Locations to identify - new photos added.

[PGBerrie]

This looks like the location for the B1 shot - Hillhouse approaching Huddersfield.

Definitely Hillhouse No. 2 on the approach to Hudderfield. There's a picture of the box and signal gantry (1965) on Page 56 of Railway Memories No. 13, Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Batley.

Peter

[robertcwp]

This looks like the location for the B1 shot - Hillhouse approaching Huddersfield.

Definitely Hillhouse No. 2 on the approach to Hudderfield. There's a picture of the box and signal gantry (1965) on Page 56 of Railway Memories No. 13, Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Batley.

Peter

Thanks, although I have several of that series of books, I don't have that one.

[giner]

In the Potters Bar photo, I'm wondering what that wooden(?) structure is on the outside of the parapet wall. Surely not a walkway of some sort?

Happy to also go along with the Potters Bar location stated for this second shot : the Down First ('outer') Home signal did have a high co-acting arm for distance viewing over the bridge.
I've a strong feeling giner, that this bridge did have a separate structure as footbridge to the adjacent road, and that it was on the south side.

Hi Steve. Potters Bar was just a little out of my range back in the day. I must say, though, that I'm blowed if I can recall any other bridge with an 'exterior' walkway like that - not in our general bailiwick, anyway.

[StevieG]

In the Potters Bar photo, I'm wondering what that wooden(?) structure is on the outside of the parapet wall. Surely not a walkway of some sort?

Happy to also go along with the Potters Bar location stated for this second shot : the Down First ('outer') Home signal did have a high co-acting arm for distance viewing over the bridge.
I've a strong feeling giner, that this bridge did have a separate structure as footbridge to the adjacent road, and that it was on the south side.

Hi Steve. Potters Bar was just a little out of my range back in the day. I must say, though, that I'm blowed if I can recall any other bridge with an 'exterior' walkway like that - not in our general bailiwick, anyway.

Well, I can't say I'm a 100% sure on this one giner, which is not good as I lived only three miles away ; I'm thinking of the late 1960s - early '70s, so if I'm correct, I don't know if it might've been an addition in the few years before that.

One I'd be more sure about was that which was about a 1/4-mile south of Cemetery Box and just south of the Standard Telephone & Cables works, which made the right-angled connection between the Oakleigh Roads North and South on opposing sides of the line.
The pedestrian bridge was on the north side of the road, and I think, unlike the road structure, was some sort of metal girder-work affair with few if any intermediate piers, and had, I'm sure, high continuous vertical wooden planking on both sides - a pity as it made the viewing of trains from its north side virtually impossible, from where an otherwise great view of Up trains would have been available.

[Mickey]

Another mystery location?.

A blue class 40 on the ECML on an express working possibly during the mid/late 1970s or early 1980s?. I can't remember when the OHLE went up north of Hitchin?.

Could the location either be at Three Counties (between Hitchin & Biggleswade) or approaching Biggleswade maybe?.

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/64941893.jpg

Mickey

[Dave S]

Three Counties with the 40 heading North.

The building in the picture and shown on the map below used to have a narrow gauge railway circling it.

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16 ... ers=10&b=1

[Mickey]

Three Counties with the 40 heading North.

Ok Dave thanks I thought it mite have been Three Counties but I wasn't totally sure besides I didn't venture north of Hitchin much back in the early 1970s because the then local x2 car Cravens service between Hitchin & Huntingdon wasn't much to write home about and if you missed one train at Hitchin you had to wait another 2-3 hours for the next one so that only left the occasional Saturday afternoon return trip to Peterborough North behind a diesel hauled express working out of Kings Cross usually in the form of a Brush type 4 sitting in a rake of BR Mk1s.

Mickey

[Dave S]

I wasn't totally sure besides I didn't venture north of Hitchin much back in the early 1970s because the then local x2 car Cravens service between Hitchin & Huntingdon wasn't much to write home about and if you missed one train at Hitchin you had to wait another 2-3 hours for the next one so that only left the occasional Saturday afternoon return trip to Peterborough North behind a diesel hauled express working out of Kings Cross usually in the form of a Brush type 4 sitting in a rake of BR Mk1s.

Mickey

You should have tried growing up in Sandy......although spotting was good.

A type 4 on an express..... has to be better than a 31 on a commuter (6/7 Mk1's) we're still waiting for one to arrive that set off from KX some years ago.

[Mickey]

You should have tried growing up in Sandy......although spotting was good.

A type 4 on an express..... has to be better than a 31 on a commuter (6/7 Mk1's) we're still waiting for one to arrive that set off from KX some years ago.

On a Sunday morning back in 1970 I rode on a then regular Sunday morning Kings Cross to Peterborough North service that stopped at Finsbury Park & Potters Bar then all stations from Hatfield northwards to Peterborough North (the only one or two trains that did all day I believe the second train left Kings Cross sometime during Sunday evening) that I picked up at Welwyn Garden City which was usually worked by a Brush type 2 hauling a rake of BR Mk1s. The train pulled into WGC around 08:50 approximately I recall and then it stopped at Welwyn North, Knebworth, Stevenage (old station) Hitchin, Biggleswade & Sandy where I got off, we must have arrived at Sandy around 09:50 I vaguely recall(?) anyway I hung around Sandy station all that Sunday from 10:00 until 18:00 and finally I caught the next Up train back up to Hitchin which was the early evening x2 car Cravens unit from Huntingdon to Hitchin service but in between that 8 hours of hanging around Sandy station the only trains that I saw were Deltic & Brush type 4 hauled expresses and they were few and far between as well.

