At the end of the month London Overground will take over more of north-east London’s railways. It seems timely, therefore, to take a look at the history of the railways in the area. For though you might not think it, the lines in the inner parts of what was Essex, the old London County Council area and parts of Hertfordshire are as complex as almost anywhere in the country. With that in mind, an understanding of how they got to be that way, if not essential, will certainly help those looking to understand the changes those lines have seen so far, and the changes yet to come.
Here in part 1 we take a brief literary tour through some of the pre-privatisation history of the lines and the trains that populated them, inter-spaced with some photos of the trains and places covered. In part 2 we will look at historical services and facilities, and then finally in part 3 John Bull will take an indepth look at the North London Line in recent times – a line that forms something of a microcosm for London’s recent surface rail history.
Once the pride of 34A, 70002 “Geoffry Chaucer” pictured at Postland, a sight that would have been familiar in the area.
Starting early
The first lines in the area were two of the earliest in London, one, the London & Blackwall (L&B), opened in 1840, using continuous rope haulage. The original terminus was at Minories, extended to Fenchurch Street in 1841. The other was the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR), opened in 1839-40 to Bishopsgate but operating, like the L&B on a non-standard railway gauge of 5ft. It would remain that way until gauge conversion to standard took place from 1844 onwards.
Minories station in about 1840, via Wikipedia
At the same time, another company, the Northern & Eastern (N&E) were slowly opening, in stages, a line from Stratford to Cambridge. The part of interest to Londoners, up as far as Cheshunt and Broxbourne, opened in 1840 – the same year as the L&B. It wasn’t the only similarity, for the N&E also operated on an unusual gauge, having to be converted at a later date.
1845 saw proposals to extend the L&B to Epping. Whilst the extension plans themselves came to nothing, they were not entirely without result – in 1849, after lengthy negotiations, the L&B was linked with the ECR between what are now known as Limehouse and Bow Junctions. The same year saw a branch line open, running in an almost straight line from Angel Road to the important suburb of Enfield.
The next year saw further changes in the area. Again, after protracted negotiations – often whilst building of the line was already under way – the snappily-named East & West India Docks & Birmingham Junction Railway (E&WID&BJR) opened. It ran through from the top of Camden Bank to the docks from which it took its name, making connections with the L&B around Bow, and adding to the complex of lines at Stratford. It wasn’t long before the E&WID&BJR opted to change its name – and thus the North London Railway (NLR) was born.
Fowler “big goods” 4-F 0-6-6 44210 heading towards the docks in 1961. The DLR now runs in this exact same place whilst the Jubilee line runs through the bridge-span to the left, obscured by steam.
You could be forgiven for thinking all this railway activity was enough for the area but there would be two more developments, albeit followed by a pause of almost 15 years. These were the opening of the original London Tilbury & Southend Railway (LTSR) from Forest Gate Junction to Barking and Tilbury in 1854, and the branch line from North of Stratford to Loughton in 1856, followed by the almost inevitable cut-off between Barking and Gas Factory Junction in 1856.
By the time all this expansion had been completed, the layout of lines in the area had become quite extensive – a main line from Bishopsgate to Norwich, via Stratford and Ipswich, a second main line to Cambridge from Stratford, two branches to Enfield and Loughton, and a secondary main line from Fenchurch St to Tilbury and Southend. All this plus the various interconnections.
Stanier 8-F 2-8-0 48367 crossing the old course of the River Lea, T&FGJtRly, 1962. One of the waterworks pump-houses can be seen at extreme right.
The crash of 1866
After this there was a noticeable pause in activity. The lines were amalgamated into the Great Eastern Railway (GER) in 1862, and the new company started work to extend the lines to Liverpool Street shortly thereafter. But 1866 was notorious for the greatest financial crash of the 19th Century, something which would leave the GER struggling for some time. As a result this connection did not come quickly, finally opening (into what is now Liverpool Street West Side) in 1874. Elsewhere, though, work did continue. An extension from Loughton to Epping opened in 1865, narrowly beating the crash, with a new, resited, station on a sharp curve. The previous station, as was to happen later in Chingford, became the goods depot. A very useful interlink was also made with the Midland Railway in 1868, in the form of the Tottenham & Hampstead Joint line.
The crash of 1866 caused other problems for the GER, which at the time worked the LTSR through a leasing arrangement – an arrangement made more complicated, to say the least, by the bankruptcy of the builder and lessor S M Peto during the crash.
Luckily by 1868-69 financial matters had improved enough to allow a second burst of construction – part of it in response to the construction of another line by the Great Northern Railway, from Bounds Green to Enfield Chase (old). This would open in 1871. The GER almost immediately began work on the construction of two branches and multiple connections. Despite construction being conducted simultaneously, these would largely open in stages thanks to difficulties with tunnelling and other earthworks.
A typical view at Stratford – a line of N-7s and a J-69 “buckjumper” 0-6-0T 68566 in the foreground.
Getting familiar
It is at this time that many of the names that will now be familiar to north-east London’s growing population of commuters and Hoxtonistas begin to appear. Lea Bridge Junction – Walthamstow – Shernhall St temporary station in 1870. Bethnal Green – Hackney Downs – Lower Edmonton (High Level – now Edmonton Green) in 1872. And finally, in 1873, Hackney Downs – Copper Mill Junction and, via bridge over the Lea canal, to Hall Farm Junction. In that year the temporary Walthamstow terminus, which was in a very deep cutting, was abandoned is part of works to extend to Chingford (the original station which would later became a goods and coal yard). As will be seen later, the original intention was to extend out even further to High Beech, but this was curtailed and the current terminus of the Chingford branch opened in 1878. In the same year another branch opened from Seven Sisters to “Palace Gates” (Wood Green) – the supposed gates being those of Alexandra Palace, over the Great Northern Railway main line and up the same steep hill.
Fowler 3MT 2-6-2T 40031, about to leave Kentish Town Shed. Note the condensing-apparatus pipes, as these were used to operate services to Moorgate as well as along the two “Tottenham Joint” lines.
Mr Warner’s Railway
As the end of the 19th Century drew near, much of the complex network of lines that still criss-cross the area today were in place. There were still a few more developments to come though. The Hall Farm – Copper Mills Junction curve opened in 1885, a few years after the Southbury loop, between Lower Edmonton & Cheshunt (1881). Then, finally, came “Mr Warner’s Railway” – the Tottenham & Forest Gate Junction, between South Tottenham and Woodgrange Park in 1894.
Mr Warner, then resident at the Higham’s Park estate, was said to be the wealthiest member of the House of Commons and had pressed the LTSR and the MR to make the connection. Beyond the railway his presence can still be felt today in Walthamstow, where large numbers of “Warners’ Estates” properties still dominate whole areas – small, neat, and very well-constructed buildings for the most part which have endured long after the area’s estate agents have forgotten the reasons behind the name. Nor does his influence end there. After death, Warner left his lands in the north east of what is now Waltham Forest to the public as parkland. This land is now largely incorporated into Epping Forest – hence Highams Park lake – which is an entirely artificial structure.
The 20th Century dawns and the Underground makes its presence felt
Although the Metropolitan & District Railway (now the London Underground) had opened as far as Whitechapel in 1884 and trains running through Brunel’s Thames Tunnel had reached Liverpool Street in 1876, no further connection was made between mainline and Metropolitan until 1902-1905, when the Metropolitan & District extended to Bromley-by-Bow and then Barking, coupled with 4th rail electrification (although it is unclear as to whether this was initially at 500V, 600V or 630V – see references). Meanwhile, in 1903, the GER opened the loop line from Woodford, round via Hainault to between Seven Kings and Ilford.
These would be the last major works in the area in the “pre-grouping” era – the period before the passing of the 1921 Railway Act. The Act was intended to try and stem the rail industry’s growing losses, in part held to be the result of the vast numbers of small railway companies that existed. As a result over 120 companies were consolidated into just five.
There would be no further developments until the London Passenger Transport Board’s (LPTB) New Works Plan in 1935. This proposed to electrify Liverpool St – Shenfield via 1.5kv DC overhead wire. It also saw proposals to extend the Central Line from Liverpool Street via Mile End and Stratford, to Leyton and to take over both the ex-GER branch north of there and the Hainault loop, (re-connecting the line back to itself at Leytonstone utilising a new tube tunnel, from Newbury Park, through Gant’s Hill, Redbridge, and Wanstead).
The mainstay of GER suburban services. 1926 – 59. N-7 0-6-2T 69640 rests at Stratford. Note the ex-LNER coaches and the canopy of the Lea Valley lines platforms of the main station in the background.
The original proposal had a steam-powered shuttle running north of Loughton, but this was soon altered. Originally, it was also proposed to leave the running connections back to the LNER (as it now was) lines for freight use and this continued for some time, although it would not last forever. The Newbury Park – Ilford link was the first to go in 1956, but the Stratford – Leyton link did not go until as late as 1971. Indeed for many years there was one “BR” train a day, although it does not appear in this author’s 1961 timetable copy!
Finally, the Victoria Line opened from Walthamstow (Hoe St – which was renamed as “Central”) to Highbury & Islington in 1969, and from there in stages towards Victoria and Brixton. There would then be one last burst of quasi-Underground activity before privatisation, with the revival of large parts of the London & Blackwall, and part of the NLR, as the Docklands Light Railway (DLR).
Might Have beens
As is always the case in Britain, there were numerous proposals for lines that came to nothing, either being abandoned before even the parliamentary bill stage, or bought out by the existing commercial opposition to any particular idea, or subsumed into other, later proposals and construction. We have already seen the idea floated by the L&B to extend to Epping, which failed back in the 1840s. One or two others perhaps deserve a mention.
There were early proposals by the ECR to build a line remarkably similar to that which later became the LTSR, and schemes were put forward in the Parliamentary sessions of 1836, 1846, 1847 and 1851 – the last actually promoted by the then still independent L&B. The ECR also promoted a grand “mania” pair of lines in 1846 – one half branching off where Lea Bridge Station once was (and will be again) and curving much more gently to the north east than the later Hall Farm curve, following the route of the later Chingford branch to Wood Street, but then continuing straight on, presumably by tunnelling through the Forest ridge and joining the other route approximately where South Woodford station now stands. The other “half” of this route would have diverged from the ECR (GER) main line at approximately where Ilford car sheds now are and driven almost due north. There was, at that stage, no hint of a “Hainault loop” and the combined route would than have proceeded through Loughton, but with much gentler curvature than the present alignment towards Epping. It has been sometimes remarked that the idea was to extend this branch to Chelmsford via Ongar and Writtle, but solid parliamentary proposals did not materialise.
After the mania died down, there was an interloping proposal of 1852, partly supported by the NLR (& LNWR) and also by Edward Warner for The Woodford Railway in 1852. This would have left the NLR approximately at Homerton, crossed the marshes and gone on to, again, very approximately Leyton Midland, Whipps Cross and Woodford.
Twelve years later, the newly-amalgamated GER put in its first “Chingford line” proposal, which would have diverged from the by-now-opened Loughton branch just short of Leyton station and gone in an effectively direct line to just past where Wood Street station now is, along the remainder of the line as built, but continued on to High Beech, in the Forest. The great banking crash of 1866 killed that idea stone dead, but “ghost” remnants of the previous schemes can be seen in odd curvatures on the line as it was eventually built – the kink just to the east of Nag’s Head tunnel, the sharp curve at Wood St, & the way the Chingford terminus still, even with an end-run platform now in place, looks like an unfinished through station. At least one more attempt was made to extend to High Beech, but the Epping Forest Act put paid to that and the great forest survives to this day, a haunt of deer, snakes, badgers, buzzards & other wildlife.
Our final mention of might-have-beens must go to the electrically-driven City & North-East Suburban Railway of 1902-6 – which resulted in the production of the remarkable Decapod, by the GER, to show that the new electric railway was unnecessary by (successfully) demonstrating that a steam engine could take a 300 ton train to 30mph in just 30 seconds.
