A rainy Sunday at Biggleswade 1970

[Mickey]

A day out one rainy Sunday back in 1970 beside the ECML at Biggleswade was a minor test of endurance but being a 'railway fanatic' back then it all part of being into railways.

The morning started at Welwyn Garden City station when I caught a loco hauled train headed by a blue livered Brush type 2 hauling a rake of blue/grey B.R.Mk.1s at around 8:50 am that had originally departed Kings X around 8:25 am bound for Peterborough (or possibly Huntingdon?) and in fact apart from expresses this train was possibly the only loco hauled semi-fast train from Kings X going north of Hitchin back then on a Sunday with the few other 'stopping trains' going north of Hitchin on a Sunday being usually formed by x2 car Craven units and they only amounted to about 4 trains going Down road including the train I was riding on and 4 trains coming Up road between about 9:00 am Sunday morning and 8:00 pm on the Sunday evening!. Anyway my train that I boarded at WGC eventually arrived at Biggleswade station at around 9:40 am where I got off and then I made my way out of the deserted station and somehow found a path that ran along beside the Down goods line south of the station passing Biggleswade (South) s/box that stood opposite on the other side of the line on the Up side anyway I found a place to stand about 400-500 yards south of the station with a farmers open field behind me standing beside the 4-running lines to wait and watch 'the action' of passing trains!. The Sunday was grey skies and overcast with intermittent rain falling when the occasional sound in the distance would be heard of the 'hum' of an approaching blue livered DELTIC hauled express appearing either on the Up or Down fast lines and rush passed me (doing a ton) hauling mainly a rake of blue/grey B.R.Mk.2s and sometimes hauled by a blue livered Brush type 4 with the train disappearing into the distance when quiet would descend once again for what seemed like ages? . Funny how 'quiet' the ECML was back in 1970 north of Hitchin especially on a Sunday with 'long gaps' between trains sometimes of up to 40-45 minutes in either direction!.

Anyway by the Sunday afternoon I was getting hungry but the next stopping train from Biggleswade heading south towards Hitchin wasn't until about 6:00 pm which was a x2 car Cravens unit from Huntingdon calling at St Neots, Sandy, Biggleswade & Hitchin so only another 3+hours to wait!. Eventually it was time to return to Biggleswade station where the twinkling station lights could be seen in the distance in the gathering gloomy dusk as evening approached when looking northwards along the line.

Finally at around 5:45 pm I was back on Biggleswade Up station platform to await the welcoming sight of a x2 car Cravens unit rolling into the Up fast line platform and away home I went to a belated Sunday dinner with my stomach rumbling from hunger ha ha..

I rode the same train from WGC on two other Sundays during the same year 1970 in the space of one month and in fact the 'Biggleswade trip' above was actually my second Sunday trip that I made with the first trip being WGC to Sandy (and return) and my third and last Sunday trip being WGC to Huntingdon (and return) although an intended fourth trip being WGC to St Neots (and return) was never bothered with as these 'Sunday trips' were quite an 'endurance test' for a 13 year old teenager at the time with me not bothering to take any food or drinks with me and being out all day from about 8:00 am on Sunday morning until arriving back home at about 8:00 pm on the Sunday evening starving hungry!. Ha ha..

[Mickey]

The train referred to above that I rode on is featured on another topic thread of mine on here under the title 'Mystery train' which back in 1970 was a Sunday Only booked service although it's actual departure time from Kings Cross isn't known by me although I assume that probably departed 'the cross' around 8:25 am (arriving at WGC about 08:50 am) and it was possibly a 'Hitchin job' meaning the train crew of a driver, secondman & guard were Hitchin men although it may have been a Kings Cross train crew diagram but I don't recall it being one?. The train was loco hauled consisting of a blue livered Brush type 2 (a latter day class 31) and a rake of about eight or nine blue/grey B.R. Mk1 coaches.

