Welwyn Garden City

[macduff]

I started on the railway Jan 1978 at Welwyn Garden City, i remember very well all the different jobs that were done at garden city. The signal box hadn't been gone that long and the up yard still had a bit of regular traffic, i got passed out as a shunter in the April and worked with Sid Walkling, Fred Josiah, Terry Shadbolt and Fred Sponner, we looked after the emu sidings and up yard. The early turn had a driver and pilot engine booked on, the old 350 used to stay in the shed road and on cold Monday mornings on start up would send clouds of thick smoke into the shed shortly followed by NCL staff bailing out of the work shop.There were the 7 roads that DaveGN spoke of also a through road in the shed, a coal road, ballast road, a loading dock road with vehicle ramp, and the private sidings which was accessed by the ground frame off the old GN Hertford branch which were Nabisco,polycell and Roche. Around the old branch were Nortons and Lincoln electrics. The regular traffic at the time was Nortons,Lincolns and Polycell. Nortons was iron ore, Lincolns was rolls of steel wire and Polycell was bulk powder is special wagons. The ballast trains for the station refurb of Southend Vic were made up at Garden city and on a Saturday night of which there were 4 these would return on the Sunday afternoon for sorting out on The Monday. So there was a bit of work still for a few years. I think it was 1981 or 1982 that we lost the 350 and any work was covered by Hitchin with a class 31, the old branch squealed a lot taken that round the curve. I will have a dig through by collection and see if i have any photos.

[Mickey]

... i got passed out as a shunter in the April and worked with Sid Walkling, Fred Josiah, Terry Shadbolt and Fred Sponner, we looked after the emu sidings and up yard.

Names from the past:-

Sid 'the shunter' use to live at Cole Green on the Hertford-Hatfield road and use to use a push-bike to get to & from WGC station.

Fred 'the shunter' use to live at Finsbury Park.

Terry Shadbolt not totally sure if i recall him but if he was a WGC station anytime before March 1974 then i would know him, his name sounds vaguely familiar though?.

Fred Spooner was an ex-soldier (Grenadier Guards) and had left the Army sometime around 1972 or early 1973 and started as a railman at WGC. (Wot ever happened to Fred??)

Some more names at WGC station during the early/mid-1970s:-

Charlie Heritage station foreman or Chargeman.
Ivor same as Charlie Heritage (I saw Ivor around 1976 working at Moorgate).
Dave (i forget his 2nd name?) a railman.
Dennis (i forget his 2nd name) Dennis was Irish and a railman.

The down side EMU sidings were constructed during 1973 the sametime as the 'Welwyn flyover' was constructed i remember it well cos i was in WGC s/box at the sametime (on the book).

[Mickey]

Also possibly worth noting is the number of roads that are left in the up yard at WGC has now been reduced from approximately 8-10 roads in the early/mid-1970s to 4-5 roads in 2008 although the number of roads left now was probably reduced sometime well before 2008?.

There were 7 roads in the Welwyn Up Yard until 2007/2008. There are now 5. The reason that two roads were taken out, was so Tampers and On Track Plant could be stabled there and engineers could then drive their vans directly alongside. This was to make it easier to swap out spare parts and carry out maintenance and servicing.

Road 5 is the longest road and is supposed to be kept clear so that freight's can be run round, but this doesn't always happen!

There use to be a bit of a concrete roadway between 2 of the roads in the up yard because those 2 roads were set apart from the other 7 or 8 roads (during the late 1960s and early 1970s sometimes there mite be seen a couple of parcel vans stabled around that part of the yard on those 2 roads?) plus i believe there was also some concrete coal scuttles usually half-full of coal or coke around that area of the up yard as well.

During the early/mid-1970s x3 sets of Inner suburban non-corridor stock (Block-enders) use to stable in the up yard for working 3 trains into Kings Cross & Moorgate during the weekday 'morning peak' and x3 sets use to stable overnight (and at weekends) in the up yard after working trains down from Kings Cross & Moorgate during the 'evening peak' and always worked by a Brush type-2 (or class-31).

During the early/mid-1970s week day nights 7B66 Kings Cross Goods yard-Huntingdon use to 'knock off' the back end of it's train in the up yard around 3:30am usually consisting of a brake van and 6-7 wagons of coal/coke. This train would then go forward to Huntingdon as 6B66 consisting of 4-5 parcel vans for Hitchin down yard, st Neots & Huntingdon.

Also during the early/mid-1970s during the week day evenings around 19:00hrs a goods train use to leave WGC yard bound for Whitemoor yard, of course it use to have to perform a 'W-shunt' to get out of the up yard and onto the up slow line (as far as the limit of shunt board) then set-back the whole train into the up slow line platform then was crossed over onto the down main line and 'right away' northbound towards Welwyn north usually behind a down express.