Owners and operators
Despite the complexity of the lines within the area, as the history above has hopefully shown there were surprisingly few companies, once the GER itself had been formed. Relevant constituents were the already-mentioned Eastern Counties, London & Blackwall, & the Northern & Eastern. Using running powers to access Fenchurch St station was the London Tilbury & Southend, taken over by the Midland in 1912. Then there was the (Eventually snappily-named) North London, which was wholly operated by the London & North West from about 1909, but was not actually absorbed into the larger company until a year before the main “grouping”. The route through the Thames Tunnel became part of the East London Joint Committee, leased by: the Metropolitan, the Metropolitan and District, GER, SER, LCDR and LBSCR! Readers are recommended to the relevant Middleton Press volume (“East London Line”) for more details of this particular curious arrangement!
The most powerful 0-4-0 built in Britain, class Y-4 dock tank, recycled as a “Departmental” locomotive, No 33 at Stratford.
By the time the Metropolitan and District extended east from Whitechapel to Barking it was part of the London Electric Railways grouping, along with the Yerkes Tubes. Lastly, there were the two joint railways, which formed an end-to-end connection from Barking to Carlton Rd Junction on the Midland. It should be remembered that the connection at Gospel Oak was freight-only until 1981, when the stub of the service to Kentish Town, & previously St Pancras, was discontinued. These were the Tottenham & Hampstead and the Tottenham & Forest Gate.
At grouping in 1922, the GE became part of the LNER, the Midland, LNW & NLR all became LMS constituents, and the LER carried on until 1933, when the LPTB was formed and they officially became part of the Underground. Ignoring the internal changes at the top of the LPTB & successors, the only other change was nationalisation, in 1948 and ultimately privatisation beyond – something we will look at in part 3.
Closures and re-openings
As is common throughout the country, the ex-GER lines have seen their fair share of closures and reopenings. A few worth highlighting are mentioned below.
The Southbury Loop opened in 1881, with three intermediate stations at Churchbury, Turkey St, and Theobalds Grove. It would close to passenger services in 1919, but not before it had grown slightly to include a temporary WWI station at Carterhatch Lane 1916-19 for munitions workers travelling to and from Brimsdown. All three main stations would eventually re-open, with Churchbury re-named to Southbury, after the line was electrified in 1960.
Epping – Ongar, meanwhile, is perhaps the best known of the reopened lines in the area, for it is now home to the Epping Ongar railway, who are hoping to be able to re-open through to Epping in the next year or two. Intermediate stations existed at North Weald and Blake Hall, the latter of which is currently still closed. There may be a halt opened at Coopersale, if/when the Epping service is resumed.
Angel Road – Enfield Town represented an early closure, with most passenger services discontinued on the opening of the “direct” line from Bethnal Green via Seven Sisters in 1872. A “parliamentary” train continued, we believe, until the outbreak of WWII. After this the southern part of the line was kept open until some time in the late 1950s for freight access to factories. Further closures gradually followed. The last few yards of track remained tenaciously in use as a shunting stub until Angel Road gasworks closed.
North Thames Gas No 11 – Sentinel locomotive at Angel Road Gas works, 1962.
Palace Gates Branch, with two intermediate stations at Noel Park and West Green, closed to passengers in 1963 – and to all traffic the following year. The LNER eventually built a connection to the ex-GNR branch to Enfield Chase in 1929 and part of this still remains – used as a shunting stub, behind Bounds Green depot.
Elsewhere Blackhorse Road station was moved because, despite the Victoria Line’s construction much later in 1969, the two stations were on opposite sides of the road. The narrow-platformed station as we now know it, now part of the London Overground, actually only opened in 1981. Of the connecting curves in the Lea Valley, Tottenham Hale – South Tottenham closed in approximately 1960-61, as it was never electrified. At the same time Hall Farm Junction – Copper Mills Junction was closed and lifted. Hall Farm Junction to Lea Bridge Junction was electrified, but never saw regular services and was closed in 1967. Its re-opening was included in the “BR No2” bill of the 1989-90 session, but never implemented.
The list continues. Ilford – Newbury Park closed in 1956. Loughton Junction – Leyton in 1971. Victoria Park – Bow (Now Bow Church DLR) fell victim to the decline of the docks, closing in 1981. South of Bow Church it would eventually reopen as part of the DLR. This, and other closures and reopenings in the area will be tackled at a later date. As will the closures related to Broad Street and elsewhere.
One final mention should perhaps go to the station that never opened – Hackney Queens Rd, between the two tunnels, themselves between Hackney Downs and Clapton.
At Stratford depot in 1963.
Trains – locomotive and rolling stock
As the images scattered throughout this article show, the steam trains (and more) which ran on the lines covered here were many and varied but, as time went by, a much greater uniformity of both locomotives and coaching stock prevailed. On the lines under consideration, as far as possible a company’s “standard” class of suburban tank engine – so called because they carried their water in one or more onboard tanks, usually hauled the trains.
One must remember, however, that many stations had small freight yards (something we will explore in a future article). On the Chingford branch, for example, there may have had no dedicated freight facilities at Clapton or St James’ Street, but Hoe St (now Walthamstow Central) had a relatively large yard, with extra sidings for handling the Walthamstow UDC power-station coal traffic after 1901, and although Wood St was on a viaduct/embankment, there was a ground-level goods/coal yard accessed by a very steep gradient. Freight here and elsewhere was largely handled by 0-6-0 tender engines. Yards also existed at Higham’s Park and Chingford (old). There were carriage sidings at Chingford and Wood Street. The latter even had a tiny locomotive shed, housing four locomotives for the rush-hour extra trains.
An N-7 0-6-2T hauls a railtour over its former haunts at Wood Street, Walthamstow. The photo was taken in 1962, by which point the line had been electrified for two years already.
Those less concerned with the specific types of locomotives used may wish to skip ahead to the arrival of diesel and electricity, but for the completionists the area played host to a wide variety of engines. Before Walthamstow power station finally ceasing generation in the winter of 1967-8 it was possible to watch the occasional coal train arriving at Hoe St almost always hauled by “Brush type2” (Class 31) locomotives though occasionally, especially at the beginning, after steam had vanished, one got a BTH type 2 (Class 15).
The usual motive power for local goods trains meanwhile was a J-17 or sometimes, particularly in earlier times, a J-15. J-19s were occasionally seen, but the bigger, heavier J-20s were not usually seen on the branches, because of their greater weight and axle loadings. They were, however, a common sight on the Cambridge main line along with, post-grouping, a variety of considerably heavier locomotives, such as classes O-2 and O-4, with D-16, B-12, B-17, B-2 and B-1 locomotives on longer-distance passenger workings.
The GER suburban passenger services were also worked by various types. It is said that the original Lea Bridge – Stratford shuttle was operated by a Sinclair 2-4-2T. By 1873, the Enfield and Chingford branch services were usually being operated by S W Johnson 0-4-4T locomotives, none of which lasted long enough to be given an LNER classification. Later designers promoted the use of 2-4-2T locos, such as the F-5 as well as diminutive 0-6-0’s later classes such as these J-69. Some of these lasted, as freight locomotives, almost until the end of steam in the area.
In 1925-6, H N Gresley obtained board approval to build many more of a modified version of a GER Hill design, classed N-7 by the LNER. These worked the bulk of all suburban services until electrification or diesel units took over. During the 1930’s some more powerful “V-1” 2-6-2T locomotives worked the outer suburban services, but they were all transferred away at the end of WWII, after which the Class L-1 made an appearance. For reasons unknown to the author, these locomotives also tended to work a lot of the Palace Gates – North Woolwich trains, which also, in later days were sometimes also of non-standard” coaching stock. These were 5-coach articulated slam-door sets, paired to make 10 car trains in the peaks. Each coach was only 43’6”” long (approx: 13.3m), but there were 348 seats. Despite this, even with 6-a-side (12 seats per compartment) there was often 150%+ loading at the peak.
The LTS, for all of its independent existence used a series of elegant 4-4-2T locomotives of increasing size, usually with bogie carriages throughout. As these gradually wore out, the successor LMSR replaced them with Fowler 2-6-2T or 2-6-4s and then later with Stanier 2-6-4 3-cylinder machines for the main services from Fenchurch Street. The coaching stock was standard LMS compartment carriages. Most local freight was handled in later days by Fowler 4-F 0-6-0s, but through heavy workings usually attracted the standard Stanier 8-F 2-8-0. Towards the end of steam, “standard” 9-F 2-10-0s also appeared, often on through trains from the oil refineries at Shell Haven, now “Thamesport”.
In carriage terms passenger services were sometimes formed of Quad-Art sets as preserved in Norfolk, but, the reality was much more often – indeed almost always – as shown in this set of pictures. These LNER sets replaced a heterogeneous collection of disintegrating GER carriages which had worked the their earlier “Jazz” services (so called because the different coloured coaches, each relating to a class, were considered “jazzy” in the parlance of the day). These themselves replaced oil-lit four-wheeled coaches, from the 1870’s or before. The GER did not go over to bogie coaching stock for its suburban services until 1911-15, having originally used 4-wheelers. First, to increase capacity these coaches were cut in half longitudinally and widened. Later they were removed from their 4-wheel underframes, joined lengthwise and re-fitted onto bogies and new longer frames. It is little surprise that as a result they were worn out by 1925. Here is what one would have looked like at the start of that evolution.
Broad Street, complete with EMU, in 1985
Electric and diesel traction arrive
Electric traction and rolling stock, at a mixture of 25kV AC & quarter-voltage ( 6.25kV ), arrived in 1959 for services to Chingford, Enfield, Hertford East and Bishops Stortford via the Churchbury Loop. The 6.25kV sections were converted to full 25kV in 1983, once it was realised that, in most cases, smaller clearances could be used without flashover, coupled with minor modifications and an insulator replacement programme. This mix of voltages could lead to some interesting effects, and journeys in an accelerating power-car as it passed from the lower voltage to the higher often produced an interesting collection of thumps and bangs from the equipment.
A down train, hauled by a newly-introduced class 86 (214), at Bethnal Green in 1985
The Lea Valley and Palace Gates – North Woolwich services gradually went over to first-generation Diesel Multiple Units (DMU) during the same period. It can be tempting sometimes to regard the removal of steam power as something frequently mourned, but here the arrival of DMUs was much welcomed, at least by regular passengers, as they were replacing worn-out stock. Elsewhere whilst services beyond Bishops Stortford, previously hauled by Sandringhams and B-1’s, went over to Type 2 diesel haulage, the inner electric services were usually operated by Mk-1 bodied, 3-coach slam-door sets, later classed as “305” (originally AM5). It should be noted that at one point, when modifications had to be made to these, some “Manchester” class AM4’s were drafted in as temporary replacements.
Electrification underway on the extensions to Harwich & Norwich in 1985. Network South East colours are visible and what used to be called “The Hook Continental” is approaching up Bethnal Green Bank.
The Lea Valley route, from Clapton Junction to Cheshunt was finally itself electrified in 1969. Roughly ten years later, the well-known class 315 replaced all the earlier types for inner-suburban work. These trains can still be seen in service today, although they are now approaching the end of their useful lives. Other services are operated by class 317 units, though it is common for these to be seen on the Chingford branch too, as there is a service and storage facility at Chingford station, capable of holding 18 4-car sets.
The Barking – St Pancras service was allowed to wither on the vine, being cut back to Kentish Town during the late 1960s. An improvement in connectivity came about as a result of the Bed-Pan electrification, as the terminus was diverted to Gospel Oak in January 1981, but, until the takeover by TfL the service had, it is said, the oldest (2-car) DMUs in the country – and sadly the least reliable.
The edges of the Underground
On the Epping and Hainault branches, the locomotives and stock used were very similar to that on the other lines – there’s a wonderful photograph in “The Central Line”, of an “N-7” edging over a temporary bridge at Snaresbrook, during the post-war reconstruction, prior to “tube” operation. This did not apply, of course to the Ongar shuttle, which carried on with “F-5” tanks & ex-GER coaches until 1957.
Once the 4th rail had been laid and energised, the last build of London Transport “standard stock” of a 1923 basic design took over. These were the last types to have separate motor compartments behind the drivers cab. Here is a classic photo of the contrast at Epping in 1956.
