The LNER Encyclopedia

Mickey the true title was Letchworth Garden City (maybe the first)which dated it pre. WW2,my late father was a Lorry Mechanic for the Islington Borough Council(IBC) Refuse Dept. & whilst working for them applied for a job @ Shelvoke &Drewery(SD) the makers of refuse disposal trucks in Letchworth,he gained the job one week & lost within two all by letter,so we never sampled the delights of Letchworth Garden City as the Letter Heads proclaimed,We assumed even @ that level of the food chain it prohibited "Head Hunting"from Clients, which the IBC was & continued to be,I expect the lure of "Garden Cities"had worn off Post War & it was all for a New Start with "New Towns"such as Stevenage/Harlow&Crawley &such like.

Mickey wrote: ↑Tue Jul 25, 2023 10:18 am... in the 'good old B.R. days' it was just called LETCHWORTH only?...

Its been 'Letchworth' most of my life too, until the local authority started pushing the full title about ten minutes ago.
We know that Welwyn Garden City is the real thing...

rockinjohn wrote: ↑Tue Jul 25, 2023 12:40 pm ...I expect the lure of "Garden Cities"had worn off Post War & it was all for a New Start with "New Towns"such as Stevenage...

I suspect that legal title to the 'Garden City' style still reposed with the private business that had built them.

The 'New Towns Commission' was a government outfit, and happily borrowed much of the garden city concept, with a substantial dollop of then fashionable concrete. All the good aspects forgotten now, judging by what I saw of high rise construction in Acton last week. Here come the slums of C21st...

rockinjohn wrote: ↑Tue Jul 25, 2023 12:40 pm Mickey the true title was Letchworth Garden City (maybe the first)which dated it pre. WW2,my late father was a Lorry Mechanic for the Islington Borough Council(IBC) Refuse Dept. & whilst working for them applied for a job @ Shelvoke &Drewery(SD) the makers of refuse disposal trucks in Letchworth,he gained the job one week & lost within two all by letter,so we never sampled the delights of Letchworth Garden City as the Letter Heads proclaimed,We assumed even @ that level of the food chain it prohibited "Head Hunting"from Clients, which the IBC was & continued to be,I expect the lure of "Garden Cities"had worn off Post War & it was all for a New Start with "New Towns"such as Stevenage/Harlow&Crawley &such like.

Yeah I was aware of that jj but thanks all the same. Letchworth Garden City was born way back in the early 1900s and pre-dating Welwyn Garden City by about 20 years. The original Letchworth signal box was a GNR box similar to neighbouring Baldock the next box along heading towards Royston but it was replaced possibly during the early 1920s(?) by the box that I remember seeing which was mainly built of wood I believe and standing well off the northeast end of the Up side of the line. According to a dvd I watched several times in the past apparently the LNER planned to lay x4 roads through Letchworth station but obviously it never happened although the commentator on the dvd didn't go on to say for how far the x4 roads were going to extend to?.

Hatfield Shed wrote: ↑Tue Jul 25, 2023 1:05 pm

Mickey wrote: ↑Tue Jul 25, 2023 10:18 am... in the 'good old B.R. days' it was just called LETCHWORTH only?...

Its been 'Letchworth' most of my life too, until the local authority started pushing the full title about ten minutes ago.
We know that Welwyn Garden City is the real thing...

rockinjohn wrote: ↑Tue Jul 25, 2023 12:40 pm ...I expect the lure of "Garden Cities"had worn off Post War & it was all for a New Start with "New Towns"such as Stevenage...

I suspect that legal title to the 'Garden City' style still reposed with the private business that had built them.

The 'New Towns Commission' was a government outfit, and happily borrowed much of the garden city concept, with a substantial dollop of then fashionable concrete. All the good aspects forgotten now, judging by what I saw of high rise construction in Acton last week. Here come the slums of C21st...

To right Hatfield Shed I don't like change when it comes to anything to do with railways being a lifetime traditionalist railway enthusiast so Letchworth will always be LETCHWORTH without the GARDEN CITY tagged on the end of it for me.

Mickey wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 10:05 am According to a dvd I watched several times in the past apparently the LNER planned to lay x4 roads through Letchworth station but obviously it never happened although the commentator on the dvd didn't go on to say for how far the x4 roads were going to extend to?.

Although far less obvious over the last 20 years or so with the growth of all the greenery at their 'backs' and the appearance of fencing along those sides, if you look at all the platform edges and the design of their buildings and canopies, both platforms are clearly of a design ready to be 'island' platforms.
Four tracks in the Baldock direction obviously wouldn't have been a problem, but the small-arched overbridge at the Hitchin end would've been a different story.

