spooky railway locations

[sandwhich]

There is a station called Bayford one stop before Hertford North,its quiet and about half a mile from the village of the same name, late one evening we stopped there and the trainee driver with me commented how quiet it was, I said "its also called Sleepy Hollow, stand here long enough and the headless horseman will ride by", a few seconds later a horse was heard in the darkness in a nearby field, we laughed at that for the rest of the shift.
But on a serious note the 1928 accident at Charfield in Gloucestershire in which fifteen people lost their lives including two children who were never identified and nobody came forward to claim them, they were buried in a nearby churchyard and it has been reported in years gone by that a woman in black had been seen at the graveside on a number of occasions.

[Mickey]

Around Bayford station south of Hertford North station.

[Bryan]

Often worked on track renewals in Standedge tunnel especially on long possessions over a full weekend. The usual season for this was a period through October into November.

In the old single bore tunnels at the halfway point is a crossover cavern where it is possible to turn your van round and drive back out without having to go all the way through.
This cavern is known as the "Cathedral".
If you look around the walls, you then realise that it is used a "Black Altar" with all the pagan symbols drawn around the walls.

I mentioned earlier about when we worked in there.
What is the date of the Satanic main festival of the year?
Around the end of October.

That tunnel is one very spooky place especially when you are over a mile and a half in.

[Mickey]

Dore South Junction box on the Midland Railway south of Sheffield.

[John Palmer]

You may be thinking of Dore and Totley South Junction. A view of tunnel mouth and box can be seen on Ebay at the moment: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/B-W-35mm-nega ... 1228864855. A good place to settle down with Tom Rolt's 'Garside Fell Disaster'!

[Mickey]

Yes that's the one.

[StevieG]

" Often worked on track renewals in Standedge tunnel especially on long possessions over a full weekend. The usual season for this was a period through October into November.

In the old single bore tunnels at the halfway point is a crossover cavern where it is possible to turn your van round and drive back out without having to go all the way through.
This cavern is known as the "Cathedral". .... "

Is it Standedge, that also has some sort of cross-connections with an underground waterway or river of some sort (at 'the cathedral' perhaps?), and that therefore a wrong turn with insufficient light could end in drowning?
[ The same tunnel that, one recent winter, also ended up with h-u-g-e stalactites, or similar, of ice from frozen seepage, blocking the way? ]

[StevieG]

Not as spine-chilling as many, but in my early railway days, well in those for which I was paid anyway, I did have one experience that was really worrying at the time.

While working at Canonbury, the gaffer of the gang to which I was allocated at the time, needed, around mid-day, something fetching (not railway kit), which I thought was most likely to be obtainable quickly not far from Finsbury Park station, so, knowing 'the GN' moderately well by then, I volunteered to go, seek, and fetch it. This involved walking (with trusty 'Bardic') through Canonbury Tunnel, between Canonbury Junction and Finsbury Park No.1 signal boxes. [Imagine that nowadays: A yooft of about a year's service only, being allowed to venture forth on a lineside walk of roughly a mile and a bit each way, alone, and through a 'blind' tunnel ! ].

This tunnel is something like 700-800 yards long, mostly straight running roughly NNW/SSE for its northern half,, but then bearing fairly sharply eastwards and turning at least 75 degrees to its 'southern' portal.
I always found it somewhat reassuring to be able to see at least one end while walking any tunnel, preferably both ends, so it was not so nice that, for a fair stretch of this in-tunnel section, neither end was visible.

Part-way along the curved portion (speed limit 30mph?), the incidence of an increasingly loud rumble (which obviously must be indicating an approaching train), predicated finding, and standing clear inside, the first refuge encountered without delay.
The rumble, as expected, got louder, reaching a high level and I awaited to see what would pass by in a second or two.
Now I had not walked this tunnel before, so did not know first-hand what an approaching train here would actually be like in terms of audible volume, and tonal characteristics and idiosyncrasies of sound.

