Early DC EMU carriage restored
THE Manchester South Junction and Altrincham Railway (MSJ&AR) is one of those little-known obscure railways where little of its rolling stock has been preserved, but tucked away at Butterley are two compartment carriages preserved from this railway dating back to 1931.
The MSJ&AR ‘main line’ was between Ordsall
Lane and London Road (Manchester Piccadilly), but there was a 8½ -mile ‘branch’ running from London Road to Altrincham. Eventually it was connected to the Cheshire Lines Committee at Altrincham and became a through route.
In 1931, the Altrincham branch became the world’s first urban passenger railway to be electrified overhead at 1500V DC, 22 three-car EMUs were built to provide a suburban service by Metropolitan-Cammell, based on the LMS type 1 design, teak framed, metal panels and noncorridor. They gave 40 of years of service until
April 30, 1971.
It is two of these original centre carriages (Nos 117 and 121) that are preserved and owned by the Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society (AERPS), which was formed in June 1970. Their original aim was to preserve a complete train but none of the driving or driving trailer units were saved because of high copper prices at the time.
They were purchased in 1971 and moved to the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway in 1972, moving to the Matthew Kirtley Museum at Swanwick Junction in 1983.
Restoration of No. 117 to this stage has been a long drawn out affair taking over 40 years, and recent attention to asbestos issues will enable further progress to be made on the interior. It is now fully repainted by the Butterley DMU group, and is pictured on July 6 after being pulled out of the paint shop for the trip behind Class 11 diesel No. 12077 to the museum at Swanwick Junction.
Sister coach No. 122 is currently in a skeletal state awaiting restoration..
John Titlow, Shropshire