Art Deco Island Platform?

[iL Dottore]

You mention a crossover, do your engineering plans have a track plan showing were it was.  I ask because I googled a photo (link below) which shows 2 running tunnels entering a large bore tunnel and I do not understand its caption.  If it shows the abandoned northbound tunnel, why is there no track in the southbound tunnel? Also note that the running tunnels are too close for a platform or a signal box

 

 

http://www.davros.org/rail/photos/p005.html

 

I managed to find several other period photos of Angel station by Googling 'Angel Station' and selecting images

 

Roger

The crossover is beyond the signal box. I would imagine that the reason there is no track in the southbound tunnel is that the photo postdates the rebuild of Angel. The view is looking into the running tunnels from the large bore tunnel that contained the crossovers and the signal box. The tunnel portals leading to the station would be behind the photographer.

 

I too have Googled "Angel Station" and some interesting odds and ends turn up. Most, unfortunately, are not to the level of detail/right time period/looking the right way that I need. However, by compiling photos of Angel and other remaining island platforms, I am slowly building up a reasonable picture of the station.

 

iD

[coachmann]

Ant & Dec Island Platform?   Should have gone to specsavers.

[Dagworth]

Have you found this?

 

http://www.spiderbomb.com/blog/?p=1367

 

 

Andi

[iL Dottore]

Have you found this?

http://www.spiderbomb.com/blog/?p=1367

Andi

thanks, I had seen it, but never watched it (now remedied)

iD

[L49]

You mention a crossover, do your engineering plans have a track plan showing were it was.  I ask because I googled a photo (link below) which shows 2 running tunnels entering a large bore tunnel and I do not understand its caption.  If it shows the abandoned northbound tunnel, why is there no track in the southbound tunnel? Also note that the running tunnels are too close for a platform or a signal box

 

 

http://www.davros.org/rail/photos/p005.html

 

I managed to find several other period photos of Angel station by Googling 'Angel Station' and selecting images

 

Roger

 

This is one of the abandoned sections of the station which we visited to survey many years ago off the north end of the station. The running line in the left foreground is the former Northbound running tunnel, which was in use until the rebuilding, and has now been superceded by a new line in new tunnel away to the left. The tunnel on the right is actually a short stub, which at the time of the survey we reckoned was a loco siding dating back to C&SLR days, as when you look at it closely, you will see that it is a smaller diameter than the running tunnel, and therefore appears not to have been enlarged during the reconstruction in the 20s, when all the City branch tunnels were opened out for standard LER tube stock. It certainly didn't go back far, although it was in use for storage when we visited site, so I never ascertained whether there were any stop blocks or any other clues at the blank head wall end. There was no connection from this tunnel into the Southbound running tunnel, nor any evidence that there had been one. I don't know how many other sections of small bore C&SLR tunnel are still in existence, but this in itself must be pretty rare!

 

The crossover tunnel and signal cabin were both at the opposite end of the station, which with retrospect is why I never saw them, as we weren't working at that end, and I would guess (although this is just a guess, as I haven't made a point of looking out) that the crossover tunnel is still visible, as the original southbound road still runs through it.

 

There were quite a few loco refuges built into the C&SLR, particularly during the extensions towards Euston, allowing fast reversal at various intermediate stations. If you want to read about just how flexible the system was, especially when used with only a passing glance towards the rule book, have a look for the copy of Underground News which featured a description of the last evening of loco haulage, and the shunting operations which were taken to clear one running line for rebuilding, while storing all the existing stock on the other one.

 

Hope this is useful. I'm afraid my memory of the layout of the site is a bit hazy, and only comes back to me when it is jogged by different photos.

[bécasse]

As I understand it the original layout at Angel was (from the Kings Cross end):

 

Two long single bore siding tunnels (which in due course became the running lines to/from Kings Cross and Euston)

then the large bore tunnel commenced with a scissors crossover

then the signal box between the running lines

then a constructed wall with two single bore openings and a doorway under the staircase to the signal box

then the staircase down to the platforms

then a much shorter island platform than in later days

then another scissors crossover

then the southbound tunnel commenced

but the northbound was in an offset large bore tunnel which contained the point for the siding

then, for a short way, there were three parallel single bore tunnels - southbound, northbound, siding.

 

You have to remember that in C&SLR days the loco hauled trains were much shorter. The locos were only 14 feet long and the trains were originally 3 carriages each 32 feet long, later 4 or, at peak hours, 5 - so  even a peak hour train was only around 175 feet long.

Once multiple-unit operation commenced after rebuilding, the 7 carriage peak hour trains were around 370 feet long, each carriage being a bit under 53 feet long.

 

Fifty plus years ago, it was said that the siding had originally been much longer, sufficient to hold a train, however not long before the line closed for rebuilding it had become necessary to back a defective 5 carriage train into it and the driver (reversing in with his loco at the outer end) misjudged the length thinking he had a 4 rather than 5 carriage train. Nobody was in the train and, although it wasn't quite of Moorgate proportions, much of the resulting mess was considered too tangled to be worth clearing up.The tunnel was walled up leaving a short short-term loco spur which was subsequently used a store. At the time I was told the story of course, there were still people around who had been employees at the time and remembered these things.

[Fenman]

thanks, I had seen it, but never watched it (now remedied)

iD

 

Molly Dineen's documentary about Angel station has been released on DVD by the British Film Institute, as part of a retrospective of all her work (The Ark, filmed at London Zoo, is also extraordinary, as is the series she made about squaddies in Northern Ireland).

 

Here's a link to the DVD, in case you want to see it in good quality rather than a Youtube boot-leg copy.

 

Paul

[bécasse]

There is a 1950s photo of the island platform at Euston looking towards the access stairway here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/warsaw1948/5474223723/in/set-72157626070269684

[iL Dottore]

There is a 1950s photo of the island platform at Euston looking towards the access stairway here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/warsaw1948/5474223723/in/set-72157626070269684

Thanks. Very helpful. This photo shows extremely well the glass shaded lamps, which - quite frankly - are going to be a bit of a bu99er to model, especially as I want the diorama/layout to be lit only by representations of the original lighting. Presumably the original incandescent lighting used 100W or 150W bulbs? (I would have thought anything below 100W would have been too dim).

 

Of course, this sort of protype lighting makes using LEDs impractical, so I think I'll have to use grain of rice bulbs (unless anyone has some, hem-hem, bright ideas). The glass shades will be a challenge as well.

 

iD

 

p.s. stay tuned for a forthcoming LU thread entitled CAMDEN LOCK (or how I got drafted by Yerkes) - my diorama build.

[iL Dottore]

FYI - I have started a thread on the Island Platform diorama: CAMDEN LOCK

 

Enjoy

 

iD