StevieG wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 11:48 pm

Mickey wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 10:05 am According to a dvd I watched several times in the past apparently the LNER planned to lay x4 roads through Letchworth station but obviously it never happened although the commentator on the dvd didn't go on to say for how far the x4 roads were going to extend to?.

Although far less obvious over the last 20 years or so with the growth of all the greenery at their 'backs' and the appearance of fencing along those sides, if you look at all the platform edges and the design of their buildings and canopies, both platforms are clearly of a design ready to be 'island' platforms.
Four tracks in the Baldock direction obviously wouldn't have been a problem, but the small-arched overbridge at the Hitchin end would've been a different story.

Interesting Stevie because I was wondering about where the x4 roads went?.

With regards to electrification and also talk of the 'Northern Powerhouse' over the last decade by the UK government I bet some people now regret the closure of the electrified Manchester-Sheffield route back around 1980 even if it wasn't run on the 25.000kv overhead system because I presume it could have been 'up graded' to a 25.000kv system.

Having worked at Letchworth station on and off from 1978 into the early 80's it was referred to then as both 'Letchworth' and 'Letchworth garden City' depending on where paperwork has originated from.

Re; the platforms. As Steve G says they were configured as island platforms which can still be seen, but I was alway under the impression that at least the up side had been utilised as a bay platform for a short while.

Dave S wrote: ↑Fri Jul 28, 2023 9:18 pm " .... Re; the platforms. As Steve G says they were configured as island platforms which can still be seen, but I was alway under the impression that at least the up side had been utilised as a bay platform for a short while. .... "

Perhaps this has the answer Dave S : -
https://www.signalbox.org/~SBdiagram.php?id=%201061
Apart from what's on that diagram Mickey, I strongly believe that the 'back platforms' never saw track.

That no.18 Down home signal at Letchworth was always a curiosity to look at being as it was mounted on a straight white wooden post with a top final (spike) and quite high up the embankment and some distance away to the left of the actual Down line. Both the Up and Down lines distant signals were both colour light signals when I travelled through Letchworth quite regularly during 1974-75 as a Kings Cross secondman on the 'Cambridge jobs' and possibly also they both were colour lights when I first had a return trip as a passenger from WGC to Cambridge in 1970.

StevieG wrote: ↑Sat Jul 29, 2023 7:47 pm Perhaps this has the answer Dave S : -
https://www.signalbox.org/~SBdiagram.php?id=%201061
Apart from what's on that diagram Mickey, I strongly believe that the 'back platforms' never saw track.

That might well explain it.

I was trying to remember who it was that mentioned something on the up side and I've narrowed it down to either Don Kirby (ex Hitchin signalman then Letchworth railman) or Vaughan Williams (Ex signalman and then TTI)

Dave S wrote: ↑Sun Jul 30, 2023 4:24 pm

StevieG wrote: ↑Sat Jul 29, 2023 7:47 pm Perhaps this has the answer Dave S : -
https://www.signalbox.org/~SBdiagram.php?id=%201061
Apart from what's on that diagram Mickey, I strongly believe that the 'back platforms' never saw track.

That might well explain it.

I was trying to remember who it was that mentioned something on the up side and I've narrowed it down to either Don Kirby (ex Hitchin signalman then Letchworth railman) or Vaughan Williams (Ex signalman and then TTI)

That would've been Vaughan Bloom then Dave S ?

StevieG wrote: ↑Sun Jul 30, 2023 5:58 pm

Dave S wrote: ↑Sun Jul 30, 2023 4:24 pm

StevieG wrote: ↑Sat Jul 29, 2023 7:47 pm Perhaps this has the answer Dave S : -
https://www.signalbox.org/~SBdiagram.php?id=%201061
Apart from what's on that diagram Mickey, I strongly believe that the 'back platforms' never saw track.

That might well explain it.

I was trying to remember who it was that mentioned something on the up side and I've narrowed it down to either Don Kirby (ex Hitchin signalman then Letchworth railman) or Vaughan Williams (Ex signalman and then TTI)

That would've been Vaughan Bloom then Dave S ?

Of course....Williams was the blooming composer I keep repeating the same mistake with Vaughan, one day I'll remember...one day...

The talk is now of HYDROGEN powered trains being the future and Electric powered trains being from the last century.

Mickey wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 10:07 am The talk is now of HYDROGEN powered trains being the future and Electric powered trains being from the last century.

There's a DMU being converted and trialled at the moment, think it's St.Andrews Uni involved
https://www.railengineer.co.uk/scotland ... gen-train/