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Post by stafford on Sept 12, 2023 19:28:50 GMT
The County Archives at Chelmsford hold plans for a late mid-Essex proposal, with definite station after Dunmow at Bardfield, with vague detail about finally connecting to the Colne Valley line at Hedingham. This was after quite a few previous plans from the 1900s on.
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Post by stafford on Apr 26, 2020 14:04:33 GMT
I know for a fact that the old LNER had plans to four track this area up the lea valley way way back even with first thoughts before WW2. Revived in the 45=46 era, the money was never forthcoming. Quite a few minor structural things were however done with this in long term mind. Maybe we are seeing a trifle of this at last. Should help with all this agony.
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Post by stafford on Sept 12, 2019 13:53:48 GMT
Just in passing my Uncle Geoff once told me that one of the last last legal things the old LNER solicitors department did was to obtain a legally binding agreement from the LPTB that the fare from Stratford to Liverpool Street would be the same, wether surface or underground. This as a pro quo to allow for the LT take over of the Epping/Ongar line and the Fairlop loop and for the provision of the LT platforms at Stratford. What was more interesting was his comment that this agreement was legally binding ''in perpetuity'', which I take to mean for ever. I wonder if it still stands.
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Post by stafford on Nov 6, 2018 21:07:40 GMT
The quick cheap answer to the temperatures on the Central line is to dig cross tunnels to the old Post Office railway, adjacent at several locations and install fans. I've said it before several times but can't get anyone to listen. I know that Whitehall once had a plan to use it as an escape route in case of etc etc, but to hell with the lot of em!
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Post by stafford on Jun 7, 2018 20:57:47 GMT
I think there may be history behind some of this. I lived in the station buildings in the electrification works period, and whilst the tube terminated and reversed in Platform 1, the steam service East (North) wards terminated and reversed in platform 2. And then years later there was the several years of trials of Automatic trains, research work towards the first Victoria line stock, using 21 to reverse as I recall. In passing, the goods yard buffers were at the end of the garden, and once a 12 ton open was pushed right to the buffers loaded with wooden compartment wall divisions from old stock being scrapped at Stratford, then passed over our fence, and after laborious dismantling used to build a garage, chicken house and domestic coal store. Stratford also charged a battery for us, bless 'em and allowed us to get the pre-war Rover going again.
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Post by stafford on Feb 19, 2018 16:08:02 GMT
Going back to the EOR, may I perhaps embarrass someone out there by asking who actually got the scrap cash for the power rails when lifted, and secondly when will the Government papers be released for the period during which that actress lady sold the line at the very last moment to someone who wasn't a preservationist organisation
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Post by stafford on Dec 5, 2017 18:41:45 GMT
Thank for that snoggle, most helpful, if sad.
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Post by stafford on Dec 4, 2017 17:16:52 GMT
Has anyone got any more recent info regarding the MMl link, i.e. from Junction Road Jn. to Carlton Road Jn. I see this as a really important for the existing - and future (Thamesside) freight side, quite apart from passenger possibilities. A bit of rail future?
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Post by stafford on Nov 11, 2017 17:53:13 GMT
I have somewhere a note that a diesel powered engineering department loco was ?considered/?mentioned/? ? built, of a size to work the deep tube lines? Is that a correct memory? was there such a thing?
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Post by stafford on Oct 16, 2017 18:05:00 GMT
Has this short bit of tunnel been backfilled or not?
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Post by stafford on Oct 16, 2017 18:02:15 GMT
At the tunnel entrance portals the OHLE will cease, and within the tunnels its an overhead rail, what are the arrangements for smooth transition of the panto from one to the other? Something amazing from the Swiss?
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Post by stafford on Mar 21, 2017 20:47:58 GMT
Would it be possible for someone to compare the head of rail datum in the W & C Waterloo depot roads, with the head of the rail datum in the parking roads of the Bakerloo line London Road Depot. Also of interest Blackfriars District line station area and the W & C nearby. Thank you experts.
