December Quiz - Day 30

Tricky one!! Mix of bull/flatbottom rails and a stabled train in the background. First thoughts were High Barnet or Barking but I've ruled them out! It could be Upminster, with the new link between the Romford branch and the District at the Depot end of the station.

just east of edgeware road?

SE13 has a PM.

well its gotto be somewhere on the bakerloo

Well, I'm going to dispute what SE13's bit of paper says.

That's the east end of Upminster, the class 321 is one of the Silverlink ones that was running for c2c, the NR connection that never was is in the foreground and the overrun with the unbroken crossing nose is right in front of the NR platform.

I said it was Upminster, but if I'd seen the 321 from the start I may have said it was on the DC lines too!

I am supplied with a list of questions and answers. I can't always decide myself it the answer fits the question, as mostly I don't know!!

My answer sheet also says that Aspect took the picture, so I would either need him or ChrisM to PM me with confirmation either way.

Certainly, I can only go on what the answer sheet says, so I can only apologise if there is some discrepancy, as it's beyond my control.

I rules out the DC lines from the beginning as the only place I could think of the correct number of parallel roads was Queens Park and I knew it wasn't there straight off.

The picture also didn't fit anywhere on the Met for the number of roads, the layout and the rust.

I was thinking somewhere with a NR connection on the District but I have not been to Upminster for about 20 years so the picture rang no bells for me at all!

Some of these latest quiz pics have been real puzzlers, great stuff, keep them coming!

Ahh, don't worry mrfs42... you ain't the only one... I failed to get the one correct, that I pass through nearly every bloody day!

That NR connection is blocked by an OHLE anchor post. NR's refusal to remove it for free and break the single signalling section between Romford and Upminster has led to the de facto abandonment of the connection.

A note for both Tom and TheOneKEA who were both correct on PM with Upminster.

In answer to Oracle's questions:

It was initially, partly intended for the D stock to go by rail for refurb, but the route to be taken has never been gauged - so even if the connection were completed, it would never have been used for that purpose. A secondary use was going to be access to LUL for Metronet's class 66's.

The next issue to overcome was the signaling arrangements. The Romford to Upminster Branch is single line and involves such equipment as axle counters etc. Being Single line, a number of things were needed, and procedures had to be developed for the signaling - in the end it was decided that the only way the connection could be used was under possession from Romford all the way to Upminster depot. If, and it was almost a certainty, locos then needed to 'run round' their trains, this would cause further complications within the depot and would affect the area/size needed for the said possession.

The resulting impact to the depot's operations and the limited times at which such possessions could be carried out (late evenings & sundays) meant that it was decided that the whole idea just wasn't worth pursuing and it has now been dropped indefinitely.

It was to the west of the station - I've just tried to find an image that was posted on here but my net connection seems to be playing up at the mo...........I'll have another snoop later on if it improves