Post by twinrover1965 on Jul 10, 2020 15:51:50 GMT
For the sake of completion of the previous and now closed thread on ATO [1964] in the Pictoral section and something that really needs to be recorded is footage of the Grange Hill Goods Yard reception road and engine run round line that appears at 07:27 to 07:30 and 0736 to 07:43 in the Westinghouse Film on ATO. I am surprised nobody had spotted this in the thread but I suppose not many were aware that the shunting loop was more of an adjunct to Hainault depot albeit separated by some bushes and the northern entrance/exit tracks to the tube depot rather than in the two road yard itself located right next to the inner rail platform of Grange Hill. A couple of writers in the past have referred to the lines as Hainault Goods Yard, which of course is wrong, Hainault did have a single road goods facility in GER/LNER days but it was next to the station in New North Road and closed very early in 1909 when the station itself also closed for about twenty years reopening in 1930.
I have only seen one other photo dated 8th June 1962 of this reception road in the photo book " London Railways from the Air" pages 116-7, pub. Aerofilms/Ian Allan 2006, but the lines are rather indistinct. The one thing which is noticeable is the disappearing number of Standard Stock units, as compared to 62s stabled in the sidings.
Anyway getting back to Grange Hill, the reception road, run round loop and the goods yard itself closed to coal traffic on 5th October, 1965 and was removed on 6th December 1966 some years prior to the others at this end of the Central. Unlike the others also, the yard was not converted to a car park but to store and distribute liquid fuel. The area was concreted over to enable the road vehicles to manoevre and the fuel tanks coloured green were mounted on brick built supports.
What I wondered was for how long this situation lasted? I know the liquid fuel depot closed [for safety reasons, perhaps?] at some point and then the area was abandoned and left to nature. After a period, the entire yard was cleared of vegetation and two new electrified sidings were laid. Roads 71 and 72 appear not to have been affected or altered in any way by these changes since 1948. Can anybody add some dates/anecdotes to these developments?
Looking at the Westinghouse again, I feel that the film might have been shot between October 1965 and the end of 1966 as there seems to be something like a tarpaulin obstructing a rail on the run round section of the formation. The last few years of the freight service the number of wagons seen in the yards really dwindled. It had been a daily service in the 1950s but by 1963-5 it was advertised as a discretional MWF operation, in reality, Wednesdays only, until the end. I am unable to confirm that Class 31s made it to Newbury Park but Class 15 and 16 diesels were the main forms of traction even though some locos were not equipped with tripcocks and exceeded the speed limits in force! Unlike the Loughton freights, steam was not used on these trips from November 1959. I got this first hand when I was an LT Trainee attached to the Central/Bakerloo Lines Divisional office at Baker Street from a signalman at Newbury Park called Vic, who I had the pleasure of sitting next to at the Central/Bakerloo Lines Divisional Christmas lunch in a steak house in Oxford Street in 1980. Vic worked the box at the time and was very adamant about the date of the end of steam along this section.
Incidentally, the commentary of the film sounds rather stilted with short sentences using the passive voice was to ease translation as Westinghouse was a huge multi-national company that was probably very keen to reap from their investment worldwide. The film was really designed for viewing by technical people rather than cinema audiences.
I thought you might be interested in a short Pathe News film feature from about 1920 filmed at Hainault [when closed prior to demolition of the GER Woodford bound platform buildings] and Grange Hill showing a more primitive form of automatic operation being tried out and catch an extremely rare glimpse of the entry to the then abandoned Hainault goods siding with associated catch point/bufferstop at 00:04 to 00:20 and 01:55 to 02:02. Notice also the inappropriate description given by the so called archivist at Pathe. There are probably more gems like this that will never see the light of day because of such slapdash indexing!
www.britishpathe.com/video/unknown-celebrities-at-inauguration-of-new-train-l
I have only seen one other photo dated 8th June 1962 of this reception road in the photo book " London Railways from the Air" pages 116-7, pub. Aerofilms/Ian Allan 2006, but the lines are rather indistinct. The one thing which is noticeable is the disappearing number of Standard Stock units, as compared to 62s stabled in the sidings.
Anyway getting back to Grange Hill, the reception road, run round loop and the goods yard itself closed to coal traffic on 5th October, 1965 and was removed on 6th December 1966 some years prior to the others at this end of the Central. Unlike the others also, the yard was not converted to a car park but to store and distribute liquid fuel. The area was concreted over to enable the road vehicles to manoevre and the fuel tanks coloured green were mounted on brick built supports.
What I wondered was for how long this situation lasted? I know the liquid fuel depot closed [for safety reasons, perhaps?] at some point and then the area was abandoned and left to nature. After a period, the entire yard was cleared of vegetation and two new electrified sidings were laid. Roads 71 and 72 appear not to have been affected or altered in any way by these changes since 1948. Can anybody add some dates/anecdotes to these developments?
Looking at the Westinghouse again, I feel that the film might have been shot between October 1965 and the end of 1966 as there seems to be something like a tarpaulin obstructing a rail on the run round section of the formation. The last few years of the freight service the number of wagons seen in the yards really dwindled. It had been a daily service in the 1950s but by 1963-5 it was advertised as a discretional MWF operation, in reality, Wednesdays only, until the end. I am unable to confirm that Class 31s made it to Newbury Park but Class 15 and 16 diesels were the main forms of traction even though some locos were not equipped with tripcocks and exceeded the speed limits in force! Unlike the Loughton freights, steam was not used on these trips from November 1959. I got this first hand when I was an LT Trainee attached to the Central/Bakerloo Lines Divisional office at Baker Street from a signalman at Newbury Park called Vic, who I had the pleasure of sitting next to at the Central/Bakerloo Lines Divisional Christmas lunch in a steak house in Oxford Street in 1980. Vic worked the box at the time and was very adamant about the date of the end of steam along this section.
Incidentally, the commentary of the film sounds rather stilted with short sentences using the passive voice was to ease translation as Westinghouse was a huge multi-national company that was probably very keen to reap from their investment worldwide. The film was really designed for viewing by technical people rather than cinema audiences.
I thought you might be interested in a short Pathe News film feature from about 1920 filmed at Hainault [when closed prior to demolition of the GER Woodford bound platform buildings] and Grange Hill showing a more primitive form of automatic operation being tried out and catch an extremely rare glimpse of the entry to the then abandoned Hainault goods siding with associated catch point/bufferstop at 00:04 to 00:20 and 01:55 to 02:02. Notice also the inappropriate description given by the so called archivist at Pathe. There are probably more gems like this that will never see the light of day because of such slapdash indexing!
www.britishpathe.com/video/unknown-celebrities-at-inauguration-of-new-train-l
