Welwyn Garden City

[R. pike]

The auxiliary token machine was located just off the end of the up platform..

http://richard2890.fotopic.net/p54349899.html

This item was located on the end of the Luton line platform to protect users of the barrow crossing.

http://richard2890.fotopic.net/p54284295.html

I'd love to find a good picture of it in it's original location..

[hq1hitchin]

The auxiliary token machine was located just off the end of the up platform..

http://richard2890.fotopic.net/p54349899.html

This item was located on the end of the Luton line platform to protect users of the barrow crossing.

http://richard2890.fotopic.net/p54284295.html

I'd love to find a good picture of it in it's original location..

So it was that hut, then - thanks for the confirmation. Regarding the capstan and barrow crossing indicators, I'll have to go into serious thought mode. Can remember using them at Hatfield and Hitchin, but the Luton line at WGC escapes me at the mo - another memory of railway operating just flashing before me was being told by an ex Hatfield guard that the first coal trains in the morning from Hatfield to Luton with coal for the gasworks there used to be banked as far as Ayot (presumably just from WGC). This was the same chap, it can now be revealed, who left a 20 ton goods brake on the single line at Skimpot, whilst shunting the MoF cold store, without securing the handbrake. Said van ran away to Luton and he got away with it by claiming that children had got into the van and let the brake off. Phew!

[StevieG]

" Two more photos from yesterday .... "

(See Chaz's previous posts. - - Referring to the first of the two photos ; WGC - 6.jpg)

.... above - the view looking south from the footbridge, with the (almost) empty yard. The LH running line, seen under the flyover, continues for some distance beyond The Twentieth Mile Bridge before ending with a stop block.
Chaz

To hopefully clarify a little, unless things have changed quite recently, "the LH running line" (actually a siding but signalled throughout), en route to its quoted end ; beyond the flyover, rises to the left to join the falling flyover line [used by passenger trains starting from the Down side], which then continues down to main line level, passes through Twentieth Mile bridge, following which there is the Flyover line to Up Slow crossover, beyond which the flyover line continues ahead as a siding ending at the quoted stop block.

[giner]

Oddly enough, there is a railway club building on the downside at Hatfield (or was the last time I went out of KX), which also dates from the mid 1970s. It was built but never used, don't ask me why - anyone know the answer?

The railway club, as I remember it, was most certainly used. My group used to play there for Saturday night dances around 1976-79. I just took a look on Google Maps but it appears the old structure is no longer there. It was only a small building of fairly light construction, but a good time was had by all in there.

[hq1hitchin]

Oddly enough, there is a railway club building on the downside at Hatfield (or was the last time I went out of KX), which also dates from the mid 1970s. It was built but never used, don't ask me why - anyone know the answer?

The railway club, as I remember it, was most certainly used. My group used to play there for Saturday night dances around 1976-79. I just took a look on Google Maps but it appears the old structure is no longer there. It was only a small building of fairly light construction, but a good time was had by all in there.

Are you talking about the flimsily built place, giner? That was demolished and a new, brick built place built to the south of where the old club was. I don't think the new one ever opened though, good news for the CIU club across the road which is still going. If you look on Google Earth you can see it by the bridge at the south of the station, with the eaved roof.

[chaz harrison]

StevieG,

you are quite right about the connections to the erstwhile up goods. I was initially puzzled by the way the track climbs up to meet the line off the flyover - however I assume it has to do with the stability of the embankment. Had the lines continued, to meet on the flat, there might have been a problem, in the space available, supporting the descending track.

Chaz

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Nice to see WGC again it's been a long time (1991) Up side yards shrunk somewhat, use to like the big old GN footbridge, at least some of it is still standing.
If I remember correctly, the flyover was opened before loco hauled suburban trains stopped, because I'm pretty sure that we use to run the engine around the train, on the downside island platform, then drive the train over the flyover then propel the train back into the up sidings.
I prefered the old Hatfield station it had plenty of character, all those wonderful semaphores, did'nt Hatfield have a big buffet/resturant on the down platform, or is my memory playing tricks.
Thanks again for the pics Chas.
manna

[chaz harrison]

Morning Manna,

I do have a few negatives somewhere of the old Hatfield station. Must dig them out and see if they will scan.

