Finsbury Park Fish Station

[silverfox]

Just been watching a documentary call From Sea to Plate and Billingsgate made in 1958

In it there were intl shots of, as the commentator called it, a specialised station for dealing with the fish trains

Anyone remember where this Fish Station was sited in Finsbury Park?

[rockinjohn]

Hi, yes it was a Mac Fisheries,the Depot around over the Wells Terrace Bridge leading to the Coal Yard,think an up Grimsby fish service late evening dropped a couple off and a 350hp shunted them around to the Store,it was a joy to see a New sparkling dbl chimney 9F (921XX) after the grubby but fast K3's on these trains .jj

[Mickey]

Hi, yes it was a Mac Fisheries,the Depot around over the Wells Terrace Bridge leading to the Coal Yard,think an up Grimsby fish service late evening dropped a couple off and a 350hp shunted them around to the Store,it was a joy to see a New sparkling dbl chimney 9F (921XX) after the grubby but fast K3's on these trains .jj

I remember those sidings jj and seeing them daily when I was travelling to and from my infants school in Blackstock Road south of the Seven Sisters Road running through Finsbury Park between 1962 & 1966 with the railway sidings being at a higher level from the street down below and running parallel along Stroud Green Road for a short distance and I even vaguely recall seeing quite a few trains of either mineral wagons or box vans with brake vans standing stationary in those sidings, I presume that I saw those trains from the other side of Stroud Green Road for a bit of a better view of them?.

Also I do remember when walking along the pavement underneath the Stroud Green Road cast iron bridge (just off the north end of Finsbury Park station) and the 'racket' or NOISE that those expresses use to make to my young ears going over my head was like THUNDER and I would often hope no expresses would pass through the station when I was walking underneath the Stroud Green Road bridge!!.

[rockinjohn]

Hi Mickey&All the Yard had a road entrance in Wells Terrace where the single deck LT buses laid over, had to be single because of the "weak"overbridge on &up to Muswell Hill(until reinforced from track lvl to allow D/Deckers to be used instead on the route),a better vantage point was the streets @ the back of Wells Terrace,the whole area in earlier times was quite a dangerous place & called "Camberwell Bunk" we were warned off the area @ an early age,I remember coal wagons there,but only ever saw the Mac Fisheries Delivery Trucks in the area,I suppose the couple of empty "fish "wagons were tripped back to Clarence Yard or Kings X goods.jj

[rockinjohn]

Hi, not strictly relevant, but I once asked a Goods Guard why was the Brakevan cut in with maybe 2/3 wagons on the tail of the Fish trains on the UP workings & possibly DOWN empties also, urban legend has it two(2)possible reasons (a) for quick drop off, bit like the "Park" maybe or somewhere on route or (2)the trains never hung around once on a roll &it was to give the guard a less hectic rag doll ride up to the smoke.jj

[Mickey]

Didn't the extreme west side of Finsbury Park station where there was a platform and a short single siding road and for a number of years during the early/mid 1970s a 'Pullman coach' was seen to be permanently stabled in that short siding, didn't those (station) buildings on the platform behind the Pullman coach have something to do with fish?. It's all a bit 'fuzzy' now 50+ years on?.

[Hatfield Shed]

...the trains never hung around once on a roll &it was to give the guard a less hectic rag doll ride up to the smoke.

That's the reason.Once these trains were fully braked it was realised that the guard didn't have to be in the last vehicle and would benefit from the more stable ride by being slightly inside the formation. (Given the number of coaches going for scrap on BR at the time, some thoughtful repurposing might have provided something yet superior for the express speed these trains were worked at.)

[rockinjohn]

Hi Hatfield/Mickey &all,thnks that cut in of the brake van occurred on a few departures from Grimsby onto the GC routes to the Midlands&West Country also, I found on an Old map, not really rail orientated, a building/platform shown alongside the far down line,with some connection shown line/footpath to/under? the two tracks across Wells Terrace, which could both, being duplicated to gain particular sidings access in the Coal &Goods Yard,the best view was gained from Clifton Terrace, not sure of your view point Mickey, but you may have sighted the Roadway Entrance of the Goods&Coal Yard on the Cnr of Stroud Green Rd (main entrance)but I'm sure there was another minor entrance in Wells Terrace, opposite where the Mac Fisheries trucks came/went from our? "Fish Station".jj

[Mickey]

not sure of your view point Mickey,

What I was trying to say jj was those buildings on the far west side of Finsbury Park station I think they may have had some connection to the fish trade maybe importing frozen fish?. There was a Pullman coach stabled for a number of years along side the platform in the far west side of Finsbury Park station you couldn't miss it back in the early 1970s.

[rockinjohn]

Hi Mickey,yeah got that, I meant your view point from the perspective of sighting the Vans/Coal trucks in the Goods/Coal Yard was from the road entrance in Stroud Green Road,& the Fish Station I think one & the same "my" map indicated those buildings on the furthest Down track, maybe this indeed did become a siding @ a later date the map was from early 1900's & the buildings were isolated from the passenger platforms.