Hornsey No2 & Hornsey up goods s/boxes in 1970

[Mickey]

I never managed to visit Hornsey No2 s/box. Hornsey no2 s/box was situated a couple of hundred yards to the north of Hornsey station between the up fast & up slow lines. The s/box was basically a 'block post' between Wood Green up box No4 s/box in the rear to the north and Harringay (passenger) s/box in advance to the south. Hornsey No2 was a small structure with no more than about a 20 lever frame (at a guess?). At onetime there was a connection leading from the up slow to up goods no1 line and also another connection from the up goods/up carriage line via a diamond crossing with double-slips in it onto the up slow line but by the end of the 1960s both connections had been taken out of use and the p.w. had plain lined it. The notable feature outside Hornsey No2 s/box was the signal gantry that spanned all the running lines from the up slow line right across over to the down side of the line and at onetime carried Hornsey No 2s up slow to up goods No1 line home signal which had been abolished in the 1960s, the up slow home and up fast home/section signal with Harringay's up fast distant signal beneath it, aswell as Wood Green No1 s/box seven down line distant signals all facing in the down direction. Hornsey No2 s/box was usually at weekends 'switched out' by the beginning of 1970. Hornsey up Goods s/box was situated diagonally a couple of hundred or so yards further north to Hornsey No2 s/box and was situated on the up side of the line into Kings Cross. Hornsey up goods s/box was a large'ish box with a 90 lever frame that worked to Wood Green up box No4 s/box to the rear over the up goods line (Permissive block) and up carriage line from Wood Green up box No4 from the north and Harringay up goods s/box over the up goods no1 line (Permissive block) and up goods no2 line (Permissive block) to the south. There was also an 'engine line' that went from the carriage sidings no1 & no2 roads passed Hornsey up goods s/box and skirted around Ferme Park up marshalling yard and on towards Harringay up goods s/box. At Hornsey up goods there was an array of points & disc signals aswell as about three signal posts with miniture signal arms on them, also a large signal gantry that at onetime carried nine arms, five full size and four minitures but by the beginnng of 1970 several signal arms had been taken away when several sets of points had been taken out of use. The exit from carriage sidings no1 & no2 roads had two separate sets of miniture signals on one post signal nos 83, 71 & 70 from group sidings no2 and nos 79, 66, 65 & 64 from group sidings no1. There was also two prominent signal posts on the up goods line carrying signal nos 17 up goods line home and no 40 up goods home to up carriage line also the signal post carrying the up carriage line home signals nos 45 up carriage line home to up goods line and no 46 up carriage line home. At Hornsey up goods s/box & carriage sidings shunting and marshalling of ECS was a 24 hour operation with also regular departures of loco hauled empty stock bound for Kings Cross main line departures throughout the day and into the late evening. By 1974 rationalization was starting to take place with some points and carriage roads being taken out of use aswell as several more signal arms off of the main signal gantry and else where being removed. I think Hornsey No2 s/box closed sometime around the summer of 1973?, but Hornsey up goods s/box was still there in late 1975 all be it with a much reduced and simplified form. *On a personal note by the late summer of 1975 i had had enough of the 'modernization' of the GN lines south of Hitchin and 'operation live wire' i think BR called it at the time?. With only a dozen or so signal boxes remaining open south of Hitchin and track rationalization and of course the impending promise of 'electrification' to look forward to (Hallelujah praise the lord!) i decided to take my leave and bid a final farewell to the old GN and call it a day and move on to pastures new... Micky

[StevieG]

Hornsey Up Goods: For a while after the resignalling of the main line, a simplified layout was still worked from here, but with its Carriage Sidings connections into the Up Goods line having to be electrically released from elsewhere before they could be pulled [initially from "Wood Green" "Up Box No.4" (as the box name proclaimed), but which had lost its levers and become 'Wood Green', equipped with a new push-button (NX) control panel, working the whole area from Bounds Green to Harringay].

In due course, the Carriage Sidings were re-organised, individually fully signalled, and electrified, controlled by a new control cabin built further north from the old Box (and currently for some time looking like it's been moth-balled, along with the sidings themselves).