Watford DC Line Questions

Thanks stapler, that's a great description, I can really picture the stations as they were then. The term 'ghost station' seems particularly appropriate here. It's sad the situation was allowed to develop but at the same time it's part of railway history and therefore exciting.

Another thing that's always intrigued me about this line, I wonder why the northbound fast platform about Bushey became disused but the southbound fast didn't. The most likely reason I can think of is that the southbound was part of an island which the public had full access to (though this rule doesn't apply to Platform 5 at Watford Junction which is clearly in a disused condition, unlike the adjoining Platform 6). Of course the fast northbound at Bushey is also part of an island but that's separated from the DC Line by a fence so there was no public access.

There used to be main line platforms at Queens Park. I can't remember when they were taken out, but certainly still in occasional use after the OHLe was energised. there were a few specials that ran from Camden Road to Birmingham New Street in 1967/68. I still have the ticket somewhere!

The platforms at WJ were taken out pre-OHLE to allow realignemnt of the main lines. I can't remember when the other platforms were taken out of use.

The Railways Archive has a couple of images of the aftermath of this accident (February 1980) and the report into it: www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/eventsummary.php?eventID=222

Platform 3 is used Saturday evening plus Sunday morning and evening, depending on which down line is in use during the regular weekend engineering works. This is the reason why trains are timetabled to set down only at Bushey, as people are not allowed to wait on this platform , given the limited space available. Alighting passengers are told to use the front four coaches only for Bushey, if the train is longer than four (in a similar fashion to Up trains calling at the short Wembley Central platform 6).

I understand the main line platforms at Bushey are use on weekends when there's engineering works. I've noticed the stops on the departure boards when I've been doing rail replacements for Sullivan buses.

There used to be platforms on the fast lines at Queens Park. I think they were taken out in the mid 1970s. I found the special ticket earlier today for the opening ceremony special trains in 1967. there was a loco-hauled special to New Street and an AM10 from Camden Road to New Street, and maybe another AM10 from Euston calling at Queens Park and other odd places to New Street.

do 't forget there was another accident on the main line between Watford Jcn and bushey in 1974 whan a class AL6 ended up on the down side at the bottom of the bank by the gas wrks curve. It stayed there a couple of years as they had to build a special road to recover it. It was well outside the reach and lifting capacity of the biggest BR cranes. The camber on the curve had a lot to do with recovery problems.

I do recall that the materials to repair platform three were actually delivered to the platform.   There they remained for years with weeds growing up around them until they were eventually removed/pilfered.

The plan from Preston (or wherever) was always intended to go to Euston with Queen's Park as a stop-gap used only if paths further were unavailable.

My understanding was that there weren't paths into Euston, so the application was to terminate at Queens's Park. Once Network Rail realised this would be a massive headache (but not something they could oppose) they managed to find some paths into Euston. I'm not quite sure how this idea came to be in my brain, so I'm happy to be proved wrong.

A cl90 was repainted and driver training had started for this service shortly before Covid-19 had an impact on the network.