Kings Cross

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Mickey
LNER A3 4-6-2
Posts: 1202
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2019 7:27 am
Location: London

Re: Kings Cross

Post by Mickey »

StevieG wrote: Wed Nov 22, 2023 3:36 pm
Mickey wrote: Wed Nov 22, 2023 11:54 am
StevieG wrote: Tue Nov 21, 2023 11:27 pm Following on from 60048's info Mickey, IIRC the closure as a station served by passenger trains as mentioned above was around Dec. 2007, with the platforms the retained for emergency use only.
But the subway connecting with the Underground's most recently opened main subway access to the Victoria and Piccadilly lines remained open, full or part-time (perhaps 'Peak' hours only) for quite a few years afterwards, for pedestrian access from/to the Pentonville Road via the station's former booking hall.

But not too many years ago, maybe initially owing to COVID and/or as an economy measure, that route was made normally closed to the public, and so the station building was then also retained as an emergency exit only.
I wasn't aware of that latest change until happening to walk by on 21/10/23 en route to the SRS meeting, and finding that the, mostly-glazed, frontage of the station building had been completely boarded up, but included just one pair of (boarded up) doors, for exit purposes : The boarding up must've been very recent as it was free of graffitti at that time; a situation sure not to last !
Thanks Stevie & Ritchie for the info and as far as that Kings Cross Thames link station is concerned the last time that I 'went through it' was on the front of a blue livered class 31 hauling a rake of non-corridor inner suburban stock back in 1975 when I was a secondman at Kings Cross when it was still part of the old 'Widen lines' of the joint Eastern & London Midland Regions of British Rail!.
Mickey, Have been reading up (in the Wicked Pedia :) ), which says KX Thameslink's last service passenger train called there very late evening on 09th December 2007,
and that the Ticket Office and subway to the Underground, whose normal hours were 07:00 - 20:00 weekdays, was closed by TfL on 23rd March 2020.

If you can view it, this should include a view of Kings Cross ('Met.') station during its "KX Thameslink" days : -
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&url=h ... AdAAAAABAJ
Thanks Stevie for the follow up info.
Original start date of 2010 on the LNER forum and previously posted 4500+ posts.
60048
LNER N2 0-6-2T
Posts: 52
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2018 12:50 pm

Re: Kings Cross

Post by 60048 »

Hi Mickey,
No problem, the info from Stevie G was interesting, as I hadn't realised the subway part had remained open afterwards. I have used KX Thameslink myself on a few occasions, arriving into KGX on a main line service, then walking down to the Thameslink station to get across London. Interestingly one of the 'Secrets of the Underground' from Series 3 (I think) they visited KXThameslink and it was all there, ticket barriers, ticket office etc. Might be interesting for you to take a look, I am sure the series is on Yesterday (or whatever it's called now) freely available digital catch up/on demand service.

The SOTU series is generally fascinating anyway, and I do like Tim Dunn presenting, and Siddy Holloway obviously has a keen interest and vast knowledge from the way she talks about things - it hasn't just been learnt for the programme! If you've never seen it, I'd recommend it.

Right, bit more research on Belle Isle signal boxes lies ahead for me this afternoon - I have aspirations of a 3mm scale model/adaptation of the area!

Rich
Rich

Interested in all LNER (the original, not modern one!) pre-grouping, pre-Nationalisation and under BR)
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