Jump to content
 

Met & Widened Lines Around mid-1930s


MarshLane
 Share

Recommended Posts

On 14/06/2022 at 21:01, Michael Hodgson said:

Just a wild guess, but the station is very close to Smithfield market which would be serviced by meat vans.  Presumably the meat vans would need cleaning out, disinfecting etc?  I don't think they would have wanted to do that at the underground sidings at the  - did they haul them out to Faringdon and clean them there?  A job that didn't need road access.  The opens prsumably just supplies used at the station.

Or, since that traffic was predominantly off the Western, hauled out empty to Acton and cleaned out there?

  • Agree 1
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hi, Becasse,  my memories of Farringdon in the 1950s include a postitive link between the Met and the widened lines immediately at the north end of the Farringdon platforms,  and also an 08 shunter parked at what i believe was a head shunt for the Farrngdon LNER depot. This was on a definite rising gradient and the buffers were right under the trolleybus only bridge part of the famous 'grid iron' structure.

  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

This is a 1970s view from the page at abandonedstations, linked to previously:

Screenshot_20221001-115002.png.0e362f3732bd8fd788d6bbf07f10598f.png

As can be seen, the small headshunt on the left seems to be rising quite steeply - however it is actually near level, the Widened Lines tracks next to it are actually dropping steeply to go under the Grid Iron in the distance.

  • Like 3
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
5 hours ago, keefer said:

This is a 1970s view from the page at abandonedstations, linked to previously:

Screenshot_20221001-115002.png.0e362f3732bd8fd788d6bbf07f10598f.png

As can be seen, the small headshunt on the left seems to be rising quite steeply - however it is actually near level, the Widened Lines tracks next to it are actually dropping steeply to go under the Grid Iron in the distance.

Remember the ex GNR Goods Depot closed in 1956 and the track connections were removed before that picture was taken - or they would be visible. The purpose of the headshunt was to hold a loco used to assist inter-regional trains (mainly freight) from Farringdon to Holborn Viaduct.

 

Regards

Chris H

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Going back to that second overbridge, I see is/was called Vine Street bridge.  The odd thing about it was that there never seemed to be  any other traffic on it, just used by trolleybuses as a lay by.  When

I last saw it, maybe 1960 or so,  there were little sort of junction   boxes in that roadway, and an unmistakable trolley ohle pole. still standing. Does anypne know if its even still there.   Immediately across the road was an imposing building,  the HQ of Pooleys, who had those unusual railway P.O.wagons  for weighbridge adjustment.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Having scan-read this thread again, a lot of the warehouses in the Farringdon road area adjoining the railway has access to underground sidings. There's a night club  just near the white L shape on the photo above that went down at least 3 floors and fr some considerable distance, maybe under the main road as well. That was certainly the case with the buildings next to the Met Railway goods depot on the west side of the main road. A lot of what appear to be dead-end sidings on various OS maps aren't, they run under the buildings to the extensive underground goods depots. again Harsig is your friend in a lot of these cases.

  • Like 1
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

On 01/10/2022 at 11:58, keefer said:

This is a 1970s view from the page at abandonedstations, linked to previously:

Screenshot_20221001-115002.png.0e362f3732bd8fd788d6bbf07f10598f.png

As can be seen, the small headshunt on the left seems to be rising quite steeply - however it is actually near level, the Widened Lines tracks next to it are actually dropping steeply to go under the Grid Iron in the distance.

 

What traffic passed over the crossover from the Metropolitan lines to the Widened Lines?  It appears that the crossover was installed when the Widened Lines were built.  So did Met or GWR trains use it to access south of the Thames?

  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
3 hours ago, Penrhos1920 said:

 

What traffic passed over the crossover from the Metropolitan lines to the Widened Lines?  It appears that the crossover was installed when the Widened Lines were built.  So did Met or GWR trains use it to access south of the Thames?

The GWR used it to access their depot at Smithfield.

Andrew

  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 18/10/2023 at 14:00, Penrhos1920 said:

 

What traffic passed over the crossover from the Metropolitan lines to the Widened Lines?  It appears that the crossover was installed when the Widened Lines were built.  So did Met or GWR trains use it to access south of the Thames?

Anything requiring access to the various goods depots under the city or south of the river via Holborn Viaduct from the Met would use that crossover. Trains from the Midland or Eastern would be on the Widened Lines all the way. The Snow Hill line to Holborn was very busy until WW2. Passenger ervices ceased at that time as the track capacity was required for cross-London freight.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
7 minutes ago, roythebus1 said:

Anything requiring access to the various goods depots under the city or south of the river via Holborn Viaduct from the Met would use that crossover.

Was there any, apart from the GW to Smithfield? I thought all the traffic to Snow Hill originated from the GN or Midland, and didn't use Circle Line rails at all.

  • Agree 1
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

There were the Acton-Hither Green freights. th line was indeed very busy during WW2 as one of the primary routes from the north across London, when the other lot weren't bombing it to pieces.

 

I've recently read a book about damage to London's railways during WW2 and, going off-thread a bit, the cross_London routes were Liverpool Street-Shoreditch-East London Line for trains from the east, Farringdon Street-Snow Hill-Holborn Viaduct, West London line, Acton Wells-North London Line to Brentford-Feltham yard. There was a limited amount of traffic that went Gunnersbury-Richmond limited due to weight limit on Kew Railway bridge. The next north-south link would ahve been Reading-Wokingham-places south. It's an interesting book, very worrying when you realise that Britain almost ran out of railway wagons because empty stock couldn't be moved back to where it was required. Cross-London passenger services never really restarted after WW2 until the late 1980s.

  • Like 1
  • Informative/Useful 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

Another odd thing about this area  is that somehow crammed in between the cutting wall

adjacent to the EASTBOUND  L.T. . Farringdon platform was a  trade typesetting firm with a series of tiny rooms one above another down to sort of track level. ( Linotype by the way not Monotype)  Their  very unobtrusive front door opened onto the street above.

  • Like 1
  • Informative/Useful 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...