Can someone please explain (in simple terms) what King's Cross York Road station was used for and its relationship (if any) to King's Cross Metropolitan. (And dare I mention 'the Widened Lines'?)
I have never understood this and unfortunately the only reference I have (The Pre-Grouping Atlas) is just too small in detail to be comprehensible without a microscope.
King's Cross York Road
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Pyewipe Junction
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Kings Cross York Road was a single platform station located at the exit from the easternmost of the 3 double line Gasworks Tunnels just outside the main terminus. It was only used by up GN line suburban trains which were heading for Moorgate from Welwyn, Hatfield, Hertford North etc.
After leaving York Road these up trains dived down through a sharply curved and steeply graded connection to a junction with the Widened Lines close to what was known as Kings Cross Metropolitan and later became KX Thameslink. Although the platforms at KX(M) were in existence in the 1950s I don't remember them actually being used by any steam worked services, certainly none that I ever travelled on. The next stop after leaving York Road was always Farringdon.
In the other direction trains from Moorgate heading for destinations on the GN suburban system passed through KX(M) and took a right turn on to what was known as the 'Hotel Curve' (because it passed under the Great Northern Hotel at Kings Cross) to emerge on the west side of the terminus station at Platform 16 - or was it 17, I can't remember after all these year. Anyway it was a steeply graded platform which was not at all easy for an N2 with a rush hour train of 2 packed Quad Arts to restart from. In their last years when the N2s were getting a bit feeble it was often the practice for a second engine from the loco yard to be attached as pilot to get things moving and minimise delays.
After leaving York Road these up trains dived down through a sharply curved and steeply graded connection to a junction with the Widened Lines close to what was known as Kings Cross Metropolitan and later became KX Thameslink. Although the platforms at KX(M) were in existence in the 1950s I don't remember them actually being used by any steam worked services, certainly none that I ever travelled on. The next stop after leaving York Road was always Farringdon.
In the other direction trains from Moorgate heading for destinations on the GN suburban system passed through KX(M) and took a right turn on to what was known as the 'Hotel Curve' (because it passed under the Great Northern Hotel at Kings Cross) to emerge on the west side of the terminus station at Platform 16 - or was it 17, I can't remember after all these year. Anyway it was a steeply graded platform which was not at all easy for an N2 with a rush hour train of 2 packed Quad Arts to restart from. In their last years when the N2s were getting a bit feeble it was often the practice for a second engine from the loco yard to be attached as pilot to get things moving and minimise delays.
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Pyewipe Junction
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Thanks for that, Flamingo.
Just one more question - who owned the 'widened lines' from King's Cross/St Pancras to Moorgate (Street)?
I got off the tube at Farringdon or Barbican for several years and the non-Underground lines always looked like they had been constructed separately from the Circle/Metropolitan Line lines.
Am I correct in saying that until about the 1930s there were through trains to and from Paddington as well on these lines?
Just one more question - who owned the 'widened lines' from King's Cross/St Pancras to Moorgate (Street)?
I got off the tube at Farringdon or Barbican for several years and the non-Underground lines always looked like they had been constructed separately from the Circle/Metropolitan Line lines.
Am I correct in saying that until about the 1930s there were through trains to and from Paddington as well on these lines?
The other unusual thing about KX York Road was that it wasn't actually in York Road. The street it was in was called York Way.
As to the Widened Lines, it could be that they were jointly owned by all the main pre-1948 railways. In the 1950s there were certainly peak hour passenger trains from St Albans etc. to and from Moorgate. The locos were Fowler 3MT 2-6-2Ts.
Other traffic also used the WL such as cross-London freights from Hornsey (Ferme Park) Yards to places south of the Thames such as Hither Green and Norwood Junction. These were worked by Hornsey J50s. They diverged from the WL at Farringdon via the route later used by Thameslink services.
As late as the 1950s there were freights from the Western Region hauled by the 97XX series of condensing pannier tanks. I think they went to the meat depot at Smithfield. These trains ran on the LT tracks from Edgware Road until they reached the WL proper near Farringdon. It was always something of an eyeoper to be waiting at somewhere like Baker Street for a Circle Line train and see one of these steam hauled freights come through.
As to the Widened Lines, it could be that they were jointly owned by all the main pre-1948 railways. In the 1950s there were certainly peak hour passenger trains from St Albans etc. to and from Moorgate. The locos were Fowler 3MT 2-6-2Ts.
Other traffic also used the WL such as cross-London freights from Hornsey (Ferme Park) Yards to places south of the Thames such as Hither Green and Norwood Junction. These were worked by Hornsey J50s. They diverged from the WL at Farringdon via the route later used by Thameslink services.
As late as the 1950s there were freights from the Western Region hauled by the 97XX series of condensing pannier tanks. I think they went to the meat depot at Smithfield. These trains ran on the LT tracks from Edgware Road until they reached the WL proper near Farringdon. It was always something of an eyeoper to be waiting at somewhere like Baker Street for a Circle Line train and see one of these steam hauled freights come through.
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hq1hitchin
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Yes, Flamingo and it seems that, one day, a signalman wrongly routed a LMR train hauled by one of those useless Fowler 3P tanks onto the GN towards Hotel Curve and the driver took the signal. Seems he then stalled and both he and his fireman were being overcome by the smoky conditions when one Stushy Goddard donned some primitive type of b.a apparatus they had in those days and went down and rescued them.
At least, that's what he told us, but then he told us young hands a lot of things......
At least, that's what he told us, but then he told us young hands a lot of things......
A topper is proper if the train's a non-stopper!