Ashburton Grove

[hegenscheidt]

Hi, thanks for the replies on this subject. I do have some other info to share but will post that on the other thread 'Welwyn Garden City Sidings' as suggested. Please do have a read of it.

[Mickey]

Anyone have an opening & closing date for Ashburton Grove box and it's s/n telegraph code?. I believe I may have read that the box opened circa 1890/91(?) and as for a closing date from personal memory I believe the box closed sometime around August, September or October of 1974 with the little area that the box formerly controlled (Down goods line from Finsbury Park [1] the exit to & from Ashburton Grove sidings & the Up carriage line from Finsbury Park [2] & creep up towards Holloway North Up box and later Holloway South Up box) along with Finsbury Park [1] former area of control both going onto the temporary panel in Finsbury Park [2] at the sametime for a short while during the rest of 1974 and into 1975.

Mickey

[StevieG]

" Anyone have ....... Ashburton Grove box and it's s/n telegraph code?. .... "

AB .

[Mickey]

Thanks Stevie I thought the s/n telegraph code for Ashburton Grove mite have been A._ B _... but I wasn't totally sure, at one time over 40-45 years ago I use to know quite a few of the individual s/box s/n telegraph codes south of Peterborough especially but not anymore these days.

Mickey

[thesignalman]

Anyone have an opening & closing date for Ashburton Grove box and it's s/n telegraph code?. I believe I may have read that the box opened circa 1890/91(?) and as for a closing date from personal memory I believe the box closed sometime around August, September or October of 1974 with the little area that the box formerly controlled (Down goods line from Finsbury Park [1] the exit to & from Ashburton Grove sidings & the Up carriage line from Finsbury Park [2] & creep up towards Holloway North Up box and later Holloway South Up box) along with Finsbury Park [1] former area of control both going onto the temporary panel in Finsbury Park [2] at the sametime for a short while during the rest of 1974 and into 1975.

Dates I have are opened 1894 and closed 31/5/74 but I am happy to be corrected . . .

John

[Mickey]

Anyone have an opening & closing date for Ashburton Grove box and it's s/n telegraph code?. I believe I may have read that the box opened circa 1890/91(?) and as for a closing date from personal memory I believe the box closed sometime around August, September or October of 1974 with the little area that the box formerly controlled (Down goods line from Finsbury Park [1] the exit to & from Ashburton Grove sidings & the Up carriage line from Finsbury Park [2] & creep up towards Holloway North Up box and later Holloway South Up box) along with Finsbury Park [1] former area of control both going onto the temporary panel in Finsbury Park [2] at the sametime for a short while during the rest of 1974 and into 1975.

Dates I have are opened 1894 and closed 31/5/74 but I am happy to be corrected . . .

Thanks John for those opening & closing dates for Ashburton Grove, I remember seeing both Finsbury Park [1] & Ashburton Grove boxes standing closed & redundant with those boxes former semaphore signal arms all removed from there signal posts and with the 'new' colour light signals in there former areas being controlled by Finsbury Park [2] box during mid-1974 onwards.

As previously posted on this topic thread myself and a railway friend visited Ashburton Grove box in the summer of 1971.

I wonder whatever happened to 'the yank' in Finsbury Park [1] box?.

Mickey

[sandwhich]

Yes Mickey I remember the American "booby" at Fins Park No 1 box, thought people were pulling my leg until I went into the box one night and found out to myself, a yank he certainly was.
As regards Ashburton Grove box I cannot remember if it was open on nights or on Sundays, could anyone remember!

[sandwhich]

Sorry a misprint I ment "bobby" not booby. No offence meant.

[Mickey]

I never knew or met 'the yank' in Finsbury Park [1] myself sandwhich but obviously some of the Kings Cross drivers & guards back in the late 1960s & early 1970s knew him.

Ashburton Grove opening & closing times?. I believe by the start of the 1970s until closure in May 1974 the box was only open Monday-Friday 07:00-15:00hrs. Whenever I was riding on a train in either direction passing East Goods sidings I would always look across to see if Ashburton Grove's Down goods line home signal (no.2 signal on the tall straight lattice post near the box with Finsbury Park [2] distant signal beaneath it) was either showing clear or at danger?.

Mickey

[StevieG]

" I never knew or met 'the yank' in Finsbury Park [1] myself sandwhich but obviously some of the Kings Cross drivers & guards back in the late 1960s & early 1970s knew him. .... "

Honestly can't recall who it was that allowed me my single visit to No.1 ('FK'), for note-taking only [my customary - diagram, lever badges, and block shelf layout], but I've an idea that it might've been he, my having been 'wired-on' by someone else (a Sat. afternoon no doubt) being the only way it could have happened ; I've a vague idea that Sullivan may've been his real surname.

