Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2015 9:55:22 GMT
Looking at the large scale OS maps on the NLS map web site, it is apparent that the original Metropolitan Railway line runs (north of Farringdon and the Ray Street grid iron bridge) directly under Farringdon Road, and was, I assume, built 'cut and cover' by digging up the road. But the equivalent bit of the Widened Lines ("Clerkenwell No. 1 Tunnel") is under the adjacent buildings (which front Farringdon Road). So how was that bit built - was it excavated under the then existing buildings? 'cut and cover' before that strip was built up? or were the 'old' buildings demolished, the line built 'c & c' and new buildings then built on top? And slightly further north, alongside the Widened Lines 'Clerkenwell No. 3 Tunnel' the Met is in the open (in cutting) - I wonder what the history behind this is. |
|
|
|
Post by norbitonflyer on Jun 9, 2015 12:24:18 GMT
Remember that only three years separates the original line and the widened lines - the latter were already in preparation by the time the original line was opened. Indeed, it is not certain that the existing Met/Circle tracks follow the originally planned alignment exactly - it may have been shifted over in places to allow the CWL to use he original alignment. This is certainly the case at Farringdon, where the original station was relocated in 1865 to accommodate the widened lines and extension to Moorgate.
Where the original line was cut and Cover, the Widened ones had to be alongside, off the line of the road, (unless the road were to be made unrealistically wide). In a cutting where they could, in a tunnel where necessary.
The Metropolitan Railway was, among other things, a slum clearance project, so whatever was in the Fleet valley before was swept away. In any case I would guess that many of the buildings now fronting Farringdon Road were built later, over the railway, rather than the railway being dug under those buildings.
|
|
|
|
Post by crusty54 on Jun 9, 2015 17:50:17 GMT
The widened lines pass under the Met below/beside the Betsey Trotwood pub in Farringdon Road.
This was visible from the old Guardian office across the road.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2015 21:01:01 GMT
The widened lines pass under the Met below/beside the Betsey Trotwood pub in Farringdon Road. This was visible from the old Guardian office across the road. That's quite a nice pub. It really is an interesting experience sitting downstairs while they trains go rumbling by! |
|
|
|
Post by abe on Jun 12, 2015 9:14:09 GMT
Much of the tunnel between the original MR station at King's Cross and Farringdon was excavated conventionally (i.e., not cut and cover) due to the depth below ground level. This was the case for both the Metropolitan and Widened lines.
|
|
|
|
Post by bassmike on Jun 12, 2015 10:03:25 GMT
Clerkenwell tunnels.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2015 21:28:46 GMT
Can anyone tell me what the gradient of the old snowhill tunnel was? The 300 ft section from under Holborn platform 6 to track level on viaduct looks particularly steep. Also, why was banking necessary for freight and not for the later passenger traffic? Many thanks.
|
|
Dom K
Global Moderator
The future is bright
Posts: 1,831 
|
Post by Dom K on Aug 26, 2015 21:42:59 GMT
Can anyone tell me what the gradient of the old snowhill tunnel was? The 300 ft section from under Holborn platform 6 to track level on viaduct looks particularly steep. Also, why was banking necessary for freight and not for the later passenger traffic? Many thanks. I don't know the answer, but welcome to the forum! |
|
|
|
Post by norbitonflyer on Aug 26, 2015 21:48:03 GMT
1 in 39 it says here www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/snow_hill/Freight trains tend to be heavier than passenger (there is an awful lot of air even in a crush-loaded passenger train!). With an unbraked freight train a banker is also a safeguard against a breakaway, in case the handbrake in the brake van is unable to hold it. I'm not sure what you mean by "later" passenger trains - all the references I have read suggest that passenger trains ran through the tunnel as soon as it opened in 1866. After re-opening in the 1980s, all traffic was electric and the 319s, built specially for the line, were well able to cope, as they are with the new, steeper, and partially open-air gradient between City TL and Blackfriars. |
|
roythebus
Pleased to say the restoration of BEA coach MLL738 is as complete as it can be, now restoring MLL721
Posts: 1,275
|
Post by roythebus on Sept 4, 2015 19:40:32 GMT
In later years there was a class 08 diesel stationed at Farringdon to bank goods trains to Holborn, and occasionally the other way to Kings Cross in order to help them up Hotel Curve!
|
|