Most services had their rolling stock replaced between 1956 and 1959 with the new unpainted Aluminium stock of those years, and these lasted until the current Central Line vehicles arrived in 1992-3. There were, however, two oddities: beyond Epping and Woodford – Hainault. The Epping – Ongar service was later operated by units of the 1936-8 build of “streamlined” tube carriages, as normally seen on the Northern and other lines. Meanwhile the Woodford – Hainault shuttle was operated with unique 1960, Cravens-built 3-car sets, latterly fitted with experimental Automatic Train Operation (ATO) equipment, for pre-trials of the system that would eventually be used on the Victoria Line.
Said Victoria line opened in stages, with the well-known original ATO stock of a 1967 design.
Lastly, in 1979, passenger services re-appeared between Dalston and Stratford, the previous one to Bow having been finally closed in 1944. Before then the trains had been hauled by NLR 4-4-0 tanks, then by a variety of LMS locomotives, but usually a “Jinty” 3-F 0-6-0T. The original, grim NLR 4-wheel coaches were replaced with newer LMS stock or secondhand vehicles from other parts of the LMS “empire”.
Meanwhile, on re-opening, the Camden Road – North Woolwich service was initially operated by 2-car DMUS, which lasted until May 1985, when the originally 630V DC 3rd + 4th rail electrification became 3rd-rail only. This brought a mixture of the earlier ex-LMR 3-car electric units, class 501, and a later influx of 2-EPB /416 units transferred from the Southern Region. The introduction of class 313 dual-voltage units came in 1989, but final conversion to OHLE at 25kV AC came after privatisation.
In part two we will finish looking at the various aspects of the area’s history, including timetables and freight. We’ll also look at some of the other sources of information for those interested in further exploring the area. Finally, in part 3, John Bull will take a look at the North London Line.
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I take it the ‘erminus'(sic) at Chingford refers to the fur lined people who live (or lived) there!
“privitisation”- think you mean privatisation.
Very interesting. A few details. The L&B continued in existence for many years after effective takeover by the GER: the Board met once a year to count the substantial lease payment the GER paid. It must have been one of the few railway companies to make a consistent profit!
The 315s, when introduced, took over from the LNER-design Shenfield AM6s dating from 1949, which had been converted from dc to ac in the early sixties. It was only later that they strayed onto the north east London routes.
Only three of the four 1935 stock tube trains (nine of the twelve two-car units) were streamlined. The eighteen streamlined cars were all converted to trailers soon after WW2, and lived out their days formed in 1938 stock trains. The remaining three two-car units had flat fronts very like the 1938 stock, and it was these that were used on the Epping shuttle.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8462/7956854176_e8f21f101e_b.jpg
This is one at Blake Hall (with a standard stock trailer added). The most obvious differences from the 1938 stock were the taller driver’s door cutting into the roofline, and only three windows between it and the first set of passenger doors. (And, of course, its presence on the Central Line, where 1938 stock never ran*!)
*Well, trailers did, inserted into 1960 stock
Lea Bridge Station – No sign of any action here yet . One wonders if the monies promised by Central and Local governments have been diverted elsewhere ?
Great photo of the 1935 there Timbeau. Where did you find that!
@ John Bull
Just Googled “1935 tube stock central line”
One further point – only one 501 ever went to North Woolwich, on a rail tour. The 416s were introduced on the day the NLL service was diverted to North Woolwich (with 313s working the Watford dc line, including the peak service to Broad Street, from the same date.
The HTML appears to be damaged at “which the Quad-Art sets as preserved ” because of a stray ‘smart’ quote.
Thanks John – should be fixed.
Any chance of a map to illustrate all the lines (and former lines)?
Anonymous 19 May 2015 at 16:07
“privitisation”- think you mean privatisation.
If it is sold to a hedge fund?
@james 1722, the oft-recommended, Carto.Metro map of London, should serve as a useful accompaniment to the article for working out what is what, as well as what it was.
Your opening paragraph mentions Essex, London and Hertfordshire but not Middlesex. I hope that this was merely an unfortunate oversight.
Small typo – did indeed continued for some time, although
Sorry to be picky but I am somewhat baffled by the caption to the last photograph:
1.”Electrification underway”? Surely completed more than 20 years prior to this picture.
2. “Network South East colours are visible” – are they? The class 315’s appear in their original BR blue/grey and the loco hauled carriages are in InterCity livery. The loco seems to be plain blue but it is very hard to be sure.
I reckon the photograph dates from about 1986 shortly after withdrawal of the class 305 EMUs.
Otherwise, thanks for an interesting summary.
I reckon the photograph dates from about 1986 shortly after withdrawal of the class 305 EMUs.
Close – 1985. It’s work on the Norwich / Harwich extension electrification. That’s actually me snipping Greg’s captions a bit too much. He’d already alerted me to it over email, so it’s now a bit more detailed!
JA & James
Not only Carto Metro, but Railway Junction Diagrams.
These should be included in part II of this.
However, in the meantime:
Liverpool St & Bethnal Green
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Aldgate%2C_Bishopsgate%2C_Haydon_Square%2C_Liverpool_Street%2C_Mansion_House%2C_Spitalfields_%26_Whitechapel_RJD_45.JPG
Stratford, Bow & Barking
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Bow%2C_Bromley%2C_Firest_Gate%2C_hackney_Wick_or_Victoria_Park%2C_Stratford_%26_Woodgrange_Park_RJD_98.jpg
The Tottenham & Hampsead JT + Lea Valley Junctions
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Bow%2C_Bromley%2C_Firest_Gate%2C_hackney_Wick_or_Victoria_Park%2C_Stratford_%26_Woodgrange_Park_RJD_98.jpg
HTH
Isn’t it London and North Western Railway not London and North West?
Was any work necessary at Liverpool Street when electrification was extended beyond Colchester to Norwich/Harwich?
IIRC some small re-arrangement of the pointwork & signalling, since constant through diesel traction was no longer going to be required.
I can’t now remember if there were power upgrades to the supply lines, as well ….
Thanks for a well-told story and some glorious pictures.
Slightly odd that one of the said pictures is of Broad Street, since the article does not seem to mention Broad Street at all – probably quite validly since it would belong in the North London line section, and it is/was neither north of Stratford nor east of Enfield.
Regular commuters might well have welcomed dieselisation for the reasons given in the article. In the case of those of today’s readers who were between the ages of 2 and 22 at the time, the key novel feature was that you could see out of the front!
Dieselisation? I know any noun can be verbed, and the created verb can be abstract nouned, but isn’t that over-gilding the lily?
@ John Bull
Thanks – I now understand the electrification work but the amended caption still refers to NSE livery, which does not appear in the photo. It didn’t start to appear on the Lea Valley lines until the Network launch in Summer 1986.
Incidentally, for some reason the repainting in progress at Lower Edmonton (now Edmonton Green), Silver Street and White Hart Lane stopped the week that NSE was launched. The stations were left partly undercoated for some years and looked even worse than usual. My best guess is that they would otherwise have been completed in the “wrong” colours.
@Ian Sergeant: Just to be clear, are you suggesting that this may be a case of lilyovergildisation?
Bravo! I had a good chuckle at that one. LBM
Great article, but the photo at http://www.davidheyscollection.com/userimages/00-0-a-70002-rk-blencowe.jpg shows 70002’s nameplate as reading Geoffrey (not Geoffry) Chaucer. Were its plates recast at some stage?
“Jazz” services (so called because the different coloured coaches, each relating to a class, were considered “jazzy” in the parlance of the day)
Years ago I recall hearing that the ‘Jazz’ was actually so called because of the different patterns of head lights on the front of the train indicating which stations would be called at (skip-stop in more modern parlance). IIRC this was detailed on the LWT series ‘The Making of Modern London’.
@ Ian Sergeant
If electrification is OK, surely dieselisation is too. (Anyway it didn’t get underlined in red by this website’s spellcheck when I typed it).
@James
There is a version of the map I did that shows all the closed lines listed in the article
http://d3e4p1336dty1z.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/London-Infrastucture-Plan-2050-Transport-v92.svg
It also shows St Anne’s Road which seems to be in the scope of this otherwise complete article
Malcom
Broad St is only peripherally relevant in itself, but its closure brought ex-NLR services in to Liverpool St (See Pt II) & into Stratford & down to the Docks.
“Below” the ex-GER & LTSR main lines & around the docks is a n other story & worthy of another 3 or 4 articles all on their own … but not here.
Anon
Writer’s error referring to NSE livery, I’m afraid.
Alison W
What you heard is incorrect.
First class carriages had a Yellow band painted above & Second a Blue – hence “Jazz” as in jazzy colours – the label was applied by the popular press of the day.
My source is Cecil J Allen’s “Great Eastern Railway” – & since he was a junior GER employee at the time, he should have known!
Braintist
St Anne’s Rd – oops, thanks – I was getting confused with (the other) Queens Rd, between Clapton & Hackney Downs, which never opened …..
The dates for St Anne’s Rd are Opened 1882, closed 1942.
@Greg Tingey
Thanks for the article. Great stuff!
Just wondered what had happened to Enfield Chase? The poor old Bowes Park, Palmers Green, Whichmoor Hill, Grange Park, Enfield Chase to Hertford North line gets missed … again – but you do mention Palace Gates!
Also, the removal of the four tracking from Coppermill Junction out to the M25, when did that occur? Crossrail 2 and STAR both claim to be putting it back.
@Briantist 20th May at 06.17
Excellent map, one small correction. The Palace Gates line should cross the Piccadilly between Wood Green and Turnpike Lane rather than to the south of Turnpike Lane.
“Dieselisation” – a quick Google search informs us that The European Environment Agency used the term in 2010 to refer to the amount of movement from petrol to diesel cars and so despite its common use in the ’50s and early ’60s re railways it is a term (albeit ugly) that is clearly still useful!
@Alison W – and only this morning, I came across yet a third explanation of “Jazz” – the articulated sets introduced in the mid- twenties had an unusual, syncopated beat on the rail joints, hence… (I have to say I didn’t notice this effect on the NNR’s Quad-Art set but then it doesn’t run at any speed).
@Ian J – the Office of Circumlocution writes: “It is always better to say ‘ the replacement of steam (or as the case may be, petrol or even electric ) traction by diesel traction’.
@RayL
Thanks. With the map I did my very best to keep the stations correct in relative order, buy some times for clarity the lines have geographical discrepancy. So, yes in this case I kept the location of Palace Gates correct, but chose to keep the station names clear…
Great article.
A minor correction, the Class 305s lingered on the Lea Valley line longer than you suggested, I recall occasionally travelling in on them during the rush hour around 1988/89 from Seven Sisters or Tottenham Hale. I think they were replaced soon after by Class 310s.
@ Briantist
I think the clue to the lack of detail regarding the Hertford loop is in the title “East of Enfield…” The stations you have mentioned all lie South thereof.
Braintist
It took long enough & enough reaserch to generate over 10 500 words, total, just with the quite restricted area under discussion.
Adding in the ex-GNR services, like the docks lines, would have been a step too far. Also, the focus of interest is on those lines ( & their direct interconnections) that have been, or are about to be taken over by TfL in one form or another ….
There were never 4 tracks all the way to Cheshunt, and their removal took place in a piecemeal fashion, approx 1958 – 1970 (ish), mostly as the various goods & private sidings ( of which there were a lot) were disconnected during that period.
There will be a short mention of freight traffic in Part II.
Jazz – although multiple headlights arranged in strange patterns (as many as six positions on the Southern and its forbears, giving potentially 63 permutations) were a common feature of many railways in the steam and early diesel era, I think the GER was unusual in using different colours
http://www.gersociety.org.uk/index.php/locomotives/information-leaflets/headcodes-part-1
But these were hardly a novelty in 1920 when the Jazz service was introduced. Coloured headlights had been in use by the GER for several decades by then. (They were discontinued after absorption into the LNER)
The inner suburban 305/1s (and the three similar 308/3s) were all scrapped in the late 1980s, but the 305/2s (with compartments and first class) built for the Stortford route ended up replacing 304s and 506s in Manchester from around 1989, and on the newly-electrified North Berwick line in Scotland, before being replaced with newer stock around the turn of the century. The similar but slightly younger 308/1 ended up in Yorkshire, again finally being replaced during the great purge of slam door stock in 1999/2000.