[hq1hitchin]

1943, I believe

[Mickey]

Thats it hq1hitchin the up yard looking south. There was some signalling alterations around the area of no.4 'back platform' to enter & exit the up/down Hertford line plus the up Goods no.1 & no.2 roads around 1959/60 (i have a S&T diagram of the complete signalling alterations that i mite be able to post soon?).

The brick built building in the foreground was used by the WGC shunter's as there lobby during the late 1960s & 1970s and the parcels office was to the left (hidden) behind the corner of the tall brick building during the early/mid-1970s.

[macduff]

What about this photo Micky. The old p-way hut and the brick goods and C&W offices, when i was there bob was the goods clerk and Cyril Pratchett the C&W.

[macduff]

Micky any idea who that is in the background with Alan Palmer.

[Mickey]

Probably me with that mop of hair?.

Very nice picture macduff takes me straight back 40 years!.

Old 'pedler' Palmer of Welwyn north i wonder if he's still alive and if he is he would be up in his 90s by now?.

Alan 'pedler' Palmer started on the L.N.E.R. as a telegraph lad but his first box as a signalman was at Lolham (north of Peterborough) in the mid-1930s then he joined R.A.F. Bomber Command during WW2 then on de-mob he re-joined the railway and worked at various s/boxes such as Potters Bar (1950s box) & Hatfield no.1 before becoming one of the 3-regular signalmen at WGC during the 1960s until the box closed in 1976 he then went to Kings Cross PSB and finally finished up in 1987.

The track diagram in the picture was a 'temporary track diagram' installed in the spring of 1973 when TCB (Track Circuit Block) was extended from Hatfield no.2 to Welwyn Garden City on all 4-roads. I think that the glass fronted wooden box mounted onto the front of the block-shelf was to house the 'crank handle' to manually operate the point machines on the leads from down fast to down slow line and from the down slow line to down platform no.1 'Luton line platform' at the south end of the station which were converted from mechanical to power operated points at the sametime. Also the 'new' SPTs (Signal Post Telephones) can be seen mounted above the crank handle cabnet on top of the block-shelf as well during the spring 1973 signalling alterations.

I forgot that levers nos.51-59 were removed at the sametime as the other alterations taking place in 1973.

Happy days...

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Nice listening !! to the tales about Welwyn, but have you thought, in all the years that the block enders were stabled at Welwyn and Hertford North, never heard of any Graffiti, on any of them.

Didn't there used to be a short parcels train, that left Welwyn after the evening rush, that took a couple of vans to Hitchin, added a few more then on to Peterborough.

manna

[Mickey]

Yes your correct manna no graffiti sprayed on those empties standing in the up yard at WGC back in the early 1970s although ''graffiti art'' didn't really take off until the 1980s in the UK in a BIG WAY!.

I am not to sure about that parcels train although it could have run pre-1972?. As previously posted (years ago) there use to be a 7B08 (i think it was?) that came out of Temple Mills yards around 5:am on weekdays that use to have the Shredded Wheat grain hoppers on it for the up yard at WGC usually worked by a 'good old' Brush type-2.

During the early/mid-1970s on some weekdays the WGC 350hp diesel shunter would leave the up yard and travel up the slow line to shunt Hatfield's up sidings plus also on some other weekdays the same 350hp diesel shunter would leave the up yard at WGC and travel down the Hertford branch to shunt the Norton and Lincoln Electrics sidings bringing back a few wagons into WGC up yard.

When they put the NX panel in WGC box and took out the lever frame in the autumn of 1973 to get onto the Hertford branch the shunter had to operate a GF (Ground Frame) basically to go from the yard to a siding which the Herford branch was by then classed as. The price of progress!.

[macduff]

The good old block enders

[macduff]

This was not the last one to come a cropper on these trap points.

[Mickey]

Yep thats how i always like to remember 'Garden City' (in the top photgraph) back in the early 1970s during a 'summer evening' just look at the up yard full of ECS and wagons!.

The bottom photograph is pre-1973 and the construction of the 'Welwyn flyover' i can just see WGC up fast line starting signal (no.32) and up slow line starting signal (no.46) in the far distance up towards the 20th Mile bridge.

Come to think of it i think i vaguely recall a set of ECS coming off at thoughs traps??.

[Bryan]

What about this photo Micky. The old p-way hut and the brick goods and C&W offices, when i was there bob was the goods clerk and Cyril Pratchett the C&W.

How many gauges on that Loading Gauge?

[Mickey]

What about this photo Micky. The old p-way hut and the brick goods and C&W offices, when i was there bob was the goods clerk and Cyril Pratchett the C&W.

How many gauges on that Loading Gauge?

Looks like 4 to me?.

I would say that photo was taken sometime around 1967/68 maybe 1969 macduff?.