The diesel era 1960s, 70s & 80s

[StevieG]

" .... Coming back to this:

. We also had 4 BUT (cl.116) sets which, because of their first class, did the longer runs. They arrived on the KX scene in 1968, I think..

" .... there were also some 3 car BUT units that came from I do not know where to replace some loco hauled stock on the Cambridge line. "

These had originally been WR sets but immediately before going to Fin Park, had been at Gosforth as part of the replacement of the Tyneside electrics. "

Thanks for these.
Despite often travelling on them and being a one-time DMU controller at KX, somehow I didn't know, and never delved into, where they had been previously.
During my 1974-77 period, I'm pretty sure they were also diagrammed to do a run or two to/from Huntingdon (remembering that, unlike the last thirty years or so, in those days several Inter-Citys used to serve Huntingdon: As, up to about ten years earlier, some also called at Hitchin, before the opening of Stevenage new station [in 1973?] ).

[Mickey]

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[Andy W]

Err, not quite Micky, we didn't have any Rolls 4 car units at the Oak. They were only based at Cricklewood or Marylebone. Sounds like an LM weekend substitution to me.

We had 4 x 2 car 104 sets from May 1987 to cover three diagrams. We numbered the sets L701-4. They were in a bit of a state when they came over (they went through our elephant house twice before the staff would work on them) and were subject to some fairly rough gearbox treatment by the drivers on the GOB who, to be fair, were electric men who touched them infrequently. So when we were short the only thing we had was a spare Bubble (you couldn't put a 2 car drive trailer set on that line - not enough power). Quite quickly we realised that we needed to put a changeover unit into the diagrams and so we created L705, a cl 118/116 combo that gave us a bit of breathing space.

We had them until about 1992 when Bletchley took over with sets made up of two car cl.115 motors. They soon had to mod the gearboxes on them - I think top gear was isolated. By mid 1993 they had been replaced by ex WR cl.117 motors. We kept the cl.104 units on WR work until they ran out of shopping life and a few of our old cars have made it into preservation.

[Mickey]

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[Andy W]

Getting back to the KX BUT (cl.116) sets, the KX Casualty Books for 1969 give a fair idea of what they were doing in that year. A casualty is a delay to a train of five minutes or more caused by a mechanical or electrical fault and every incident that may be concluded as a casualty was recorded, usually with the drivers depot and name.

In 1969 there were 32 incidents for the BUT sets recorded, 24 were on Cambridge branch destination trains (15 KM, 3 OY, 4 BK, 2 LT), 5 on main line destinations (3 CT, 2 HT) and 3 on Hertford Branch workings (all HFD). The 1830 KC-KM was a particular favourite, featuring 7 times.

Of the 32 incidents, 23 had a KX driver, 5 a Hitchin driver and 4 a Cambridge man.

Drivers names where known were as follows; Cambridge - Rolfe, Miller. Hitchin - Burgess, Fountain, Bysouth, Eagleton, Noags. KX - Murray, Ehn, Palton, Palmer, Barrett, Etheridge, Harding, Best, Tomlinson, Morgan, Spinks, Warren, S.Webb, Witham, Clarke, Brown, Williams. Names are as they appear in the book and may not be correctly spelt.

[Mickey]

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[manna]

G'day Gents

Only got in to Western Sidings once, when we had to bring a unit back to KX, we had taken a loco light to Clarence Yard, and the unit was in the shed.

manna

[Mickey]

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[manna]

G'Day gents

Na. dropped the LE off at Clarence yard then walked over to Western Sidings to pick the DMU up.

I know Western sidings shed was all wood, so had probably been around since GN days, as a carriage shed.

manna

[Mickey]

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[StevieG]

" .... Is that shed building still standing or as it been obliterated like just about everything else on the railway??. "

'EO' (Western Sidings) shed is long gone Micky. Last time I bothered to look while passing, the sidings were a forest of bushes/trees up to about 12 or more feet high.
No. of roads in the shed? - Andy W could probably more certain about this, but from memory there were five dead-end roads I think, and trying to mentally picture the shed entrance I'd say only two would've gone inside, which, as one of the other roads was 'behind' (on the west [Canonbury/Carriage/Goods roads] side of) the shed, makes it seem like there were two 'dead-ends' on the main-line side : Also remembering that this end of the parallel long Through Siding from Holloway North Down was also used for stabling units back as far as the Limit Of Shunt board by the main-line Distant signals gantry.

GB's pretty similar for forestation, much of which including the path of the Up Branch off the flyover is now behind the modern-day park fence, though north of the footbridge, the density looks less, but of course as only one or two roads continued towards/up to Endymion Road bridge, that part of the site is narrow anyway.

[Mickey]

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[Andy W]

Well remembered, Steve. Western sidings was converted for DMUs. Two sidings main line side, two road shed and one siding on the Clarence yard side. It was demolished soon after it closed in 1978.

The carriage sidings north of the station went before then, I think. The BRB flogged the site eventually in the mid 80s to the local council, I believe, as a nature park. I had to check all the electric was off when the sale was going through but no one would pay for the two remaining columns to come down and I think one still remains amongst the trees, or at least did up until a few years ago!!

The sidings were ok but if anything was stabled on the road next to the running lines you couldn't prep the unit properly, let alone do any work on it track side.

Swarfega (and variants) and blue roll - every depot had them, as well, if you were lucky, barrier cream for the really nasty jobs. Blue roll was in everyone's locker or tool bag. If I was on a messy job, I used to wear some round my neck like a tucked in scarf. Saved all that gunge getting underneath your t-shirt and pants that you wore under your boiler suit, sometimes! Also useful for helping clean your tools after use.

[StevieG]

" .... Is that shed building still standing or as it been obliterated like just about everything else on the railway??. "

" 'EO' (Western Sidings) shed is long gone Micky. Last time I bothered to look while passing, the sidings were a forest of bushes/trees up to about 12 or more feet high. .... "
" .... GB's pretty similar for forestation, much of which including the path of the Up Branch off the flyover is now behind the modern-day park fence, though north of the footbridge, the density looks less, but of course as only one or two roads continued towards/up to Endymion Road bridge, that part of the site is narrow anyway."

Amendments required here Micky.
Went past today (Fri. 07th) and had a look at how things are.

At 'Western', I think there must have been a bit of a greenery clear-out at some time : They're only up to about 6 feet at present.

Fins. Park Carr. Sidings ('GB') however is a different story:
Variously along their site (well, in the case of some parts, imagining where they were, as the old boundary can barely be identified in places), the young trees are now up to about 20-25 feet. I didn't think of looking to see if the old spotters' platform is still there; but if it is, I'd think that you'd have a job reliably seeing much other than tree-tops when the leaves are fully out!

Also had a look at a couple of other locations; -
- Looks like there's barely any scrap of Clarence Yard/Fins.Park Diesel Depot that hasn't since been built on.
And Highbury Vale sidings seem to have suffered much the same fate.

[Mickey]

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