A walk from Welwyn Garden City to Luton in 1969

[Mickey]

This is a companion piece to the walk that i made between Hertford & Welwyn Garden City in 1969/70. I walked this branch again in the company of the same friend of mine that i had walked the Hertford branch with before. We started the walk from Welwyn Garden City and walked towards Luton and possibly back again but it was 41 years ago so some of it's abit hazy?. The first thing i should mention is that parts of the branch still had stretches of railway line layed along it in places and the occasional train ran such as between Welwyn Garden City and Blackbridge sidings and also on the Midland region section on the approach to Luton, through Luton Bute street station and onwards towards Dunstable. We joined the line at a place in Welwyn Garden City just slightly outside the town centre called the 'white bridge' which i think is on the Digswell road. We made our way down the railway embankment and onto the single track line, i guess we were trespassing because old cast iron LNER trespass notice boards were still visable in places.
We started walking towards Luton mindful of the fact that the occasional Ashburton Grove to Blackbridge sidings rubbish train or the return empties back to Ashburton Grove did occasionally run along this stretch of the line. A short time after setting off from the white bridge and walking through a wooded section of the line on a rising gradient we arrived at Ayot where Ayot station once stood and believe it or not the old Ayot signal box was still standing!. Ayot signal box was of course closed & redundent by this time and several of the window sashes were missing but other than that the old signal box looked in good condition. I think i recall that the lever frame had been taken out but the empty block shelf was still there minus the track diagram of course. The signal box was situated in a 'very pretty' area on the up side of the line heading towards Welwyn Garden City and painted in a grey'ish colour with green lining out around the window frames, staircase and door. Standing on the signal box veranda there was very nice views of open country/farm land with woods in the middle distance towards the north and north west that i can recall. There use to be a passing loop at Ayot s/box at onetime but since the signal box had closed in January 1966 the passing loop line had been taken out completely and the p.w. had 'plain lined' it so it was just a single line passed the old s/box. The other memorable thing about Ayot was that there was two 'tall LNER concrete signal posts' still standing up around where the motorway (A1 motorway) crossed the railway. I believe that these two signal posts may have carried Ayot's up starting signal towards Welwyn Garden City and his down home signal from Welwyn Garden City at the point where the loop would have begun. After leaving Ayot s/box and Ayot behind us and walking westward towards Luton the line curved away towards the Blackbridge sidings direction through pretty countryside on either side of the railway line but to be honest i can't remember anymore about the walk (even passing through Harpenden station which i think by 1969 may have been built over and was then a housing estate?) until we had passed through Luton Hoo and was on the approaches to Luton town. On the outskirts to Luton Town we passed the Vauxhall sidings which were part of the Vauxhall motor car works (railway line under our feet again) and passed Luton East s/box which by this time had been reduced in status from a s/box to a 'ground frame' that was only opened when required and which worked a crossover and a set of points with a connection to the Midland main line a short distance away at Luton South s/box. Luton East s/box was a BR London Midand region design s/box with a flat roof and painted in BR London Midland region colours. From Luton East s/box we continued on a short way passing through Luton Bute street station and where Luton Yard s/box once stood (which i think had been flattend and made into a car park?) and on passed the site of Luton West s/box which wasn't there anymore unfortunetly. We continued walking on a bit further passed Chaul End level crossing with the single line railway stretching westwards before us towards Dunstable but stopped shortly after Chaul End level crossing and decided to 'call it a day' as the afternoon was wearing on and we had to get back to Welwyn Garden City. I think we walked all the way back to Welwyn Garden City where we had started the walk from but i don't really remember the walk back?. For me the area around Ayot signal box was the most interesting part of the line because it was the 'first' signal box that i had ever been in even though it was closed & redundent. Micky (a former resident of Welwyn Garden City in the 1960s & 70s). *** If you are interested seeing a picture of Ayot signal box if you type in 'Ayot signal box' and click on P1 there amongst some of the pictures of Ayot village is a picture of the signal box. The texts says 1970 and it still shows the 'loop line' so i think the person who's taken these pictures may have got his dates wrong?.

[Mickey]

This was my best piece of writing so it should be back at the top of the boards! (ha ha). The fella that i walked the old line from Welwyn Garden City to Luton with that day was the same fella who had at one time been a telegraph lad in Welwyn Garden City s/box back in 1962/63 and who was called Alan Dollimore. Alan lived with his family in a place on the Codicote road near Old Welwyn in the 1960s and 70s, i also walked the Hertford to Welwyn Garden City branch around the same time in 1969 with him as well. When Alan and myself arrived at Ayot on the walk out from Welwyn that day he told me that he was thinking or purchasing the railway land at Ayot from about where the A1 motorway bridge crossed the old line westwards passed Ayot signal box and for some distance westwards beyond the site of Ayot station. He went on to say that he wanted to purchase an old N7 tank locomotive and other ex-LNER rolling-stock and set up a 'preservation group' which wasn't just pie in the sky talking because other preservation groups were starting up around this time in other parts of the country like the Severn valley and the Dart valley railways as well as several others. Anyway, suffice to say that nothing came of these plans but if he had pulled it off and preserved Ayot signal box and the area that it and the railway occupied it would have attracted a lot of attention for the railway preservation movement back in 1970. Footnote to this story was that the land that the onetime Ayot station and the signal box stood on was turned into a 'car park' during the 1970s and as far as i know may well still be a car park?. Micky GNR/LNER all the way...

