box with the 'OCS' panel has now been replaced by Manchester Piccadilly Signalling Control Centre. A visit I made to the new signalling centre in 2013 is described here.
The Trainshed at Manchester Piccadilly showing a London-bound 'Pendolino'.
Photographs
West Midland Railways.
Stafford Area.
Manchester Area.
Some Related Posts in this Blog
Stafford Station in the 'Fifties.
A Sunday Stroll to Stafford.
Railways at Crewe in the '50s.
Crewe North Junction (1940) Signal Box.
Crewe North Junction History.
Crewe Station Signal Boxes.
Crewe Station.
Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester.
Manchester Piccadilly Station - Behind the Scenes
Some Related Wikipedia articles
Stockport railway station.
Manchester Piccadilly station.
Privatisation of British Rail.
British Rail.
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