The King's Cross Story: 200 years of history in the Railway Lands

[CRHT1837]

Hi all
I last posted a topic in January 2016, promising to post others. I have not had the time to do so as I have been mired in research for the book that is the subject of this topic. I have about a month to get it to the publisher or miss the publishing window, which is September 2018. I have spent much of today going back over the LNER Forum discussions that I took a record of. This has proved valuable, partly as it revealed the source of an image that I would like to use. The image was posted under "Personal memories of the GNR and early LNER" by Cock o' the North, and showed the Passenger Loco being carved out of the site of the former Gas Works and basin in 1922 or 1923. This would be one of about 230 images of the Railway Lands, focused primarily on the goods yard and locomotive depot(s).
Can anyone tell me how I can obtain the reproduction rights to the image?
Peter

[manna]

G'Day Gents

I can remember 'Cock o' the North' putting up some pictures his father took in the early 20's and fabulous pics they were to, it was suggested that they needed to be printed in a book as they were that good, he then disappeared, and never came back, shame as everybody was hopping for more.
I suppose the only way to get them reproduced for your book would be to contact him personally, a private message, would send him a reminder (E-Mail) to his in-box, other than that, I can't help, a call/message to 'Richard' may help.

manna

[richard]

Yes try using the email address on the "Cock o'the North" profile. That's the only way I would have of contacting him. A PM would stay until he read it - and he'd be notified of the PM by an email to the same address.

Looks like he was last on the site in July 2011.

[CRHT1837]

Thanks, Richard, but I think I need a little more guidance. I have opened his member profile but did not find an email address.
If he is uncontactable, I may try and use the image and deal with the consequences.
Peter

[CRHT1837]

The book is currently with the printers and is due to be published in October. I attach a copy of the cover. I must thank the LNER Encyclopedia for a number of discussion forums that proved very helpful to the book. I should add that the book is intended as an illustrated story, covering almost 200 years, so does not delve deeply into the many themes covered. But there is a great deal of new material, and I believe you will find much of interest.
All the author's revenue from book sales, direct sales and royalties, will go to Camden Railway Heritage Trust (www.CRHT1837.org), as did those for the last book Camden Goods Station through Time. The Trust has paid out £4000 for images and reproduction rights, a debt that most authors would be reluctant to take on, and the Trust must try to recover this through sales.
The publication of the book will coincide with the opening by the developer, Argent, of Coal Drops Yard - intended to be the Covent Garden of King's Cross Central. It also coincides with the 10th anniversary of work starting on King's Cross Central. I am hoping to piggyback some of these celebrations.
Peter (Secretary, CRHT)

[CRHT1837]

Sorry! The cover exceeded permissible limits and I am resending it compressed
Peter

[STAFFORDA4]

Hope there's plenty of Top Shed in there
Well done & good luck with your efforts

[Mickey]

Unfortunately Kings Cross & St Pancras stations and the surrounding streets such as St Pancras Way, York Way, Caledonian Road & Pentonville Road and there associated side streets have in 2018 for myself become pretty much a 'alien environment' these days and are hardly like anything resembling the area that I remember 40-45 years ago. This has come about through the re-development and 'gentrification' of Kings Cross in the last couple of decades and from a railway point of view the biggest 'loss' for me has been the vast tracks of railway land that once was the old Kings Cross Goods yard which has now all but been virtually built over with residential and commercial developments and is unrecognisable from the 1970s, even the old York Way road running north of Kings Cross station has been diverted and lowered and passes directly over the area where the old Five Arch Shunting Cabin & Shunters lobby use to both stand. The old Kings Cross Goods yard even back in the 1970s still had a small number of freight train workings that started and terminated there and from a personal memory as a secondman (railway fireman) at Kings Cross during 1974/75 era I remember being the secondman on the Aberdeen 'fish train' one week during the summer of 1975 and coming up road with a class 40 (English Electric type 4) after relieving some Doncaster men at Doncaster station and then having a 'clear road' all the way up to London arriving in a deserted Kings Cross Goods yard at around 2:30am.

These days I occasionally pass through Kings Cross and along York Way on the 390 bus route and I obviously see the area as it is today but it doesn't hold any emotional attachment for me anymore and even the old early 1970s British Rail built concourse at the front of the station that faced out onto Euston Road has disappeared making it even more of an alien environment for me where at onetime I virtually lived at Kings Cross station for around five or six years nearly 45-50 years ago.

[CRHT1837]

Thanks for your comments, Mickey. Sadly, unlike at the former Camden Goods Station, we are unable to influence what is happening at King's Cross. The purpose of the book is therefore as a record of what went on in the Railway Lands, a large and quite confusing area, over a lengthy period of time - a record it seems to me is all the more important because the past is being obliterated. As well as a record, the book is intended as a celebration of our industrial history.
You may already be familiar with Charlie Mayo's diary of his short time as a trainee fireman at Top Shed in the 1950s. Here is a poem extracted from his diary that I have included in the book. It always brings a large lump to my throat.

