Kings Cross York Road & Suburban Platforms

[roythebus]

The small building to the right of the buffer stop and the left of the staircase in the last photo was a toilet that was still lit by gas when i was there in 1979-84. There where also toilets up at Kings Cross goods that the WC's just hung over a trough with running water, and the doors to the cubicles only just came above waist height. You could be seen in all your glory when attending to business. There were some odd hideaways at "The Cross" that hadn't changed, possibly since being built.

 

Paul J.

 

The toilet at KX goods was the subject of many pranks by junior staff...who would block the outlet end with rags, wait for some poor unsuspecting chap to sit down, then set light to some rags up stream and they would float on down...whereupon poor chap would either suffer some minor burns or run out with "unfinished business"...

[roythebus]

If you go forward 3 pictures using the "next" button, you come to this picture...

 

http://www.nrm.org.uk/ourcollection/photo?group=Liverpool%20Street&objid=1995-7233_LIVST_DS_105

 

titled "Kings Cross station, about 1958". This is definitely Kings Cross, as both departure boards advertise Finsbury Park as the first stop. The Platform 12 and Platform 13 signs are in the same style as the Platform 11 sign in the previous photo.

 

Edit: I was just getting a bit confused by the Platform numbering, which has changed over the years.

 

Remember too the station suffered bomb damage in WW2 and the footbridge in the distance was not replaced that I remember.

[roythebus]

I've just found these shots of platform 16 on Flickr. I don't know if they've been pointed out before, but the last one shows just how small the Hotel Curve tunnel looked.

 

https://flic.kr/p/iq7DLK

 

https://flic.kr/p/e3WB63

 

https://flic.kr/p/iq7U43

 

 

Paul J.

 

Edited to correct platform number after Clive Mortimore pointed it out I'd got the wrong one.

 

What surprises me about the last photo is people on the platform. Not passengers as no trains stopped there in the morning that I remember, all were ECS from Moorgate back to Finsbury Park New E sidings on the up side or Holloway. Maybe one or two trains ran back to somewhere like WGC to form another up service? I worked on that line as 2nd man from Dec 75 to when it closed.

[Clive Mortimore]

What surprises me about the last photo is people on the platform. Not passengers as no trains stopped there in the morning that I remember, all were ECS from Moorgate back to Finsbury Park New E sidings on the up side or Holloway. Maybe one or two trains ran back to somewhere like WGC to form another up service? I worked on that line as 2nd man from Dec 75 to when it closed.

I think the photographer might have the time of day wrong. The shadows are being formed by the sun being in the west. I know many things in London are different but the sun still rises in the east.

 

edit please see the following two post.......whoops

Edited December 12, 2017 by Clive Mortimore

[gordon s]

Are you sure about that Clive?  The shadows from the pillars would indicate the sun was shining from the York Road side which would put it in the east not west.  If it was in the afternoon the sun would have been behind platform 17 and the platform would have been in shade.

[Clive Mortimore]

Are you sure about that Clive?  The shadows from the pillars would indicate the sun was shining from the York Road side which would put it in the east not west.  If it was in the afternoon the sun would have been behind platform 17 and the platform would have been in shade.

I've got me head on upside down this morning.

[MikeTrice]

Another of my previously unpublished images. Going through them in detail I spotted this view which shows the different platform levels in the background:

 

Probably taken from York Road platform.

[MikeTrice]

A couple more loaded as high resolution scans:

 

 

[Guest]

A couple more loaded as high resolution scans:

 

Thanks (again) for the photos Mike. They are truly fascinating.

[Joseph_Pestell]

That's what I cant work out, because there are 2 sets of doors on platform 17 in a similar area. These can be seen in Mikes pics in post 243. P17 must of had it's own set of waiting rooms ect alongside those of 16, but on a higher level.

I don't think 17 had any waiting rooms. No reason to really as a train would usually already be in the platform to get in to.

[roythebus]

Apparently when they closed and demolished the old parcels platforms, not only were 10,000 rats made homeless but they found lost parcels dating back to the 1930s under the platforms.

[Guest]

A couple more loaded as high resolution scans:

Untitled-30.jpg

 

Untitled-34.jpg

 

I don't know the date of Mike's photos, but clearly Platforms 14 & 15 have been lifted and Platforms 16 & 17 demolished entirely. There are new platforms and obviously a track realignment under the overall roof to the left of shot. There is still activity in the background though. How much longer did parcels/motorail traffic continue before that was all cleared away too?

Edited December 14, 2017 by Pete 75C

[Swindon 123]

I don't know the date of Mike's photos, but clearly Platforms 14 & 15 have been lifted and Platforms 16 & 17 demolished entirely. There are new platforms and obviously a track realignment under the overall roof to the left of shot. There is still activity in the background though. How much longer did parcels/motorail traffic continue before that was all cleared away too?

