A shed oddity . . . or normal practice?

[Meg Merrilies]

As there is no "Sheds" section I hope it is appropriate to post this here?

My topic heading ('A shed oddity ...') specifically refers to St Margarets - 64A - back in the 50s & 60s.
As I'm not familiar with the layout of many sheds I'm wondering if there were many sheds with a layour similar to 64A.

First, have a look at the picture in this link > http://dwb.railsteamgallery.fotopic.net/p22468479.html

Now go back and look again ~ the two tracks immediately to the right of the signal box were (and still are) the East Coast Main Line. To their right lie(lay) the sheds, at least what comprised about 90% of the sheds because on the left hand side of the main line there were also a few sidings and maintenance sheds as well as the shed offices, toilets etc. and the only pedestrian entrance/exit to the entire complex.
So, us little 10, 11 & 12 year-old trainspotters would enter by passing the offices and checking out what might be found in the maintenance area before practising a form of the "green cross code" as we ensured that the main line was clear before crossing to the main body of the sheds ~ and the same precautions on the way back.

Looking back at the photo a walkway can be clearly seen near the middle of the pic as it crossed the main line, and this was the "official way" to cross the tracks.

This was a fairly regular Saturday event for me and some others and only on about a couple of occasions were we chased only to return later and sneak in!

Never were we aware of seeing a Health & Safety official, but I can't help thinking that such a scenario would be unthinkable now in this climate of Health & Safety madness.

I'm just wondering if there are/were other sheds that "enjoyed" a similar hazard?

[chaz harrison]

I'm not sure, but I think the huge shed area at Stratford was divided by running lines. It may not have been that much of a nuisance. Depending on traffic levels on the line railwaymen would cross when necessary with "due care". This could seem quite blase, I recently saw a video on the net where a railwayman walks across a barrow crossing at "The Cross", right in front of an arriving Deltic. But then the movements of a train are a lot more predictable than those of cars. What seems dangerous to someone sitting at a desk doing a risk assessment may seem completely safe to the man on the ground. Unauthorised trespassers such as your younger self could hardly expect the railway to make safety provision!
For the purposes of shunting the running lines just become two more sidings to cross, although maybe the signalman resented the extra work.

Chaz

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Maybe not totally offical, but walking off the end of Platform 10 to get the Passenger loco at KX, was for many years the only offical walking route to the loco, but then the H&S nazis took over, and the offical walking route to the passenger loco was a quarter mile? walk around the milk dock to avoid walking across ANY running line, we then spent the NEXT eight hours walking over every running line in the passenger loco to move the locos around then at the end of shift, another quarter mile walk back the SOP (signing on point) the time for this quarter mile walk, in the dark, past old buffer stop discarded couplings and all the other rubbish left around the area was 10 minutes (each way) As you can see nobody EVER took the offical walking route, Locos, ha, a minor hazard, never heard of anybody having a problem, on the trunking.
Everybody used to cut across the tracks at Hornsey MPD, instead of using the footbridge, although I did hear of a Driver and Fireman, cutting across in front of a train and falling over a couple of signal wires, one lost a leg the other lost both
Western Sidings (Finsbury Park) was surrounded by track, so the only way to reach it would be to cross a running line??
manna

[Flamingo]

The first time I visited St Margarets was in July 1958. I was certainly somewhat apprehensive about having to cross a busy main line to reach the main shed even using the boarded foot crossing. There were other sheds with two or more separate buildings but the only other depot I can recall where a running line had to be crossed was Norwood Junction 75C in south London, and in that case the running line was even more hazardous because it was a third-rail elelctrified line.

At 64A the smaller part on the up side of the ECML had a small turntable near the maintenance area and on that first visit there were 2 or 3 brand new small diesel shunters in the D27XX series, just delivered from the builders North British at Glasgow. Their coupling rods had been removed for transit and had yet to be fitted. They looked very smart in shiny new green paint and I presume were destined for shunting duties in Leith Docks, but like similar NBL D29XX diesels which came to Devons Road shed in London they did not last long. I thought you would probably prefer to see this later 1960 picture of some of St Margarets steam shunters stabled around the turntable pit.

