from your description I think the Finsbury Park No 5 signalman you mentioned might be Mick Wilson. Mick was one of the "On Loan" signalman from the Sheffield Division brought up to help alleviate the shortage of signalman and given lodgings in Ilford Hostel. To the best of my recollection the only resident signalman at Finsbury Park No 5 at this time was Fred Lachale. Stevie G may be able to comment on this. Geoff Brooks was another relief signalman who spent a lot of time at No 5. Geoff ended up as one of the power box supervisors at Kings Cross and attends the six monthly Hatfied reunions.
Ok Dave thanks. Well if we're talking about the same bloke Mick Wilson and it sounds like we may well be and he was 'on loan' from up north maybe he wasn't at no.5 from as early as 1970 maybe from about 1972?.
I did actually visit Finsbury Park 5 (as well as nos.6, 4 & 3 all around 1972) on one occasion with Jim Churcher (a Finsbury Park relief-signalman) around the summer of 1972 for a hour or so one afternoon but i wish now i had recorded the dates of various box visits i made between 1970-75 because the old memory these days is starting to get a bit hazy with such matters some 40-45 years after these box visits took place.
from your description I think the Finsbury Park No 5 signalman you mentioned might be Mick Wilson. Mick was one of the "On Loan" signalman from the Sheffield Division brought up to help alleviate the shortage of signalman and given lodgings in Ilford Hostel. To the best of my recollection the only resident signalman at Finsbury Park No 5 at this time was Fred Lachale. Stevie G may be able to comment on this. .... "
I think I did meet Fred at No.5, once (didn't know how his surname was spelt - always imagined it was Le (or La) Caille), possibly on the one occasion that I visited and made notes before there were any changes for the resignalling.
I recall the influx of new faces around 1971/2 to alleviate the shortages, many of whom I believe were not required to learn the single-needle telegraph for the probably still officially "Telegraphist required" vacancies, so that they were able to get passed out for boxes a.s.a.p. (presumably, provided that they were not to go to boxes where the s/n was still used for train reporting).
I don't at all recall M. Wilson, but I didn't get to know everyone.
Names that do immediately spring to mind (often as covering New Southgate) are John Morahan, Les Avis, and Alan Baxter; also two others of around that time but who I think may not have been part of the 'on loan' brigade, R. Bradley and Steve Gowlett : I recall that Alan and RB later, as reliefmen, used to cover No.5 box.
StevieG wrote:I recall the influx of new faces around 1971/2 to alleviate the shortages, many of whom I believe were not required to learn the single-needle telegraph for the probably still officially "Telegraphist required" vacancies, so that they were able to get passed out for boxes a.s.a.p.
I suppose it was understandable some of these 'on loan' signalmen couldn't work the s/n telegraph instruments Stevie but working one of the Finsbury Park boxes (including Ashburton Grove) that had there own Finsbury Park s/n telegraph circuit and tele-instruments mounted on the block shelf of each of the boxes concerned must have been a bit of a minor draw back for them and i presume to some of the (older) Finsbury Park regular & relief signalmen who could work & read the s/n tele-instrument of having to keep going on the phone to the bloke who couldn't read the s/n tele-instrument especially during a busy period when they were busy working on the frame and block shelf must have been a bit of a minor nuisance??.
StevieG wrote:I don't at all recall M. Wilson, but I didn't get to know everyone.
This Mick Wilson bloke has always stuck in my mind (even to this day i can still see him even now in my minds eye) because he always seemed to be standing at the lever frame & block shelf (in no.5) as a train passed by on the Down slow no.1 line plus he was a bit stocky and always seemed to wear a short'ish grey coloured B.R. railway jacket and he had slightly long'ish dark hair (as was the fashion in the early 1970s) with a bit of a side parting with a combed over fringe to one side, i would guess he was either in his late 30s or maybe early 40s in the early 1970s so if he's still alive today somewhere he must be up in his late 70s or even 80s by now i would guess??.
As i previously posted i'm about 95% certain that he (M.Wilson) went regular at Wood Green no.1 for about a year or 18 months before Wood Green no.1 closed in 1975.
Hope this isn't flying off at a tangent or hijacking the thread; went to the Watercress Line last Monday (friendly, and they do real quarter fare privs) and at one of the stations there were signs to "the harry potter bridge". Never, even as a child, been interested in wizard type stuff but when I used it I realised it was the one from halfway down the platform at KX, but rather modified.