The Sunday morning journey going Down road-

This particular train I would say had a 'main line run' after departing Kings Cross because on the three separate occasions that I rode on it back in 1970 it always came along the Down fast line approaching Welwyn Garden City before being 'turned in' off the Down fast and onto the Down slow line at the south end of the station and then arriving in the Down slow line platform. On departing WGC it was 'turned out' onto the Down fast line (the parallel Down line to the Down fast line between WGC and Digswell was the 'Down goods line' until late in 1973 and was worked under permissive block) and continued on over the Welwyn viaduct and through Welwyn North station and then passing through the two Welwyn tunnels. On emerging from the north tunnel the train kept on the Down fast line at Woolmer Green (box) and continued on through Knebworth and further on passing Langley (Junction box) still on the Down fast line before arriving at Stevenage old station (the current Stevenage station didn't open until June 1973). On departing Stevenage the train was kept on the Down fast line passing Stevenage North (box) and then through the 'Wymondley Auto-section' before approaching Hitchin South (box) where the train was 'turned in' off the Down fast line and ran along the Down slow line before arriving at Hitchin. On departing Hitchin the train was again 'turned out' onto the Down fast line at Hitchin Yard (box) before shortly after passing Cambridge Junction (box) and onto the GNR 'racing ground' north of Cambridge Junction. The train then continued along the Down fast line passing Three Counties (box) and not to far beyond Three Counties box passing Arlesey (box) still on the Down fast line before eventually arriving at Biggleswade station.

The evening return journey going home was undertaken in two parts-

The return home journey back to WGC was by a x2 car Carvens unit that had originated from Huntingdon sometime around 5:30 pm and stopped at St Neots, Sandy, Biggleswade & Hitchin where it terminated where a bit of a wait followed on Hitchin Up slow line platform before a train coming off the Cambridge branch bound for 'the cross' eventually appeared which also stopped at Stevenage & WGC before continuing up to Kings Cross but by then I was hungry and had had enough of railways for one day!. Ha ha..

[Mickey]

The 2nd trip on this thread which actually was taken on the Sunday before the trip to Biggleswade above.

My first trip on the above train mentioned previously was actually made on my first Sunday trip that was from WGC to Sandy in 1970 (Biggleswade was the second Sunday trip). As previously posted the train originated from Kings Cross at around 08:25 am and arrived at WGC at about 08:50 am after a 'fast line run' down from 'the cross' and possibly stopping at Finsbury Park and Hatfield before arriving at WGC. Anyway that Sunday from my faded memory of 54 years ago was dry all day and relatively sunny all day as well. The train consist was the same as previously mentioned hauled by a blue livered Brush type 2 hauling a rake of about eight or nine blue/grey B.R.Mk.1s. Also from memory this train arrived at Sandy sometime around 9:45 am nearly a one run down from WGC also stopping at Stevenage (old station) and Hitchin also from memory this train was relatively empty of passengers as it was on my previous trip to Biggleswade and the next trip to Huntingdon.

On arrival at Sandy I left the train and stepped onto a empty station platform after which the train departed along the Down fast line towards Huntingdon. The next Up line stopping train was some 8 hours wait so I remained on Sandy station alone for the next 8 hours without seeing another person nor was any station staff seen all that Sunday so nobody bothered me in all the time that I was alone on the station. Sandy station at that time 1970 had both the Up & Down main line platforms in use only for the ECML although the former Cambridge-Oxford double-track cross country branch line was still laid in through the west side of the station. With regards to the Cambridge-Oxford line of interest (to me) was the redundant Sandy LNWR s/box still standing just off the south end of Sandy station between the Up main line (ECML) and the westbound Oxford-Cambridge line. This redundant LNWR s/box had its door left open and the LNWR 'stirrup lever frame' could be seen from the platform although even though nobody was around on the station I didn't dare climb the box steps to take a look around inside the redundant box. Sandy GNR s/box was situated several hundred yards to the south of Sandy station on the Down side of the running lines and eventually was to finally close sometime around 1976/77.

While mostly on the Up platform at Sandy between about 9:50 am & 5:30 pm that Sunday the only trains that were seen during that Sunday were main line expresses passing through the station either heading Up road to Kings Cross or going Down road towards the Peterborough direction and either worked by blue livered DELTICS of blue livered Brush type 4s which were actually few and far between with sometimes around 40-50 minute 'gaps' between seeing another train passing through the station.