Broken link of contrast at Epping when steam met Central Line services.
Try looking here:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/celebrate-150-years-of-the-tube-by-taking-a-steam-train-on-the-underground-8277796.html?action=gallery&ino=8
Thanks for an interesting article. I’m not a big steam train fan but I did learn a fair number of things in that article. I certainly wasn’t aware of 1935 Tube Stock – no idea how that one has passed me by for so many years.
I may be jumping ahead to part 2 but I can remember the Jazz Train name being relaunched in the 1980s by BR. If my memory is working I believe the GLC provided funding to enhance off peak services on the West Anglia lines to try to encourage patronage. I don’t think it worked as the branding was scrapped after a few years. I can certainly remember the slam door trains having Jazz Train stickers on the front. Unfortunately I don’t have a snap of a stickered train but here is one of a slam door train arriving at St James St Station in May 1987.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/24759744@N02/3702373458/in/album-72157615618429889/
And I might just disagree with Greg a tad about the quality of Warner homes. I live in one and had work done recently on two rooms. The builders (and I) were a tad surprised at the quality of some of the walls and floors! All sorted now but a bit of a fright at the time.
@WW
Most of the 1935 Tube stock looked like this
http://www.emus.co.uk/zone/london/35stka.jpg
Nine two-car units (three six-car trains) had this design of cab, but, as I previously mentioned, the fourth train had the flat-fronted design that was adopted for the 1938 stock.
@ Timbeau – ah, now that I have seen before. It was the photo of the stock on the Ongar branch that was news to me with the flat front and taller driver’s door.
I’ve found an account of some of the colour schemes used on the “JAZZ” services. It seems that both destinations and classes were identified by colour.
http://www.jaggers-heritage.com/resources/Liverpool%20St%20to%20Walthamstow,%20and%20Docklands.pdf
“Seats were provided for all three classes; First Class was denoted by a yellow stripe painted above the compartment windows, and blue for Second Class (the majority Third Class being unmarked). Coloured boards were used to identify the routes and destinations served, with numbers to denote the sequence of stops. With all these stripes and colours, the new scheme was initially dubbed “The Rainbow Service”, but a local paper first called it the “Jazz Service” and that name endured, later even being used officially by the control office amongst others.”
The service upgrade was introduced by the GER in 1920 (hence the contemporary nickname – the first documented use of the word was in 1912, and in a musical context 1915) but continued under the LNER and (without the pretty colours) by BR right up to electrification.
timbeau
Err … no
After the wartime service, the “jazz” was emphatically not revived, & away from the rush-hours, trains were infrequent.
Wait for PartII (!)
@Greg Tingey
“There were never 4 tracks all the way to Cheshunt, and their removal took place in a piecemeal fashion, approx 1958 – 1970 (ish)”
Thanks.
I’m really interested in where they were 4 tracked to.
Given that the Lower Edmonton (low level) “shut to passengers in 1939 although the line on which it stood lasted until 1964” I am just interested to know if the line was doubled to provide a route for Angel Road- Lower Edmonton-Enfield Town or if the doubled track was used for “mainline” services such as those today to Cambridge.
I’ve been trying to see on the December 1945 London Aerial maps you can see with Google Earth’s “history” function but it’s not clear because so much railway line got bombed out.
The reason for the interest is that the STAR project (which isn’t to Angel Road, but Ponders End, for the benefit of the Meridian Water development) and Crossrail 2 want to double and I’m interested in knowing what was taken out.
The caption to that photograph of Geoffrey Chaucer – it was never a 34A (Kings Cross) engine. It was at Stratford (30A) from new until 1959, very briefly at Yarmouth (South Town) before moving to Norwich (32A) where it resided for a couple of years before moving to March in 1961 then finally to Carlisle in 1963. From its condition in the photograph, and the location, I’d venture to suggest it was a March locomotive at the time.
A very interesting piece, thank you – from one whose family roots were firmly in the vicinity at the time you describe.
@ Briantist – http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/lower_edmonton_low_level/ has info and photos.
@Briantist (in Gigabit internet heaven) = 21 May 2015 at 18:33
I’ve been trying to see on the December 1945 London Aerial maps you can see with Google Earth’s “history” function but it’s not clear because so much railway line got bombed out.
Have you tried the OS 25″ and 50″ maps at the national libray of Scotland site? http://maps.nls.uk/index.html
Great article and I look forward to the continuation.
By the by, I don’t think Gants Hill and Highams Park should have apostrophes.
@John U.K.
“Have you tried the OS 25″ and 50″ maps at the national libray of Scotland site? http://maps.nls.uk/index.html”
Thanks for that. Quite a lot of the maps don’t show each individual railway line. But as I know from starring out of the train window too often (and other people’s comments on here) I kept looking and you CAN see them on the OS Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952
http://maps.nls.uk/view/102342269
This map shows in all their glory the Copper Mills Junction, Hall Farm Junction, Lea Bridge Curve and the Walthamsow Curve. Also you can see the four-track starting out of the Leyton Marshes Rec, going though Lea Bridge Station.
(Also seen on this map is the “Northern Heights” from Finsbury Park, Shorud Green, Crouch End, Highgate, Cranley Gardens and Muswell Hill).
Also on this map is the Palace Gates Line.
http://maps.nls.uk/view/102345831
So you can see on the letter one that the four-tracking ends at Pickets Lock (Isolation Hospital) with the lines ending up in a gravel pit/Wharf.
@Walthamstow Writer
Thanks. Oh yes, of course. Now I’ve found it, the http://maps.nls.uk/view/102345831 map shows that it was a single track most clearly.
@ Briantist 21/5 at 18:33
STAR project is NOT to Ponders End station, it will be to a new Meridian Water station which is south of North Circular Road, to replace Angel Road station. See link here: https://governance.enfield.gov.uk/documents/g8739/Public%20reports%20pack%2011th-Mar-2015%2020.15%20Cabinet.pdf?T=10
Look for item 11, from page 103 onwards.
@Jonathan Roberts
That station is just one small part of STAR, the project has a line going north from there to connect up to other parts of Enfield Borough.
http://www.railfuture.org.uk/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=505
” This lead to proposals in the July 2011 London and South East Routes
Utilisation Strategy (LSE RUS) for schemes which offered a new 4 trains per hour turn-up-and-go service for local stations between Stratford, Tottenham Hale and Brimsdown.”
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/…/north-srtp-plan-update-2014.pdf
“Stratford to Upper Lee Valley rail
enhancements providing a four
train per hour service (2017-2018)
£72m allocated for rail upgrades
(including £25m from the Mayor’s
Growth Fund and up to £3m from
TfL) will provide extra services at
Angel Road, Northumberland Park
and Tottenham Hale, improving
rail links between Stratford
and the Upper Lee Valley.”
STAR isn’t
“Angel Road station upgrade (2017)
£3.5m (including £2.5m from
the Mayor’s Growth Fund) has
been allocated to upgrade
Angel Road station and support
regeneration in Enfield (bid from
Enfield Borough Council).”
N Devonian
Mistype by me, I’m afraid, of course, 30A … though all(?) the Anglian Britannias were later transferred to Norwich, 32A, for their time as the principal motive power there.
At the time I took the picture, I was not aware that they had moved from Norwich to March & was very surpised at what was coming over the fens towards me ….
Briantist
You are confusing STAR and 4-tracking, which is also separate from Crossrail 2 ideas though overlaps. The July 2011 RUS desire for 4-tracking in some form was not affordable. Stratford-Meridian Water costs have also risen, from £72m to nearer £130m overall. There remains a longer term aspiration for “full 4-tracking” further up the Lee Valley, but this is NOT part of the present scheme. The STAR scheme is precisely what the acronym is: Stratford-Tottenham-Angel Road (aka Meridian Water), no further. The original £3.5m Enfield funding has expanded to £11-12m as a contribution to the relocated station, Meridian Water, the details of which are set out in the Enfield report link above. May I suggest that you read the Enfield report.
WW/Timbeau.
There was one other major design difference between the 1935 and the 1938 stock. The 1935 had rectangular lights compared to the circular ones on the 1938.
@Briantist. I suspect that the phrase “Upper Lee Valley” means different things to different people. The Railfuture report you link to shows a table of Upper Lee Valley connectivity based on all stations between and including Lea Bridge and Brimsdown. STAR is stated to be a LB Enfield project linking Angel Road ( to be renamed Meridian Water) to Tottenham Hale and Stratford. While Network Rail’s proposals extend the intensified services to Brimsdown, STAR is merely what it says in the acronym (Stratford, Tottenham, Angel Road).
Briantist
Since I wrote the report which you provide a link to (http://www.railfuture.org.uk/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=505), I suggest a more comprehensive extract which sets things in context: (from pages 12-13):
Page 12: ” In summary, the systematic 4tph output is not achieved with [LSE RUS 2011 Option] C2a, while C2b and C3 are not affordable.
” Conclusion: delivery options in-between C2a and C2b require study.
” Footnote 1: Even with the previous timetable, the service was “not ideal”, according to the LSE RUS. “Not all stations in the Lower Lee Valley would be able to receive a 4tph service at all times of the day, due to the constraint posed by the Lee Valley line still remaining as two tracks. Some stations would also have uneven intervals between trains… [the timetable] has not at this stage been demonstrated to the satisfaction of industry stakeholders as operationally robust… passengers using stations in the lower Lee Valley would only see limited benefits from this option.”
“Lea Valley Rail Page 13: Part 3 — BETTER LEA VALLEY RAIL SERVICES
” STAR: Stratford-Tottenham-Angel Road
” Local authorities propose six outputs for the interim Lea Valley local services:
Core, regular interval ‘turn up and go’ 4 tph at all local Lea Valley stations
4 tph from Upper Lee Valley via Tottenham Hale and Stratford
Reopen Lea Bridge station (see section above)
Close Northumberland Park level crossing and mitigate the local consequences
Address timetable shortcomings
Provide an improved passenger experience.
” The proposed new service, devised by LB Enfield in consultation with other partners, is called ‘STAR’ – Stratford-Tottenham-Angel Road’. It is supported by CLUA and Railfuture as the first step in a long-term four-tracking of the Lea Valley main line to Broxbourne.
” Extra local trains will run northwards on a third track from south of Coppermill Junction, to keep them clear of the main line from north of the junction. [etc]
I hope that this provides a clear context for STAR.
@Fandroid
” I suspect that the phrase “Upper Lea Valley” means different things to different people.”
Surely the uppermost part of the Lea Valley is served by Thameslink, between Harpenden and Leagrave (there’s a clue in the name) !
@ J Roberts – those Enfield Council minutes are interesting. Not withstanding the changes to the new Angel Road station I note the project cost has seemingly increased from (IIRC) £72m to £121m. While some of the extra cost is to deliver a better overall scheme and one with some future proofing for 4 tracking it still seems a huge increase (~70%) in costs even recognising that the design is being firmed up. I see that the GLA Investment Panel gave partial funding approval in March 2015 but I can’t see what the LEP agreed to as its minutes are inpenetrable. Seems we are now in lap of the ORR, Network Rail and DfT for final funding approvals. It will be interesting to see whether, post election, the money is available to cover such a massive cost increase.
Do you know where the rolling stock to run the service will come from? It’s also not clear to me who will be running the service. I note that there is a suggestion that the train frequency may not actually be 4 tph and could be as bad as half hourly despite all the investment. Seems a rather daft outcome, even at the beginning of the service, to spend vast sums and get no real service improvement.
I understand that approval for the Meridian Water Housing Zone will be given by the Mayor within a few weeks. This will at least guarantee full redevelopment of the station.
A fine article, Greg, thanks. Looking forward to the follow-up. Meanwhile, I’m personally rather over-excited because the transfer of West Anglia to TfL means that my daughter’s local stations are finally on the pocket tube map.
GT: “timbeau Err … no After the wartime service, the “jazz” was emphatically not revived” – sorry, but (rather more emphatically) it was revived by BR: see https://www.flickr.com/photos/24772733@N05/6973498193, and https://uk.storeslider.com/2-originalcomplete-british-rail-liverpool-st-enfieldchinhford-1984jazz-train-201300625160e.html, and a reference on http://lower-edmonton.co.uk/transport/rail/rollingstock.html.
