Mr Bunt wrote:Pigeon guano on platform 2 at Hertford East earlier this evening. Notwork Rail need to sort this problem out quickly I think.
Although the station is owned by Network Rail, it is in fact leased to the train operator (Greater Anglia) and they are responsible for the mangement and upkeep of it.
The only stations managed by Network Rail are the big main stations (like Kings X, Liverpool St, Waterloo, Leeds, Glasgow, etc).
You should send your complaint to the TOC with the photo so they can spring in to immediate action...
StevieG wrote:I seem to remember hearing (regrettably I never visited) that it was in Hertford East box where there was a 'welcome' of a rather different kind; - in the form of a prominent note placed, either on the Notice Board or somewhere else, in such a way as to be as unmissable as possible to visitors, and which read :
'Next time you're just passing by, please do.'
Imagine Chief Inspector Nye's response to that, or indeed, Chief Inspector Coleman's?
Just switching it a bit, I heard that Ted arrived at Abbots Ripton one Sunday morning to find the signalman leaving the box with a bucket, sponge and chamois in his hand. "I was just thinking of washing the car", he said. "Well, think again!"
Mr Bunt wrote:Pigeon guano on platform 2 at Hertford East earlier this evening. Notwork Rail need to sort this problem out quickly I think.
Although the station is owned by Network Rail, it is in fact leased to the train operator (Greater Anglia) and they are responsible for the mangement and upkeep of it.
The only stations managed by Network Rail are the big main stations (like Kings X, Liverpool St, Waterloo, Leeds, Glasgow, etc).
You should send your complaint to the TOC with the photo so they can spring in to immediate action...
The last time I complained to Greater Anglia I got a quite nonsensical response. It concerned defective tickets issued by the self service machines at Ware.
These kept getting rejected by the barriers at Cheshunt, Liverpool Street and on London Underground because of encoding failures. Greater Anglia's response was:
"Thank you for your recent email.
I am very sorry to read of the difficulties you have experienced using your ticket through the automatic barriers at Ware station".
Since no stations on the Hertford East branch have automatic barriers (the nearest ones are at Broxbourne) the author of Greater Anglia's reply (Emma Cruize, Customer Relations Advisor, Greater Anglia) clearly needs a bit of training about what assets the company possesses, over and above a massive pile of phosphate rich pigeon sh*t on platform 2 at Hertford East!
StevieG wrote:I seem to remember hearing (regrettably I never visited) that it was in Hertford East box where there was a 'welcome' of a rather different kind; - in the form of a prominent note placed, either on the Notice Board or somewhere else, in such a way as to be as unmissable as possible to visitors, and which read :
'Next time you're just passing by, please do.'
" Imagine Chief Inspector Nye's response to that, or indeed, Chief Inspector Coleman's? .... "
It is interesting you mention McKewans, because I am convinced that in the 1970s the cans of McK Export sold on up trains to Kings Cross tasted better than the same brand on the down trains.
They were b***** expensive in both directions, mind.
Getting back to Hertford East the box and yard are unfortunately no longer with us but at least the station is. It would have been easy to bulldoze the lot and stick up some glass and metal horror but they haven't and it has had some money spent on it. The booking hall area (yes, concourse is a bit too grand a term for it) is still quite attractive.
Getting back to Hertford East the box and yard are unfortunately no longer with us but at least the station is. It would have been easy to bulldoze the lot and stick up some glass and metal horror but they haven't and it has had some money spent on it. The booking hall area (yes, concourse is a bit too grand a term for it) is still quite attractive.
Pity the trains look so down at heel.
The box at Hertford East is actually still there. Here's a photo of it taken on 26 July 2010.
It's all boarded up and looks a complete eyesore. The station building was given Grade II listed status on 4 April 1974 (and the listing details include the following: "Concourse divided into 3 toplit square
bays beyond the porte cochere, bold coved boarded and battened ceiling, with pyramidal rooflights; porte cochere has wrought-iron tie rod trusses above exposed steel girders" - so it does have a concourse!).
The signal box has survived because it gained separate Grade II listed status on 9 September 1996; Railcrack weren't deft enough to oppose that.
Given its present delapidated condition it can't be long before East Herts District Council serve a listed building enforcement notice on Notwork Rail though.
The leaky beer barrel was on my train Micky, and as you said we filled every container we had, on the way back from Willesden we had to stop every half mile or so to get rid of the evidence, that would have been about 1972, no breath testing then.
Micky wrote:As for the redundant Hertford East box wot an 'eye sore' it's a wonder some nocturnal vandal hasn't sneaked over the fence at 3:am and put a match to it?.
The sad thing about Hertford East box is that it's a case of listed building status working against the successful preservation of an historic building instead of helping it. About five years ago The Epping Ongar Railway wanted to buy it and re-erect it at Ongar.
East Herts Council put such onerous restrictions on its removal that they eventually gave up. You can read all the town planners babble about it at:
Meanwhile here's another eyesore inviting a vandal's match. St Margaret's on 27 July 2010 seen from a 315 on an Up working. Another listed building going to ruin.
that would have been about 1972, no breath testing then.