Kings Cross

[Mickey]

Have you got anymore John?.

[strang steel]

I thought that you might like to know I have found another snippet of Kings Cross activity lurking deep within an obscure video from the 1980s.

I have uploaded it to Youtube, and it can be viewed here http://youtu.be/LrkdfZ0ZmCU

I know it is short, but I think you will enjoy it anyway.

[thesignalman]

I thought that you might like to know I have found another snippet of Kings Cross activity lurking deep within an obscure video from the 1980s.

I have uploaded it to Youtube, and it can be viewed here http://youtu.be/LrkdfZ0ZmCU

I know it is short, but I think you will enjoy it anyway.

Thanks for that! It is actually early seventies - I might even have been working in the box there that day! Lots of fond memories, but they have got their sounds out of sequence, I think.

John

[strang steel]

I have revived this old thread as I have come across a comment on another internet site of someone seeing a Peak diesel on the Widened Lines at Farringdon.

When I expressed a certain surprise at that being allowed due to clearances, another contributor insisted that any loco released on the Eastern side of the station could be sent onto the Widened Lines in very busy periods, in order to reverse and appear on the loco side via the Hotel Curve without blocking the throat in the normal fashion. He maintains that even Deltics were sent this way.

It is a new one on me, but does anyone have any supporting info?

[Hatfield Shed]

Never previously heard of or seen such a thing. I'd guess at a misidentification of the 'Baby Deltic' with both the Peak (similar short nose) and Deltic-Deltic.

[strang steel]

My thoughts were that most of the larger locos would be too long to go around the York Way and Hotel curves without causing damage to the tunnel walls. My belief was that many locos and coaching stock were banned for this reason which is why the shorter length Cravens units were used.

[manna]

G'day Gents

You would never get a 'Peak' or a Deltic down the Widened Lines, The only 'Mainline diesels allowed down the Drain, were, Brush 2, Class 24 & 25, a Baby Deltic did make it to Moorgate on a number of occasions, to take empty stock to Moorgate, but had to run back light engine to KX. after a couple of trips LT banned them because of the smoke, Plus Mainline Diesels had to have a 'Tripcock' fitted, these had to be in the lowered position, and had to hit the tester, about 10yards inside the tunnel from York Rd platform, if it wasn't down or you missed the tester, all your signals went back to RED.

The closest a Big engine, that nearly went to Moorgate was a A3, misrouted, but the driver stopped at the tunnelmouth.

manna

[9001 St Paddy]

...another contributor insisted that any loco released on the Eastern side of the station could be sent onto the Widened Lines in very busy periods, in order to reverse and appear on the loco side via the Hotel Curve without blocking the throat in the normal fashion.

That got me thnking John, without trying to find R.Ps Kings Cross track diagram i can't remember if there was a Limit of Shunt board beside the Up slow/Up Moorgate line inside Gasworks tunnel to allow a wrong direction wrong road shunt move from platform no.1 via the connection midway through York Road station back into Gaswork tunnel?.

Also leading on from the above post got me wondering if ever a Up express was ever routed along the Up slow/Up Moorgate line at Belle Isle through Gasworks tinnel to York Road station then through the connection midway through York Road station and on into platform no.1 i presume it could be done but i'm sure i never saw it happen?.

[Hatfield Shed]

...Also leading on from the above post got me wondering if ever a Up express was ever routed along the Up slow/Up Moorgate line at Belle Isle through Gasworks tunnel to York Road station then through the connection midway through York Road station and on into platform no.1 i presume it could be done but i'm sure i never saw it happen?...

Sensible provision to allow:
diversion of a Moorgate bound train to terminate on platform 1 should the need arise ;
or for maintenance of, or circumvention of a temporary blockage on, the parallel up line through Gasworks tunnel serving the arrival platforms.

[9001 St Paddy]

Yes i reckon it could have been used as a 'diversionary route' in an emergency for a Up express to gain access into platform no.1 by routeing the express along the Up slow/Up Moorgate line at Belle Isle through Gasworks tunnel and then through the connection midway through York Road station and on into platform no.1.

[9001 St Paddy]

Outside of the York Road station entrance across York Way was the London Transport busmen's staff canteen (now a Starbucks i think?) i went in there once with a Kings Cross loco driver for a cheap meal provided you showed your BR priv ticket.

Roat lamb, mash & roast spuds, carrots, peas & gravy with apple crumble & custard £1.25p in 1974.

[PinzaC55]

http://www.thebabydelticproject.co.uk/# ... 4544302317

[strang steel]

Thanks for that link, although the photo of the rebuild in the works seems to be not quite right visually to me. The cab front windows look too deep.

The one thing that seemed to stand out on a Baby Deltic was the size of the nose front compared to the relatively shallow cab windows.

But I am probably splitting hairs.

[StevieG]

...another contributor insisted that any loco released on the Eastern side of the station could be sent onto the Widened Lines in very busy periods, in order to reverse and appear on the loco side via the Hotel Curve without blocking the throat in the normal fashion.

" That got me thnking John, without trying to find R.Ps Kings Cross track diagram i can't remember if there was a Limit of Shunt board beside the Up slow/Up Moorgate line inside Gasworks tunnel to allow a wrong direction wrong road shunt move from platform no.1 via the connection midway through York Road station back into Gaswork tunnel?. .... "

Pretty sure you're right about that Limit Of Shunt on the Up Slow - There was also one on the Up Fast and I seem to recall that they were opposite each other : Remember that, as well as other reasons given, there was also the "South Spur", the tiny siding by the York Road Up Met. line tunnel entrance, accessed by a facing point in the south end of York Road platform (worked by a ground frame ; release lever 5 in the Box) : The US LOS would've allowed a trip move from platform 1 to put or retrieve a wagon (or two?) in/out, though I never saw anything in there.

Bigger diesels going down the 'Met.' - I'm fairly sure that I once saw, in an old magazine; (maybe one of the early small-format Modern Railways), a B&W photo of a Brush 4 in two-tone livery, on an Up train of vans in York Road, captioned to be heading for 'the Southern' before the 'Snow Hill' link [ Farringdon-Holborn V. LL/Ludgate Hill ] closed. Did they really haul such workings? If yes, what about having no trip gear?

[thesignalman]

Certainly did run trains, including expresses, into Platform 1 off the Up Slow at York Road - a sleeper arrival in the morning was one regular but you had to pray the driver didn't stop short.

I'm pretty certain Brush 4s were not allowed down "the hole" and I suspect that magazine caption was incorrect - it was perhaps the Grimsby fish which unloaded in Platform 1.

I do remember Baby Deltics going down and they did not always come back light. The method at Moorgate was quite strict and an engine had to go down light before the first train. That would work the first train back and the engines would step through, with the last arrival coming back light. The signalling at Moorgate did not allow any other method.

John