Mike
Yes but there was a considerable interval, 1945-59, when the service was NOT “jazz”, which was my point.
I well remember the renewed increase in frequency that came with electrification & the subsequent re-decline in services. Again – wait for part II …..
GT: thanks, your point was a bit more subtle than it appeared!
Just a few corrections: it was the Railways (not Railway) Act 1921; the LPTB had the New Works Programme, rather than Plan; and the North London Line was converted from 4th- to 3rd-rail electrification in 1970, not 1985.
@WW 22/5, 22:40
Costs are not yet final. Network Rail has absorbed significant costs concerning active provision for 4-tracking, and other charges. Stratford-Tottenham was justified in its own right as a Network Rail project for CP5.
It is the importance of Meridian Water as a sub-regional development location and Mayoral opportunity area which has caused the project to continue northwards to the North Circular Road, with additional funding. The station is designed to allow 4-tracking eventually, incurring lower net costs than otherwise required to rebuild Angel Road initally, and then subsequently to relocate.
This is a once-only opportunity to relocate the station at an early stage of Meridian Water development, with the improved accessibility this gives. That is important for developers and incoming residents and businesses, and maximises the development potential.
Services are at this stage expected to be within the new East Anglia franchise, unless or until Transport for London assumed greater input for Lea Valley services. The service specification for the new East Anglia ITT is one of the matters under discussion – 4 tph is a preferred conditional output for stakeholders.
Unfortunately, there does not (AFAIK) seem to be a proposal contained to put in a flying junction Copper Mills – Clapton for up trains – which could be built entirely on railway land & would free up conflicting movements a lot – I would have thought the bcr was at least as good as that at Shortlands Jn (?)
Shortlands junction is really not used to it’s full potential seeing as the Chatham mainline handles 8tph and the Catford loop line just 3tph (passenger traffic). I would sincerely hope that the bcr of grade separating coppermill junction was much better than that of shortlands (which is just another piece of Eurostar infrastructure used for a relatively short period of time) especially given that the long term plan for waml is four tracking.
@Fandroid/Timbeau
This isn’t universally accepted in my experience, certainly if you live in Hackney and anything around Edmonton may as well be in Newcastle, but I’ve always held ‘Upper Lee Valley’ to be north of the M25 (where the Lee is largely fringed by suburbia and open fields/country park), and ‘Lower Lee Valley’ to be south of the M25 (where the Lee is largely fringed by much more urban development and the reservoirs). North of Hertford, the Lee (or Lea as it becomes known) is not a particularly notable feature within the landscape and I suspect very few people up there would identify the existence of a Lee/Lea Valley at all.
AFAIK the M25 is also how the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority distinguishes between the Upper and Lower Lee Valley – it helps that where the M25 crosses the Lee it forms the border between Hertfordshire/Essex and London. But I think the GLA tends to refer to the Lee within the outer boroughs as the Upper Lee Valley (and, characteristically, seems unaware that the Lee exists beyond London).
@Kingstoncommuter
Catford Loop = 3tph passenger, indeed, but also a lot of freight. I thought that was what Shortlands Jcn was mainly for.
An historical question: am I right that in spite of the transfer of the Epping line to London Underground, a (peak-hour only?) non-stop diesel service ran between Epping and Liverpool Street until 1970 (hence removal of the Stratford-Leyton connection in 1971)?
Wki quotes Croome, D.; Jackson, A (1993). Rails Through The Clay — A History Of London’s Tube Railways (2nd ed.). Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-151-1
“The BR line south of Newbury Park closed in 1956[30] and Hainault loop stations lost their goods service in 1965, the rest of the stations on the line following in 1966. Early morning passenger trains from Stratford (Liverpool Street on Sundays) ran to Epping or Loughton until 1970.”
And the article on Woodford says:
“Epping, where the LNER still had local freight services running between Epping and Loughton, and continued to Stratford (Liverpool Street on Sundays) until 5 October 1970” using this as source
http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/central.html
@Anon 15:28
There was an early hours stopping service starting at Liverpool Street or Stratford and with some trains also available for public use, with return workings. Other trains were staff only. Someone may be able to confirm if the trains carried newspapers or parcels. Here is an example of the trains available for public use, from the LT 11 October 1965 timetable: Weekdays 0350 Stratford, all stations to Epping 0431; no publicly stated return time. Sundays: 0505 Epping to Liv.St 0556, also 0535 Epping and all stations to Liv.St 0620, with return public workings at 0619 from Liv.St to Loughton 0700 (connection for Epping), and also at 0655 from Liv.St to Loughton 0733. No publicly stated earlier times to reach Epping in the first instance, to form the 0505 and 0535, but trains must have run.
Kingstoncommuter,
Not quite sure what point you are trying to make about Shortlands Junction. It was indeed primarily built for the Eurostar service – most specifically for phase one of what is now called HS1 which meant that Eurostar trains tended to run on the “slow” lines through Bromley South rather than the fast ones. The junction was approved with the full knowledge of phase 2 expecting to be subsequently built in the following few years.
It was built because without it it would have been pretty much impossible to run the full Eurostar service without it due to major conflicts at flat crossings. Given that the alternative would probably have been to severely scale back the international service I suspect the BCR was very good indeed and the use it had in those few years was enough to justify the full costs.
“Network SouthEast colours are visible” in the last photograph. No they’re not and wouldn’t begin appearing anywhere until Summer 1986 at the earliest…
Amazing to see those trains leaving Liverpool street at 3am or 4am in the sixties… sometimes progress is two steps forwards and one step back 🙂
Anon
No
There was one train a day (maybe more earlier) that ran to/from Stratford via the original route until very late (see upcoming Part II), but certainly not “non-stop”.
Freight also continued until quite late, but ceased some time in the ’60’s …
See also John UK & Milton Clevedon’s very petinent train-timings & remarks.
I actually used the 06.55 ex- Liverpool St, just before closure, to make sure I had covered the route – I got off @ Snaresbrrok, IIRC.
I think the early trains were for Fleet Street printers going home. There were connections to Stratford on the Shenfield trains weekdays. I tried to buy a ticket for the Sunday train from LivSt British Rail station. If you bought rare tickets then you could still receive LNER card tickets that had not been reprinted. I was refused and directed to Central Line ticket office, which was not open at that time of day! I think the timetable may have shown those trains as for ticket holders only, which would have been season tickets.
Re BR trains to/from Epping, the 2 February 1970 LT timetable has 0505 and 0535 Sundays trains to Liverpool Street Eastern Region Station, arr 0556/0620, returning at 0619/0655 to Loughton, arr 0700/0733. All these trains except the 0655 are marked “Available only for passengers already in possession of tickets” (as is also the 0350 weekdays Stratford-Loughton, arr 0417). All these trains stopped at all stations north of Stratford, and the Loughton terminators had connections to Epping.
Mike
Thanks for that.
When we get to Part II, you will see that I was unable to find those workings, even though I knew they existed, from contemporary BR timetables.
E.G. I can see my copy of the summer 1961 tt as I sit here, & there is no mention that I could find of these “odd” workings in that publication.
Also not in my winter ’57 Eastern Region timetable.
These days we would identify who was sponsoring the service and allocate it to that timetable. So they did then – it was effectively a Central Line service variant, so why would it appear in an Eastern Region timetable? Epping-Ongar was operated by ER on behalf of LT until electrified in 1958, this was the same thing and hadn’t appeared in the ER tt after whatever date LT took over the bulk of services north of Stratford. So think of it really as a diesel (previously steam-hauled) LT service. Amusingly, TfL is now of course to resume this historic involvement with Liverpool Street terminus, with the introduction of TfL Rail services on 31st May.
I am sure I saw the Epping early morning runs in BR/ER timetables. Perhaps the Liverpool Street -Stratford times were in the table covering the Gidea Park/Shenfield etc services, with a footnote to the effect that they proceeded to Epping, arr. xxxx. Similarly, the early morning direct train to Norwich was included in the suburban table, with times at Romford and Brentwood, and a footnote showing its ultimate destination.
The subject of the Leyton connection and these trains was covered in a discussion here a few years ago, though I can’t remember the context, and I am not sure if anyone came up with an explanation. Perhaps someone’s memory will be jogged in time for the next article in this series which has started so well.
@Twopenny Tube – There’s no sign of them in the 1963, 1970 and 1983 timetables that I have looked at, not even as a footnote, alas. Unfortunately, the Central Line WTT is missing from my collection of mid-seventies LU WTT’s although like everyone else, I am certain they ran and even to seem to recall a photo of one of them appearing in a Railway Magazine of the early sixties/late ’50s which as I recall showed a 2-4-2T alongside post-23 ts at some unlikely station.
JR: Epping-Ongar was operated by ER on behalf of LT until electrified in 1958, this was the same thing and hadn’t appeared in the ER tt after whatever date LT took over the bulk of services north of Stratford.
TT Perhaps the Liverpool Street -Stratford times were in the table covering the Gidea Park/Shenfield etc services, with a footnote to the effect that they proceeded to Epping, arr. xxxx
My ER winter ’57 tt has Epping-Ongar as table 17. This includes notes for duration of connections from Epping to Liverpool Street (Central Line), but no mention of the services we are looking for.
No footnotes relating to Loughton / Epping in tables 16 or 18 (Gidea Park etc.)
I don’t recall seeing that rare beast, the Fowler 4F 0-6-6 heavy goods loco (see photo at beginning of article) here in Shropshire when I was trainspotting in the 1950s . Did they ever venture north of Wolverhampton, or were our tracks too bendy for them?
I seem to remember seeing BR timings in the appropriate tables of the LT local timetables. However, my copies of the relevant area books are not currently to hand to be able to confirm.
Great article.
One small correction – Turkey Street was named Forty Hill when first opened. Renamed when branch was reopened.
@ sad Fat Dad’s dad
An 0-6-6 would be a rare beastie indeed. In fact the photo appears to be of a standard Fowler 0-6-0 (with a six-wheeled tender). A typo presumably.
@ Graham H
“I am certain they ran and even to seem to recall a photo of …………a 2-4-2T alongside post-23 ts at some unlikely station.”
Photo of GER Holden 2-4-2T and standard tube stock at Epping
http://www.standard.co.uk/incoming/article8282840.ece/alternates/w620/i00004z4-Steam-and-electric.jpg
@timbeau – yes, thank you. Blessed with an eidetic memory, that is precisely the picture I had in mind. What it doesn’t tell, alas,is whether the steam set was simply the Ongar shuttle or whether it was going all the way to Stratford/LST (in which case. a 2-car set would have been somewhat less than welcome on the mainline! BTW, presumably, the Ongar shuttle was push-pull?
A 1955 edition of the LT “Local Road & Rail Timetable” shows steam trains (so noted) at 0506 and 0536 from Epping calling at all stations to Liverpool Street, with return workings at 0620 and 0656.
The first in each direction is, as suggested, “available only for the use of passengers already in possession of tickets”, though possibly available to all from Stratford to Epping (it is annotated differently in the two tables it appears in).
As the Ongar service was still steam at this point, these trains may well have been formed of stock normally used on this route, particularly as the first two departures from Epping to Ongar leave a few minutes after the Liverpool Street train arrived. Unfortunately there is also a 0640 Ongar-Epping, which would require a third train set…
Push pull set at epping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_line#/media/File:Epping_Station_auto-train_geograph-2988854-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg
and an illustration that dmus might be expected to visit Epping, although the overhead cables indicate that the unit is on a different service altogether.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/86020500@N06/8579309439
(I thought this was a Lea valley unit (class 125) but the (presumably blue) square coupling code gives away that this is a 116 – the 125s had a unique-to-class orange star code).
timbeau – I would have thought that the obvious DMUs to have served Loughton/Epping would have been the ones normally on the North Woolwich service, such as Cravens 105s – but that photo of a 116 (at Braintree) is a find!
timbeau
That picture is the one I was trying to link to in the original article, but the link broke.
And, as I also stated back at 08.34 on 21st May, where there is another link to the same picture ….
