page_title: Hyde Road railway station
section_title: Project Light Rail
hierarchical_section_title: Hyde Road railway station / History / Project Light Rail
caption_attribution_description: English: Debdale Park station. General view during light rail demonstration. See 1619492
context_page_description: Hyde Road was a railway station in Gorton, Manchester, England, on the Fallowfield Loop Line. It opened in 1892 and closed in 1958 when local passenger services on the line stopped. The station was sometimes advertised as Hyde Road for Belle Vue, that is, convenient for Belle Vue Zoo, about one mile away. The track closed completely in 1988 and the track was taken up. The station has long since been demolished, and the site has now been partly redeveloped. The line of the track is used as a cycleway.
  It was named after Hyde Road, a road which begins at the east end of Ardwick Green South in Ardwick and runs east towards Hyde. At the boundary between Gorton and Audenshaw it continues as Manchester Road.
context_section_description: Shortly before its demise, the Fallowfield Loop line played an important role in the early development of the Manchester Metrolink system when the stretch of track at Debdale Park on the site of the former Hyde Road railway station was used in 1987 for a public demonstration of "Project Light Rail", the working title for the development of a new light rail/tram network in Manchester. The event made use of a Docklands Light Railway train on loan from GEC Transportation Projects Ltd,  DLR P86 number 11,  prior to its introduction onto the fledgling Docklands system in London, and it was the first ever light rail vehicle seen in operation in Manchester. The event was jointly staged by GMPTE, British Rail, British Rail Engineering Limited, GEC, Balfour Beatty and Fairclough Civil Engineering Ltd and was formally opened by David Mitchell MP, Minister of State for Transport, on 10 March 1987.
  Demonstrations were held on 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22 March 1987 at a specially-constructed railway station at Debdale Park and ticket holders were treated to a short ride on the DLR vehicle along a 1.6-kilometre (0.99 mi) stretch of track, from just north of the Hyde Road junction to just south of the closed Reddish depot. The DLR train was specially fitted with a pantograph and powered by overhead line, and was driven manually rather than in automatic mode, which was to be normal practice when in operation on the Docklands system. The test track was closed to normal heavy rail traffic on demonstration days, and at night the DLR train was stationed in a siding and the line was re-opened to freight trains. An exhibition also exhibited examples of street track, overhead line and platform facilities.
  After the public event, Debdale Park station was dismantled and the timber platform was used to build the new Hag Fold railway station near Wigan; and the electric overhead line equipment was taken down and re-used at the Heaton Park Tramway on the lakeside extension. The demonstration train DLR Number 11 was transported to London where it was put into operation on the Docklands Light Railway. It served as the "Royal train", transporting the Queen and Prince Philip on the formal opening of the DLR. In 1991, DLR Number 11 was the first of the P86 fleet to be sold to the City of Essen, Germany, where it is in service today on the EVAG Stadtbahn.
caption: The temporary Debdale Park station used for Project Light Rail in 1987
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