On a Sunday back then I believe there was one early Sunday morning x2 car Cravens unit that came up from Huntingdon stopping at St Neots, Sandy, Biggleswade & Hitchin then the next 'stopper' was the x2 car Cravens unit that I caught that came up road around 18:00 and then finally there was a third and final x2 car Cravens unit that came up from Huntingdon to Hitchin around 20:00 and that was your lot!!.

Mickey

[giner]

Great spot to watch expresses, Three Counties. Didn't there used to be a spur on the up side that ran up into what was the old Fairfield Asylum about a mile or so to the east? Odd that it's not shown on any of the old maps.

BTW, can anyone expand on the narrow gauge line that Dave S mentioned.

[Dave S]

That spur was long gone when I passed through and took notice but I have seen one picture as well as on a map. If you look at the link I put you can see the spur opposite the building in Mickeys picture, it works its way along 'Asylum Road' before entering the hospital grounds where it's a bit clearer to see.

The narrow gauge railway served the brickworks and clay pits, I don't know much about it but the brickworks was working into the 1980's producing 'Arlesey Whites'

[giner]

So it is. Thanks for pointing it out, Dave.

[strang steel]

On a Sunday morning back in 1970 I rode on a then regular Sunday morning Kings Cross to Peterborough North service that stopped at Finsbury Park & Potters Bar then all stations from Hatfield northwards to Peterborough North (the only one or two trains that did all day I believe the second train left Kings Cross sometime during Sunday evening) that I picked up at Welwyn Garden City which was usually worked by a Brush type 2 hauling a rake of BR Mk1s. The train pulled into WGC around 08:50 approximately I recall and then it stopped at Welwyn North, Knebworth, Stevenage (old station) Hitchin, Biggleswade & Sandy where I got off, we must have arrived at Sandy around 09:50 I vaguely recall(?) anyway I hung around Sandy station all that Sunday from 10:00 until 18:00 and finally I caught the next Up train back up to Hitchin which was the early evening x2 car Cravens unit from Huntingdon to Hitchin service but in between that 8 hours of hanging around Sandy station the only trains that I saw were Deltic & Brush type 4 hauled expresses and they were few and far between as well.

Mickey

Yes, the southern ECML was a very quiet railway on a Sunday in those days. 2 maybe 3 trains an hour if you were lucky; although you could still see half the Deltic class in the day as they seemed to work many of the trains.

If you were very fortunate, you might get a 40 or 46 but (as you say Mickey) the Deltics and Brush 4s virtually monopolised what few services there were. I went camping with a mate in a field next to Stoke Bank for a long weekend in 1968; and we were not troubled by too many trains on the Sunday. For instance between 2pm and just after 3pm we only saw one train which was 3E09 a parcels train with D1109 on the front. We were ok because we could doze off in the tent until we heard another train in the distance; but I can't say that I would want to spend the time on a station with nothing to do.

[Mickey]

On a Sunday morning back in 1970 I rode on a then regular Sunday morning Kings Cross to Peterborough North service that stopped at Finsbury Park & Potters Bar then all stations from Hatfield northwards to Peterborough North (the only one or two trains that did all day I believe the second train left Kings Cross sometime during Sunday evening) that I picked up at Welwyn Garden City which was usually worked by a Brush type 2 hauling a rake of BR Mk1s.

Yes, the southern ECML was a very quiet railway on a Sunday in those days. 2 maybe 3 trains an hour if you were lucky; although you could still see half the Deltic class in the day as they seemed to work many of the trains.

If you were very fortunate, you might get a 40 or 46 but (as you say Mickey) the Deltics and Brush 4s virtually monopolised what few services there were.

I rode that particular train on three separate Sundays during 1970 and as already mentioned I first rode it to Sandy and back then on the second occasion I rode it to Biggleswade and back and on the third and last occasion I rode it to Huntingdon and back but I never did ride that train to St.Neots and back because I vaguely remember feeling that it took a lot of effort to hang around a railway station for up to 8 hours on a Sunday with no food & drink and I was tired out by the end of the day so I didn't make it to St.Neots sadly. With signal boxes and semaphore signals still then in existence at Biggleswade, Sandy, St.Neots & Huntingdon back in 1970 it was easy to know when an express was approaching but as I said before there was some very 'long gaps' in the sevice with sometimes up to an hour or more to wait before another express would appear before it all went quiet again. At Huntingdon I remember seeing the signalman at Huntingdon North No.1 (the box just south of Huntingdon station located on the Up side of the running lines) outside the box giving his car a good wash with a bucket of water and a shammy leather and then running back up the box steps when the block bell(s) rang from inside the box and then pulling off the signals for yet another fast approaching Deltic or Brush type 4 hauled express!!.

"All pretty exciting stuff for a youngster to watch back then!."

Huntingdon North No.1 box- www.ukrailways1970tilltoday.me.uk/Hunti ... oxno1.html

Mickey

[strang steel]

Thanks for than link Mickey. That is a website I had not seen before.

It has some great ECML photos on there.