[hq1hitchin]

Lovely memories, Micky - thanks for writing them down. Sad to think that the whole route was actually listed in the Beeching Report as one for freight development. However, not much was done in the way of cost savings, I seem to recall, before the plug was pulled in 1965. Even the booking offices were still staffed up until closure, paytrains never got a look in.

[manna]

G'Day Gents
What a waste
manna

[giner]

By the cringe, Micky! I used to work at Broadwater Press with a Dollimore from Codicote, but I'm jiggered if I can remember his first name. Didn't the family own a removals company?

[Mickey]

Hello giner, i'm not sure if Alan's family owned a removals company or not to be honest?, when Alan and myself use to meet up we only for the most part spoke about railways and i was only a young teenager at the time back in 1970 and was only interested in railways. Alan and the rest of his family use to live in a bungalow along the Codecote road just passed Old Welwyn. He was always riding a push bike to get around and usually leaving it in the old bike shed at Welwyn Garden City station more often than not. His mother was from Derbyshire i'm 90% sure of that and i remember that Alan had an older brother who use to work at the Aircraft factory in Hatfield (Hawkersidneys if that how one spells it?). I only ever met Alan's brother once and that was on cup final day in 1971. The only reason i remember that it was cup final day was that i visited his family bungalow that Saturday afternoon (the first and only time that i did) and i remember it was cup final Saturday. Anyway get this, in Alan's back garden there was about 2 lengths of standard guage-track that he had layed and had ballasted believe it or not!. I remember him saying about possibly obtaining a BR brake van from somewhere and bringing it by road to his bungalow and putting it onto this 2 lengths of railway!. Also he had erected a 'cable run' the whole length of his railway like what one use to see that ran along the side of the London Underground carrying there signalling cables. He was talking about the Mill Hill-Edgeware branch of the LNER just post-WW2 and that he wanted to try and replicate it!. Alan was the same fella that i visited Ferme park south down s/box with in the summer of 1971 (thats mentioned on another board of mine) as well as visiting Ashburton Grove s/box as well also in the summer of 1971 (again on another board of mine). I lost contact with Alan sometime around the end of 1971 or 72 but met him by chance again in 1980 when i was a signalman at Victoria park s/box (near Stratford in East London) and he was doing the train recording at the next s/box along in Western junction s/box (Dalston) on the North London line. We lost contact with each other again by the end of 1980 and i havan't seen or heard from him for the last 30 years. Micky GNR/LNER all the way...

[swhite01]

I view this Forum regularly, in my mid 50's and lucky enough to watch the passing of steam at Knebworth and the coming of the new age!
I live in Codicote so was interested in both the old Ayot line and also the Dollimore connection. By marriage I have a Dollimore connection that may be related to Alan... Jes.. who is unfortunatley no longer with us but he was from the Welwyn Branch of the family... the Codicote branch are the Removers.. who up until a few years ago.. had their yard at the bottom of my garden... now Dollimore and Christie... operate from a yard outside of Hitchin...I see a couple of the lads in my local so will ask them of Alan when next I see them..

Re the Ayot line.. I walked it again a few weekends ago with my Daughter and Partner, Herts County Council have now turned this into a green way... but this is planned, I think to cover the complete route between Ayot and Luton... they have also "refurbished" the trackbed on the lower luton road where the line runs from the Sewage beds at Luton Hoo station to the Airport bridge.. even to the extent of installing a new over bridge for cycles.

I have attached some links below.... but the amazing thing to me is the amount of Railway items still extant along the line... in Ayot "Station" carpark.. still the Signal box foundation .. the posts for the walway/crossing with pulleys, signal posts laying where they were smashed, both in the yard area and along the line and the most extraordinary of all a section of Wheathamstead Station platform hidden from view in the trees overlooking a busy roundabout.
As a child I used to stay with an Aunt in Harpenden whose garden overlooked the line close to Harpenden East so was able to watch the odd freight and passenger amble along... EE Type 1's, Brush 2's and Cravens... great days..

I put together all the info etc to model Ayot Station in P4 but to date have got no futher.. one day!

I have taken a number of pics of the route but similar are on the pages below...

I hope this is of interest...

Photos from the 90's and 2007 showing the Ayot to Wheathamstead route..
http://www.lostlines.fotopic.net/c753257_1.html
Map of the Ayot Green Way
http://www.hertsdirect.org/infobase/doc ... aymap1.pdf
Overview of the Ayot Green Way path
http://www.hertsdirect.org/envroads/env ... /13058226/

Herts CC have also developed the Cole Green line

http://www.hertsdirect.org/infobase/doc ... waymap.pdf

Steve W