Graham H
It would have been just the Ongar shuttle, if standard stock was running to Epping.
Howver, note the heavy industry in the background!
No trace today – I suspect that the building on the left is a gas works.
Yes – checking the ever-valuable Scottish library maps, it shows “Gas Works on the East side & brick kilns on the West side of the railway, south of the station
@Greg T -yes, I’d subsequently concluded that timbeau’s first picture was the shuttle (seems to be the same stock as in the second picture). As Man of Kent’s comments imply, the Epping-LST services don’t seem to have anything to do with the Ongar shuttle (wrong timings, too many of them, for stock transfer). Quite what worked the LST runs in pre-diesel days is unclear, therefore – N7 + 5?
Thank you for the note about the gasworks – not having researched it,I’d concluded that it looked like a steel works – but then Epping wasn’t known for its heavy industry…
The Cravens units latterly seen on the North Woolwich line only appeared there in 1976 (when they took over a number of east London and Essex duties such as the Emerson Park and Southminster lines) They had a chequered history. These were the Leyland -engined variant, initially classified 106, which were delivered to Hull but soon transferred to the M&GN line and, after that line closed, to GN “Widened Lines” duties for which their low density seating and two-car formations resulting in six redundant cabs in an eight- car train made them not very suitable – but unlike their Derby Suburban class 125 brethren (ex-Lea Valley, which had been electrified in the mid sixties) they had short frames and could therefore fit on the Hotel Curve. Following the GN electrification they went to Stratford.
Here’s the earlier order at North Woolwich – whatever the blind says! Note that again it appears to be a 116
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5261/5651276626_ca1e1280c7_b.jpg
I have reviewed this morning my available range of LNER/ER and LT timetables, to determine what was shown when, in relation to main line and Central Line services east of Stratford. The detail is set out below in a year on year basis.
In summary, the actuality appears to be that the main line involvement in promotion of services withered slowly and somewhat hapahazardly. Epping-Ongar stayed in the main tt until its conversion to electric tube train operation, even though the connecting Central Line upon which most if its traffic depended was given minimal coverage.
LNER/ER full main network timetables had not included London suburban tts for the duration of WW2. This position was continued, up to and including the first Eastern Region tt dated 31 May 1948. System maps had however been re-included from the 16 June 1947 tt, which also showed an LNER London suburban system with, at that stage, LNER operations all the way round the Fairlop loop and to Ongar.
A similar map was used for 6 October 1947, LNER’s last timetable. LNER operation round the Fairlop loop ceased at the end of November 1947. The Central Line extended via Gants Hill to Newbury Park on 14 December 1947, and on to Hainault on 31 May 1948 (so exactly 67 years before today).
In the 27 September 1948 tt (ER’s second), suburban area timetables are re-included, and Table 17 lists the ER shuttle timings from Woodford to Loughton, Epping and Ongar (in connection with the Central Line at Woodford). Early AM through trains to/from Liverpool Street/Stratford are specifically identified. The suburban map shows shared operations to Woodford, LT only round the Fairlop loop, and main line only north of Woodford. The main map just shows a line to Ongar.
I do not have a Liverpool Street suburban tt for the period from 1940 until the same date of 27 September 1948. Then the comparable ER Liverpool Street suburban timetable shows the same tt info as in the main tt, plus LT first and last Central Line times to Woodford and Hainault including the early AM specials, and the temporary replacement LT bus service from Hainault to Grange Hill, Chigwell, Woodford and Roding Valley (in that specific order), and v.v.
The suburban tt map is a modified post-war George Dow style, with LT running to Woodford and Hainault, a broken line LT Woodford-Hainault, and main line sharing to Woodford and exclusive north of Woodford. Of course the published Tube map of the day would have dominated public information, not the LNER/ER mapping at the back of timetables.
The Central Line extended on 21 November 1948 from Woodford to Loughton and to Hainault. It extended from Loughton to Epping in May 1949. I don’t hold a May 1949 tt, but the autumn/winter 1949 examples should be comparable. In the ER main tt of 26 September 1949, the residual service (by then Epping-Ongar) is listed still in Table 17, even though by then it was being operated to an LT specification. The Epping-Liverpool Street service is only indicated as Central Line connections. The by-now national map shows a line to Ongar, and also shows Epping.
The 7 November 1949 Liverpool Street suburban tt includes the new Shenfield electric services. LT first and last times includes the early AM main line trains, and the same tt for Epping-Ongar as in the main line tt. Suburban mapping is now a HC Beck design, with LT predominant to Hainault loop and Epping, but with BR overlap from Stratford to Epping then exclusive to Ongar.
The 5 June 1950 tts are similar as above, for both the main line and suburban tts.
By 10 September 1951, the main line tt remains similar, as does the train information in the suburban tt, but Beck’s suburban map only shows LT all the way to Epping and Ongar, with no apparent main line involvement.
The suburban tt info then stays the same until after 21 September 1953. Meanwhile the ER main timetable continues to list Epping-Ongar as variously Table 17 or Table 16 up to and including the 16 September 1957 edition, which was the last before LT electrification to Ongar (effective 18 November 1957). However the last national map to include Liverpool Street-Epping-Ongar was in the 30 June 1952 edition.
I have a gap in Liverpool Street suburban tt holdings from 1954-57, and in the next one (9 June 1958) there is no reference to any railway between the Chingford and Shenfield lines.
Individual times for the early AM Epping Line trains are shown anonymously in the Liverpool Street-Shenfield timetable between Liv.St and Stratford (as they had been previously, and were until 1970), but there is no footnote to explain their NE London origin and destination. [From 1965 to 1974, ER again resumed a policy of not publishing suburban tts in the main tt book, so only the London suburban tts can be referenced.]
In the 9 June 1958 ER main tt, Table 17 is limited to a two line statement:
“EPPING and ONGAR
For details of service, see London Transport announcements”. The four stations had been removed from the timetable’s index of stations.
The same statement is made in the 15 September 1958 ER main tt. There is no reference in the 15 June 1959 edition or subsequently.
By then of course, the LT Underground timetable series had started up (my first is for Winter 1957-58, which appears to have the new electric timings for Epping-Ongar). In that tt, the Central Line first and last trains set out the special main line through trains which were in public service, and this continues until the last year of operation of those trains, 1970. The next published LT Underground tt, for 30 November 1970, omits them.
I would however stress that the commentary above only relates to public passenger services. Staff services and parcels and goods operations are not covered. For example, the ER published a range of ‘network’ maps which show the whole of the Fairlop loop and Ongar lines in the 1950s, with goods facilities offered at all stations excluding Snaresbrook, Roding Valley, Chigwell and Hainault.
@ timbeau
I used the Greenford Branch nearly every day 1968-72, and bizarrely, for an evening duty on one day only, one of these sets worked the Greenford branch around 1971. The “Greenford end” car was locked when a three car set was used due to short platforms on the route.
Around that time, very rarely other oddities appeared, also generally for a single afternoon shift. I remember a Midland set turning up that had been seen a few days earlier working Bletchley-Bedford
@JR – which raises the further interesting question about what worked the freight on the Central and what the tt looked like. In Another Place, I discovered the working timetable for the freight on the Uxbridge branch (which I well remember) but nothing on the other end of the system.
@GH. Agreed. Some stations probably only offered parcels facilities, not capability for complete goods services (Blake Hall comes to mind as an example, where the booking clerk probably served ER’s parcels customers as well as LT’s passengers). However the ER 1954 facilities map is explicit in listing all the stations except the ones excluded above. I wonder if the LT Central Line WTT would reference the services or whether it would be an ER WTT?
Jonathan Roberts
Many thanks for that.
Can we append your notes to “Part II” when it comes out, for various poeple’s information, I wonder?
Goods services
Probably the same as the Chingford line: one or two trains a day – most likely one, worked by a “J-17”. If these continued after dieselisation, them most likely a BTH type 1 or a Brush type 2 ……
@Greg
Happy that you do that.
It would also help if others had 1946-48 Liverpool Street suburban tts and for the period from 1954 to 1957 where my collection is inadequate, and were able to report the info to “LR Towers”!
I have a 57 Bradshaw. Nothing in there.
I have a copy of the L.T. Central Line working timetable no. 9 dated from 19 Feb 1951, which shows the ER passenger/staff/goods workings. The ER passenger workings are as follows:
Mon-Sat.
Stratford 02:50 staff to Loughton 03:15
Loughton 03:31 staff to Stratford 03:54
Stratford 04:46 staff plus passengers with tickets to Buckhurst Hill, then empty to Loughton 05:14 [the first LT staff train from White city to Epping is only ten minutes later]
Loughton 05:25 empty to Loughton Branch Jcn 05:48
Sunday
Epping 05:06 staff plus passengers with tickets to Liverpool Street 05:55
Epping 05:36 passenger to Liverpool Street 06:21
Liverpool Street 06:23 staff plus passengers with tickets to Epping 07:18, forms 07:22 passenger to Ongar
Liverpool Street 06:56 passenger to Epping 07:47, forms 07:52 passenger to Ongar
There was a very large number of railway staff employed at Stratford which presumably was the reason that these staff trains ran at a time of night when LT would want the current off for maintenance as per their usual practice.
The times changed over the years, and once Epping-Ongar was electrified there were additional empty stock workings to form the Sunday trains. There has been published somewhere in recent years two(?) articles which describe the changes over the years to all the ER goods and passengers services over these lines once LT took over, only problem is I cannot remember where I read it…..
@Alan Bertram – excellent! I was surprised that the current was off as late as 0446(weekdays). Maybe practices were different then,but on many LU lines now, the first train out is usually a good half hour earlier, even if only for staff movements.
Just a thought – did BR locos/DMUs using the Epping route have to be fitted with tripcocks?
DMU’s – yes.
Steam locos – yes.
Not sure about freight-working diesels, which didn’t last long, anyway.
May have been under special “proceed with caution” rules applying, but I really don’t know.
I have a relevant question…..when the Victoria line was first conceived and planned, was there ever any intention for it to take over the Chingford branch at its northern end? It has always seemed slightly odd to me that it should terminate at Walthamstow to interchange with a branch line that it presumably could have surfaced and continued on to (obviously this couldn’t happen now!!!).
Depends how far back, and how crayonistic, you go, but it seems (source, CULG http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/victoria.html) that before WW2 there was a plan for something like the Victoria Line (although its central London route was closer to CR2) which would take over various NE London ex GER branches such as Chingford and Palace Gates. The plan varied a lot over the years, with both Enfield lines suggested at different times, but another plan in 1949, more recognisably the Victoria Line (and now tube gauge to fit the restricted space available at Oxford Circus) once again suggested Chingford as a northern terminus. Cost savings during the planning stage first reduced the connection at Wood Street to a cross-platform interchange, and then to the present terminus at what was then called Hoe Street. This was fairly mild cost-cutting compared to what happened in the south, where the terminus, initially planned to be Sanderstead/Coulsdon North (!), (over existing track as far as South Croydon) was cut back first to Norbury and then to Brixton.
@ Timbeau – and can you imagine what state the Vic Line would be in if it had been built to run from Norbury to Chingford? The overcrowding would be immense (as if it already isn’t!) and 36 tph would be inadequate. Just sometimes you have to be thankful that some tube lines aren’t any longer.
@WW
Indeed – although if it had been built that far the crowding at Victoria and Brixton might not be so bad as it currently is, as many of the people from Coulsdon, Croydon, Norbury, etc who clog up Victoria tube station every morning would simply join the same Vic train further south.
Many of the Epping line station buildings were locked overnight, and a side gate left open for passengers with tickets. It was earlier mentioned that these would have been season ticket holders (or employee pass holders). But this would only have been true after the Victoria line first opened in 1968 (not 1969 in text, the date the Queen officially opened through to Victoria). Until then single tickets were valid up to three days, and return halves for a month. It would therefore have been possible to pre-purchase one of these tickets for an over-night train on the branch. It was the widespread introduction of automatic ticket gates on the Victoria line that led to the simplification of day of issue only validity, and the same for two part return tickets.
Taz
Victoria Line opening dates ….
1st September 1968: Walthamstow – Highbury & Islington.
