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Kings Cross to Welwyn viaduct in the 60's.....Such memories!


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Just stumbled across this video. 21 minutes of BR Eastern set in 1961 from Kings Cross through to my old stomping grounds of Wood Green and north to Welwyn viaduct. 

 

Not seen it before, so a great way to reminisce the last days of steam. A bit of a naff commentary, but loads of good footage that I hadn't seen before.

 

Enjoy...

 

 

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Great film.

Thanks for bringing it to a wider audience.

Marshmoor (Welham Green) where I worked back in the 80s was particularly interesting. An impressive crossover from down slow to up slow.

 

Edited by McGomez
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That was great Gordon. I was born in WGC and for the first couple of years of my life lived near the Digswell viaduct but don't remember much from then.  A bit later on in the 50s I used to spend some of the school summer holidays with my grandparents who still lived in WGC and I spent many happy days spotting on the embankment opposite the 20th Mile bridge sign. Happy days indeed!

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Ah, my youthful yesterdays. Coming up Holloway bank on a sub turn, being overtaken by a pacific was the stuff of dreams. Should there unfortunately be boring adults in the compartment there would be brusque commands to 'shut that window'. Child abuse, that's what that was. I suppose in retrospect some apology is due to those travelling for work who found soot stains and cinders in their compartment.

 

I doubt that the 'Swedey Met' (N7) running North light engine was off to Doncaster. Much more likely returning to its home shed, Hatfield 34C, as it is pretty clean. Probably had worked an up suburban service with a failed L1, NBL DE type 2, EE Baby Deltic or a Cravens DMU, in order for it to reach KX. (Those who didn't experience it would probably scarcely believe what a mess KX suburban services were at this time, due to this concentration of these seriously deficient traction designs. The Brush type 2 was really well regarded. It was the faithful servant, as the N2 and N7 classes then being displaced had been...)

 

One question is prompted by what was once a regular sight on the fast freights: were these ever stopped for a clearly detaching wagon sheet?

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Thanks for that Gordon. I was a young spare fireman on loan to Top Shed from Grantham Dec. '58 to Dec.'60. So I worked along this stretch a lot of the time. On the L1s, N2s, B1s . I got to know the road between KX & Wood Green / Bounds Green carriage sidings ; Every signal & sidings.

 

With the odd main line trip on the "big hitters".....Great days & great memories.  So enjoyed a nice nostalgic trip back in time.

 

Regards, Roy.

 

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I spent a lot of time between KX and Wood Green when I was still at school. We lived in Palmers Green so I was brought up on N2’s and quad arts....

 

Loved the shots where a fast express overtook the local. That happened a lot and it was great to see an A4 overtaking at walking pace as it gathered speed. We would always make a point of looking for the expresses that stopped at Finsbury Park. Meant we could imagine that we were on The Elizabethan for a few minutes before jumping off at FP and getting back on a Hertford local to Palmers Green.

 

Happy days....

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12 hours ago, Silver Sidelines said:

...In my memories the engines were more shiny...

My feeling is that this is memory playing tricks on us. Indeed there were gleaming green pacifics, and the occasional V2 likewise, and some of the black engines shiny with all the lining visible. These are what made the big impression, and thus what we remember. Most of the locos were dirty. Other than the heavy freight locos not dreadfully so, you could see that they had been cleaned within the past week or so, but the plentiful supply of tunnel time near KX meant the exhaust soon adhered...

 

12 hours ago, Silver Sidelines said:

... was surprised just how many of Mr Gresley's panelled coaches were still in use and how many Mk1s were displaying blood and custard.

I found myself asking is this really all 1961? Much of the footage looked more likely to be 1960 in my opinion. While the inner sub service is clearly on diesel traction, there was no sight  of Finsbury Park diesel depot which opened at the start of 1960. I don't recall seeing a  Deltic in the footage, and they were arriving from March 61 onwards.  That clean N7 running down line somewhere South of Hatfield; Hatfield shed had the allocation, and Hatfield shed closed early 1960.

 

The impression I formed on the coach stock was that there was a big effort to achieve near all mk 1 in maroon during 62/63 as steam was eliminated from the area. Quite abruptly the teak panelled stock ran down from seen in nearly every main line train to 'gone', other than the full brakes, buffets and some sleeping cars. (Although happily the pre-grouping concept Quad Art sets were still on view 'in reserve' until 1966!) Likewise crimson and cream disappeared. (While I mourned the loss of steam, the all maroon mk1 coaches looked good. Other than the GNER livery, I have never seen the railway's coaching stock look so well since...)

 

 

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16 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

 

 

....... the plentiful supply of tunnel time near KX meant the exhaust soon adhered...

Thanks 34C  My memories would be from Newcastle and Darlington where fewer tunnels and more cleaners might have kept engines looking smarter?  There was a step change (downwards) after Beeching.

 

16 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

 

I found myself asking is this really all 1961? .

 

 

I hadn't factored in the idea that it might be very early 1960s.  I was still puzzling over the mucky engines and thinking after Beeching.  I never actually spotted an A3 with German Smoke Deflectors as they could not have made it up north before '62.  But you are correct about the lack of Deltics and the Type 4s which preceded them.

 

A great film,

 

Cheers  Ray

 

PS In another life I had a job interview in the 1980s at Potters Bar.  I can remember looking at a house 'for sale' just off the north east end of Welwyn Viaduct.

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Had you taken that job and house, you might have been in the room at the Ove Arup hosted review of the potential schemes for four tracking the viaduct and tunnels bottleneck, during which I proposed as an alternative the (obvious) TGV solution of a fast lines ramp from North of WGC, double decking the viaduct, (It is structurally sound for the job) and 'straight over the top' of the little Chiltern pimple, ramping down the other side. Cheap too! Fruity voice from back of the hall: "You sir, are a complete bastard.".

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53 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

I saw one Deltic. There was also a 'Baby Deltic', and a rather curious Brush Type 2, with what looked like a black patch on the front, popped up twice.

Will have to go for another look for that Deltic. Saw both Baby Deltic and Brush 2 twice at least. Didn't perceive anything odd about either of the Brush 2 sightings I noticed (had a constant stream of phone interruptions while viewing so a little distracted). Oh, and at least two 'speed whisker' Cravens units were briefly seen in background. None of the other type 2 diesels once allocated (21, 24, 26) which does argue for latter half of 1960 as the earliest date I think.

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Just sat and watched it all again. There's a baby Deltic at 1.44 and a Deltic at 20.10, but I couldn't really work out what the diesel was sitting in the station at 18.54. Probably something obvious to you guys, but as a steam guy, I'm not sure.

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At 18.54: it's another Baby Deltic. At WGC, quite likely on a down Cambridge Buffet Express, given that the lighting direction suggests it's outside peak hours.

Edited by Nimbus
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what a great little film - one that will repay repeated viewing, as there's so much going on in what is really a series of short clips.

rare sight of a dia.700 RK at 2:38

class 24, bottom right of screen at 2:56

nice bit of wheelslip from 'curlew' restarting the train at 14:18

Edited by keefer
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On 07/03/2019 at 11:49, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Had you taken that job and house, you might have been in the room at the Ove Arup hosted review ...

Thanks 34C , in an even earlier life I was interviewed by Arups but instead chose to work for Atkins (Sir WS).  I too might have been in the room but instead advised on Drax and the New Selby Coal Mine.

 

Cheers  Ray

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