LNER Finsbury Park and Platelayers

[mickfred]

Hi Does anyone know what places to search for photos and history of Finsbury Park Station. Oh and platelayers as well. My father worked out of Finsbury Park and was a platelayer, but I know very little about what he did and where he would have worked. His name was Sam Smith.

Thank you Mick Smith

[Mickey]

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[lead_plug]

In those days past when the track received preventative maintenance the railways certainly got their pound of flesh from the P Way men. As Micky pointed out, they were on call for all sorts of weather emergencies, OK the overtime payments were gratefully accepted but what a life in those days of lengthy periods of London fogs, waiting for the knock on the door.
The guy that I used to admire in particular was the Ganger, walking his length twice a day, hammering in keys and looking out for all sorts of potential failures, (they were blessed with years of experience) and on his own completely, no look-out man (couldn't afford such a luxury). The railway on which I started provided the ganger with two conductor rails per track as an additional hazard. On the footplate I heard lots of derogatory comments about signalmen, which I'm sure balanced out the bobbies' comments about drivers, but never an unkind reference to Pway men. Although it seemed that sometimes they were a bit late getting clear because they were determined to get in that last wallop with the hammer or whatever! Is it my imagination or did we have far fewer derailments and disasters in those unsophisticated days?

[Mickey]

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[lead_plug]

Happy Days!
One day I was returning from Acton and on the curved viaduct between Kentish Town West and Camden Town stations I was thinking back to when I was a booking boy in the next signal box, Kentish Town Junction. There wasn't much else to do as all signals were clear, the train was "under control" on a falling gradient with a permanent speed restriction, and the viaduct walls obstructed my view of the track ahead. Suddenly my mate became very agitated and the brake handle went down and stayed down (with little effect). A platelayer had just come into view on his side, waving a large red flag. Our train didn't respond to the 'emergency' braking, (the guard would have no idea what was happening up front). As we carried on round the curve the cause of the panic became obvious. Despite our train being signalled, fishplate bolts had been removed and were being feverishly replaced. The thought crossed my mind - Camden Town - Charles Dickens - here we go with another Staplehurst disaster!! The poor bloke got them back before we hit the joint but I bet he never did that again. Always one for the quiet life my mate made sure that the signalman understood that he was saying nothing about the incident. After all what LNER man would want to tangle with the LMS and their
Midland ways!
No connection but it was on that same stretch that the track spread on a bridge over a road, leaving a Jinty in the "Dive,Dive' position. Lucky it wasn't a J50 which were known as submarines.

[Mickey]

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[manna]

G'Day Gents
Leaving jacks under the track, had that happen to me to, can't remember where it was but I have this memory of two guys tugging like mad trying to pull the jack out, luckly, we were only doing about 50mph instead of about 90mph so we took longer to get to them, happened again near Victoria Pk Junc, East London, that time the driver stopped and started chatting to them, one good thing about that line, being a freight line, you could stop for a chat???
manna

[Mickey]

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[lead_plug]

Hi Micky, Sorry to be late coming back on Camden Rd. No, I left there in 1943 and as a result "resigned from the Company's service",
I couldn't stand being locked away in a mausoleum at Drummond St with a mob of elderly railway clerks.
In my time the signalmen were a set of great guys, Jack Lovell, Jumper Collins, Ray Renshaw. There was a space beside the box where Jack reputedly buried unsatisfactory box-boys. He was a strict disciplinarian. I was told that I was on his hit list because I was not there to get his bottle of milk from the dairy one Sunday morning.
It was Jack that was on duty at the time of our fishplate bolt episode.
Did they have box-boys there in your time? I suspect that when the old guard retired the boy's job would have been abolished. I found it a great place to work.

[Mickey]

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[chaz harrison]

Hearing about jacks left on the rail brings to mind an anecdote that a friend of mine (no names - no packdrill) told me. He worked in the S & T dept on the Southern region. A gang had removed a rail on the Romsey curve at Eastleigh to do something or other (I can't now remember the reason). It was a hot day and when they came to replace the rail it wouldn't go in. The rails on either side had expanded and "it was about half an inch too long". Rather than cut a piece off the rail they jacked the track up on either side of the gap until the rail would drop back in. Of course this would leave the track somewhat up in the air. No problem! The class 33 diesel that was parked nearby with the engineer's train was brought up to roll the track flat. Sorted.

Chaz

[Bryan]

The rails on either side had expanded and "it was about half an inch too long". Rather than cut a piece off the rail they jacked the track up on either side of the gap until the rail would drop back in.

You can achieve the same result by jacking the offending rail up in the middle or use a crane if you have one in your back pocket. ( I have done both)

A 1 inch expansion in the rail can result in a rail bending from the 6ft of one track and touch the cess rail of the other track. This happenned to me when rerailing with CWR at Church Fenton about 10 year ago. We forgot to leave a free end on a warm day and clipped down from both ends. Did not forget again.

[52D]

When i was in the Middle East we had big problems with a crane in the Amiri flight hangar in Abu Dhabi that kept tripping out this was due to the expansion of the building, which nipped the crane wheels. Using measurments taken over a 12 hour period the building grew 30 mm from 7 30 in the morning till mid day then shrunk back in the evening to the original measurments. It was cured by opening the tolerances slightly larger than normal. Our factory wouldnt believe it at first till i re surveyed it and got identical results.
Expansion and contraction are points that you dont hear a lot about these days can you remember at school Railway lines and sag in Telegraph wires was always discussed in science lessons.

[Mickey]

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[lead_plug]

Micky, I hadn't heard about the 8F derailment at Camden Rd/Kentish Town Junction, it sounds a real horror story. About that time I was living miles away and completely out of touch.
Did you ever hear about the Maiden Lane Junction disaster? One morning in 1943 a beastly engine attacked the box,resulting in the upper structure finishing upside down on No.1 Down, foul of No2 Up.
George Holloway, the signalman, was rescued from the wreckage in the locking room which was soon ablaze with much popping of dets.
George was carted off to hospital, he thought the Luftwaffe was responsible. I saw the aftermath from the station but couldn't get near because as a boy I was told to keep out of the way! (And I used to deliver their Weekly Notices)
The S & T boys did a great job putting in very long hours fitting in a sort of temporary block post on the remains of the Down platform of the original Camden Town station.
I never saw an official explanation, but have always thought that the engine crew were having a break in an adjacent brake van and the insufficiently secure loco ran away. As it was a fine summer day this seems doubtful, enginemen usually preferred to dine on the footplate in such conditions.
After rebuilding I found that the box had what I thought to be a Midland frame, probably a standard LMS one, did you ever see it? can you identify it?
I was told that Kentish Town Junction was the first ever junction to have it's signals and points interlocked, which meant little to me at the time. In recent years however the Journal of the North London Railway Historical Soc'y published details of the installation, confirming
the junction's place in railway history.
During and after the blitz the local residents kicked up a fuss because with the box being elevated the lights could be seen from street level although the ARP authorities confirmed that they couldnt be seen by enemy aircraft. One of the windows on the east side had a small hole in it, believed to have been caused by "friendly fire". I used to be more concerned by conductor shoe arcing over the junction, something the drivers kept to a minimum.