Middlewood on the Stockport – Buxton line has a pretty thin service with festers of 2 hours between services. A pleasant alternative to a long fester is to walk the “Middlewood Way” from Middlewood to Rose Hill Marple.
The Middlewood Way is a surfaced trail utilising the former double track railway that once linked Macclesfield with Bollington and Rose Hill Marple, a former 11 mile branch that closed to all traffic on January 5th 1970.
Leave the station and climb up the path to the Middlewood Way with a bridge leading West towards Bollington and Macclesfield. We turn left onto the main trail with good fews of Manchester City Centre to our left. Several overbridges survive as does the platforms of High Lane an intermediate station in the middle of nowhere.
After walking around 2 miles the trail becomes more urbanised with tarmac and streetlights. The trail ends in a run down industrial estate / car park, but Rose Hill Marple at least has half hourly services back to Manchester,
The Move (walking time 50 mins) 190826
150108} 1051 Buxton – Manchester Picc (Plat 0 ex Stockport) ST-MI
156422}
195015 1211 Rose Hill Marple – Manchester Picc RHM-HC
Phots
At least the 1051 Manchester Picc – Buxton uses the free platform 0 at Stockport with 150108 and 156422 seen arriving at the newish platform
Taken into the sun 156422 and 150108 leaves Middlewood with the 1051 Manchester – Buxton
The Middlewood Way looking West with the overbridge that crosses the Buxton line in the foreground.
The first of several long surviving overbridges on the Middlewood Way
3 views of the intermediate High Lane station with the platforms accessible to scratch!
Nearer Rose Hill the trail is tarmaced and more urban in nature
At Rose Hill Marple your chariot even if its a rancid 195 awaits you, walk over..
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