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Hitchin diesel depot


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I've taken a screenshot of Google maps as it's pretty much what I remember from working there. Some sidings were cut short when McDonalds was built, but not by much.

 

The 'Rail maintenance depot' is the previous 2 road  Diesel depot with the track being cut short on the approach to it. 

 

Hitchin.JPG.dc638ba0092c828b3f39f890c16dbc00.JPG

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Remember that place well in the '70s - '80s. It was the p-way ODM dumping ground for many an old yellow track machine awaiting scrapping.

 

There was a departmental Mk.1 BSO there that was still in maroon livery. It had the (unique?) coincidence of the last three digits of its KDB 975269 number matching its previous identity hiding under the paint as E 9269. It vanished sometime in the early '80s I think preserved ?

 

Did it become a diesel depot after that in the '90s or later (and a hiding place for a couple of class 56s) ?

 

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I cannot separate out my photos of the plant from the engineers sidings nearer London on the East side. And this only finds a few of them Paul Bartlett's Photographs | Search (zenfolio.com) Searching for Hitchin. I have a number of the On track plant, some condemned as mentioned. The maroon departmental https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/internal04xxxxer/e2eb3bf6d 

 

Interesting place, I've not visited for many years. I always used to look out for it when passing on a train, and the gap in the low embankment where the engineers depot was entered. Very friendly staff in there, was an important part of rekindling my interest in wagons after the student years hiatus. 

 

Paul

 

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The engineers sidings on the UP side to the south of Hitchin station just before you run out into open countryside - see the Hitchin South box drawing up-thread, was referred to as the stockyard. This was for p-way materials. In the '70s a very good source of random wagons. More recently a housing estate !

 

The ODM / OTP yard was on the DOWN side immediately north of the station where the former junction to the Bedford line diverged from the main line. I concur on the friendliness of the staff in there - always willing to let the inquisitive in for a look around.

 

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7 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

The easy way is this:

 

https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW020885

 

Regards

 

Ian

That map is quite recent, it shows the new flyover from the Down Slow onto the Cambridge Branch.  It also shows my house, and even my wooden garden shed - but not the greenhouse! 

 

Those sidings were used to store quite a lot of On-Track Plant when Jarvis Rail had to withdraw from railway maintenance following the Potters Bar accident.  It just sat there for many months not turning a wheel.  The former Engineer's Sidings on the Up side of the line south of the station had already been lifted to make way for a housing development.

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