Kings Cross

[Mickey]

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[StevieG]

...Could it be that this gent's name was more like Gordon Scrivener ?

[Mickey]

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[Andy W]

What names from the past! Ken De'ath was a regular visitor to Rm 125 West because he used to sort out Grace Goddards car when it needed servicing. He had a fountain of good stories from his LTS days - he did tell me once that they used to team up Joe Brown with some old lag so that they knew what the two of the would be up to. Don't think, from what he said, that trick worked too well though!

Micky - GN House still had the Control in it until shortly before the Division closed in 1983. It was a leased building (from the Worshipful Company of Skinners, if my memory of the fire alarm book is correct) and was used by parts of the BRB until the lease ran out in the late 1980's. It was then it was converted into a YHA hostel.

It is a strange building, wrapped around the pub on the corner and with windows on three streets. The Motorail used to be on the other side of the entrance doors to "Con-trol". I think it was the fancy furniture store a couple of doors down that was the one that got converted into a pub.

[hq1hitchin]

I imagine Arthur Side to be a part of a tale of past occurrences told in KX Control when I worked there from '74.
As I remember it being told, part of a windscreen of a main line diesel became cracked or broken while heading north towards Peterborough, initial report/s being that it was on the secondman's side. The loco controller arranged for the driver to come on the 'phone at P'boro' loco, where there was some temporary confusion, escalating briefly to an argument, as to which side the damaged pane was on, until it was realised by Control that the problem window was secondman's side, but it was Driver Side they were speaking to!

Thinking now of poor Derek Witham, a controller in GN House who died very young indeed - a car accident in the USA. Derek had a stammer and that was fine until one day he found himself talking on the phone to a KX driver who also had a speech impediment. Unfortunately, each thought that the other party was taking the mickey and things got quite heated until it was made clear to both of them that this wasn't the case. Made friends after that. RIP Derek.

[Mickey]

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[hq1hitchin]

Great Northern House in Euston road i went there in June 1972 for an interview when i started. I 'assumed' that when Kings Cross PSB was finally fully commissioned in 1977 (i assume it was 1977?) that the control centre was moved out of G.N. House in Euston road and was relocated into Kings Cross PSB?. I recall that in 1972/73/74 (possibly prior to 1972?) the control office in G.N. House was split into 'three route areas'. 1. Kings Cross to Wood Green. 2. New Southgate to Sandy (including the Hertford branch). 3. Everton to Stoke tunnel. I think thats how it was split but if i am wrong Stevie G will be able to clarify?.

Correct, except that the northern boundary between Nos 2 and 3 Sections was Huntingdon. The controllers on those sections put the train running info onto graphs (locations on the side axis, times along the bottom, whilst the No 1 man only used sheets, due to the short distance involved. All pre TOPs, of course.

[Andy W]

I actually saw one of those KX graphs only a few weeks ago! Mike Vila, who used to work in KX Control many moons ago, kept one and he brought it into Paddington (his & my present place of work) to show the Andrew Pennington (the current head of GW Planning) & myself. I never saw these "for real" because by the time I got to GN House, it was 1978 and they had been consigned to history.

My visits downstairs to Control were frequent as I had to get the daily sheets from the TMRC (Train Maintenance and Running Controller) and get them copied by the repro girls and put on the engineers desks, as well as my own and others in the KM (Room 208) by 8.30 in the morning. If there was a problem with shopping a loco I also used to get called down to "Room 1" (Control) for a "discussion".

In 1978 a few of the desks were already empty but the TMRC and his two running assistants (who used to allocate the power) were still quite busy. I never got much out of the DCC (Deputy Chief Controller) when I went in there - they could be quite grumpy at times and on some shifts there was a real "atmosphere" when you went in there.

When the Maintenance Control packed up I inherited the maintenance record cards for all the racehorse Deltics between 1969 and 1978, except for one card for 55001 (1974) which had gone missing in the interim. I count myself lucky to get those as well as working in loco maintenance in pre TOPS days when you had to rely on your own knowledge and skill rather than a computer! Mr Townend didn't tolerate mistakes so you got it right, first time.

[StevieG]

Concur with hq1 on the Section 2/3 boundary, though the older hands said that some years earlier ('60s presumably) Grantham area used to come under KX Control, and there was a No.4 Section, and I should think at least one of the boundaries further south would have been different then.

As Andy W has touched on, the GNH Control was still going after KX PSB commissioning was completed in Apr. '77 (which commenced with first stages in '75, closing Gordon Hill and Hertford N. boxes).

Derek Witham... yes indeed; worked with him for a year or two.
Also I believe I recall, RIP even younger west country lad KX Controller, Paul Witte who, with one or two others, was in the same car.

Although the Traction Maintenance & Running Controller (it was a Grade 'D') might possibly have officially been in charge of the 'two assistants', they were from a traction technical/fitter-type background and in practice, the running controllers ['Main line' - Grade C; 'P'boro locos'(/'DMUs/350s') - Grade A] operated fairly separately from 'the Maintenance man' in several purposes, though there was some necessary co-operation of course : In deciding loco allocations to trains, the main line loco controller had quite a few other things to consider, as well as maintenance requirements, with York Regional Control also having some overriding influence.

