Engineer_London

Related to post 1737. The BR test unit reached quite a number of places on the Underground, not only Hammersmith but also Northfields ... Post 1079 on this page: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/60196-the-human-side-of-the-railway/page-44

Image made from two exposures. 26 November 2018 22:34 Baker Street platform 1 Engineers train stabled as part of B2F [baker Street to Finchley Road] night track work.

Attached sketch shows typical configuration for the bus line [termed the 'Train Line' on Metropolitan Railway technical documents]. The graphic shows relative positions of vehicles, electric locomotive [pointed symbol], and configuration relative to the line. Taking a typical full formation, there are Third Brake coaches at outer ends, with the truck beneath the brake compartment carrying shoebeams and shoegear. Preserved Main Line stock vehicles B3 427 and 1/3 Composite 509 both have traction receptacles still in place. Main Line Stock to 1933 R3 min 3 Traction Supply bus line - Copy.pdf

Some useful references if further research is needed. Mentions and pictures of the coaches in France crop up in Modern Transport 1963/05/25 and in articles or letters in Underground News April, May, November 2016 and October 2017. Underground News items also mention similar articles in 'Archive' and 'Backtrack' magazines. I hope I can make an observation on post 17, related to Bogie Stock, without causing upset, please: I support the point that the currently-available Bogie Stock in 4mm kit or 3D form does not include the steam-era coach configurations. There is no available item that has the body arrangement for the First Class Bogie Stock coach, either. This makes it difficult to form not only a steam-hauled train but also any of the electric stock formations [M, N, W, Y] of the Metropolitan that included Bogie Stock coaches. I don't have the skills to build from scratch so live in hope of obtaining kits for 3-4 Firsts one day, in whatever material is best for quality and getting it to market.

Many thanks for the buffer stop test film's link in post 26914 in this thread: https://player.bfi.o...ord-1945-online After viewing this, I found in the same website a film with scenes on the Witham to Maldon East line in the late 1950s. I couldn't find a previous mention of this film in a quick RMWeb search. As well as general interest, and its East Anglia and Eastern Region context, it contains some vignettes of places and activities on the line that could be useful for modeling: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-witham-to-maldon-east-1957-online

As in post 4 - In the early 1960s I saw a device not far from the siding exit which I was told was a derailer, something like this: https://goo.gl/images/WiQH9z found in: http://www.clag.org.uk/3rd-4th.html I am happy for the experts to correct me, as it was a long time ago. Similarly, from post 23, "All that would be missing would be Q and R Stock.". I will bow to the experts, however I believe this combination might have been covered by the District trains over the North side of the Circle on Sundays, many years ago. On further information, I have spotted a small detail within an old drawing of the station that shows an elevation of the buffer positions on p1 and the siding. Centre-to-centre of tracks approximately 18 feet.

Better images this evening, still not ideal: The view towards the stop mark for platform 1. Another building sits on the siding footprint these days. A closer view of the structure around the hydraulic buffers, which are modern items together with buffers more suited to modern stock. The stop mark is well short of this. A view of the old brick structure, still in place, which I guess was a 'rest room' for the crew unloading wagons of coal into the Chiltern Court bunkers. The picture gives an impression of the space behind this structure where the siding would have been. A side view of the structure around the hydraulic buffers for the platform road. I'm sure that there is a narrow walkway behind the door that passes right behind the hydraulic installation and also behind/above where the siding buffer block was [or still is?]. I guess that the access door is original, and the poster frames alongside are Metropolitan in origin, with traces of the railway company name in paint at the top of the frame. Almost opposite, on the back wall of platform 1 there is a more well-known restoration of a Metropolitan-era sign advertising the Chiltern Court Restaurant.

I don't have a lot to hand, and sadly no photographs of the siding in place that add to the story. When very small, I remember the siding, particularly that it had a power-operated derailer for protection against wagon runaway - there was no trap point. In the very early years of my career I visited the Chiltern Court boilers area at a time of reconstruction. I did see where the siding used to end, with a built-in timber buffer. Many years later, I took some very quick pictures in passing and to my embarrassment they are both poor and shaken and spoiled, but I include them here because it may fill a gap until good material surfaces - and I've even managed to get the pictures out of order at first attempt! I believe the siding ran close and straight in a position parallel to the low brick wall in the picture. The structure in the shadows on the siding alignment is a later construction, almost certainly related to the Chiltern Court facilities. The above picture reinforces that the straight siding had good space between it and the platform road. It shows well the curve in platform 1. I want to be a bit careful here as I don't have much evidence or dated material to hand, but I know that Baker Street had many layout variants over the years with quite interesting features. By the early 20th century there was a separate bay platform 1 and up to about 1913, give or take, the platform 1 curve we see continued to swing to the right. The alignment lay roughly parallel to the stairs and alongside the present-day wall where there used to be small shops up to a few years ago. The realignment of platform 1, to end perpendicular to the Circle platform 5, was one of a sequence of Metropolitan reconstructions on the Baker Street site. This also shows platform 1 looking away from the buffers. The earlier platform1 alignment passed to the right of the blue telephone kiosk. The Platform 1 hydraulic buffers - a terrible image but gives a reasonable impression. The brick building with two windows was in place when the siding was operational and the siding lay behind it and extended to the buffer position mentioned previously roughly in line with the back wall of the structure around the hydraulic buffers. It may take a while, but I'll see what more I can find out.