As Sunday morning passed into Sunday afternoon the thought of waiting around for another five or six hours was a bit daunting but I had no choice but to wait until the next stopping train that was due to arrive around 5:30 pm in the late afternoon so I just 'hung around' by myself and again nobody else was seen on the station.

The Sunday afternoon slowly wore on and the occasional express would be seen approaching and then thundering through the station in either direction and then it would fall quiet again until the next express appeared. Fortunately Sandy s/box had a semaphore stop signal at the north end of the Down platform (a second stop arm on this bracket signal post applied from the Down platform line to the Down goods line towards Everton s/box) so when that main line signal was 'cleared' I knew another express was approaching from the Biggleswade direction. I can't recall if Sandy's Up fast line semaphore home signal that was carried on a tall T-bracket signal post along with the Up goods line home signal (the Up goods line converged with the Up fast line beyond the north end of the station) if these two semaphore signals could be seen from the Up line platform due to a overbridge beyond the north end of the station?.

Finally sometime after 5:15 pm two or three people (passengers) appeared on the Up platform so I knew it wasn't going to be to much longer to wait and to get away home. Anyway finally a x2 car Crevens unit eventually rolled in to the Up main line platform bound for Hitchin so I boarded the unit and departed Sandy station for home and my belated Sunday dinner!. Ha ha..

[Mickey]

Next up the third and final Sunday trip between WGC & Huntingdon back in 1970.

[Dave S]

Fortunately Sandy s/box had a semaphore stop signal at the north end of the Down platform (a second stop arm on this bracket signal post applied from the Down platform line to the Down goods line towards Everton s/box)

I'm happy to say that the signal is not far from me right now.

In 1977 when the signal was cut down I asked the S&T men if I could have it, but they said they couldn't give it to me because a chap in Woolfield (houses opposite the station) had purchased it and sure enough he called the following day and picked it up.
Fast forward to 1998 (ish) and I was asked if I wanted an old railway signal, yes was the obvious answer and I was given a phone number to call. I rang the number and was given directions to a house in Woolfield. When I arrived a chap came out and opened the garage door and there sat the home signal that I had wanted some 20+ years ago. The chap said that it was the down slow home signal and he had purchased it with the intention of putting it up in the garden but his wife had put a stop to it so it had been in the garage all that time. She now wanted it out of the garage and had an idea that it was worth money so had her eye on the proceeds. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he said "nothing" He was told that I have various railway items in the garden and said so long as it went up somewhere he would be happy. He did say that as he hadn't been able to enjoy it for 20 years then his wife wasn't going to benefit from its disposal and that his enjoyment was telling her 'he gave it away'

It was on its own post and lit but a house move has meant having to take it apart and move it, but a new location is being prepared so it will go back up, although this time it is 287 miles from its original location !

[Mickey]

Fortunately Sandy s/box had a semaphore stop signal at the north end of the Down platform (a second stop arm on this bracket signal post applied from the Down platform line to the Down goods line towards Everton s/box)

I'm happy to say that the signal is not far from me right now.

In 1977 when the signal was cut down I asked the S&T men if I could have it, but they said they couldn't give it to me because a chap in Woolfield (houses opposite the station) had purchased it and sure enough he called the following day and picked it up.
Fast forward to 1998 (ish) and I was asked if I wanted an old railway signal, yes was the obvious answer and I was given a phone number to call. I rang the number and was given directions to a house in Woolfield. When I arrived a chap came out and opened the garage door and there sat the home signal that I had wanted some 20+ years ago. The chap said that it was the down slow home signal and he had purchased it with the intention of putting it up in the garden but his wife had put a stop to it so it had been in the garage all that time. She now wanted it out of the garage and had an idea that it was worth money so had her eye on the proceeds. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he said "nothing" He was told that I have various railway items in the garden and said so long as it went up somewhere he would be happy. He did say that as he hadn't been able to enjoy it for 20 years then his wife wasn't going to benefit from its disposal and that his enjoyment was telling her 'he gave it away'

It was on its own post and lit but a house move has meant having to take it apart and move it, but a new location is being prepared so it will go back up, although this time it is 287 miles from its original location !

