Change of block working ticket..

[R. pike]

Her's one for Micky.. Change of block working ticket.. I guess the need was quite commonplace on the GN?

http://richard2890.fotopic.net/p64041886.html

[Mickey]

It's hard for me to say Richard?. At Welwyn Garden City the down goods line (which was Permissive-block) was hardly ever converted to Absolute-block that i can remember in the early 70s and yet the down goods line between Stevenage north and Hitchin south was done at the start of the day and withdrawn with the last down passenger train of the day every day. Wherever there was four roads going into two on the GN the last but one s/box in the rear that road leading up to the s/box where the roads when from four to two that line was a 'goods line' worked under 'Permissive-block' so they could recess several goods trains to await there paths forward. Places like Welwyn Garden City on the down goods towards Welwyn north, Knebworth on the up goods towards Woolmer green, Stevenage north on the down goods towards Hitchin south,Three counties on the down goods towards Arlesey and Biggleswade south on the up goods towards Arlesey and several other s/boxes further north. The amount of times those goods lines were converted to Absolute block is anyones guess?. Micky

[StevieG]

Stevenage North and Cadwell weren't boxes preceding locations where four tracks went into two of course, but the next boxes (Hitchin South and Cambridge Jn.) were points where the margining of goods trains beyond them (i.e., through Hitchin) between passenger trains, was probably as difficult as through 2-track-only sections.
Arlesey was the 4-to-2(-to-4) track point in both directions, as the four became two only through/over the station & the level crossing at its north end, then back to four again, the previous boxes being Three Counties (on Down) and Langford Bridge (Biggleswade South by the 1970s) (Up), though I'm less clear on which of these sections were Slows and which were Goods'.

Prior to the New Barnet (Greenwood) - Potters Bar quadrupling in the mid-late 1950s, Greenwood-PB was another 2-track section, and, sure enough, the second Down line New Barnet North-Greenwood was a Goods line. On the Up, there was a motor-worked Up Slow-Main turnout at Hawkshead (just south of Brookmans Park), worked by Marshmoor box, but I think the second Up line from Hawkshead-Potters Bar was a 'Slow', but could be Permissively-worked for Freight.
It must have been a nightmare at Greenwood, at times, trying to margin Down freights from a standstill, and up the 1 in 200 gradient over the three miles to Potters Bar and the Down Slow's re-commencement just north of the station.

I imagine that when there was still a lot of freight on the route, and these Goods sections needed to be worked permissively as intended, the frequency of 'putting the ticket in' was probably low a lot of the time, but as freight hugely reduced over quite a long period, and passenger service patterns perhaps needed more opportunities for 'parlys' to be overtaken by faster trains, the flexibility of frequently using 'the ticket' instead of altering the signalling system, was the obvious way to go.

[ Edited : To correct 'Stevenage South' to read 'Stevenage North' in 1st line.]

[Mickey]

Yes after thinking about it abit more i've amended my post. I forgot the down goods from Three Counties to Arlesey and also the up goods from Biggleswade south to Arlesey. Micky