So now imagine all this loud noise then starting to slowly subside and eventually die away to nothing -
- with no train having passed !

A minute or two were spent in contemplation of what had happened, - and what had not been seen.
But it eventually dawned that I must have heard an UndergrounD train in another tunnel bore nearby:

There were possibly two to choose from -
The then Drayton Park-Moorgate 'Northern City Line' of LT was very close indeed to the north end of the tunnel, but then ran south to Highbury & Islington station, which was about 300-400 yards west of Canonbury Tunnel's south end ;
and LT's Victoria Line, running from Finsbury Park to King's Cross, also via Higbury.
Given the Vic. line's alignment onward from Highbury to King's Cross, I reckoned that north of Highbury its route in this area of the Vic.line from Fins.Pk. was probably nearer Canonbury Tunnel than the 'Northern City Line'.

Whatever, it was still rather unnerving at the time.

[Mickey]

Cannonbury Junction on the North London line.

[Bryan]

" Often worked on track renewals in Standedge tunnel especially on long possessions over a full weekend. The usual season for this was a period through October into November.

In the old single bore tunnels at the halfway point is a crossover cavern where it is possible to turn your van round and drive back out without having to go all the way through.
This cavern is known as the "Cathedral". .... "

Is it Standedge, that also has some sort of cross-connections with an underground waterway or river of some sort (at 'the cathedral' perhaps?), and that therefore a wrong turn with insufficient light could end in drowning?
[ The same tunnel that, one recent winter, also ended up with h-u-g-e stalactites, or similar, of ice from frozen seepage, blocking the way? ]

There is a canal below the tunnels, in between the Eastbound Single bore and the current double track tunnel.
There are a number of access passages between the tunnels and where they cross the canal there is a small bridge that steps up and down over it.

[sandwhich]

I also remember at Bayford station there was a signal box if you could call it that, if I remember right it was to the north of the station on the down side, it was very small and only operated about four signals (I will stand corrected) and during the 60s it was manned 24 hours, I remember we dropped off a signalman at about 6 pm for what was a 12 hour shift, it must have been quite spooky and somewhat lonely on a winters night.
The signal cabins past and present on the Settle & Carlisle line must also come into that category.

[StevieG]

" Often worked on track renewals in Standedge tunnel especially on long possessions over a full weekend. The usual season for this was a period through October into November.

In the old single bore tunnels at the halfway point is a crossover cavern where it is possible to turn your van round and drive back out without having to go all the way through.
This cavern is known as the "Cathedral". .... "

Is it Standedge, that also has some sort of cross-connections with an underground waterway or river of some sort (at 'the cathedral' perhaps?), and that therefore a wrong turn with insufficient light could end in drowning?
[ The same tunnel that, one recent winter, also ended up with h-u-g-e stalactites, or similar, of ice from frozen seepage, blocking the way? ]

There is a canal below the tunnels, in between the Eastbound Single bore and the current double track tunnel.
There are a number of access passages between the tunnels and where they cross the canal there is a small bridge that steps up and down over it.

Thanks Bryan.
Had a feeling that was the one, though I didn't know that level of interior detail.
Much obliged.

[StevieG]

I also remember at Bayford station there was a signal box if you could call it that, if I remember right it was to the north of the station on the down side, it was very small and only operated about four signals (I will stand corrected) and during the 60s it was manned 24 hours, I remember we dropped off a signalman at about 6 pm for what was a 12 hour shift, it must have been quite spooky and somewhat lonely on a winters night.
The signal cabins past and present on the Settle & Carlisle line must also come into that category.

Bayford : Try here for size, sandwhich.
http://www.signalbox.org/branches/sg/index.htm

[Mickey]

Bayford block hut.

[sandwhich]

Thanks for the info and photos of Bayford block post, I would not have fancied a night shift there especially in foggy conditions, the imagination would certainly be working overtime, if you wanted to be left alone, that would have been the place.