New article: Kings Cross Station

[52D]

Classic movie, classic railway bring it on. (Get Carter)

[richard]

Possibly - I'm mindful of having too many links and a lot of films featured Kings Cross! To me, Ladykillers and Harry Potter are the main links (the latter more for the younger, contemporary audiences, perhaps - but it is the one I hear here in the US). It is a few years since I've seen Get Carter - was there actually much of Kings Cross at the beginning? I usually associate it more with things like the aerial spoil tipper at the end, and I know there's a whole fan following re. the multi-storey car park!.

Richard

[brsince78]

Classic movie, classic railway bring it on. (Get Carter)

and here it is.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoa3OTJfWIY
but no KX as far as I can see. Maybe the experts on this forum can identify the various scenes intermingled with the opening titles?

[Bryan]

Not quite as I remembered.
The first identifiable bit to me is after the first tunnel exit and seen out of the window is BOCM Selby.
Another shot seems to be of Eggborough Power station.

[StevieG]

Right, here goes for an attempt (believed all Down direction : Certainly nothing at KX ) :

- Approaching & passing right through Wood Green Tunnel on Down Fast *, while --
-- "MGM Presents.....Get Carter"
-"British Oil.." etc. out of the window; unknown to me, but happy to acknowledge Bryan's 'BOCM Selby'
- Passing through Hadley North Tunnel
- (colour-light signal, & four straight tracks through several-arched overbridge; centre 2 tracks through centre arch); Uncertain - somewhere between Hunt'don & Abbotts Ripton?
- Between Welwyn South and North Tunnels and passing thro' the latter, while --
-- "Screenplay by Mike Hedges...."
- - [ M.C. sits down in Restaurant Car ]
- DF just north of Biggleswade station (tall semaphore signal, overbridges and high brick retaining walls)
- Approaching Barford, power station on left of RH curve
- Approaching Tempsford (pair of signals on bracket; Deltic-hauled train passes on the UF)

-- [ during M.Cane eating soup ] --
- (skew overbridge over double track plus 3rd line on right), Unknown
- Approaching & going through Peascliffe Tunnel?

- (overbridge with lattice fencing either side of bridge span), S.Yorks.Jt. rail overbridge?, (south of Donc.: Low Ellers Jn. Box just off to right?)
- (distant shot of power station), Unknown - Bryan's 'Eggborough'?
- (MANY signals), Decoy? (Doncaster)
-- [ M.C. reads book ]
- "NEWCASTLE" (darkness; platform flourescent lights; 2 x twin position-light signals (red/white / white/white) beside platform, LH pair elevated and top one 'off' (white/white) [ unusual location for same in signalling terms.]

END
* - 90 mph in 1971 : A bit different from the 60 permitted here in the 1960 Sect'l. App'dx.(to Potters Bar, then 70 to Woolmer Green, where finally 90 was allowed).

" Not quite as I remembered. ...."

That crossed my mind as well.- I thought I remembered seeing more snippits identifiable as around Hadley Wood.

[melton]

That map is interesting. Most of us are aware of the London Necropolis railway station outside Waterloo, but I didn’t realize that the GN had something of the same. I presume that the Great Northern cemetery station served the same purpose

[giner]

On the topic of the map, re. the area of Top Shed, does anyone know what those lateral lines are that run at 90 degrees to the shed roads? Traversers, maybe?

[52D]

GNR coal terminal discussed here earlier had a traverser and i posted a pic is that the one you mean?

[hq1hitchin]

That map is interesting. Most of us are aware of the London Necropolis railway station outside Waterloo, but I didn’t realize that the GN had something of the same. I presume that the Great Northern cemetery station served the same purpose

I never knew where the GN London terminus was until now, either. Presumably the cemetery used must have been close by Cemetery Box, north of New Southgate, which lasted until the 1970s modernisation scheme. The London Necropolis station building, where trains left for Brookwood, is still there in Westminster Bridge Road, by the way, but the platforms (and a train?) were destroyed in an air raid during The Blitz.

[50C]

A bit late, but I agree with Bryan as Michael Caine's train is heading south through the Selby BOCM complex just before it crosses the River Ouse and enters the station area.The power station could well be Eggborough as it is about 8 miles south of Selby and fairly close to the ECML(on the RHS heading south).

[65447]

Having had a quick read of the latest addition, I'm quite surprised that there is no mention of the role of KX as HQ for the management of the GNR, the LNER, and the Eastern region of BR (until the move to York in the late 1960s).

Gresley's CME Dept was headquartered there, where initial designs were prepared and decisions made as to what would be constructed at Doncaster and Darlington; the CCE's Dept was located in the long building above the parcels road parallel to York Road and was where major schemes were designed including the quadrupling of the GN main line north of Welwyn and the oft-delayed GN Electrification; and the S&T Dept. and KX Divisional Engineer's were in the building to the west of the main line station.

Traffic and Commercial Depts were mainly located elsewhere, predominantly at LV (Liverpool St.) but also at other terminal stations and railway-owned offices.

Other essential services were quartered in its nether regions, such as the vast underground store and kitchens for station buffets and on-board catering services and then there were the switchboards and telegraphs, still manually operated even in the 1960s. It was possible by devious routes to make one's way behind the facade and look down on the African Village through filthy glass and ancient and modern pigeon deposits, and to ascend into the central clock tower. There were under-stair cupboards that hid stashes of old drawings and journals such as the Railway Magazine, long rooms with lofty ceilings, old-fashioned benches and a small fire at each end for heat in Winter, a decent canteen at the North end of the CCE's building, and the need to stop drawing/tracing during the vibration caused when either a Deltic whined away with a Scottish express or a train rumbled under the building on the Widened Lines.

Personally, these are probably a tad more relevant than which scenes of Get Carter! might feature the odd shot of the station.

[61070]

Right, here goes for an attempt (believed all Down direction : Certainly nothing at KX ) :

-- [ during M.Cane eating soup ] --
- (skew overbridge over double track plus 3rd line on right), Unknown

StevieG: I'm pretty sure this is approaching Grantham from the south, passing under the old A1 (now B1174) with the up goods line on the right. If you pause at just the right spot there are sidings past the bridge on the left, where a goods brake van is just discernible. Further on, on the right, are ? Ruston's works. This would fit with the suggestion of Peascliffe Tunnel following.

[richard]

65447: Yes I think it is easy to get carried away with short scenes in TV and movies. The mention of Harry Potter and the Ladykillers was because these two tend to be associated with Kings Cross.
re. your other information on administration: Would you believe that my main sources didn't mention these! I'll look into these further (one particular book might have more of this side of thing), but if you'd like to help out, send me an email or PM.

Richard

[giner]

GNR coal terminal discussed here earlier had a traverser and i posted a pic is that the one you mean?

Thanks 52D. I had seen those posts back in October, but had forgotten about them. Of course, on my one and only visit to 34A at the age of five, I wouldn't have known about such things. That's a great map, though.

[manna]

G'Day Gents
In the Western side, past the old footbridge there is/was the mess room for the platform staff just beyond was the locker rooms with a iron spiral staircase up to the Drivers and Firemans mess room, above that messroom was a large triangular room full of old maps and drawings, back in the early 70's, during a work to rule half a dozen of us firemen were take up there to clean and tidy this room up, I managed to save one drawing but many went to the tip, what got to me was the amount of dust/soot?? that was in this room, must have been unused for many years
manna