Chaz

[StevieG]

Oddly enough, there is a railway club building on the downside at Hatfield (or was the last time I went out of KX), which also dates from the mid 1970s. It was built but never used, don't ask me why - anyone know the answer?

The railway club, as I remember it, was most certainly used. My group used to play there for Saturday night dances around 1976-79. I just took a look on Google Maps but it appears the old structure is no longer there. It was only a small building of fairly light construction, but a good time was had by all in there.

Are you talking about the flimsily built place, giner? That was demolished and a new, brick built place built to the south of where the old club was. I don't think the new one ever opened though, good news for the CIU club across the road which is still going. If you look on Google Earth you can see it by the bridge at the south of the station, with the eaved roof.

The 'new' brick-built ('never') place, was (still is?) on the down side, immediately south of (very close to) the modern version of the public footbridge (non-station connected) right across all lines over the southern half of the up platform, standing roughly along the alignment of the old Down Goods and adjacent sidings.

[giner]

Oddly enough, there is a railway club building on the downside at Hatfield (or was the last time I went out of KX), which also dates from the mid 1970s. It was built but never used, don't ask me why - anyone know the answer?

The railway club, as I remember it, was most certainly used. My group used to play there for Saturday night dances around 1976-79. I just took a look on Google Maps but it appears the old structure is no longer there. It was only a small building of fairly light construction, but a good time was had by all in there.

Are you talking about the flimsily built place, giner? That was demolished and a new, brick built place built to the south of where the old club was. I don't think the new one ever opened though, good news for the CIU club across the road which is still going. If you look on Google Earth you can see it by the bridge at the south of the station, with the eaved roof.

Yep, that's the one. It didn't look like it was built to last and held less than 100 people. Still, it made it a cosy little place to play. Strange that they'd build a new one and not use it, though. Hell, if I ever come back over there may be I could round up my old bandmates and give 'em a good deal! Good to hear the CIU across is still going strong, we did a few gigs in there as well.

[chaz harrison]

Here's a puzzle...

This snap was taken looking east along the footbridge.It can't have been cheap, putting these handrails along the bridge. What is their purpose?

Chaz

[hq1hitchin]

Not certain - they weren't there in the 1960s and I can only assume the inner railings were put up to discourage children climbing the lattice work of the bridge itself? Incidentally, BR used to have a nice little earner here by charging pedestrians the price of a platform ticket when crossing from one side of the line to the other via this footbridge, remember? I think one firm - Polycell had negotiated season tickets to allow their staff free access across. In those days, and I presume also now, there was a definite difference in social standing between the toffs living on the West Side and those unfortunates on the East Side.

[chaz harrison]

.....I can only assume the inner railings were put up to discourage children climbing the lattice work of the bridge itself?

You may be right, but if you are they are singularly ineffective. When walking across some month's ago I saw two young boys who were standing, one foot in the lattice, one on the shiny new climbing frame. They weren't being particular loud or silly, just having a bit of fun.

Chaz

[Bryan]

What is their purpose?

How about the same reason that is used on road bridges when width is restricted by barriers because the bridge is not strong enough at the edges to take the weight of traffic
(Am I being serious?)
Or is it because the path is meant to be a standard width to comply with regulations and the original was too wide.

[giner]

Those handrails look like an exercise in pointlessness to me. Probably some H&S genius' idea.

Nice snippet there, hq, about Polycell having a 'deal' on platform tickets. Though I worked in the garden city and made many visits to the station, I never once ventured right across to the east side. Is Nabisco still in operation? At a brief glance at it when I was last over there it looked a bit run down.