Manchester Exchange Station?

[AliBobbyJ]

Even though I was there many times and kind of liked the place I'm wondering what the old Manchester Exchange Station was really for. You didn't actually change there for other lines, there was Manchester Victoria just 100 yards further on, so apart from boasting the longest platform in Europe and offering magnificent views of the Irwell does anyone know what was the point of it?

(Not really wishing to start a whole thread of railway trivia but if anyone wants to get steamed up about Exeter St. David's or the Gare St. Lazare, carry on ...)

 

[ColinBellsjockstrap]

My dad was a cabby at Exchange station in the 1950's. He could only afford a Salford Licence he once told me, If he had a Manchester one he could have picked up at Victoria a few hundred yards away which was much busier. His most common fare was over to Piccadilly 1s/6p ( 71/2p in todays money,) cabbies used to hate this because they might have been queuing for two hours for this, and then go to the back again when they returned.

The best fares were when the holiday special got back from Butlins in North Wales, the train was packed with holidaymakers wanting to get home.

Platform 11 which joined the two stations used to be the longest railway platform in Europe at the time.

Disclaimer:- Not my photograph..see below.

 

[Jamshopbridge]

My dad was a cabby at Exchange station in the 1950's. He could only afford a Salford Licence he once told me, If he had a Manchester one he could have picked up at Victoria a few hundred yards away which was much busier. His most common fare was over to Piccadilly 1s/6p ( 71/2p in todays money,) cabbies used to hate this because they might have been queuing for two hours for this, and then go to the back again when they returned.

The best fares were when the holiday special got back from Butlins in North Wales, the train was packed with holidaymakers wanting to get home.

Platform 13 which joined the two stations used to be the longest railway platform in Europe at the time.

Disclaimer:- Not my photograph..see below.

View attachment 93085

Good old platform 13, used to take you to Blackpool North. As a kid I had many a happy journey on that train.

 

[Grassland Blue]

My dad was a cabby at Exchange station in the 1950's. He could only afford a Salford Licence he once told me, If he had a Manchester one he could have picked up at Victoria a few hundred yards away which was much busier. His most common fare was over to Piccadilly 1s/6p ( 71/2p in todays money,) cabbies used to hate this because they might have been queuing for two hours for this, and then go to the back again when they returned.

The best fares were when the holiday special got back from Butlins in North Wales, the train was packed with holidaymakers wanting to get home.

Platform 13 which joined the two stations used to be the longest railway platform in Europe at the time.

Disclaimer:- Not my photograph..see below.

View attachment 93085

It was platform 11 which linked the 2 stations.

 

[BrianW]

It was a sort of overspill for Victoria, which simply was not big enough to handle the traffic when Exchange was built.

They were of course, owned by two different, but allied companies. The Lancashire and Yorkshire owned Victoria (which was its HQ) and the London and North Western (which also shared what is now Piccadilly with the Great Central) owned Exchange. The two stations (Victoria and Exchange) were linked after 1923 when both L&Y and LNWR became part of the LMS, and in later days, certainly, the two stations were effectively worked as one.

 

[BrianW]

By the way, Exchange had a distinctive smell all of its own, which I have never encountered anywhere else. It was a sort of mix of old fish, oil and smoke, which sounds foul but was really just distinctive. When you got off at Exchange, you knew you were home by the smell.

 

[KS55]

Exchange handled a good deal of freight whereas Victoria did not, iirc.
The good old days when Piccadilly was London Road, Central had an hourly service to Liverpool, and Oxford Road was a commuter station.

 

[Stephen230]

Exchange handled a good deal of freight whereas Victoria did not, iirc.
The good old days when Piccadilly was London Road, Central had an hourly service to Liverpool, and Oxford Road was a commuter station.

I’ve sometimes wondered, being the sad fucker I am, why it’s called Oxford Road and not Oxford Street station?

The River Medlock is the point where the road name changes and that’s quite a way back from the station, just near where the Holiday Inn now is.

 

[Kirkstall Blue]

Once we caught a train in Exchange going for the boat to Ireland, so Liverpool Lyme St must have been a destination. I was vey young so the station approach looked enormous

 

[bluenova]

I’ve sometimes wondered, being the sad fucker I am, why it’s called Oxford Road and not Oxford Street station?

The River Medlock is the point where the road name changes and that’s quite a way back from the station, just near where the Holiday Inn now is.

Just to confuse you a little more, according to these older maps, most of Oxford Street extended much further at the time the station opened.

Manchester Historical Maps

manchester.publicprofiler.org