The wonderful Section 2 & 3 desks' train recording graphs : To assist any curious readers' understanding, the graphs were custom-produced to cover the whole area of each section desk, were about 18-20 inches wide, and showed 12 hours-worth in length, left to right (so there were two graph rolls for 24 hours), with each vertical line representing one minute along the horizontal axis, and stations/signal boxes marked (not to scale) up the vertical axis.
The ubiquitous green metal Control desks (Liv.Street Control had the same type), were provided with a separate wooden, slightly inclined writing desk top incorporating rollers under flaps in each side of the writing desk, pivoted (and with a knob at the nearest end) in such a way that each master graph (with the 12 hours of scheduled train services plotted thereon) was wound on to the right hand roller, and its left hand end clipped to the left hand roller. But also on that end with the master graph, we clipped the left hand end of a same-length roll of blank tracing film ('paper'), so that the tracing paper was on top of the master.
We duplicated the main verticals of the master's time scale on the tracing paper, for correlation, then, as train passing or delay reports were received by telephone, we plotted them and joined up the points, using coloured pencils to a simple code (passenger or freight; Fast line or Slow, etc., on the tracing paper, with each train's reporting number written in next to its trace.
Then once the passing of time meant we were getting near the right-hand end of the visible graph section, we wound the pair of graphs on to the left to bring fresh hours into view.
By comparing the actual plots with the scheduled paths visible through the tracing paper on the master graph underneath, an instantly available ready comparison between actual and booked train running was easily made, facilitating progress predictions and telephoned regulating requests out to signalmen.

The tracing paper rolls were then kept (in the mid '70s, by the Div'l Movements Office: Couldn't say for how long) as a record of train running.

[Mickey]

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[Andy W]

Can't do the circuits, Micky but perhaps I can do the Control desks in GN House instead. If I get it wrong, I am sure Stevie G will put me right!

For those of you who aren't familiar with how these things worked, a Divisional Control consisted of several people doing several different functions. You have already heard about the section controllers and the TM&RC but who was in charge, who sorted out crew? The control at GN House was divided up into 8 numbered desks with a man in charge who was called the Deputy Chief Controller (DCC). The real Chief sat in Regional Control. He was "God".

At GN House the DCC sat on one side of the office in an un-numbered desk with his back to the GN House entrance lobby. To his left, with their backs to the Euston Road in desks 1 to 3 were the section controllers. Facing the DCC in desk 4 was the train crew (guards) controller and above desk 4 was a large map of the whole Division. Next to desk 4 in the RH corner was desk 5 and the TM&RC, who was in charge of motive power and maintenance arrangements. On the RHS, facing the Euston road were the two running controllers who used to allocate the motive power to trains, firstly the main line man and secondly the locals and Peterborough man. These were in desks 6 and my notes show the next one as 8 (although it should have been 7) Finally sitting by right of the the DCC in what I have as desk 7 (8?) was the assistant DCC, who used to do the wiring out.

You can see that the DCC had all his staff in a square and was master of what he surveyed. As the years rolled by the jobs in that office declined/altered in scope but the desks remained, giving us youngsters a reminder of busier times. The DCC was not to be messed with and when you were in "his" territory you played by his rules.

Behind Control in their messroom (Room 2) was their cooking and messing facilities and their lockers. Many controllers had their own headsets which they used to plug into their concentrators or the back of their prehistoric black phones. The only other person in GN House who sometimes used a headset was the C&W Engineer in Room 207, when he was doing the morning call over from the C&W depots. "Hands Free" isn't a new thing!

Controllers had a very responsible job in keeping the railway running and making sure any delays were properly dealt with. It was not a job for amateurs and several men in Control had been there for a number of years.

[thesignalman]

Anyone remember the telegraph circuits and how they were broken up along the G.N. main line?. I remember at WGC (or C.T. morse code) there was a Kings Cross to Hitchin circuit and a Hatfield to Sandy circuit on the main lines but after that?. By the late 1960s in WGC s/box there was still a Hatfield to Luton circuit but it was DEAD and a Hatfield to Hertford (north s/box i presume?) circuit but again it was DEAD. I think there was a Kings Cross to Peterbrough telegraph circuit (NOT in WGC s/box) because i believe Cresent Junction (Peterbrough) use to send trains on to Kings Cross but i am not 100% sure about that?. Also i remember each morning at 10:00 we would get a time check sent to all s/boxes from the telegraph office at Kings Cross on the single needle telegraph instruments.

The circuits on the GN main line were divided by function rather than geographical area, although by the sixties some of those functions weren't obvious or relevant. Many circuits therefore overlapped and/or skipped intermediate boxes.

There was indeed a Peterboro'-Kings Cross circuit, at Kings Cross we were advised passing times of every Up express by Crescent Junction (CJ), Hitchin South (HF), and Hatfield No2 (HD) which allowed us (the telegraph lads at Kings Cross box (BX)) to update the card on the CCTV system around the station for such people as the arrival indicator operator and the enquiry office. An interesting interface of technology - single needle telegraph to television! The Cambridge Buffets, which were all 1B66, were always telegraphed as "CB". I don't think there were any other boxes on that circuit, although Peterborough Tele Office was, and probably Kings Cross too. I should have some notes somewhere . . .

Time signal:
/ \\ // \ / \\ // \ / \\ // \ / \ /\
(TIME TIME TIME TEN)
It was exactly ten o'clock when the TEN was sent. Allegedly.

Most railways checked their clocks at nine. I always wondered if the GN did it at ten simply because it sounded nicer on the telegraph.

By the way, all the box codes above are from memory, I hope I have them correct.

John

[StevieG]

... Nearly - HD, yes, but it was Hatfield No.1, and that's who sent the Hatfield reports to BX, including that steady, 'clear-as-a-bell' sending style of one of the regular men there, the redoubtable Frank Brandon.
I've details of all (I think) the circuits. Will try to dig out.

[Mickey]

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[thesignalman]

... Nearly - HD, yes, but it was Hatfield No.1

It was the telegraph codes I was doing from memory, the reference to No2 was just a matter of fingers too stubby for the keyboard.

There are some GN London area codes on my web page at: http://www.signalbox.org/branches/jh/telegraph.htm for those interested.

John