G'Day Gents
Just been rereading, Richards 'Kings Cross' on the "other" part of this Encyclopedia, with some drawings of the station and surrounding area, the one thing that I did notice is that King's Cross, looks as if it was built to be a 'Through' station, I wonder if the GNR had an idea to link up with another railway south of the Thames, or to continue to another station closer to the city
Interesting thought. I've never heard that one before.
Restrictions on building railways through central London probably preclude this idea. Euston Road is a more immediate barrier. If there had been any serious hopes of extension (not necessarily to cross the Thames) I would have thought the GNR would have followed the later Midland approach and gone over rather than under the Regent's Canal so that the Euston Road could be bridged.
The design of the original station rather reflects early practice where termini had a single arrival and single departure platform separated by sidings. The various functions such as waiting, ticket purchase etc would then naturally be accommodated along the departure platform. Paddington and the early Euston, for instance, also reflect this approach. Once multiple arrival and departure platforms were needed, it made more sense to place these functions beyond the buffers.
The Royal Commission on the siting of Railway Termini 1846 established the boundaries or frontier limits of main line railways approaching London. One of these 'frontiers' was the Euston Road and of course we have Euston, King's Cross and St Pancras in close proximity. The reasons for these boundaries were the growing concerns at the time about further congestion in the central area.
CVR1865:The 1846 Royal Commission on the Siting of Railway Termini resulted in a series of recommendations which were in general accepted and adhered to in respect of the northern London termini, eg Euston -already there- King's Cross, St. Pancras, Marylebone and which the government was extremely loath to overrule. However, Liverpool Sreet 1874 and Broad Street were allowed exceptions, the reasons given as the need to bring in suburban traffic. Various conditions were laid down as to the approaches to the stations, their elevation and construction.
PS There is an article on the subject, which you may find of interest at eprints.ucl.ac.uk -hope I 've got that right.
G'Day Gents
Amazing what you can learn, never knew about the Euston Rd line in the sand! I suppose both the GNR and Midland got round the embargo by digging tunnels, so in reality they did become through stations!!
Liverpool St WAS a through station in the true sense of the word, as it's trains could acsess the Met, at the same level.
manna
Yes, I know it was used for goods traffic, on a fairly regular basis, not to sure about passenger trains, I think that the odd special used it.
Going back to the map of the Kings Cross area, I see that 'Top Shed also had a roundhouse, I have a picture of the inside, how long did it last? until the end of steam or a lot earlier??
manna
Yes, I know it was used for goods traffic, on a fairly regular basis, not to sure about passenger trains, I think that the odd special used it.
Going back to the map of the Kings Cross area, I see that 'Top Shed also had a roundhouse, I have a picture of the inside, how long did it last? until the end of steam or a lot earlier??
manna
In deference to the title of this thread, I have presumed to relate what I know on the Liverpool Street connection and the Kings Cross roundhouse on new threads. Otherwise, no-one will remember where they read about them.
