On 21 Sep, 10:43, John B wrote:
On 21 Sep, 08:59, MIG wrote:
This seems rather silly - having the line only go to Drayton Park makes it
almost completely useless! How long did that situation last? Crumbs -
according to CULG, from 1964 to 1976! It would only have been useful as a
local service from Essex Road, Highbury & Islington and Drayton Park into
the City, and for people coming on the Victoria line from Finsbury Park or
Blackhorse Road (the other stations have direct connections to Liverpool
Street anyway). Luxury! What was the frequency like? With that kind of
demand, i would guess low enough that people would be better off taking
either a bus or the Northern from King's Cross instead.
Did the link from the NLL to the GN not exist before the Moorgate line was
plumbed in? What did the railways round that area look like in, say, 1965?
Well, the thing is that there were empty stock movements between
Drayton Park and Highgate via Finsbury Park, Crouch End etc till 1970
or so, so I'd think the link was there (this off the top of my head).
AIUI, there was always a single-track, single-lead link for ECS/depot
usage, but the remodelling to create the current set of flyovers only
happened as part of the King's Cross suburban electrification
programme, with the civils work taking place from c1974 onwards.
Just to be clear - I think part of Tom's question actually related to
the Canonbury Curve line from the NLL to the GN. This was a double
line until the 1976 GN electrification scheme , and apparently hosted
diesel services from the GN to Broad Street up until that time (I
can't say that the dates are precise - things may have changed a bit
before '76).
This Canonbury Curve line was used until fairly recently for 'one'
railway ECS moves between the Hornsey depot and Hackney Downs/
Liverpool Street (via the NLL and new-ish Graham Road curve).
But nonetheless thanks for the confirmation of the LU Drayton Park
depot to GN single-lead link.
One thing I've never been able to locate is exactly where are the
blocked off tunnel portals north of Drayton Park are, i.e. the start
of the disused tunnels that lead up to Finsbury Park.
There is an interesting account of a visit down there on the Abandoned
Stations website...
http://www.pendar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Tube/
Drayton_Park_station.html
....which speaks of "passing through the single steel gate entrance" to
gain access to the tunnels, but I've never been able to pin down where
this entrance is, and indeed it's unclear whether that is just the
entrance to one of the running tunnels or to both.
I guess it was lucky (in so much as these things can ever be lucky)
that the line wasn't much use at the time of the Moorgate disaster,
since that meant the train was carrying its seated capacity of 300ish
people rather than its design capacity of 800ish...
Thanks for that. I have read a fairly horrendous account of the
Moorgate disaster, yet if the train had been fully loaded it sounds
like it could have been even worse.
I have just found a webpage regarding the Moorgate disaster he
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yvolvz
Th quoted death toll on that page is 42, which conflicts with the BBC
'On This Day' article which gives the toll as 43 (maybe the difference
is whether the driver was counted as not, as he may have committed
suicide though no-one can know what really happened). The webpage on
the disaster also says there were "more than seventy badly injured, of
whom some subsequently died as a result of their injuries."
BBC On This Day article:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/354bb