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Post by stafford on Jan 31, 2017 20:27:26 GMT
I have a definite memory that four tracking as mentioned was in fact planned in detail by the LNER way back, before it became BR. Maybe that was due to pre 1939 traffics - loads of coal southbound, or maybe wartime requirements for the various ROF type installations. I think there are some culverts etc already widened.
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Post by stafford on Dec 28, 2016 17:49:35 GMT
They are right to be concerned about piling penetrating tube tunnels, it happened for real when some pile driving gentleman at Redbridge working for the M11 extension southwards over the road roundabout nearby went through the roof of Central Line tunnel - very shallow at that point. I wonder if anyone else recalls the 'WW2 factory stairs'' at Redbridge station, still there long after WW2 ended.
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Post by stafford on Dec 28, 2016 17:38:16 GMT
I'm sure I remember the Wimbledon service being terminated at Moorgate during a summer period way back, maybe the 60s. I do recall that it went back to the usual in due course, after I think maybe some months. Anyone recall the details? Was it weekends only?
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Post by stafford on Dec 28, 2016 17:34:20 GMT
I have been told that just before reaching Mill Hill East there was once (1955 or so) a siding (on the north side) ''for military use''. The nearby barracks were for the 'girls' of the A.T.S., so what was the siding used for? Electrified??
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Post by stafford on Dec 23, 2016 15:59:09 GMT
Does anyone have even the vaguest guess at the cost today of creating a step plate junction in the old fashioned way, assuming the tunnel wall has cast metal panels, not concrete.
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Post by stafford on Dec 23, 2016 15:55:30 GMT
I wonder if A2550's earlier history has to do with the long, long, gone facing connection at the western end of the Farringdon platform, Outer Circle right across to the Widened lines
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Post by stafford on Dec 23, 2016 15:38:52 GMT
Indeed so, it was happening much too often and one day in pouring rain, they finally mutinied. It happened several times, and even the presence on one occasion of (lonely) BT Police seemed not to have any effect. It happened far less often in due course. I recall in the Army that the tradition was to make sheep bleating noises in similar situations. Somebody had indeed taken notice, as one passenger said at the time 'even worms can turn'.
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Post by stafford on Dec 22, 2016 15:13:46 GMT
Does anyone remember the Finchley Central passenger mutinies?
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Post by stafford on Dec 19, 2016 19:07:30 GMT
As regards the M25 and related road schemes, the L.T. overbridge for the Woodford Hainault line was built long long before the M11, and one enjoyed the odd spectacle of central Line trains bridging over a few wandering cows. Come to think of it that line though seemingly ready was left un-used for a curiuously long time, with services meanwhile provided by a small Green line single decker bus.
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Post by stafford on Dec 19, 2016 19:03:35 GMT
And to add that during the period whilst the electrification ended at Woodford, pending further work, the Ongar train used to hang about in Woodford's Northbound (Down) platform, awaiting the arrival of the tube train from the West End. Its Westinghouse pump wheezing away, just outside my bedroom window as I then lived in the Stationmasters house. Also has anyone else heard the tale about the Vampire jet from North Weald RAF aerodrome adjacent, crashing onto the line in a slight cutting, and the branch steam set derailing as a result of the blast?. Further to add that I was on the very first LT train in public service from Woodford to Loughton, revoltingly early one morning, only passenger apart from quite a few engineering department staff. Loads of arcing.
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Post by stafford on Dec 19, 2016 18:54:50 GMT
I think I recall that the power supply was very poor, all fed from the Epping end. the start southbound from Ongar was very feeble. Also I believe there was a foot crossing somewhere in the forest section, which was unusual on an L.T. line. Further to add that there were some questions about the original sale of the line, involving a (former very famous actress) minister's decision taking. In passing, is there still a lower level siding immediately to the North of Epping's platforms?
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Post by stafford on Dec 6, 2016 16:05:06 GMT
I wonder what happened to the now missing power rails?
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