I hope the picture below is helpful - I think it came from an encyclopaedia and reflects the 1939 rebuild. Having seen some of the old drawings of the station, I noticed that the access passage between CSLR subterranean booking hall and the front of the GNR station had to be slightly hogged to pass over the enclosed Fleet Sewer. Note in the picture the 'Show House'. I've not found references to this as yet but I was told it was put in place around the time of the 1924 Empire Exhibition [my family were local, living just up Pancras Road between the main line stations].

Just to complement the original picture, a different angle on the same site, early 1984, from the rear cab of a moving train of 1983 Stock on a fleeting gauging visit.

A grabbed picture of train despatch teamwork, Liskeard Down today, train 1C04

I apologise for responding late, thanks to troubled world of work. There was an opportunity last week for me to detour and ride from Highbury to Drayton Park and back. Not much is visible from the saloon, of course, but I confirm the abandoned junction tunnel, at quite a shallow angle trailing into the Northbound running tunnel. I estimate it's about 2-3 train lengths south of Drayton Park. Riding southbound, there's not much to see, maybe a trace of a cross-passage at about the same distance from DP, but wouldn't be confident of this. Already mentioned is the crossover directly south of Drayton Park, in the brick arch section between Drayton Park's platforms.and the southbound bores. I've checked with some original construction drawings and a later layout drawing, and this particular crossover site is part of the original line design. I think I have the explanation for the small piece of junction tunnel, but I need a bit more time to track down some drawings to confirm - bear with me. Meanwhile, at Drayton Park I seized the opportunity for a swift but low-quality picture over the wall alongside the station, happily including a train, the one I arrived on, which awaited assisted despatch. The greenery is the former Drayton Park depot, much changed from my sole visit just a few weeks before LT operation ended.

Referring swiftly to posts 214 and 215, and aiming to close with thanks and allow the proper topic to resume unhindered: Many thanks to CJL for the additional off-topic information on one of the less-covered features of the branch. I'm very grateful also to CF for the positive response. Who knows what the future holds - I'll certainly learn from the rich pickings and wisdom here. Must admit threads seem to me more like scary and fast-moving anacondas, so I continue for now on the safe fringes, gleaning from RMWeb and all the other sources that surface, and occasionally posting a picture or something factual and helpful from my own narrow areas of expertise. I am about a decade in with the research, and just a few practical results stored away - some experimental boards for the layout [12' + FY with negligible compression], a signalling design and a train movements and stock analysis. Life and work stand in the way of anything more.

Helping, I hope, with a loose end from post 197: "A photograph is known to exist of the GW twin railcar set on the Uxbridge branch in 1960. The search for it continues. Not tonight though ..." Visiting my local history library at Uxbridge a few years ago, I saw the picture of the GW twin and I have a copy of it with me. It is library reference 'UXTP R16' but it is originally a clipping from a magazine, I expect, photographer M. Pope. Specific facts in the caption are: "... ex-GWR twinset Nos W33 and W38 ... leaves Uxbridge on 24 September 1960." By way of irrelevant background explanation for coming up with the above, I'm perennially researching for a model of Uxbridge Vine Street in N [now probably will be a retirement project] so all sorts of material could be of interest, including this thread - many thanks to CF and all. In all the pictures I've encountered of Uxbridge-related DMU operations [and I'm not an expert at main line stock recognition], there have been only GWR/ex-GWR vehicles and the Pressed Steel single car and 3-car stock, and the Diesel Parcels vehicles. I'm old enough to have seen a real one of the latter in the post-passenger Vine Street station somewhere around 1964, when my mother took me down to the rather forlorn station at the end of a shopping trip - we were able to walk straight in through the entrance and take a look around the platform.

A couple more views from Saturday 24 March, each with a small but vital human presence in shot that I didn't spot first time. Tallylyn train en route from Wharf terminus, approaching Tywyn Pendre, and the photographer being observed from the footplate: Tywyn Pendre station with a member of the line team standing ready on the platform, awaiting the next trains to pass: