CRHT1837

I have some history with Primrose Hill Station. The platform buidings and fine cast iron columns and spandrels were destroyed one weekend in December 2008 by Murphy, the Network Rail framework contractor. I made quite a fuss and was invited to find a new purpose for the fragments of ironwork, which I failed to do as it would have cost a fortune in both land and restoration. I believe that the ironwork was supposed to be taken to a heritage steam railway, perhaps that between Moreton-in-Marsh and Stratford. Does anyone have any information? I am posting some images of the ironwork in the station and in Murphy's Yard. This story needs a conclusion.

Hi Stanley and Iain Many thanks for your responses. I was hoping to hear from you, and of course anyone else with familiarity with Camden Shed. You have given me enough to get going, and I shall see if this throws up more questions as I go. Iain, it would be great if I could feature your model in the book, just as I featured Copenhagen Fields in the book on King's Cross. I don't think it matters in what state the model will be when the time comes, as all such models are works in progress. The model could be part of the heritage, almost all disappeared, that is associated with Camden Shed. Things are fairly busy on a number of fronts. I don't know if you saw the video I posted two years ago. Since then, Network Rail has shown a great interest and I have taken senior staff on walks around the area from the tunnel portals to the top of Camden Bank, as well as several visits to the winding vaults. While it is too early to say where the programme of work NR is planning will lead, I can attach a very brief summary of a study we have just completed for Stephenson Walk, effectively the forerunner project of .any programme. The book I am trying to write is seen as supporting this programme, so I may get some help from NR. Best wishes Peter Stephenson Walk.pdf

I last posted a comment more than two years ago, and hope my rather different focus on Camden Shed will not prove an irritant to this forum, which I greatly admire. I am trying to write a book about the past, present and future of Chalk Farm Railway Lands, essentially Camden Goods Yard and the rail system from Primrose Hill Tunnels to Euston, This is a major update on the book I wrote a decade ago, and will have far more content and none of the 'before and after' character of the previous book. I am stuck on Chapter 12 "The new grouping to the end of steam". I would like to describe the movements associated with a passenger train, eg Royal Scot, from its arrival at Euston to the start of its next run from Euston. This will describe moving, parking and preparing empty carriages; servicing, refuelling and stabling a locomotive at Camden Shed; driver accommodation, arrangements board, and perhaps a beer or two, supported by relevant images to help tell the story. Can anyone help me with a description of a typical sequence of operations in the late 1930s? The loco would assist an engine from Willesden in banking the empty carriages from Euston, peel off at Camden Shed, await its turn on the turntable while the crew is changed, turn to face north, move under the coal stage for refuelling with coal and water, then proceed to the south end via the back road, where ash would be removed. Where to next - through the shed? I am sure I have not got this right. I have images and plans of the MPD. One of these plans is attached and has a series of red lines that I assume represent a new arrangement of tracks, planned in 1937. Another question is how were the carriage sheds on Camden Bank managed in conjunction with Willesden? Peter

New year greetings to all on this impressive thread. I have returned to it after some months spent updating our website and researching the W. and A. Gilbey operations in the goods depot. I have also been looking at the Dumpton Place entrance to the Shed and attach my contribution to this. I hope it will be properly marked one day. I expect to be working with Network Rail later this month on Stephenson Walk, a pedestrian and cycle way from the Regent's Canal towpath, along the mainline, rising up to Regent's Park Road at the bridge by the former Primrose Hill station.

Thanks, Iain. That is very helpful. I must now try to establish whether this doorway replaced a larger entrance. It does appear very unprepossessing as an entrance to such an important shed. Peter

Hi Stanley Yes, I am feeling rather abashed at only discovering it now. At the same time, not being a modeller, I don't want to divert the focus too much for my purposes. But, to show you some of what we have started, see the following Youtube clip. It does have a bearing on Camden Shed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkaEmvDOIYM I trust you too are well and look forward to sharing news. Peter

Iain While the engine shed is no more, some of the facilities that the drivers, firemen and other staff used remain. Stephenson House was, of course, the hostel for long-distance steam locomotive drivers/firemen, built in 1928. It has been preserved externally, despite a suspicious fire. Primrose Hill station was adapted in the mid 1950s to provide a club with beer cellar, bar and dance hall for BR staff. They did not have much time to enjoy this. Peter

Iain I have only discovered the forum this week and been a member for a few hours, but I have scanned through the 10 years or so that it has been active. The technical excellence and knowledge on display is truly impressive and I doubt I have anything to contribute. Having said that, I have helped with the extension of the Copenhagen Fields model railway into part of the King's Cross goods depot, and my name now appears on the model with a 'business partner' as one of the traders in potatoes! But I do hope to draw on the expertise of the forum. I am very engaged with Camden's railway heritage, and particularly Camden Goods Yard, through Camden Railway Heritage Trust, which I founded in January 2007. As well as preserving and restoring this heritage, we are trying to create greater awareness of its significance and open it up to the public. I believe your model of the passenger locomotive shed is to be viewed from the front. Camden Council has plans to improve Dumpton Place and this creates an opportunity to reveal the heritage. The wall has very recently had the render removed (the photo predates this). The removal of the render has not revealed the infill to the former opening, but perhaps an expert builder/bricklayer would have the forensic skills to examine the wall and report on what is original and what has been replaced (for example, the coping stones are not all from the same date). Then we can make a feature in the wall of the original entrance to the locomotive shed. There are granite steps at the end of Dumpton Place that we believe led to the doorway, implying that the doorway was raised a little above street level. We would like to see the steps restored to some resemblance of originality, as these may be the last vestiges of the MPD. I would be very interested in any photographs of the doorway. I assume you are intending to model the footbridge and will extend this to the opening in the wall at the end of Dumpton Place. There are many other projects involving the goods yard that I would like to share with the forum, if interested, not least the creation of a model of the winding engines and rope haulage between Camden and Euston. Peter