The LNER Encyclopedia

Any information known about a box called Canfield Place that once stood beside the Great Central Railway's main line out of Marylebone a few hundred yards beyond Hampstead tunnel?. No pictures seem to exist currently of this box in the public domain although some mite exist in private collections?. I read a few years ago on another forum that someone suggested that this box was of Metropolitan Railway origins which although it stood relatively near to the Metropolitan Railway's line at Finchley road it doesn't seem likely as the box stood next to the Great Central Railway's main line and set well back from the Metropolitan Railway line behind a large brick building. I assume the box opened around 1899 when the London extension of the GCR line into Marylebone opened. The box is name checked in two railway accident reports one in 1914 and one in 1924 although by 1924 the box only appeared to have been open occasionally as it stood in a early LNER 'Auto-signalling section' between Marylebone and Neasden South Junction boxes.

From reading the 1914 accident report it appears the layout was quite basic with a Up & Down line and a crossover so I presume the lever frame would have only been of around 15-20 levers maximum?.

Hi Mickey,

The box opened with the line to guard the north end of the long tunnels from Marylebone. I don't know much about the original arrangements but it had a new 10-lever frame in 1906. It was reduced in status to a ground frame around 1924 with the colour-light signalling and thereafter was only staffed when needed (usually for engineering work). It survived until around 1970, I think.

As you say, the layout was never more than a crossover. The box was tucked on the inside of the curve and you only got a glimpse of it from passing in a train.

John