25th November ( 1st December, officially ) H&I – Warren Street
7th March 1969 Warren St – Victoria
23rd July 1971
Source: “Rails Through the Clay” -as I used for the original article.
Hence my giving the “official” opening date for the whole chunk of the line, rather than the sub-sections.
@Greg
Indeed, but the reference in the article is specifically to Blackhorse Road, which is on the first section that opened, in 1968.
A thought – if the Victoria Line had run to Chingford as originally planned, what would have happened to the line through James Street? Would it have closed (like the Newbury Park-Ilford sector in similar circumstances)? Chingford line passengers for the City would have had to change at Tottenham Hale, Seven Sisters, or Highbury & Islington. Or would the North Woolwich- Tottenham Hale service have been diverted to Walthamstow? Either way, it would have freed up a lot of capacity through Bethnal Green.
[‘What if’ Speculation of this kind is discouraged here. Not an outright ban, but commentors should only indulge in it if they feel that it will be of great interest to the readership. If moderators disagree, it will generally be chopped, Malcolm]
But given the numbers now using the Victoria Line, I doubt that it would be practical now
@timeau: cut back first to Norbury and then to Brixton.
Indeed, cut back right to Victoria in the initial scheme – the Victoria-Brixton section was then added back on as the “Victoria Line Extension”.
Interesting how they prevented over-height trains attempting to enter the new tube tunnels. At other locations they used sacrificial glass tubes to detect full height trains, but since on the Central line only electric trains met the height restriction they used electric train detectors linked to signal clearance for tunnel routes. It was a simple system using the fact that the positive rail could be sited either side of the running rails, and the pick-up shoes were linked together across the train. By placing a dummy section of positive rail on the opposite side of the line, a current could be detected from electric trains.
We are probably spending too much time at the wrong end of the Victoria Line, however I have found in an article in April 1955 Railway Magazine. At that stage of the proposals and planning, the idea was to align the platforms at Victoria with a view to a future extension to Fulham Broadway. The cross platform connection at Wood Street is mentioned.
@Twopenny Tube
The Victoria Line emerged in the early 1950s as an amalgam of the 1949 ideas for Routes C and D, as only one tube would be affordable.
Route D was still a Victoria Line extension option allowed for within SW London in the early 1950s. It’s why the Victoria Line still heads SW initially under Victoria main line. However FG Maxwell (LT Railway Operating Manager) gave a presentation to the Railway Students Association in 1951 – now the Railway Study Association – which showed Wood Street via Highbury (change for Alexandra Palace trains) and then Victoria to Brixton, Streatham and South Croydon.
A 1957 LT study finally favoured the Victoria Line towards Brixton in competition with other options, including a Bakerloo Line extension that way. The Route D SW corridor then transmogrified to be part of the later Chelsea-Hackney scheme in its numerous guises. That experienced several major routeing changes over the decades, including one ca. 1970 which was Wimbledon to NE London (back on theme) via Fulham, Chelsea, Victoria, Waterloo, Aldwych, Holborn, and then either Old Street or Angel – actually closer to 1949’s Route D thinking.
Crossrail 2 is the latest Route D variant, and offers the option of a stop at Chelsea Fire Station on the Kings Road, as well as the latest safeguarded route towards NE and North London.
@taz
“Interesting how they prevented over-height trains attempting to enter the new tube tunnels. ”
I think something different is also done at Queens Park – something to do with detection of a negative shoe (which the Tube stock has but the Overground stock lacks). I don’t know what they did before the LMR units were converted from 4-rail to 3-rail operation in 1970.
@timbeau
Going through the hole in the train shed southbound might also have proved unpopular… Possibly this is an issue which still has to be managed on the Kensal Green side of the shed.
Does anyone have links to photos of the junction at Leyton before it was removed in 1971?
@anon 1925
Leyton junction? Something like this?
http://www.signalbox.org/gallery/e/leyton.php
Yup, perfect….thanks!
Amazing to think that all of the land on the right-hand side is now the A12/M11 Link Road! Presumably the signal box is long gone?
2d tube
X-platfrom @ Wood Street would have been interesting, given that it’s well up on a viaduct!
I presume the tube would have emerged from the hillside approximately level with the existing station – would have required a lot of demolition.
Anon
Oh yes, IIRC it didn’t last long beyond the removal of the link to the GER lines.
Here is a recent view:
http://binged.it/1GblRKP
On typo has amazingly made it past all the eyes so far: “the temporary Walthamstow terminus, which was in a very deep cutting, was abandoned is part of works to extend to Chingford” – the word following “abandoned” should be “as” not “is”
Does anyone know more about the Queens Road station that never was? The only other reference I have seen to it is in Joe Brown’s London Railway Atlas, with platforms built in 1872. I suspect it was located on the corner of nowadays Downs Road and Queensdown Road, right where the tunnel comes out, and where there are steps for works access. I always found the idea interesting as it would have been nearest to me had it opened… Seems unlikely that it would have survived when Hackney Downs and Clapton are nearby though.
Mal Hiru
See the Middleton Press book on the Chingford Branch …
Here is an aerial view of the site today …
http://binged.it/1AZspMw
… to get the street names, hover over the “Bird’s eye” tab & click the check-box that says: “show labels” ….
The station entrance would have been opposite the church-building in bottom right of the view
GT: Maybe this link will help illustrate…
http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sidebyside.cfm#zoom=17&lat=51.5573&lon=-0.0586&layers=176&right=BingHyb
Del_tic
For other people the lhs of that Nat Liby of Scotland map shows the signal cabin on the not-opened station platform, if you look closely!
But, yes, that is the correct location.
Hopefully this won’t cut across Part 2 in the series. It doesn’t appear to have been linked to in Part 1 or in the comments. Someone has kindly just dropped a fim clip link into my Twitter stream.
http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/764
It covers the electrification of the line from Liverpool St to Shenfield. Has some interesting shots of Liverpool St with steam and electric workings in view at the beginning. Perhaps it could be a training film for the GWML electrification? 🙂
WW
Thanks, & no it won’t because the Shenfield/Southend/Main lines are not part of the subject under discussion, or not directly.
Thanks for this film, wouldn’t be allowed now. My father was a steel erector and my mother did everything in her power to stop me following in his footsteps. Hence my nom de plume of theprinter.
@ Theprinter – yes I was rather left thinking “Health and Safety would be having kittens watching this”. The chap sitting on the gantry as a steam loco passes underneath is one of the more exceptional views. It does, though, partly explain why things were done so quickly in times past.
Thanks for the chance to see this, WW.
Two points seem to stand out for me:
1) The ability to do works with very little engineering occupation. One is reminded of the way the Great Western completely re-built Snow Hill before the first war, and of how quickly trains were running again after enemy action in the second war.
2) The telling line towards the end that since electrification traffic had increased 50% in the first year. The Overground has produced similar results, and I hope that if (as mentioned on another thread) TfL are pressing for the ‘metrification’ of S.E. services, their passenger predictions will take account of the lessons of history.
how quickly trains were running again after enemy action in the second war
Partly because there was no need to hang around and establish the cause.
@ John UK – I came across the film by accident but given the previous discussion about wiring and the gaps under bridges on the Shenfield line plus the Liv St shots I thought people would enjoy the film. I think the 50% growth was in much less than a year – just rechecked and it happened within 2 months of the electric trains starting. Crossrail’s going to get a fright if it gets that growth on the route once the tunnel link opens. Also noteworthy was the peak frequency was 18tph with 9 car trains back then whereas it is 15tph out of Liv St between 1700 and 1759 M-F (same for 0800 – 0900 arrivals at LST).
John UK
“the sparks effect” … noted by the pre-war SR, of course, but, (yet again) G Feinnes:
Referring to the then-potential Southend electrification, after the success of Shenfield.
“What offers?” (of increased revenue)
“About £6000 a year.”
Luckily, instead of closing the books there & then I laughed. In fact, the mere threat of electrification brought us over £100 000 a year, with steam traction
Now multiply that up to give present values ( approx x50? )
WW
Crossrail will get a fright, Or I think so, anyway.
And 18 vs 15 tph … I think TPWS-creep into the terminal roads at LST has a lot to answer for – probably puts 30 seconds-a minute on to each train, which is another 15 minutes per hour that you can’t run the extra 3 trains in, um, err ….
Plus, of course the passengers can’t get off until the train has stopped, whereas then – look at the film!
Oh yes, that film – at least a couple of shots were of another electrification project under way at the time – the hilly, stone-walled background to said shots is the give-away.
It’s the Woodhead of blessed memory!
Loved the pictures in Fenchurch St too …
Re tripcock fitting of DMUs and diesel locos which worked to Loughton/Epping. These were not tripcock fitted and thus cabs were always double manned as a result, the second man presumably being provided to ensure that the driver was paying due attention!. All diesel engines had to be tripcock fitted, a number of the Brush type 2s, some of the 82xx’s & I believe all the 84xx’s (the latter all based at Stratford) were so fitted for use on the remaining freight services on the line.
But what of parts 2 and 3? 🙂
There’s a Ben Brooksbank photo of a diesel goods train on the LU, albeit at East Finchley, here.
UPDATE
The October issue of “London Railway Record” has an article by Peter Kay, on the initial stages of the construction of the Chingford branch, with much additional information, including other aborted construction schemes
Well worth a read, before the hopeful publication of part II of this article ….
While rooting about for something else I fell across this recent Mayoral Decision. It relates to the management and release of funding to progress the next planning stages of the enhancements between Stratford and Angel Road (Meridian Water).
https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/MD1560%20STAR_md_part_1%20PDF.pdf
If nothing else it gives a good overview of recent progress, how the funding is being put together and what happens next. Interesting to see the phrase “delay to the completion date must be avoided at all costs” being used. Also pleasing to see that the implementation of new infrastructure will take account of a future 4th track so as to avoidable large costs in the future. TfL will become project sponsor and the channel for elements of scheme funding once Network Rail get to the implementation stage.
WW
Thanks for that.
It certainly looks as if several “someones” have realised what is at stake here & have put some pretty firm markers down, which I can only regard as good news.
@WW
That’s good to see. I hope this implies that TfL will be operating it too.
@ IamHedgehog – the STAR service is actually specified in the Greater Anglia spec that the DfT recently released as part of the procurement process for the new GA franchise. I therefore don’t see TfL running it. If they were to do so then they’d be tendering it in the Overground ITT and they’re not. Not been mentioned by TfL at all for their concession spec or as a possible option.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/east-anglia-franchise-2015-invitation-to-tender
See Attachment A to see what DfT are asking for.
I read somewhere that when new 1967 tube stock (Victoria Line) was delivered to Northumberland Park depot it was first taken to Hainault depot on the Central Line. It was towed to Leyton and Loughton Branch Junction. From there it went through Lea Bridge and Coppermill Junction on to a specially laid connection at Northumberland Park into the depot. I have never seen a photograph of these train movements but it would be interesting to find out whether or not the locomotives where LT battery locomotives or BR diesels.
@Bruce: I would guess LT battery locos, judging by LT’s routine transfers onto the then Northern City line, via BR metals (earlier via Crouch End, then, when the bridge at FP got mistrusted, via Kings Cross).
BC
According to “Rails Through the Clay” … battery locos were used for the entire Central line- Northumberland Park transfers.
Why were they delivered to Hainault first? Was it for testing and commissioning purposes on the Woodford – Hainualt section? I thought they would have done all that on the Victoria line once the tunnels, track work and signalling were all in place…..
@Anonymously – My understanding is that the 1967 Stock was delivered off the main line, as with all other new rolling stock then, to West Ruislip for fitting out and testing, after which they were transferred to Hainault for onwards transfer to Northumberland Park. I have seen photos of the moves taken by those (generally staff) in the know but I daresay they may still only exist on photographic emulsion paper.
This appears to support my understanding:
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_1967_Stock
GF
“Rails through the Clay” also states that the Hainault loop was used for running-testing purposes of each unit, once fitted-out, since it was the ATO test-bed line & was equipped for running under those conditions.
There is reference to Quad-art sets in the article. My understanding is that the Quad-arts were almost exclusively used on the ex-GN lines out of King’s Cross, whereas the ex-GE lines had Quint-arts. As a schoolboy in the fifties, I do recall one occasion of a Quad-art on the Palace Gates branch, however.
