Kings Cross

[third-rail]

that video was in the archive news sectionof (forgotten relics of an enterprising age ,as it was june last year i could not get it to open tonite the internet signal keeps going down.

[52D]

Please look at the pics below published in British Railways Illustrated January 1997 showing the layout of the coal yard originally built for Samuel Plimsoll of ships loading line fame.
A traverser is used to move a powered carriage with rails sat on top of it at 90 degrees to a set of sidings, the driver of the traverser just stops at the required siding and lines up the rail on the traverser car with the siding and the wagon on top of the traverser can be run off via gravity or pulled off with a shunting horse or capstan.
Traversers were usually to be found in Locomotive works or carriage works and were either constructed by turntable or mechanical handling firms there are still a few traversers about the last one i worked on was at Derby works a few years ago there will probably be others still working. We also manufactured a small but large capacity (25t) traverser when i worked in Saudi Arabia for moving Rolling Mill Stands from the Mill to the Roll Shop.
On the map 1 Indicates the LNER Canley(formerly Cambridge)Street drops and 2 indicates the Midland drops.
On pic KX1 tou can clearly see the 3 phase pick ups and i have anoted KX2 showing the main working parts of the traverser.
A couple of notes if some one knows the wheelbase of a mineral wagon we should be able to work out the gauge of the traverser track and it looks like the traverser has been under repair. There are temporary tracks spanning across the traverser track and there is an empty oxygen bottle adjacent to the traverser car in KX2 marked with the traditional way of spelling empty as MT and if you look carefully on KX3 there could be a man on a scaffolding at the end of the traverser track.

[61070]

Thanks 52D - that's an amazing bit of kit. Must have been fun to drive - unless you had to do it every day and in all weathers of course.

By the way I think I could be wrong about the pipe on the brick building being a stovepipe as you can see it from the back on one of these photos, and it now looks like it's a vent stack.

[52D]

Ive repaired/driven quite a few similar machines at British steel there was a line of heat treatment furnaces that were fed by a charger that serviced all the furnaces this charger was loaded by an overhead crane then driven to whichever furnace needed charging. The other true traversers like i said were at Loco or carriage works where instead of having masses of point work you could have one road into the traverser then the traverser could go down its track to the required bay of the works and the loco/carriage could either drive off or be pulled off by a capstan. I dont know if the traverser at the south end of the Derby Bombardier works or whatever its called now is still in situ. ISTR that it was a Cowans and Sheldon product.

Edit; A quick check on google earth shows the Midland traverser at Derby works is still in situ and you will probably be able to see the principle better illustrated if you look at the image.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=52.902 ... &t=h&hl=en

[hq1hitchin]

Since we are on about Kings Cross, see what you think of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvrYVpEL ... re=related

[third-rail]

Since we are on about Kings Cross, see what you think of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvrYVpEL ... re=related

nice one that, all his others look interesting too, by the way i understand that the trolley bus was was classed the same as a tram,ie light rail and as such was not subject to the road speed limits of the time,maybe someone has more info about it.

[61070]

Since we are on about Kings Cross, see what you think of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvrYVpEL ... re=related

nice one that, all his others look interesting too, by the way i understand that the trolley bus was was classed the same as a tram,ie light rail and as such was not subject to the road speed limits of the time,maybe someone has more info about it.

hq1: This is really great film. Looking at some more from the same chap, this one has mostly real sound (not dubbed) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xku02ydQAkg&NR=1 (So many Deltics!)

[60041]

Wonderful films

[StevieG]

Since we are on about Kings Cross, see what you think of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvrYVpEL ... re=related

After a bad day, watching this cheered me up, no end : Excellent ; some realy great and privileged vantage points too - The first part of the Belle Isle segment must have been filmed from Copenhagen Junction box's bracketed Down Home Signals structure.

[61070]

Imagine being the crew of the suburban loco entering Copenhagen tunnel just after the pacific and alongside its train. They must have been gasping at the other end. Not quite the glamour of steam for them - you've got to salute those guys.

