Kings Cross

[StevieG]

G'day Gents

Is the clock still there??????


manna

No mate, went when the footbridge was removed a while back. The clock tower on top of the building is still there, though!

As is the smaller one bracketed out over platform 1 from the wall of the East Side offices : It was completely protectively boxed in during the refurbishment of the offices, including that for that period their whole wall along the back of the platform was scaffolded and 'encapsulated' by plastic sheeting.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Could be why the trains leave late!!

manna

[Mickey]

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[Andy W]

I started my first down journey from the cab rank (a.k.a. Platform 0) on Friday on the 1733 and it did feel a bit wierd.

The current Concourse and Travel Centre were built on temporary permissions from Camden Council and those permissions had to be periodically renewed. Quite what the architects thought they were doing designing a glass and metal Travel Centre that caught so much sun because of the way it faced is beyond me. The temperature beat the air conditioning hands down and inside in summer it used to be a furnance. They were frequently down to their vests in the TEB and a fat sweating 50 something in a string vest is not something you want to see after you have just had your snap.

The doors to the outside originally had radar heads and every year I had to pop over from Wellers Court to the post office and get a licence for them as they were classed as transmitting devices under the Wireless and Telegraphy Act. First of all I had to present myself to Stan Falconbridge in the AMO with my petty cash chit and get the regulation questions from Stan.

Micky, I remember that Buffet near the stairs of 8. By the late 1970's it was called the Denes Buffet, had gone well downhill and was a place to be avoided. It did however come to my rescue one night when I got called to a SR bogie B which had a main steam pipe leak. They tended to leak anyway but this one had such a serious fracture that the steam was all heading for the roof. I went to the back of the Denes where I found a few empty potato tins (each about the size of a party 7 if you know what I mean!). Using some snips I managed to make enough coils to wrap round the leak, all being held in place with some stiff wire.

A bit Heath Robinson but it did the job. There was no way anybody wanted to do a shunt out at that time of night -the papers and mails were already being loaded into the train!

[Mickey]

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[Mickey]

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[manna]

G'day Gents

Re- Ladies of the night!! there was a few of them hanging around the Cross most nights, more in summer than in winter (I wonder why?) One afternoon shift I had bought my car to work for a change, and at the end of my shift I offered my driver a lift home (he lived near Southend) so we walked out to the car and got in (around midnight) after we got in we could see there was someone beside the skip and against the wall! well I had to put the lights on did,nt I, and there was this lady of the night with a punter going his hardest, but what made us roar with laughter was, with all this passion around, She was eating an APPLE

The things we saw at the "Cross"

manna

[hq1hitchin]

The doors to the outside originally had radar heads and every year I had to pop over from Wellers Court to the post office and get a licence for them as they were classed as transmitting devices under the Wireless and Telegraphy Act. First of all I had to present myself to Stan Falconbridge in the AMO with my petty cash chit and get the regulation questions from Stan.

Was it Stan Falconbridge who ran the club where you could buy safety shoes and boots? Didn't venture much beyond the DI's office in the West Side Offices in those days but do remember buying my shoes somewhere upstairs. Odd to think that in those days if you wanted to protect your feet, you paid for it. Later on they were free issue to more or less all outdoor staff and traincrew but then someone realised that they are actually harmful in the long run if worn continuously (remember when nearly all BR managers used to wear safety shoes cunningly disguised as brogues?) - akin to kicking your toes against a brick wall, was the way a Railtrack manager turned chiropodist described them to us. Some of the TOCs withdrew their issue to traincrew quite early on in privatisation.

[rob237]

...with all this passion around, She was eating an APPLE

Reminiscent of the question: "How do you know when an Essex girl has an orgasm?..."
"She drops her bag of chips..."

Cheers
Robt P.

[Mickey]

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[coachmann]

.....and there was this lady of the night with a punter going his hardest,...

I wonder what happened to him after withdrawal....

[Mickey]

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[Andy W]

Ken Greig was the senior running foreman in the 1970's and he eventually left about 1978 and emigrated to Austrailia. Peter Townend was the Traction Maintenance Engineer at GN House - he didn't work in West Side. Ken was suceeded as the senior man by Owen Daynes.

The ladies of the night were a well known part of the KX scene and when the Yorkshire Ripper was about in Leeds, the West Yorkshire girls came down to London to continue business. One night this led to one heck of a barney between the girls and their respective "minders" in Pancras Road. Following this there was an "agreement" made between the relevant firms who controlled that business and the London girls then worked one side of the road and the Yorkshire girls the other! Our ODM workshop in Wellers Court had an entrance in Pancras Road so we knew all about what went on there. The "debris" on the pavements come dawn was quite something to see, and avoid!

I used to like KX after midnight - once the Scottish sleepers went, it was the odd passenger & then periodic flights of news and mail trains heading north. There used to be one odd parcels working that came into KX from Bradford (?) at about half one, stay for half an hour and then go up to KX Goods yard. The last trains north used to be the Hitchin news and the late Leeds mail - they went off around 4 in the morning. The Hitchin was a cl.31 turn but just about anything could turn up to work the Leeds. It was a good working to get any Leeds Division Peak or cl.40 away.

p.s. yes it was Stan Falconbridge who ran the safety footware scheme which you could pay for through the payroll - there was a deduction code for that particular brand.

[Mickey]

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[52D]

To Micky, Manna, HQ1 et al this weeks test at the cross was quite near the bombed out section and i am pleased to report that the responsibile authoritys have replaced the steelwork and brickwork with the bomb damage.
The steel work is to a slightly different design to the original but cant be seen from the platform level so is ok as far as i am concerned.
The Brickwork on the other hand was to be built with replica bricks and was finished by a sub contractor. The foreman on the job was not pleased with the end result so he has dismissed the sub contractor and made the contractor rebuild it to his satisfaction.
Back next week for another test i think i will ask one of the pretty japanese girls who insist on photographing Platform 9 3/4 to take one of me for the album.