During my time there (1979-84) only motorail traffic was handled over in the old milk dock area. All parcel and newspaper traffic was handled in the station, mainly platforms 8 & 9, although the night postal trains also handled a lot, and could be platformed anywhere, but they generally liked to use the higher numbered platforms, 5,6,7, as it didn't involve blocking up across the concourse with rafts of brutes and newspaper trolleys getting in the way and blocking platform access for passengers. The old platform 17 and milk dock sidings where often used for storing various parcels stock stock waiting to be moved over into the station or motorail stock, as they tended to be brought in in a big raft on two ECS trains that the Kings Cross pilot used to shuttle across when a platform became available. This used to make the afternoon shift on the KX pilot a busy one shuttling these vans across the station as well as making up the stock for the motorail bays and putting them onto the front of their respective trains. The early mornings saw the process in reverse with the night turn and the first hours of morning turn doing the reverse with the motorail vans. I can't remember any van only workings into KX, the stock making its way back to Bounds Green via an early afternoon working that picked up vans on its way down from the north, at the various locations they where dropped off the previous day. These mostly carried newspapers, general parcels traffic was more often carried by the service trains.

 

Paul J.

[simon b]

I don't know the date of Mike's photos, but clearly Platforms 14 & 15 have been lifted and Platforms 16 & 17 demolished entirely. There are new platforms and obviously a track realignment under the overall roof to the left of shot. There is still activity in the background though. How much longer did parcels/motorail traffic continue before that was all cleared away too?

The sidings were disconnected in 88, then shortly after in the same year platform 11 was put back into use in the suburban trainshed. The milk dock platforms wernt cleared until early 2000s I think.

[Mike Storey]

During my time there (1979-84) only motorail traffic was handled over in the old milk dock area. All parcel and newspaper traffic was handled in the station, mainly platforms 8 & 9, although the night postal trains also handled a lot, and could be platformed anywhere, but they generally liked to use the higher numbered platforms, 5,6,7, as it didn't involve blocking up across the concourse with rafts of brutes and newspaper trolleys getting in the way and blocking platform access for passengers. The old platform 17 and milk dock sidings where often used for storing various parcels stock stock waiting to be moved over into the station or motorail stock, as they tended to be brought in in a big raft on two ECS trains that the Kings Cross pilot used to shuttle across when a platform became available. This used to make the afternoon shift on the KX pilot a busy one shuttling these vans across the station as well as making up the stock for the motorail bays and putting them onto the front of their respective trains. The early mornings saw the process in reverse with the night turn and the first hours of morning turn doing the reverse with the motorail vans. I can't remember any van only workings into KX, the stock making its way back to Bounds Green via an early afternoon working that picked up vans on its way down from the north, at the various locations they where dropped off the previous day. These mostly carried newspapers, general parcels traffic was more often carried by the service trains.

 

Paul J.

 

There was certainly no motorail or separate parcels activity there by the time of my arrival at the Cross in 1987, and most of the structures had already been demolished.

[bennyboy]

There is this picture from 1985 with what looks like a Newton Chambers Car Carrier in the Milk Dock, so the Motorail traffic must have lasted at least until then.

 

 

31 159 on the Motorail shunt at London Kings Cross. 25/05/85. by Adrian Nicholls, on Flickr

[simon b]

On 14/12/2017 at 07:44, Pete 75C said:

I don't know the date of Mike's photos, but clearly Platforms 14 & 15 have been lifted and Platforms 16 & 17 demolished entirely. There are new platforms and obviously a track realignment under the overall roof to the left of shot. There is still activity in the background though. How much longer did parcels/motorail traffic continue before that was all cleared away too?

Weston sidings platforms in 2006 shortly before demolition work started.

 

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by simon b

[simon b]

Here's one that hasn't been posted yet. 40 121 at the then platform 11 with a rake of mk1 suburbans from Peterborough.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by simon b

[Guest]

Not having anything better to do on this gloomy December morning, another Flickr search has revealed the following shots. As much as I like Class 31s, they do rather get in the way of the Kings Cross infrastructure...

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhayes/5357303859

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/david_christie/5643173912/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/59835095@N02/6615656191/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/locohunter/12703631393/

I'm assuming that's a BRCW Type 2 in the background before they all moved north?

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/69388036@N08/16757327535/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/59835095@N02/6615661941/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/profsb/19344878649/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/59835095@N02/6260673716/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16236990@N08/2983059185/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/63924222@N06/8124351854/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/59835095@N02/6260146671/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125096403@N08/27942843276/

[russ p]

Some cracking pictures there Pete, that is what became a 26 in the background

[stovepipe]

Some more LT movements I've just stumbled across.

 

Peak, Kings X by Will Welch, on Flickr

 

Tube Car, Kings X by Will Welch, on Flickr

 

Tube stock, Kings X by Will Welch, on Flickr

Other end of Tube stock, Kings X by Will Welch, on Flickr

Edited December 20, 2017 by stovepipe

[Joseph_Pestell]

A Peak at the Cross is interesting.

[Fat Controller]

A Peak at the Cross is interesting.

They were relatively common, especially on workings to Newcastle, IIRC. They tended to be the later Class 46 variety, Gateshead having some allocated there.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Class 46s were a daily sight at KX, from the 1960s until the 1980s. GD had half the class for ages.

[keefer]

Great pics, there can't be that many images of the LU stock trains