" .... Ashburton Grove opening & closing times?. I believe by the start of the 1970s until closure in May 1974 the box was only open Monday-Friday 07:00-15:00hrs. .... "

Couldn't say between what years, but I'm sure that, apart from when necessary for engineering or special sidings access, it ended up as only a one-shift job, so your mentioned hours are quite likely to be right Mickey.

[Mickey]

A slightly mysterious american fella who was known locally by railwaymen as 'the yank' and who was working as a railway signalman in Finsbury Park [1] box (on the Canonbury lines) from sometime during the 1960s and into the early 1970s sounds quite intriguing?.

Finsbury Park [1] was always a bit of a mysterious box tucked away as it was on the Canonbury lines and only glimpsed for a couple of seconds when riding on passing trains from a distance along the main line south of Finsbury Park and strangely for some reason usually all the semaphore signals under it's control would usually be seen standing at danger morning noon & night adding to the air of mystery about the box and the area?.

Mickey

[manna]

G'day Gents

Met him a couple times, tall, blonde, 15stone, liked reading, cost I had to walk back to get him to pull off the dolly, to get us back into Highbury yard.

manna

[sandwhich]

Ive been digging back into the memories of long long ago. During the 1960s I now think that Ashburton Grove box was a two shift Mon-Fri and a morning shift on Saturday because the sidings were then defiantly open Sat. mornings but that of course eventually changed with only a one shift pilot Mon -Fri and resignalling.
Finsbury Park No 1 was no doubt a busy box with Mon Fri peak hour services to and from Broad Street, freight workings and dmu,s reversing to go to Western Sidings, but Saturday afternoons and Sundays must've been quite peaceful at times (except any engineering works), time for some bobbys housework, polishing up the levers and the floors no doubt. I was in that box once and the signalman was obviously on a long pull and didn't let go in time and fell forward onto the levers, he was okay but it frightened me.

[StevieG]

" .... I was in that box once and the signalman was obviously on a long pull and didn't let go in time and fell forward onto the levers, he was okay but it frightened me. "

Could have been one of his main Distants sandwhich.
The Down one was out the other (south) end of Canonbury Tunnel (probably visible from Canonbury Junction Box), of which most was straignt, but there was the long, sharp bend in its south end because the line turned not far off 45 degrees from leaving the east-west N.London line.
The Up Canonbury Passnger Line Distant was perhaps a bit nearer but the wire probably followed the line by soon curving sharply east-ish, then curving back more towards N / NW as the line ran between Highbury Vale/Gillespie Road sidings and sweeping round the E / NE side of East Goods Yard, until it reached Finsbury Park No.4 Box's Starter, which F.P. 1's Distant signal was below.
On the other hand it could've been the Down Canonbury Passenger Line Starter right by the multi-span bridge under the main lines between Holloway and Fins. Pk., which although it was only around 200 yards away, it was high on a-doll bracket structure above that line's three 'splitting' distants for F.P. No.3 Box, so the mechanical slotting would've been complex, which might well have involved more than a usual number/mass of weights for the Starter.

[Mickey]

On the other hand it could've been the Down Canonbury Passenger Line Starter right by the multi-span bridge under the main lines between Holloway and Fins. Pk., which although it was only around 200 yards away, it was high on a-doll bracket structure above that line's three 'splitting' distants for F.P. No.3 Box, so the mechanical slotting would've been complex, which might well have involved more than a usual number/mass of weights for the Starter.

On the Kings Cross Suburban dvd (Transport Video Publishing) one chapter is dedicated to a cab ride from Broad Street to Finsbury Park circa early 1974 (the sequence between Canonbury Junction to Finsbury Park appears to be early 1974?) because when the GN train reaches Canonbury Junction on the North London line and takes the right-hand curve around to the GN & Finsbury Park seen in the V of the junction is the 'temporary block hut' that was provided after Canonbury Station box had burnt down around xmas/new year 1973/74, anyway continuing towards the Finsbury Park direction and on through Canonbury tunnel towards Finsbury Park [1] new 'hooded' colour light signals are seen trackside in the area from the cab amongst several of the existing semaphore signals in the area of Highbury Vale/Finsbury Park [1] at that time. After passing Finsbury Park [1] (unfortunately not seen on the film) there is a nice camera shot approaching Ashburton Grove box which is clearly seen for about 10 seconds on the film and also clearly shown on the film are the signals that Stevie describled above and shows Finsbury Park [1] Down Canonbury 'starter' showing off with the middle distant signal of the 3 arms also showing off as well, both semaphore arms starter & distant aren't showing a 'good off' (in my opinion) with both arms at a rough guess off at about 30 degrees angle?.

Mickey