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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:14 #36610
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2650 posts 		Nice photos nonetheless of West Hampstead box. Remember it weel, it sat between the fast line & slow lines at the north end of Wesr Hampstead station, with Watling Street signal box being the next one on the Down & Finchley Road at the northern mouth of Velsize Tunnel.
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:16 #36611
kbarber
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1712 posts 		" said:
Super shot of the Cl.46 at Kentish Town. I remember it well being born & raised in Bedford used to travel almost every Saturday from Bedford to St. Pancras on the 0839 from Bedford loco hauled. It was only £1 cheap day return to St. Pancras then (1975 - 1976). I remember when I was on the footplate at St. Pancras being told the story about Islip Street signalbox being destroyed by a steam loco travelling tender first. I also remember the fast lines becoming the slow lines & visa versa.

Thanks.

Islip Street was actually done in by an errant ECS train, as described here:
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:18 #36612
kbarber
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1712 posts 		" said:
Don't you mean Cl.45s being the staple motive power on the midland mainline Keith? I can't recall them being that common on the midland mainline. Cricklewood depot had an allocation of Cl.45s & some Cl.47s, but no Cl.46s although I do remember them going through Bedford on occasions.

Sorry, you're almost certainly right. Trains were always a means of carrying the tail lamp through the block section, so far as I was concerned
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:20 #36613
kbarber
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1712 posts 		" said:
Have you got any photos of the Cl.127 diesel hydraulic DMUs that cover the suburban services between Bedford & St. Pancras. Always remember the 1210 ex Bedford to St. Pancras used to convey tail traffic.

I do have one or two somewhere; all my images are too big to post directly so I'm having to resort to a fair bit of jiggery-pokery, but I'll get there in the end.
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:21 #36614
TimTamToe
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656 posts 		do love a bit of the old toothpaste which I still think is one of the smartest ever looking liveries

Great photos Keith too - great to see how things used to be before some of the younger pups like myself were around

Gareth
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:22 #36615
kbarber
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Lst one for the time being. Top end of the frame at West Hampstead, early 1978. Note the vital piece of signalling equipment stood on the block shelf This picture also shows up very well just how much floor space was taken by the Midland Railway's tumbler locking mechanism, beneath that rearward extension of the lever frame casing. The tappet variation was a lot more compact (besides being both more flexible and more robust).
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Last edited: 17/10/2012 at 14:24 by kbarber
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:23 #36616
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2650 posts 		As far as I'm concerned your photos of Cl.45 Peaks in the London suburbs are far better than any of mine. Just makes me wish I'd taken more photos in the 1970s around Bedford. Especially of the Cl.52 Western hydraulics which used to work a Westbury - Leagrave stone train via Bletchley flyover & the Bletchley - Bedford line, run round in Bedford station before reversing to Bedford North Junction to await a path south. Absolutely hellfire, the whole station used to shake when it reversed the train on full power pushing 44 loaded MSVs. If only I had a camera then. :woohoo:
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:30 #36617
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2650 posts

47002 inside Toton TMD on 120387.
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:31 #36618
kbarber
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1712 posts 		" said:
As far as I'm concerned your photos of Cl.45 Peaks in the London suburbs are far better than any of mine. Just makes me wish I'd taken more photos in the 1970s around Bedford. Especially of the Cl.52 Western hydraulics which used to work a Westbury - Leagrave stone train via Bletchley flyover & the Bletchley - Bedford line, run round in Bedford station before reversing to Bedford North Junction to await a path south. Absolutely hellfire, the whole station used to shake when it reversed the train on full power pushing 44 loaded MSVs. If only I had a camera then. :woohoo:

Ah yes, the stone. Co-incidentally, John Hinson (of the signalbx website) recalls handling this at Hendon (a box I never got into). It was too long to get clear of the up siding points without passing the starter, but with rotary block in use a sealed release would've had to be broken every time it ran if the rules had been strictly observed (Regulation 31 - shunting into forward section - having been authorised to handle that train). As John said, they found a way (and I imagine it was - at least tactly - accepted by the hierarchy, this being the days when running the railway mattered more than doing the paperwork).
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:32 #36619
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2650 posts

