Railway Herald
Class 47/7 No. 47773 heads the return leg of Vintage Trains' mini excursion from Manchester Piccadilly to Hadfield on 20th December 2008, passing the site of the former Mottram Yard to the south of Dinting. The sidings here used to handle coal trains bound for Fiddlers Ferry power station, brought over the Pennines from the Yorkshire coalfields by pairs of Class 76 locos. The yard was closed in 1981 when through trains over the Woodhead route between Hadfield and Penistone ceased, and this once important mainline became little more than a commuter branch line served only by EMUs.
Jonathan Stevenson