When the LM staff canteens plumbed the depths I joined the "Kings Cross Dining Club" and went there for dinner (now called lunch in London) and you reached it from the bridge direct into the York road side building at first floor level. Anyone else remember it?
1H was 2E wrote:...and at one of the stations there were signs to "the harry potter bridge". Never, even as a child, been interested in wizard type stuff but when I used it I realised it was the one from halfway down the platform at KX, but rather modified.
Harry Potter??. There was a time before that Potter kid became associated with the 'hallowed environs' of the world famous station of the G.N.R./L.N.E.R. when there was still a no.10 main line departure plalform and a footbridge that spanned every main line platform and the Passenger Loco to name but three things.
1H was 2E wrote:When the LM staff canteens plumbed the depths I joined the "Kings Cross Dining Club" and went there for dinner (now called lunch in London) and you reached it from the bridge direct into the York road side building at first floor level. Anyone else remember it?
I presume your not referring to the London Transport bus driver's & conductor's canteen further up York Way 1H?. The building was situated halfway up York Way opposite the York Road station entrance and located on the corner with Wharfdale Road, you entered the building through a street level doorway and went up some stairs to the first floor of the building which was the canteen area. I went in on one occasion with a Kings Cross driver and if you showed your 'priv pass' you could buy roast beef, mashed & roast potatos, peas with jam sponge & custard all washed down with a cup of LT tea for about £1.50p mind you it was 1974 prices. I didn't go back cos the driver reckoned that the LT men didn't like B.R. train crews using there canteen.
Here's another signalman someone mite know or remember (Dave or Stevie?) i didn't know this bloke personally or his name and in fact i had never spoken to him but he was quite often seen when passing Holloway South Down box from a passing train and i believe he may have been scottish which strangely became apparent many years later anyway this bloke worked 'South Down' in the final few years before the box closed in 1976 and was possibly a 'on loan' signalman from up north?.
As for me knowing he was scottish that was strange because i saw him by pure chance many years later in the early 1990s in a bar of a pub in Camden Town (the former 'The Eagle' on Camden Road in Camden Town) and there was no mistaking him it was him he was standing at the bar ordering a drink and i noticed him straight away and his scottish accent and i remember thinking to myself should i ask him about Holloway South Down but i didn't and missed my chance.
Likewise, I can't think who the "Jock" boby could have been. Two of the regular men at South Down in 1970 were Ken Middleton and Ted ..........? (Can't recall Ted's sir name). Ken ended up working in Kings Cross PSB. Ken used to bring his push bike up on the train to Finsbury Park and cycle to Holloway from there. I've often seen photos of trains ascending Holloway bank passing South Down box and Ken's bike can be seen on the verandher outside the South end of the box.
Oh well nevermind Stevie & Dave maybe he was one of the 'on loan' signalmen from up north and maybe he was only working Holloway South Down in it's last 2 or 3 years which would have made him working the box from around 1973/74 to 76 and closure and as for his scots accent maybe i thought he had what sounded like a scots accent but he did kinda have a scottish look about him in the face if that doesn't sound to daft?.
.... Thinking of a longer stretch of the area than Holloway, the only scots-accented chap I can think of is Bob Coull, who had been one of Wood Green 1's regulars from before 1969 until at least 1970/71 or later. Got a feeling he subsequently went out on 'the relief' but don't know if he covered South Down, or indeed any boxes of Holloway: Moderately tall, slim chap, no specs.
I recall seeing him in later years as a supervisor on Kings Cross station.
The bloke i remember seeing working Holloway South Down circa 1974/75 i just assumed he was a regular at the box becasue he appeared to be there quite a bit around the 74/75 period and i would assume he worked the box up to it's closure in August 1976 but i left the Kings Cross area in late 1975 so i don't know for sure if he did but chances are i would assume he did work the box until closure, he also didn't appear to wear glasses either.
By the way while we're at Holloway South Down about a year ago i was reading an on line article of a well know retired railway manager called George Case who was at Kings Cross during the 1960s & 1970s who wrote that when he started on the railway during WW2 he started as a telegraph lad at Holloway South Down box (at that time him and his family lived local in the Holloway area and he wrote that he had also 'bunked into' Holloway North Up as a youngster as well and liked signal boxes) and he when on to write that within Holloway South Down box during the war there was a metal 'bomb proof' shelter provided for both the signalman & telegraph lad to hide in during a bombing raid by Gerry although i would presume this 'bomb proof' shelter was taken away after the war was over?.