[StevieG]

Imagine being the crew of the suburban loco entering Copenhagen tunnel just after the pacific and its train. They must have been gasping at the other end. Not quite the glamour of steam for them - you've got to salute those guys.

Such experiences didn't end with steam, either.
Through the early 1970s, if in an up DMU sitting on the Up Relief at KC.84 signal at Belle Isle waiting for a clear path into the suburban/local platforms at KX on many a warm day, and a departing Deltic-hauled express on Down Fast 1 first emerged from the same bore of Gasworks tunnel which my train would be waiting to enter, us regulars instantly gave ourselves away by leaping up and closing all open quarterlight and door drop-light windows, fully aware of the thickly-aroma'd dense fog that would engulf us when we advanced. On then proceeding through the tunnel, the view ahead remained only of pitch-blackness until, probably only around 40-30 yards from the far (KX) end, light began to penetrate and the black fog graduated through to degrees of blue/orange haze until evaporating as we re-emerged into decent light, needing copious doses of fresh air.

[giner]

Since we are on about Kings Cross, see what you think of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvrYVpEL ... re=related

After a bad day, watching this cheered me up, no end : Excellent ; some realy great and privileged vantage points too - The first part of the Belle Isle segment must have been filmed from Copenhagen Junction box's bracketed Down Home Signals structure.

Ah! The one immortalised by dropping onto Alec Guiness' bonce with the resulting dull clang heard through the smoke as he fell into a passing emply coal wagon at the end of The Ladykillers classic movie.

[manna]

G'day Gents
Oh yes! Bloody wonderful to shunt into Gasworks tunnel, just after a Deltic had passed through 40' to 50' inside the tunnel and outside was a dull orange glow,you could Just! make out the 'Dolly'! come off, two or three shunts like that a day and your throat was dry,your nose stung, and your eye's red and itchy, often sat in the tunnel with the windows up, with only quick looks, or I went into the back cab and gave the driver a toot when the Dolly came off.
Have raced many a express from Belle Isle to Finsbury Pk, a Class 31 with 5/6 on was pretty quick away from KX they would keep up with a class 40-46-47 with 11-12-13 on a Deltic with only 11 on, all you saw was the tail light, by Copenhagen tunnel. A class 47 with 13 on you would be neck and neck, even to the point we would open the window and slap the side of the loco, to make it go faster, more than once, we would get away from the 47, but would usually catch use when we shut off power near western siding, then a long roar followed by a whoosh as each coach went past.
manna

[StevieG]

Since we are on about Kings Cross, see what you think of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvrYVpEL ... re=related

After a bad day, watching this cheered me up, no end : Excellent ; some realy great and privileged vantage points too - The first part of the Belle Isle segment must have been filmed from Copenhagen Junction box's bracketed Down Home Signals structure.

Ah! The one immortalised by dropping onto Alec Guiness' bonce with the resulting dull clang heard through the smoke as he fell into a passing emply coal wagon at the end of The Ladykillers classic movie.

Well, not quite the same one.
The signals I was referring to were the three-arms for the Down Slow and Down Fast, carried on the bracket structure just south of the North London Line over-viaduct.
The 'Ladykillers' signal was immediately outside and above the entrance to Copenhagen Tunnel's Goods lines bore, and in fact, was said to be a quite respectable-looking fabrication, built only for the, as-described, purposes of the film's plot in disposing of 'Professor Marcus'.
I once watched a video or DVD of the film, pausing at selected moments to try seeing if the tale was true. It looked to me as if it was, because the signal arm's 'spectacles' end seemed not quite the normal shape and there appeared to be no provision of a lamp behind it.
In another frame/s, the solid post of the real, short (Down Goods starter) signal at the site of the film's equivalent (and which remained probably until the end of Goods & Mineral signal box) was very briefly visible looking back from just inside the tunnel, along with a substantial lattice post immediately adjacent, apparently part of the film company's temporary signal.

[Bryan]

Is there anyone around who could do an upto date version and show us how much has now gone?