The LNER Encyclopedia

G'Day Gents
Saw a google picture of Stratford the other day, not much left is there?? I went over there for my boiler training, an old Gresley coach as a classroom, then going into one of the old brick building to be taught how to muck up a spanner steam heat boiler then fix it, but we were more interested in what was going on around us, then later being sent over from the Cross to pick up locos, that had been painted or repaired, what a vast place it was, I cannot imagine being on Stratford station and looking across the tracks and seeing a HOLE

manna

Its everywhere Manna, the whole railway infrastructure is disappearing under housing and industrial units.
Just in my area South of the Tyne 52A has disappeared under housing, Borough Gardens is derelict, Tyne Yard a shadow of its former self, Consett gone, Tyne Dock depot gone, Sunderland depot gone, the Bowes system is gone, Philadelphia system is gone, Westoe electric railway is gone,Leamside is derelict, Bensham yards are gone, Blaydon depot has gone. virtually every signal box has disappeared in fact I cant think of one thats left apart from Wylam and thats way out west.
When I was a boy the Bowes system was like a spiders web over the area, tankie engines and level crossings everywhere, a rope worked part ran right past our house from the washery down to Pelaw staiths.

Times change, but it is indeed sobering to pass the site of 52A Greenesfield and think of what a proud hive of activity it was for some 140 years. Workplace for hundreds of men coming and going with their engines day in day out at all hours of the day and night. Some of the men spending their whole working lives of perhaps 50 years there. At least it was a nice thought to name some of the roads built on the 52A site after former Pacific locos shedded there.These feelings can of course be replicated at hundreds of sites throughout the country.

You miss Stratford?? Must be a case of absence making the heart grow fonder, Manna. It was, as the Irish so eloquently put it, 'a kip' and Temple Mills even worse but it did inspire a certain amount of affection, I suppose. For a while I was working on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and visited Stratford once after it had closed. Dereliction was everywhere from abandoned offices to scrap 31s, a very depressing place indeed. One item I am really sorry about not being able to rescue was the lovely wooden chair marked ECR which lay dumped with all the other rubbish. It had previously been in the Depot Manager's office but we had come by the Central Line and couldn't easily have carted that off with us. I just hope somebody saved it.

Did a tour of Tower Bridge a few weeks back with some other old timers and got chatting with the guide, an old cockney. We asked him what line of business he'd been in before taking up being a guide, and he told us he'd been a master butcher. I told him that we were all retired railwaymen whereupon his eyes lit up and he told us his dad had been a driver. 'What depot?' I asked. 'Stratford', he replied. 'Yes, and dad brought the first Brittania off Stratford shed....' It seems his dad was so fond of the place, he arranged to have his ashes scattered there. The son wasn't sure what dad would make of the place now, just a large hole in the ground and The Mills a Eurostar depot.

Here's a picture I took from the Control Tower at Temple Mills on a gloomy day looking east over our little empire towards Stratford. If you got it right, and they turned the retarders off for you, you could ride a 20 ton brake van all the way from the hump cabin to this side of the Manor Road bridge just visible in the distance - much better than walking!

the back to front box is still used at blaydon crossing likely the oldest box thats left on tyneside

I assume you mean the one at the continental crossing ?
I did photograph it about 25 years ago.
I think this may be it but I thought it was nearer the crossing ?.

yes thats it it was built for the other line that crossed scotswood bridge it came in roughly on the line of the white parked car and the three in the car park thats why it is at a odd angle tothe present lineit did at one time control two level crossingsyes it was nearer but when they built the fly over they realigned it as there was terrible traffic problems

G'Day Gents

I think with me is that I remember what was there, and when I see it up to date, it's a case of WOW, what happened, it use to be so busy, ie Stratford, I use to see it every day in the early 70's, loco's all over the place, freight trains, walking from the station, and having to stop to let loco's through, freights coming round Channelsea curve, squeeling! the sickly smell coming from the perfume??? factory, the whine of EMU's passing the station and the clatter of wheels, with station announcer in the background. Thats how I remember Stratford, today I sit at a computer and see the world, but I can't hear it, or smell it, it's that ambiance that I miss.
Most place's on the railway have/had that, Kx in steam days, and also in diesel days , but not today
manna

You know it's summer in South Australia when you see sand blowing across the road when your 500 miles from the sea

Yes, that's how it gets you.
I officially put the shovel down in 1951 but still see, hear and smell the railways of that period, in the case of Stratford and District particularly the latter. Stratford was of course in the area where the Victorians decided to site unwholesome industries, hence the smells.
I believe that the main stink came from the establishment of Messrs Boake Roberts, later they amalgamated with Bush's Essencies who were alongside the track at Bethnal Green/Cambridge Heath. I imagine that unfortunates who lived between the two factories could hardly miss out on the smell. What an unfortunate area for Clarnico's factory to be in! and I used to be a marzipan enthusiast.
As we get old and doddery the mental images of the past remain, I can't say the same for all of my employment since my railway days, apart from the pay cheques it was usuallya bore.

Like yourself, I look up the old places on the satellite pages. Saw Hornsey Loco recently, I believe that the shed is still there, serving a new hi-tech purpose. Alf's stall in the road outside, where we would sometimes go for a cup of tea (shorter walk than that to the very good canteen) has been swept away by progress.
The Wightman Rd residents who used to get smoked out must be happy now.
I think that I'm happier living too far away to be able to visit the scenes of my past activities.
The last time that I visited the GN it was closed due to the signallers' strike!

G'day Gents
Yeah, I'm glad I live to far away to be able to see what they've done to 'Our' railways, I'd rather remember how it was, than how it is

But on the bright side, at least there's still a station there!
manna

Aaaah, Stratford, the smell, walking across the ashpit roads to collect your 37 pair amidst all the others at 2330pm or 1.30am ,trying to wake the signalman so you could get off shed, waking him up again when changing ends ( only ten minutes later if that ) the rabbits running around on the path from the station....

G'Day Gents
Thats it you got it, the very first thing that hit you at Stratford---The Smell!!!!!

And trying to couple two engines together on frosty sleepers ha ha, Torvil and Dean I ain't
manna

Only to find that when you get back in the cab again the locos are trying to go opposite ways.......can laugh now

BTW do you remember the scab execution set-up ?

G'Day Gents
Hi! badwolf, would loved to have seen the two locos trying to go opposite ways lol

Scab execution, do'nt know that one???
The crazy part about all this is in the dozens of times that I went to Stratford, to pick up or drop off locos, I never went to the mess room? I do'nt even know where it was
manna