The reference to dieselisation of the Palace Gates – North Woolwich services does not concur with my own memory. Although there was no Sunday service, BR introduced a public, experimental service using DMUs between Palace Gates and Stratford only for a while. Despite this, I think the line retained steam for normal timetabled services to the end in 1963.
The west side of Liverpool Street was my favourite place at this time, with the sound of Westinghouse pumps (“Tfff, tfff, tfff”) on the N7s, as they awaited release, and their next down train.
Happy days!
@Phil: I travelled on a diesel railcar (my first ever) to Noel Park, in 1958. It was a special train for the Wood Green borough charter celebrations, and I got on the train at Bowes Park. The regular trains there were all steam at that time. Happy days indeed.
About that time there was an “exhibition” of the type that the LNER had used to do at Noel Park.
The last Ivatt C12 4-42T was present, as was GT3 ….
Hi John, just stumbled on ‘Reconnections’.
Very interesting to me.
I grew up next to the Central Line in the 1950’s and 60’s and have a host of clear memories about BR trains which ran in the early mornings before the Tube timetable, freight services both steam and diesel, ‘bank holiday’ specials and a host of well remembered observations and oddities.
Also ‘four tracks’ north of Tottenham Hale, et al.
Does this still interest you. If so, happy to write some stuff that no other correspondent has mentioned.
I only recently discovered this site so I am late to the debate, but I have some good first hand information about workings on the eastern end of the Central Line in the 1950’s and 1960’s which may help people with an interest in 20th Century railway history in the London area.
I grew up from 1950 to the late 1960’s close to first South Woodford (George Lane) station, and later Loughton station,
I well remember the early trains which ran before the Tube timetable started on weekdays (Saturdays included I think)
These were colloquially known to everyone in our street as the ‘workman’s trains’ .
If I woke up early I could see them from my bedroom window.
We had a neighbour who was a driver at Stratford. If he was on ‘early turn’ he used to use one of these trains. He was also a mine of interesting information.
I can say for certain in the 1950’s I saw three loco types on these trains – F5 and F6 2-4-2T and N7 0-6-2Ts.
For a short while after steam was eliminated DMUs appeared. I don’t remember what type but I know that somewhere I have come across a published picture of a DMU on one of these trains at South Woodford.
As far as I can recall these trains ran to and from Loughton but there may have been one that went out to Epping.
Up until about 1960 there were several holiday week end steam excursions each year from Loughton to Margate and/or Ramsgate.
They also ran early, possibly before Tube services started, and came back late. They were usually eight coaches (corridors I think ) and stopped at all stations from Loughton to Leyton.
At Leyton Junction they ‘forked right’ to Liverpool Street where they reversed and ran ‘down the hole’ under the Thames to New Cross where a Southern Region locomotive took over.
It seems quite unbelievable to me now, but these trains were usually double headed by a pair of J69 o-6-0 tanks. but N7s also appeared.
Again, I have seen an excellent published picture of one of these trains, headed by an N7, departing South Woodford (George Lane) towards London, circa 1959, and there are others of pairs of J69s on similar workings at Liverpool Street and New Cross.
Here is a gem.
Long before the Ongar section was electrified it became clear the F5s were wearing out so there was a search for a replacement type.
It is well recorded that C12 4-4-2s were tried and there are published pictures of one at Epping shed.
Less well known is that three other types were tried including a former GN ‘N1’ 0-6-2T, a G5 0-4-4t, and even a standard class 4 2-6-0 which was newly delivered to Stratford.
All these trials proved unsatisfactory and the F5s continued to the end.
References to all these types being trialled appeared in ‘Trains Ilustrated’ and the ‘Railway Magazine’ at the time and were confirmed by my driver neighbour.
I have never seen anything much written about the freight workings over the eastern end of the Central Line but there were several every 24 hours and some of them featured some unusual traffic,
For instance, I have never seen any reference to the fact that continental ferry vans from the Zeebrugge -Harwich and Calais -Dover services were sometimes carried through to Epping, Loughton, and South Woodford.
I clearly remember French, Spanish and Italian long wheelbase vans appearing at all
three locations. I don’t know what the cargo usually was, but about 1959/1960 I saw one such vehicle being unloaded at South Woodford. It was carrying a huge consignment of onions in sacks!
On many days I watched the daily shunt at Eagle Lane sidings which stood between South Woodford and Snaresbrook. Until diesels arrived this was always handled by a Ji5 0-6-0.
This train always had brake vans at both ends. After a lengthy shunt at Eagle Lane the engine would ‘run round’ then propel it’s train over the double slips at the London end of South Woodford to the sidings behind the station.
At the furthest end of the long siding was a loading dock belonging to builder’s merchants Page Calnan who received consignments of bricks and builder’s sand which I remember seeing being unloaded by hand
.At about 8pm, after the rush hour, another J15 hauled freight went through on week days, this one headed for Epping I think.
The Loughton freight usually ran after midnight and after we moved there I can remember clearly being woken by the clanging of buffers in the middle of the night.
This train usually only set down and picked up wagons at Loughton, because on week days a J15 would arrive ‘light engine’ from the Epping direction, shunt Loughton yard, and then leave ‘light’ in the London direction.
There were substantial loads of coal dealt with at Debden, Theydon Bois still saw some van traffic (including meat vans) as well as coal up to 1960 and there were active sidings at North Weald, Blake Hall and Ongar through to the mid 1960’s.
During the building of the M1 motorway a large number of concrete bridge beams were constructed by WC French and Co at their Loughton depot.
These beams were then moved to Loughton station by a combination of ‘pusher’ and ‘puller’ tractor units which I think were army surplus World War Two tank transporter tractors.
At Loughton the beams were loaded on to very long articulated ‘borail’ type flat wagons.
This activity went on for several months and must have been the largest and heaviest freight consignments ever to traverse the Central Line. I have never seen any pictures of this extraordinary operation, Perhaps West Essex Gazette archive?
At Ongar, about 1959, I clearly remember seeing mineral wagons being loaded with sugar beet. I gathered tiny early green conkers which would fall in spring to replicate the load in my own Hornby Dublo mineral wagon!
I was told these beet were destined for the Felsted sugar factory, about 15 miles by road from Ongar, but about 50 by rail whether via Bishops Stortford or Whitham.
All the freight was handled by J15s. Engines I remember well were 65440, 65444, 65476 and 65478 though there were many more used.
When steam went at least four different diesel types were employed. First there were the ‘D8400’ series, then the slightly more successful ‘D8200’ series.
Later early model class 31’s were common, and early class 24s also appeared. I may be wrong, but I am fairly sure class 37’s also showed up sometimes,including the pioneer D6700.
All the engines used, both steam and diesel, had to be fitted with special automatic brake apparatus known as a ‘trip cock’ to comply with London Transport’s own signalling set up. I assume this must have been a fairly cheap and easy fit as several dozens of engines were equipped.
The freight services were gradually withdrawn in the 1960’s, ending finally I think in either 1969 or 1971,
Regarding the four track section on the Cambridge line. My recall is these definitely ran through Tottenham Hale where there was frequently a queue of freight trains waiting access to Temple Mills.
I think the four tracks only went east as far as Brimsdown.
My recollection is Brimsdown always only had a double track station and level crossing, though the lines may have been widened back to four with ‘up’ and ‘down’ freight loops east of Brimsdown signal box.
The main purpose of the additional track work was to give necessary extra freight capacity because of the many private sidings and a power station around the Brimsdown area.
@JotS: Fascinating!
JotS
Your memories overlap with mine …
I am the actual author of the article, which was then editied by JB, as it originallywas too long for one release. All the photos are mine, as well – there also seem to have been changes made between the original publication & its re-appearance after the website restructuring.
We are still waiting for space to be provided for part II, which contains the rest of my original text, with notes on good workings & engineering, IIRC
If the Orange effect repeats the sparks effect there is going to be pressure on platforms at Liv St. Are there any contingencies for peak time working?
A couple of platforms at Bishopsgate would help those working north of the Terminus and interchanging for ELL.
I did not see a mention of transport safeguarding in plans for the new towers, just protection for the Braithwaite arches
@ALEKS2CV 1 January 2018 at 17:48
“A couple of platforms at Bishopsgate would help those working north of the Terminus and interchanging for ELL”
I think we covered this earlier in comments on a different article. Consensus was that any such through platforms would be far too close to Liverpool Street and would interfere with smooth working of the throat. There is some safeguarding apparently for extra tracks into Liverpool Street however which may allow existing platforms to be used more intensively. A possibility for easier egress to the north and interchange with the ELL is a new northern access for the station which could be combined with improved ‘on street’ pedestrian connections to Shoreditch High Street station on the ELL.
The golden opportunity was lost with the removal of Broad Street, when an extra 4 or 6 platforms could have been put in there, as LST “NW-side” & an extra pair of tracks on the N side of the approach. Though that wouild have made the current ELL alignment, err … “difficult”.
Far too late now, of course.
MARK TOWNEND 1 January 2018 at 18:02
I think we covered this earlier in comments on a different article. Consensus was that any such through platforms would be far too close to Liverpool Street and would interfere with smooth working of the throat. There is some safeguarding apparently for extra tracks into Liverpool Street however which may allow existing platforms to be used more intensively. A possibility for easier egress to the north and interchange with the ELL is a new northern access for the station which could be combined with improved ‘on street’ pedestrian connections to Shoreditch High Street station on the ELL.
That reference was for the old Bishopsgate LL through platforms. One existing and the other needing provision in the throat.
My thought was actually come off the WAML into the goods (former terminus) with peak hours alternative capacity terminating bays alongside Shoreditch High St.
A basement level to the future redevelopment so of course needs someone to recommend the safeguarding. If not yet needed the corridor would not need to be fitted out, and could be partitioned for retail leases subject to say 5 year notice for requisition in the capital’s interest.
Your walking route for an interchange is a bit of a schlep, even from the northern exit. Like Canon St to Moorgate.
@Aleks2CV: Cannon St. to Moorgate a schlep? I do Cannon St/London Bridge to Thomas More Square every day and that’s easy enough. Good to walk off the calories and get some “fresh” air!
@SOUTHERN HEIGHTS (LIGHT RAILWAY)
Can they then eat cake 🙂
The nexus of the fringe is moving towards Hipsterville. It’s not quite Aldgate but the strippers and business gals are being moved on. The edginess attracts a mix retail/entertainment day/night so a good balance of traffic.
At the moment maybe there is more destination midway which could equally be reached from either stop.
Planning ahead though for peak overloading (Platform, approach, circulation) if it would equally suit 5-10% of users to stop short then say 2tph from Chingford, Cheshunt, and Enfield in peaks could turn off WAML at Shoreditch.
The previous approach was on the viaduct so this opportunity will only be available during the proposed demolition and redevelopment.
The LO effect in increasing economic activity is already raising land values and greater opportunity creating more options than just social housing towers.
I don’t know the precise position of the piece of listed structure to be preserved but I think it runs the length of the centre. It would form a good piece of structure for a railway station as much as a brick backdrop for a walkway and pop-up market stalls.
Had the LO network been foreseen the bay alignment could have been in conjunction with the elevated ELLx.
Passenger figures
National Rail annual entry and exit
2011–12 Decrease 2.618 million
2012–13 Increase 3.263 million
2013–14 Increase 4.057 million
2014–15 Increase 4.878 million
2015–16 Increase 7.661 million
My hunch is you could sustain an all day service, and begin in LO fashion of incrementally growing with the users.
Is do nothing an option / or is there a fall back of a central line station conveniently passing below SHSt ? Will the Central be as relieved by the Lizzie as anticipated ?
A2CV
Carto Metro shows the Central LIne is directly beneath the new Spitalfields station
Turkey Street station was originally called Forty Hill (which is nowhere near).
Munitions workers would not alight at Brimsdown. The Royal Small Arms factory was nearest Enfield Lock station.
alan urie
I think you are confusing Forty Hill / Turkey Street with the temporary (WW I ) station at Carterhatch Lane, which lasted 1916-19