Euston underground - confused childhood memories....

[johnb]

According to Wikipedia, in the latter days of Aldwych station the lift operator checked tickets during the vertical journey, so it's quite possible Mornington Crescent had something similar. 

Quite correct, my company leased an office in Aldwych station for a while (around mid to late '60s) and the only toilet facilities were the station loos, so we had to use the office back door into the staton booking hall to reach said facilities. Yes the lift operator had a little wheeled ticket office which was trundled into the lift towards the end of morning 'rush' and for the evening 'rush' as well. The station was only open during morning and evening so called 'rushes'.

 

John

[roythebus]

Traffic from the Northern to Piccadilly lines at Euston would have been quite sparse at the best of times, so it's very unlikely that most people would even realise there's a link there.

[rockershovel]

All the moles that I know from JLE-days are in the process of going to Israel, to work on a new metro there. Are you packing your bags?

K

No, too involved in the oil industry these days. Wife retired last year, children flying the nest... I'm cutting back on work, if I do 90-100 days this year that'll be enough.

 

Ben

[The Stationmaster]

According to Wikipedia, in the latter days of Aldwych station the lift operator checked tickets during the vertical journey, so it's quite possible Mornington Crescent had something similar. 

 

That happened at several LT stations with lifts back in the 1960s (and no doubt earlier)

[Nearholmer]

Thumbnail of photo of Aldwych lift, from the LTM collection. It looks like a little home-from-home!

 

K

[bécasse]

Traffic from the Northern to Piccadilly lines at Euston would have been quite sparse at the best of times, so it's very unlikely that most people would even realise there's a link there.

 

King's Cross, not Euston, Roy. The Pic runs in a generally southerly direction going south from King's Cross to Russell Square and Holborn and it never gets near Euston.

[gordon s]

I think that lost something in translation.  Roy was referring to the link that ran from the Northern line at Euston to the Piccadilly Line at Kings Cross.  

 

See this link and scroll down 90% of the page....

 

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/e/euston_station/index.shtml

[stewartingram]

No, too involved in the oil industry these days. Wife retired last year, children flying the nest... I'm cutting back on work, if I do 90-100 days this year that'll be enough.

 

Ben

 

Who removed the "Jealous" button...........?

 

Stewart

[rockershovel]

Who removed the "Jealous" button...........?

 

Stewart

Well, feel free to do what I did thirty five years ago... actually a lot of contractors in the oil industry do 100-130 days a year actual work. Add in the hanging about (unpaid) waiting for visas, holding yourself available for jobs that are dependent on OTHER things being completed first, lost time due to jibs that are postponed and cancelled at short notice and it really means you are more-or-less committed 160-180 days a year. That's the REAL reason that regular rotations are so highly valued, they optimise the balance between paid time, unpaid-but-committed and plain ol' unpaid and looking.

 

Broadly speaking I have done 6 days work in March, first paid work since November. I've spent at least ten days doing various things I won't get paid for, but are deemed to be covered, or are an intrinsic part of contracting. I mobilise after Easter and I expect to do three x 4 week rotations (actually more like 31 on, 25 off with at least two days unpaid travelling per rotation) until early Sept, when I MIGHT get another in Oct but won't know for some months yet.

 

I spend the first two days of each leave sleeping off the 5 hr time difference and 16 hour journey. I may get offered some short trips, yard visits or the like, between rotations and you don't favour yourself by declining these, especially in present market conditions.

 

Not that I'm complaining, when you don't enjoy it any more, you should stop. I've been an oilfield tramp the best part of four decades now, actually I first started rig work in 1974, apart from 10 years in civils and occasional mining jobs. It's not a job, it's a way of life.

[G.M.R.]

Thanks for all your posts. I use the internet for extensive research whenever I'm stuck, so can only guess I was using vague search terms. Certainly the links and your posts have gone a long way to confirm it wasn't my mind playing tricks. Great to see those pics of Euston as an island platform. My earliest memories would have been when I was probably around four, so 1952. We did use the Piccadilly line a lot, so the second question could have been Piccadilly Circus, although my money is still on the Northern Line.

 

This link talks about a link tunnel from the Northern Line to the Piccadilly, so that could possibly explain that. Curious about Mornington Crescent though and how two lines pass through the station, but only the Kennington Line trains stop. Could you see the Kings Cross northern line trains from Mornington Crescent platform?

 

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/e/euston_station/index.shtml

Has to have been Euston. I lived in Kenton during the fifties and sixties. Used to travel with brother and dad into town via bakerloo from either Kenton through Willesden, or from Kingsbury. Several train spotting sites visited, including Euston mainline. I vividly remember the underground station just as you describe, Gordon, complete with the lattice overbridge, island platform and trains flashing by in adjacent tunnels. I wonder if we were ever there at the same time as each other?

[Patrick Blake]

I'm slightly confused about the Island Platform arrangement at Euston. From memories of others who have seen it, it's often repeated that an overbridge once resided there, though unlike other Island Platform arrangements, this platform had an overbridge somewhere across the middle more towards the King's Cross end, this is clear from observing the suspended access point to the tunnel that would have taken you to the Lifts.
However, through all the photographs I've seen, not one shows clearly said overbridge. What makes Euston Island Platform unique, is that it's arrangement came with a second exit which took you to the Charing Cross Branch.

[gordon s]

Thanks for your post Geoff (GMR).  I'm glad to read after all these years, I wasn't imagining the island platform and other trains passing through.  Surely we can't have imagined the exact same thing.....:-)

[Nearholmer]

PB

 

There are good diagrams here http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/e/euston_station/index.shtml , which make clear how the passageway to the CCEH and that to the lifts related to one another.

 

I've been "back of house" at Euston a couple of times, but admit to not being able to remember with certainty whether any remnants of the passageway in question still exist - I'm pretty sure they do, but not 100% sure.

 

K

[stewartingram]

Platform 6 at Euston (from memory) is the widened original tunnel. The extra wide platform can be compared to the roof shape. At the tailwall end there is a locked lattice gate which I frequently enter. This ha steps up to a passage (bridge) to the old lift shafts of the original station buildings which were taken out of use during the 60s rebuild. The building can still be seen on the corner of Melton St & Euston St, on the west side of the main line station. In this passageway I photographed a poster advertising the Blue Pullman service, there were plenty of old posters there but sadly they have been defaced badly recently. I have walked further round these passages, there is an old ticket office window still there which I also photgraphed.

At the headwall end of the platform, I have walked into the tunnels; there is evidence of the original route back to platform 6 which was the sb road on the other side of the original island platform.

 

Stewart