47620 'Windsor Castle' & 31260 on the fuel point at Cricklewood TMD on 120986.
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:37 #36620
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Our train 45148 at Cliffe Hill sdg prior to departing to Mantle Lane, Coalville to run round on 6O74 Cliffe Hill - Tonbridge S.S. on 191186.
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:42 #36622
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47343 stabled at Bedford holding sdgs on 060787.
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Photo Gallery 17/10/2012 at 14:45 #36623
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56040 'Oystermouth' & 50035 'Ark Royal' at Old Oak Common TMD on 270388.
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Photo Gallery 18/10/2012 at 17:14 #36646
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A cl 501 arrives at Broad Street from Richmond, sometime in early 1978. Broad Street was a shadow of its former self by this time, but there's still an impressive amount of track in the half of the station that still has any!
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Photo Gallery 18/10/2012 at 17:17 #36647
kbarber
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Finchley Road signalbox in the last weeks of the original frame (early spring 1978). The giftwrapped object on the block shelf is one of the new block instruments that will be commissioned when the frame is replaced. In the foreground, signals are off down the fast and likewise a little further down the frame is all off for the up fast.
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Photo Gallery 18/10/2012 at 17:19 #36648
kbarber
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Looking in the opposite direction, still all off on the fast lines. The two distant signal levers on the up fast can be clearly seen.
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Photo Gallery 18/10/2012 at 17:23 #36650
kbarber
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A few minutes later and something off the up local is clearly following the express that signals were cleared for in the previous picture.

The fashions really date it!
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Photo Gallery 18/10/2012 at 17:33 #36651
kbarber
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A pretty awful photo of the diagram at Finchley Road. I'm told this was a mid-70s replacement for an LMS white-on-black style; a friend brought the original for £5 (it was being sold as "firewood").

A plan of the 1950s shows a set of sidings linked to the up local (right at the top) and a crossover between the up fast and the down goods just to the left of the signalbox symbol. The up goods (2nd line up) also used to have a subsidiary signal beneath the starter (No. 4, just outside the tunnel mouth) though I suspect this may have been a shunt ahead to allow access to the sidings with a train still in section rather than a calling on for permissive working.

Note the black spaghetti strung all around the place; the old frame and instruments had just a couple of weeks to go when these pictures were taken and the "Sleep & Tea" were getting as much as possible done before the renewal job itself.

There will be more Finchley Rd photos later, showing it with the new frame & layout.
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Last edited: 18/10/2012 at 17:34 by kbarber
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Photo Gallery 18/10/2012 at 17:48 #36652
kbarber
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A rather dark photo of Engine Shed Junction (Kentish Town) in October 1978. Note the signalman has painted every other front plate of the MR tumbler frame white; just one of the many touches Les Duffield gave to this little palace of a box.
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Photo Gallery 18/10/2012 at 17:54 #36653
kbarber
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Engine Shed again, looking the other way. Note the carpeted floor and the comfy sofa (which, at this period, was mostly occupied by the modernisation inspector fortunate enough to be sent here). You may also spot a wing mirror mounted on the block shelf, set up so the signalman relaxing on the sofa would get a good view of "company" approaching from the station. The previous photo doesn't really show Les Duffield's workbench, let alone the television in the tool cupboard, but you can (just about) make out the blasted awkward sliding door that obstructed arriving "company". It was also easy to kill anything that shouldn't have been playing with one of the hidden switches around the walls. Knew how to make himself comfortable, did Les!
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Last edited: 18/10/2012 at 17:55 by kbarber
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Photo Gallery 18/10/2012 at 18:05 #36654
kbarber
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The panel installed in Engine Shed Junction that took over from Carlton Road and Mortimer Street in October 1978. When Les Duffield went to Engine Shed in the 1950s, he was assured it would be closing in months. Some people said Carlton Road had been built with enough spare levers to take it over. In the event, Carlton Road was in the way of a relay room and Engine Shed ended up being the last box (apart from St Pancras itself) to close under the West Hampstead scheme, which it did in December 1981. Les was able to work it to get redundancy and retired to Cornwall (together with Ginger, the box cat); not the first time he arranged things to suit himself (and yes, I can tell a couple of stories)...
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Photo Gallery 18/10/2012 at 18:08 #36655
kbarber
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Exterior view of Engine Shed. The brick base is very unsual for a Midland box and in fact this structure might well be LMS, but the frame was a MR tumbler and they had gone over to tappet locking long before 1923.
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Photo Gallery 18/10/2012 at 18:12 #36656
kbarber
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Engine Shed seen from the NLL embankment, October 1978. The nearest pair of lines were the goods lines (now the fast lines), then the fast lines into St Pancras. Just in front of the box are the slow lines and curving in behind are the lines from Junction Road and the Barking direction. The contractors yard behind is on the site of the old Kentish Town loco shed. Today, the site is unrecognisable.
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Photo Gallery 20/10/2012 at 13:53 #36695
kbarber
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Having walked back to the up side of the bridge, this is the view towards Mortimer Street Junction; the signal could be Engine Shed's starter but is in fact Mortimer St's home. That's how close the boxes used to be in this area.
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Photo Gallery 20/10/2012 at 13:54 #36696
kbarber
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Having gone back to change the film, a class 127 DMU passes Engine Shed on a down stopper.
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Last edited: 20/10/2012 at 14:15 by kbarber
Reason: To correct a booboo in the description of the train
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