The LNER Encyclopedia

A long shot this, but maybe someone might remember it.

Many years ago (I'm talking in decades here) when I lived in north
London we would often go on a Saturday morning to a public model
railway display in the Hornsey/Crouch End area. It occupied most of
the ground floor area of what looked like a normal high street shop
and was called something like the Kenwood Model Railway. It was
located near Crouch End Broadway, on the corner of a side road if I
remember it correctly.

We used to catch the no. 41 bus route from Turnpike Lane to get
there. After paying the admission charge of about sixpence you
could stay as long as you wanted to watch the trains go round. The
layout was 00 gauge on a decent sized scenic baseboard which you
could walk right round and view from all angles. Below the main
surface of the layout there was a separate track on which a model
London Transport tube train went round and round all the time.

The owner/operator was an elderly gent who seemed to be smoking
cigarettes most of the time. I can't remember much about the model
locos and rolling stock which ran on his layout except for one vivid
memory of a LNER B17 'Footballer' 4-6-0 which once became derailed
at a fair speed, prompting one observer to come out with the
unforgettable comment "'Arsenal' has ceased to function". That I do
remember but all other details are lost in the mists of time so I'm
hoping that someone here will know what I've bene trying to
describe.

I can remember going there in the 1950s, a fascinating place. The underground window was the best part, I used to stand ages waiting for it to appear. I am not sure when it closed down but after finishing National Service I tried to find it without success.

I remember it from the late forties. It was on the corner of Weston Park. Thank you for reminding me of the "lower level" which I had forgotten about.

> Hi,
I did a little project on this for a local Faceook page, as I just about remember the shop, and here it is:


The railway was the project of Mr Arthur Beach, who had previously constructed an 0 gauge garden railway and 00 gauge indoor railway at his home in East Finchley. This was number 16, The Bishops Avenue on the corner with Deansway and had limited days and times of admission . It was called the Ken View Railway because his house had a distant view towards Ken Wood. Having retired and moved house , he wanted to make use of his extra time and so took on premises in Crouch End in 1946 to create a solely indoor 00 gauge railway layout open daily to the public. This was at 27 Broadway Parade (subsequently a launderette) on the corner of Elder Avenue opposite The Queens pub. Entrance to the previous layout was free, though there was a charity box for the local hospital. The shop location needed to be on a more financially assured basis and so an admission charge of sixpence was instituted, with any profits being split between the Hornsey Memorial Hospital and the Railway Benevolent Fund.
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> The operation was staffed by volunteers of the Ken View Railway Club. Rolling stock was a mixture of LNER and Southern steam locos, plus a Southern electric train, District and Northern Line Tube sets. A miniature double-decker bus system was a new feature adding atmosphere to the scene. There was over seven hundred feet of track and a station loosely based on Hornsey, plus various tunnels and bridges, arranged in five circuits: two mainline, two suburban and a London Underground. Electric points and signals kept the system running smoothly. The Underground section ran partly at surface level, then descended to a station, which was visible from outside the shop window. There was an engine shed, coach sidings and a small marshalling yard.
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> It seems that in latter years, as volunteers drifted away or were called up for National Service, it was mainly Arthur running the shop day-to-day. This and dwindling income resulted in closure on 25th March 1952.
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> Sources:
> The Hornby Collector Magazine November 2015. Article by Mark Bailey.
> The Meccano Magazine November 1946. Article by H F Howson.
> Best of British magazine January 2013. Article by David Brown.
> Train Collectors Society magazine, issue 32. Recollections by Gwilym Evans and David Gill.
> Hornsey Journal 2nd December 1966
> and various internet mentions.
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