Shunters at St Margarets 64A

[stembok]

St.Margarets was well known for this danger and it was mentioned in the Locoshed Directory by Aidan Fuller which gave directions for reaching sheds. There was a visual stop/go signal system for crossing the ECML to the main running sheds as of course the overbridge and curvature of the track made the approach of trains from the west very dangerous. On my first visit to 64A we were stopped and waited as A2 60539 swept past on an up class C with a shriek on the whistle as an added warning.

[52D]

I once bunked Heaton by crossing the rails which of course were electrified.
I note the Y9 above has a chip cart in tow, a converted open wagon for storing extra coal and tools and even sometimes you will see a bicycle on top of them. These little shunters were sometimes outstationed and brought back to the shed at weekends for servicing.

[richard]

I understand that the "chip carts" were pretty much a standard fitting by LNER days. I've seen models of Caley Pugs with the same tender design. Assuming the model was based on a prototype, this suggests the tenders weren't as make-shift as many of the books suggest.

(Y9s and Caley Pugs being essentially the same Neilson saddle tank design)


Richard

[chaz harrison]

I mentioned Stratford shed above. When I was a kid I "bunked" it. Some readers will recall the route in, through a glazed-brick tunnel which brought you out into full view of the foreman's hut/cabin/signing on point, where normally you would be "thrown out on yer ear". I managed to get in by crawling past on my hands and knees, not very dignified but it got me in. Once in nobody challenged me. I remember that it took a long time to cover the whole shed with isolated buildings dotted about all over what used to be the GERs coal stacking (hoarding?) areas.

Chaz

[Flamingo]

Here's another Y9 with a better view of the attached wooden tender. The underframe looks as if it has a worksplate but you can also read Loco Dep Kipps. Just had a thought, prompted by the large gasholder behind the engine, was the place name 'Kipps' a reference to the gentleman of the same name who invented the apparatus familiar from school chemistry lessons which was used to generate the evil-smelling gas hydrogen sulphide (rotten eggs).

[Flamingo]

Found another one taken on my 1958 Scottish shed bash. 68101 also with wooden appendage in store at Dunfermline 62C.

[CVR1865]

The essence of the rural branch 0-4-0T couple of 4 wheeler carriages. Lovely. Wasn't there an industrious fellow on this forum converting a hornby caley pug to resemble one of these lovelies, does anyone know how it went?

[52D]

The essence of the rural branch 0-4-0T couple of 4 wheeler carriages. Lovely. Wasn't there an industrious fellow on this forum converting a hornby caley pug to resemble one of these lovelies, does anyone know how it went?

Guilty as charged , the work has gone ok but i am having difficulty with sourcing a reasonable tank filler and the boiler behind the tank is miles too big so just like some of the prototypes it now carries a layer of coal which seems to have improved the aesthetics. I intend to print up a set of notes for this job soon.

[giner]

IIRC, Doncaster, although not involving the crossing of any running lines, was quite a lengthy walk from the station. Then, at the end of a street of row houses we were rewarded with the view of the sheds below us in the distance. Utopia. Then, across a wide open space with allotments(?), there seemed to be a few hundred yards of walking through sidings to get to the actual shed area. We must have done this a few times and never once were we cautioned or chased out of there. How indelible these memories are.

[52D]

If you compare Flamingos pic of Y9 68117 above and the Hornby model you will see the Hornby boiler dia is far to big so it needs to be disguised hence a layer of model coal. As Richard points out the basic design was by Neilson and the Hornby model can be cut and shut and easily turned into other versions such as the cab less variant for Beckton gasworks.

[Eric Stuart]

I seem to recall that the track to be crossed at Norwood Jc was the rarely used spur down from the Beckenham Jc direction.

But, on the broader subject, walking about railways was far less of a risk in those days, with steam locos (more noise), slower speeds and so on.
And, if you obey the STOP, LOOK & LISTEN rule and cross carefully, one was probably much safer than crossing many roads today!

Near where I spend a lot of time in France, there is a suburban station with 4 tracks and trains arriving (approx every 10 minutes) in both directions (two of the platform lines are bi-directional) and all the passengers (not railwaymen and enthusiasts) cross the lines on the level.
There is just a small sign (which no-one looks at) reminding people to look out.

It's called common-sense, which seems to be out of fashion in the UK today!