The LNER Encyclopedia

Hi All
Does anybody have any old photos of Enfield shed as I was a fireman there during the 1950s. Also does anybody remember steam at Enfield.
Alan[/img]

I travelled to school from Enfield Town to White Hart Lane from 1947 to 1952. This picture
is post 1952 as platform 1 has now been removed and the relief road beside the shed is now
platform one. The station canopy indicates the original line of platform 1. Locos would
uncouple on arrival in platform 1 and move to the relief line via a ground frame. They would then top up their water tanks half way up the side of the shed. The water tank can be clearly seen on the shed roof in the photograph.

I am new to the discussion group.
My parents (and eventually myself as grew up) played Tennis and Cricket at the GNNR Sports Ground at Gordon Hill the station after Enfield. We used to live near Turnpike Lane so the nearest station was Hornsey. I travelled by steam loco and then by DMU on return journeys every weekwnd throughout the summers from about 1957-1968. Even in the winter, we used to go out and play Table Tennis - we didn't have a car - we went by train everywhere.
My father worked at 222 Marylebone Road (BR HQ) and I have the dubious privilege of sharing a lift whilst in his offices with Dr Beeching.
I was a mad trainspotter from about age 6 and spent nearly every day whilst not at school on the bridge over the tracks at Hornsey or when I had tuppence for a platform ticket down next to the tracks. Elsewhere in this list is a picture taken from where I used to stand looking south as the trains coming out of Kings Cross were still accelerating as they came through the station and onto the long straight towards Wood Green/Alexandra Palace.
I still recall quite vividly a brand new Deltic thundering through the station and it must have been about this time that they put down lines about 3 feet from the edge of the platform - my father explaining that if I stood any nearer, I would get sucked into the slipstream.
I found this duscussion group whilst looking for plans to model Hornsey - but I see someone has already beaten me to it.
My father worked 'on the railways' as did my Grandfather and my GG Grandfather who is supposed to have been a Station Master at Camden Goods Yard and his father came to London from Nuneaton (LMS?) as the railways expanded in the mid 1800's.

This list is bringing back so many memories. Happy days!

Trainspotter1948

G'Day Gents

And welcome to the forum, unfortunately I cannot bring anything to this thread but I do know Hornsey very well as I grew up on the Noel Park estate at Wood Green, so that area of North London was my stamping ground, and I have stood on the very footbridge that you talked about

manna

I lived in Enfield until 1960, moving away to Colchester when I was 12 - just before the line was electrified. As my father worked on BR(E) we used to travel from both Enfield Town and Enfield Chase stations to London, depending on where we were going on to. I have more than once been 'parked' with the Guard at the rear of a Quad-art set from the 'Chase to be met at KX, and often used to walk round to Genotin Road to stand right next to the Town shed and loco road.

Here's a photo of an N7 coaling up at Enfield Town Shed in the late 1950s. All coaling was done by hand.

At large sheds tools were issued from the stores but at Enfield tools were left on the loco, during the 1950s tools were always in short supply at Enfield.

This was ok if you signed on early in the morning there were plenty of tools about but if you started later you had a problem. You would find very few tools on the engine, you had the bucket with detonators and spanners, but tools like shovels and fire irons were scarce, if you found a shovel it would probably be knackered and worn out, the early men had nicked all the best ones.

What you had to do was hide tools if you had a good shovel you stashed it away where nobody could find it.

locojoe wrote:At large sheds tools were issued from the stores but at Enfield tools were left on the loco, during the 1950s tools were always in short supply at Enfield.

This was ok if you signed on early in the morning there were plenty of tools about but if you started later you had a problem. You would find very few tools on the engine, you had the bucket with detonators and spanners, but tools like shovels and fire irons were scarce, if you found a shovel it would probably be knackered and worn out, the early men had nicked all the best ones.

What you had to do was hide tools if you had a good shovel you stashed it away where nobody could find it.

One of the main things that wasted coal on a loco was bad driving, some drivers would thrash an engine when it was quiet unnecessary. This would result in the fireman shovelling more coal thus the waste. Other drivers could time a train and not be late with sensible use of the cutoff, the bad drivers were very unpopular with most firemen.
At Enfield these bad drivers were known as SLOSHERS.

Ay up!

In the North, they were known as "Wiredrawers."

Blink Bonny wrote:Ay up!

In the North, they were known as "Wiredrawers."

That's a new one on me Blink Bonny,railwaymen in most regions on BR used their local lingo. Whether they be. Cockneys, Bungets, Yorkies or Geordies.

Ay up!

Bungets?

Locojoe: There's a very good book called London's Local Railways by Alan A. Jackson and published by Capital Transport.

It deals with the whole city in general divided into four quadrants, but of its 464 pages, 134 of them are well-illustrated pages devoted to NE London and to your neck of the woods. The front cover features N7 69665 at Enfield Town. I'm sure you'd enjoy reading the book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_nos ... l+railways

Blink Bonny wrote:Ay up!

Bungets?

Hi Blink Bonny
As I recall Peterborough men were called Bungits.

giner wrote:Locojoe: There's a very good book called London's Local Railways by Alan A. Jackson and published by Capital Transport.

It deals with the whole city in general divided into four quadrants, but of its 464 pages, 134 of them are well-illustrated pages devoted to NE London and to your neck of the woods. The front cover features N7 69665 at Enfield Town. I'm sure you'd enjoy reading the book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_nos ... l+railways

Hi "giner" Thanks for the info about the book, the N7 No69665 on the book cover is
a loco I fired on many times. I believe N7 No69665 was scrapped early but I don't know why.
I had a look on Amazon it's priced at £38 a bit pricey but probably worth the expense.

Try

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/t ... /sortby/3/