An interesting post Dave. That particular semaphore stop signal that was at the north end of Sandy Down platform was carried on a fairly tall bracket signal post (a wooden bracket post I think?) and as well as carrying the Down line signal towards Everton (the next box along) a second arm opposite but slightly lower down to the left of the main line signal would signal a train from the Down line onto the Down goods or maybe the Down slow line(?) towards Everton anyway I remember that particular signal(s) and seeing it on a number of occasions later on from the second-half of 1974 & 1975 when I was a secondman at Kings Cross and was on a number of jobs with various Kings Cross drivers either going down to Peterborough and later on to Doncaster & Leeds anyway that particular Down line/down fast line semaphore always showed a 'good off' at 45 degrees where some semaphore signals mite have been 'off' at 40 degrees?.

Of interest to me back then was the then redundant Sandy LNWR s/box standing at the other end of the Up platform between the Up main line and the west bound Cambridge to Oxford cross country branch line which as I previously posted was redundant and the box door was left open so I could see the LNWR 'stirrup lever frame' inside the box which made me very tempted to go up the box staircase and have a look around inside the box especially as nobody else was around on the station that whole Sunday but I thought I better not have chanced doing that ha ha..

[Dave S]

A couple of pics for you Mickey. One of the ex LNWR box after closure and the other of the down signal post and bracket Both taken in the early 70's My understanding is that I have the down slow arm.

[Mickey]

Thanks Dave and both photographs are good.

With regards to the signals I wasn't sure if it was the Down slow line between Sandy & Everton the next box along towards St Neots so it was the Down slow line then and with regards to the Sandy LNWR box on the Cambridge-Oxford cross country line yeah that's it. As I previously posted the then redundant box as it was back in 1970 had the box door left wide open so anybody on the Up platform could see in and because nobody else was around on the station on that Sunday that I was at Sandy back in 1970 I was 'very tempted' to go up the staircase and have a look around inside but being only a young teenager back then in 1970 I thought I better not in case I got into trouble?. Ha ha..

[Mickey]

The point connections off the north end of Sandy station-

I have a feeling that the connections off the north end of Sandy station either leading from the Down main line through the station to the Down slow line towards Everton s/box and also the Up slow line from Everton s/box that lead into the Up main line through Sandy station with the associated facing trap points were operated as 'motorised points' from Sandy GN main line s/box and also at a guess the distance between the box and the those two sets of points were probably well over the 350 yards distance for mechanically worked points?.

With regards to Sandy GN box on the main line south of Sandy station a relief signalman who is now deceased named Roy Revell who also worked Sandy GN box mentioned to me once in conversation around 1973/74 that a young woman was at one time employed as a 'telegraph lad' at the box in keeping the train register book up to date and answering the telephone(s) and also attending to the GNR 'single needle telegraph instrument' of sending and receiving messages although no date was mentioned by Roy when she was at the box so I assume it was either during the later 1950s or the early/mid 1960s.

On the Up main line Sandy GN s/box would often 'send on' on the single needle telegraph instrument to Hatfield no.1 s/box any 'late running Up expresses passing Sandy' until Hatfield no.1 closed in late May 1973.

[Dave S]

As far as I can remember (visiting the box in the 70's as a spotty teenager) the down yard to main South of the station were wire operated, with the mechanism ending up in the NRM. The Down main to Slow North of the station were motor as I'm sure we would hear the whine of the motor and remember the relay/control boxes being moved further back before it was 4 tracked in 1977.
I found another pic of the LNWR box fr you.

[Mickey]

That is a good picture of the box of the Sandy LNWR box Dave, the ECML is behind the box.

With regards to those 'wire worked points' in Sandy GN box on the main line to the south of Sandy station yeah I heard that the box had a couple of wire worked points worked by a couple of separate levers at the far left-hand end of the main lever frame I believe.

