Gidea Park Stn Track Plan: Which Line Goes Where/Does What?

[iL Dottore]

I have mentioned previously on this forum that many childhood memories centre around the BR(ER) Class 302s, 305s, 306s and 307s. I am vaguely contemplating getting a few DC Kits and building a Gidea Park Station (Fiddle Yard-Station Scene-Fiddle Yard) layout.

 

I've been able to find a few overhead photos of Gidea Park Station thanks to Google Maps (satellite view) - which brings me to my question. Looking at the satellite view, the 4 tracks that I remember from my youth are still there, but which were the up fast/down fast and up stopping/down stopping tracks ("up" being towards London)?

 

Thanks

 

F

 

I may actually be wrong about "only 4 tracks" at Gidea Park, as I dimly recall one platform being used as a "end station" bay

[chrisf]

I'm sure that BRILL, or one of its Annuals, has featured Gidea Park. Let me know if you want me to have a rummage in due course.

 

Pending that, the northerly pair of tracks are the slow lines - or "electric lines" as they used to be called - and the southerly pair the fast.

 

Chris

[kevinlms]

I'm sure that BRILL, or one of its Annuals, has featured Gidea Park. Let me know if you want me to have a rummage in due course.

 

Pending that, the northerly pair of tracks are the slow lines - or "electric lines" as they used to be called - and the southerly pair the fast.

 

Chris

 

Correct, its Number 5 (1996). An easy task for me to find as I only have 2 of the BRILL Annuals.

 

 

Kevin Martin

[Gwiwer]

The four tracks through Gidea Park station are, from north to south

 

Down Electric

Up Electric

Down Main

Up Main

 

The "electric" lines are in effect the slow lines and while all four lines are electrified now this was not always the case. Only the slow lines were part of the original (1949?) scheme and thus gained the name "electric lines" in much the same way as the slow lines out of Euston are known as the "DC lines"

 

Several sidings to the east of the station and north of the running lines accommodated electric train terminating from Liverpool Street and provided turnback facilities. Most trains now continue to Shenfield but this has not always been the case; Gidea Park was the limit of most inner-suburban trains for many years.

 

Numerous crossovers also east of the station serve to switch trains between fast and electric lines as required.

[trisonic]

I think some of the crossovers to the east of the Station are of recent origin because I recall being stuck on the down main when it was blocked to the east of Harold Wood for hours - back in the eighties...

 

Best, Pete.

[iL Dottore]

Thanks, lads. Very helpful.

 

KevinLMS/ChrisF - would the BRILL annual have information on Gidea Park Station about 1967?

 

F

[TimP]

Ah nostalgia -

 

I live a long way from there now but grew up about a mile from there at Gallows corner and remember it well - sometime around then (1967?) there would have been the big fire of the warehouse? factory? to the south of the station as I recall.

[chrisf]

The article is actuially about the Gidea Park - Shenfield widening of 1931-33 but also has plans of the Romford - Gidea Park widening completed in 1931 and some photos including one of the then new carriage sidings. I'd say it was useful background.

 

IIRC an early issue of Modern Railways has an article about how the electrified GE was opearated but that was before 1967 too.

 

Chris

[trisonic]

Oh, yeah - way before. I think it started operating in 1949 between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, would have been earlier but for the War....

 

I've got photos (copyrighted but not with me) of EM1's been tested on this line before the DC Woodhead route was finished. They look good at the head of suburban stock!

 

See: V. Mitchell "Ilford to Shenfield" - Middleton Press

 

Best, Pete.

[keefer]

old-maps.co.uk has a 1963 1:2500 map which has detail of the track layout, try co-ords 553119,189440

 

shows a single trailing crossover down/up slow to the west of the station and the up/slow down/fast crossovers, sidings and warehouse etc. to the east of the station (which is named as 'gidea park and squirrel's heath' station!)

[Ravenser]

Standing with your back to Liverpool St /facing towards Shenfield , the tracks at Gidea Park are, from left to right :

 

Down Electric -- stopping services ("Metro") from Liverpool St to Shenfield

Island Platform

Up Electric - stopping services ("Metro") from Shenfield into Liverpool St

 

Down Main -- outer suburban and InterCity services from Liverpool St to E Anglia

Island Platform

Up Main - outer suburban and InterCity services from E. Anglia/Shenfield into Liverpool St. Google Maps satellite view shows a 4 car unit in this platform

 

The slow lines on the GE are still called the electric lines (unless they've changed it in the last 2 years), although in fact all 4 lines were electrified in 1949

 

Trains on the Down Main/Up Main do not normally stop at Gidea Park: I think that platform is largely there for occasions when the slow lines are closed for engineering works (ie Sundays)

 

The stabling sidings and signing on point are beyond the station on the country side . Somewhere I've seen a reprint of the Modern Railways article on the new electrification scheme from 1949 - though I can't remember where

[Gwiwer]

The "Squirrel's Heath" suffix was gradually dropped and was effectively extinct by the mid 70s, possibly earlier. The name applies to a district nearby though the area is generally referred to simply as "Gidea Park". It is usually pronouncved correctly but in my days working at Liverpool Street we were occasionally asked for the next train to "Guide-er Park" (and once for "Jide-er Park") when "Giddier Park" is correct.

 

Electrification reached gidea Park on 26th September 1949 but was not extended to Southend and Chelmsford until 1956. I cannot locate a reference to whether or not all four tracks were originally electrified or not. Source

http://www.lner.info/locos/Electric/shenfield.shtml

[trisonic]

To be pedantic for a second the 26th September 1949 date was to Shenfield. The Chelmsford date was different to the Southend Victoria date which was later. I need to look that up....

 

OK both lines were open to electric services in 1956 but at different times - Chelmsford on 11th June and Southend Victoria 31st December 1956 (!!!). I would think that due to the nature of the junction just past Shenfield that all four lines were activated but have found no conclusive evidence (and I was only 5 years old then..)

 

Best, Pete.

[Gwiwer]

Quite correct Pete and perhaps I should have made my comments a little clearer. The original electrification reached Shenfield (in stages; in its early days it only reached Chadwell Heath) and it was a full seven years before anything beyond was wired. Until recent years the all-stations inner suburban service mostly terminated at Gidea Park with peak extensions to Shenfield; nowadays almost all run to Shenfield as the Southenders skip some stops which they have traditionall made.

 

An interesting quirk of this and a few other routes is that they have been electrified at three different voltages but with the same rolling stock in use. The original 1500Vdc was converted to 6.25kVac and then 25kVac. The AM6 (later class 306) units built for the electrification and also the AM2 (302) units built for the Southend / Chelmsford extensions have operated on all three systems.

[trisonic]

Do you remember when Shenfield lost it's "Shenfield and Hutton" signs???

 

Best, Pete.

[Gwiwer]

When the early BR signs were replaced with corporate black-on-white. Some of strip-light covers with the full name survived until much later IIRC.

[trisonic]

Here's a photo from 1950 showing an EM1 at Harold Wood (or in the vicinity). If you look back along the line (to the East) all four tracks appear to be covered: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harold_Wood_station_geograph-2383786-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg

 

Best, Pete.

[chrisf]

It was the AM7/307s that were built for the Southend extension. The AM2/302s, which looked very similar but for the headcode panels, were built for the Tilbury line but one might never have guessed that: they were used on the Colchester-Clacton section and later on the Liverpool St lines to cover for the reliability problems of the 305s.

 

Chris