In a 1914 book of Gradient Tables of the LNWR that I have gradients and distances of all the company's lines are listed to the nearest one-sixteenth of a mile and the starting-points of the sequences are given, in some cases from a station but in most from the appropriate junction (as, for example, "Distance from Proof House Junction.").
For the company's line from Stalybridge to Leeds the starting-point is given as "Distance from Manchester Exchange" and the first entry is Miles 8 to Miles 8⅛, between Stalybridge and Mossley, rising at 1 in 125. The RCH maps shew Exchange as lying 21 chains west of Victoria, and of course the line between Manchester and Stalybridge was an L&Y line, originally into its own terminus at the latter place. Today's Sectional Appendix appears to shew that the Leeds line is measured throughout from Victoria by a continuation of the L&Y sequence. Does anyone know whether the line was re-measured at any time to run from Victoria, or whether there is in fact a discontinuity in the measurement-sequence at Stalybridge today to account for those 21 chains?
(A slight but interesting complication is that the line from Heaton Norris Junction (via Hooley Hill—the all-LNW route) also shews Stalybridge at 8 miles, i.e. exactly the same as apparently from Manchester Exchange.)
For the company's line from Stalybridge to Leeds the starting-point is given as "Distance from Manchester Exchange" and the first entry is Miles 8 to Miles 8⅛, between Stalybridge and Mossley, rising at 1 in 125. The RCH maps shew Exchange as lying 21 chains west of Victoria, and of course the line between Manchester and Stalybridge was an L&Y line, originally into its own terminus at the latter place. Today's Sectional Appendix appears to shew that the Leeds line is measured throughout from Victoria by a continuation of the L&Y sequence. Does anyone know whether the line was re-measured at any time to run from Victoria, or whether there is in fact a discontinuity in the measurement-sequence at Stalybridge today to account for those 21 chains?
(A slight but interesting complication is that the line from Heaton Norris Junction (via Hooley Hill—the all-LNW route) also shews Stalybridge at 8 miles, i.e. exactly the same as apparently from Manchester Exchange.)