Where is this?

This is a shot I took of 46229 Duchess of Hamilton on the Hadrian Pullman railtour in July 1981.

46229_Hadrian_18-7-81 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Unfortunately, I didn't make a note of where it was and I can't remember or recognise where it was taken.

Can anyone help identify the location? I'm fairly sure it was somewhere in Greater Manchester, but where?

 

Six Bells Junction notes a 'Hadrian Flyer' on 18-7-1981, with 46229 pulling the train from Carlisle to York, if that helps.

 

Taken from the bridge adjacent to Northenden Junction signal box, looking west.

 

According to other websites, the steam portion was Northwich-Manchester Victoria-Stalybridge-Leeds-York.
Altrincham-Manchester Victoria would be underwires to Castlefield, you can eliminate Salford, and from Manchester Victoria it's mostly hilly/curves to Stalybridge.

My guess it's the starting end of the trip somewhere closer to Northwich... the picture looks a bit more "cheshire-ry"

 

Std Tank had it first

 

As it is on the CLC, the route would have been WCML to Hartford Jct, CLC via Northwich and Skelton Jct. Then at Northenden Jct, take the ex LNWR line to Edgeley Jct, through Stockport, then Heaton Norris Jct through Denton , probably to Ashton Moss Jct, then onto Stalybridge and forward to Standedge.

 

Thanks very much. I think I can just about remember going there now.

I had a look on Google Earth and it hasn't changed that much. The sleepers look the same!