Back in the GNR days of the 1880s-1890s a small s/box possibly named Sandy North(?) was located on the Down platform that worked the facing & trailing points beyond the north end of the station on the main line because I have seen an old photograph of the box dated during the 1880s and looking south over the station Down and Up platforms.

[thesignalman]

[snipped]
With regards to those 'wire worked points' in Sandy GN box on the main line to the south of Sandy station yeah I heard that the box had a couple of wire worked points worked by a couple of separate levers at the far left-hand end of the main lever frame I believe.

Back in the GNR days of the 1880s-1890s a small s/box possibly named Sandy North(?) was located on the Down platform that worked the facing & trailing points beyond the north end of the station on the main line because I have seen an old photograph of the box dated during the 1880s and looking south over the station Down and Up platforms.

Correct on both counts. Mickey. The wire operated points themselves were at the immediate south end of the station. It was a way of bypassing the 350 yd limit for rod-operated points.

Don't forget there was also a box, opened in World War II (after the North box you mention closed), named "Sandy North Junction". It was a mile or so further north and controlled a junction with a single line forming a triangle with the LNW line, with a LMS box at Sandy West Junction. I don't think the line was used a lot in its short life, but the idea was to have allowed trains to use another route to get to London by travelling via Bedford/Bletchley/Oxford if the GN happened to be blocked by enemy action.

John

[Mickey]

[snipped]
With regards to those 'wire worked points' in Sandy GN box on the main line to the south of Sandy station yeah I heard that the box had a couple of wire worked points worked by a couple of separate levers at the far left-hand end of the main lever frame I believe.

Back in the GNR days of the 1880s-1890s a small s/box possibly named Sandy North(?) was located on the Down platform that worked the facing & trailing points beyond the north end of the station on the main line because I have seen an old photograph of the box dated during the 1880s and looking south over the station Down and Up platforms.

Correct on both counts. Mickey. The wire operated points themselves were at the immediate south end of the station. It was a way of bypassing the 350 yd limit for rod-operated points.

Don't forget there was also a box, opened in World War II (after the North box you mention closed), named "Sandy North Junction". It was a mile or so further north and controlled a junction with a single line forming a triangle with the LNW line, with a LMS box at Sandy West Junction. I don't think the line was used a lot in its short life, but the idea was to have allowed trains to use another route to get to London by travelling via Bedford/Bletchley/Oxford if the GN happened to be blocked by enemy action.

Thanks John, and with regards to both Sandy North Junction and also Sandy West Junction yeah I recall reading about those two locations in the distant past.

When I went down that part of the GN main line during the first half of the 1970s immediately north of Sandy station the railway was back to four running lines after just the two lines through Sandy station anyway the next box along was a small box named Everton some 50 miles from Kings Cross and located in open farmland in every direction and which from vague memory had a rarely used set of level crossing gates outside the box that were usually closed to any road traffic that guarded what looked like a 'farm track' that crossed the main line at that point also I recall the box worked a 'turn out' from the Up slow line to the Up fast line towards Sandy and also maybe a 'turn out' from the Down slow to the Down fast line towards Tempsford s/box but I am not completely sure about the Down slow to Down fast line 'turn out' but on thinking about it again I think it did work a 'turn out' from the Down slow to Down fast line, anyway I think Everton s/box closed during 1976 and was replaced by some sort of B.R. modern construction that replaced the old box to operate the crossing that looked totally out of place in the surrounding countryside!!.

[Hatfield Shed]

There is a fine photo of 'type 1 revival, three panel' Everton Box, out in a very flat landscape, almost certainly taken 'on the fly' from a passing train in Michael Vanns' 'Illustrated Survey of Great Northern Signalling'. (I picked up this book s/h for £2 - along with an armful of others - from what must have been an enthusiast's collection donated to an Oxfam bookshop, many years ago. Sadly they know to ask for more money now...)

The initial attraction was several pictures of Stirling's 8' singles: running fast as judged by the volcanic eruption at the chimney top, flattening out almost immediately about 5 feet above the carriage roofs. But there is so much more within...