Night Freight

Johnny Fireman swings a shovel
On the freight train through the night.
Johnny Driver eyes the signals
Watching through the rain for the danger light.

Through the night the freight train thunders,
Throwing fire against the sky
And the light from the engine cab is blazing
Like a dragon’s angry eye.

Johnny Driver eyes the signals
As they loom and disappear
And the smoke lies flat along the boiler
As he gives her full power with the road all clear.

Strain on eye and strain on ear-drum,
Strain on fire and strain on steel.
Strain on muscle on the rocking footplate,
Strain to the rhythm of the pounding wheel.

People in their beds can hear the thunder
And howling whistle down the line,
And young boys turn in their beds and dream
As the silence closes in behind.

Johnny Fireman slings his shovel,
Johnny Driver takes the strain,
With one hand controls the power
As they rumble in the yards again.

In the drizzle of a cold wet morning
As the rails begin to gleam
They come slowly into the goods yard,
Huffing and puffing in a shuffle of steam.

It was familiar as Monday morning,
Soon to be forgotten as years roll on.
Only the men who lived it, worked it
Knew of the feeling for a life
That’s gone.

[52D]

Correct in everything you say Micky, im afraid i had a part in the reshaping although my work was not visible to the public as i was responsible for testing the internal lift shafts. One thing i did see was the original WW2 bomb damage and its repair (which had to be done twice as the first attempt was not satisfactory) the bricks were specially made to match the original GNR bricks.

[Mickey]

So your to blame 52D ha ha ha...

Probably to many changes to list here 52D & CRHT1837 with regards to Kings Cross station and it's immediate environs such as the obliteration of the old west side Suburban platforms nos.11-15 (from June 1972 9-13 platforms) the Milk dock, Passenger loco, York Way platform and the 'Hotel curve platform' no.16 and that's not even mentioning the removal of the old footbridge (and clock) that spanned all the main line platforms from the east side no.1 platform to the west side no.10 platform (and the daft Harry Potter thing?) and then going back to prior to late 1971 the closure of the old 1933 s/box to name but a few things without even mentioning the surrounding streets.

From a vague memory when writing this I believe BR started to get a bit more security minded from mid 1975 onwards because I noticed until that time during the early hours (midnight-06:00) anyone could wander into Kings Cross station off either Euston road or York Way and hang around the station until the morning and nobody would bother you but from around mid 1975 onwards I noticed that if someone left the station during the early hours unless that person was an obvious railwayman you would have a bit of a job trying to get back in again being stopped and being questioned by station security staff. I think this turn of events started when 'the powers that be' decided that they didn't want the 'ladies of the night' bothering any of the few passengers who were sitting on the concourse waiting for one of the few staff trains bound for either Welwyn Garden City or Hertford North that departed the suburban platforms during the early hours.

[52D]

Micky my door to the work area was at the end of platform 10 3/4 so everytime i went in and out i had a horde of screaming japanese girls asking me to take there picture against the sign lol

[CRHT1837]

The book was published on 1 October.The approach taken combines research on the GNR/LNER with broadening the scope to a much wider socio-economic context and a time frame from the early 1800s to the present. The history of the area lends itself to a story telling approach with 240 carefully selected images forming an integral part of the story and making a visually stunning book. 
The Trust is very keen on selling the book directly to recover some of the heavy investment in images. We sell it at £15 including p&p (cost £3.20), which compares with Amazon or any bookseller. Please order it through the Trust by emailing Darleyp@aol.com and giving your address. I will mail the book by return and advise payment options.

[StevieG]

" .... Probably to many changes to list here 52D & CRHT1837 with regards to Kings Cross station and it's immediate environs such as the obliteration of the old west side Suburban platforms nos.11-15 (from June 1972 9-13 platforms) .... "

Beg pardon mickey, but - sorry, when are you saying that 9 & 10 (the old 11 & 12) were amongst the parts "... obliterated" ?

[Mickey]

" .... Probably to many changes to list here 52D & CRHT1837 with regards to Kings Cross station and it's immediate environs such as the obliteration of the old west side Suburban platforms nos.11-15 (from June 1972 9-13 platforms) .... "

Beg pardon mickey, but - sorry, when are you saying that 9 & 10 (the old 11 & 12) were amongst the parts "... obliterated" ?

I was assuming Stevie that the old west side suburban station platforms nos.11, 12 & 13 (re-numbered 9, 10 & 11 from 1972 onwards) are still there (and they look like they are still there) but platforms nos.14 & 15 (re-numbered 12 & 13 from 1972 onwards) also around the back of the west side suburban station and were in GNR days the Kings Cross loco area have both since gone and as for the old no.16 platform the 'Hotel curve' platform (re-numbered 14 from 1972 onwards) I presume that area was 'obliterated' years ago.