On 3 Feb, 10:21, "Peter Masson" wrote:
On opening in 1852
Arrival platfform I(now 1)
14 carriage roads
Departure platform (now 8)

With you so far.

1862 new arrival platform added, full length one side (now 2) and stepped
the other side, with a short bay at the outer end (later 3) and a short
platform at the inner end (later 4).

...and I'm already skidding of the track. Oh dear.

In 1863 connections to the Met opened. Up trains to the Met called at York
Road platform. Down trains from the Met ran via the Hotel Curve, and set
back into the departure platform (now 8).

Makes sense.

1875 the Local station opened (for departures only) - 2 tracks with 3
platform faces, on site of current 9 - 11.

Can't help but wonder if that would be a better arrangement then what
we have now. Crowds hanging around on the platform as train loads try
to get off is nicely avoided by having arrivals on one side of the
train and departures on the other. Perhaps "A||D||A" or somesuch could
work. If you had a full barrier line across all three that matched the
platforms, you might even be able to get onto the platforms within a
few minutes of a train arriving...

1878 the Hotel Curve platform (later 16) added
2nd Gas Wiorks tunnel opened, and York Road platform resited

1892 3rd Gas Works tunnel added

Shame they didn't open a 4th to the west

1893 two platforms added either side of the central wall (now 4 and 5)

Did this ever have access to the footbridge?

1895 Local station altered to give 3 tracks and 3 platforms (now 9-11).
Hotel Curve platform rebuilt and new terminal platform on its opposite face
(later 17) added.

1924 new island platform added between the local station and the Hotel Curve
platform, numbered 14 and 15.

Quite how they manage with only 3 + borrowing some from the maid shed
these days is amazing.

1926 new island platform added in the departure side of the main shed,
numbered 7 and 8.

Is the relative youth of the platform any relation to the axle weight
restriction sign on it, do you know?

Numbering was now 1 - 17 across the station, though No. 9 was a carriage
road between 8 and 10 (now 7 and 8)

1934 platform 3 abolished and 4 extended to full length

1938 carriage road 9 abolished and 7/8 widened.

These last two changes explain the omission of platform numbers 3 and 9.

Intriguing. Though in that diagram I found there are definitely 17
faces onto tracks, so unless some of them were non-platform faces, I'm
a bit confused. I guess some might be parcels platforms or somesuch.
They're all unnumbered on it.

1970s, in connection with suburban electrification York Road platform, and
platforms 14-17, abolished. Platforms renumbered 1 - 11 in a continuous
sequence.

Opening up the Gas Works tunnels is not an option, as the Grand Union Canal
goes over the top of them. It might, I suppose, be possible to reinstate the
third tunnel, use the western one only for the suburban station (including
possible longer and/or additional platforms), the middle one for platforms
5-8, and the eastern one for platforms 1-4 and 0/W/Y or whatever it will be
called.

You could stick the canal into an aqueduct...it bridges obstacles
elsewhere with ease. Bridging the gap for the road is also (relatively
speaking, of course) trivial.

However, the intended diversion of most of the FCC service into Thameslink
will mean, at least with the new platform and the new concourse, that Kings
Cross will have enough capacity. Perhaps though the main trainshed will be
used for NXEC and the remaining FCC trains (12-car at peak times) with the
suburban shed used for the shorter Hull Trains, Grand Central and Grand
Northern.

I do have my doubts. Capacity is the sort of thing that gets eaten up
very quickly. I think the diversion onto Thameslink is going to be a
monumental balls up. The tube suffers with some delays with multiple
branches only going out to zone 5. Thameslink is going to have route
pollution from MML (from TL diagrams that use the fast lines), damn
near *all* ECML services thanks to the Welwyn viaduct, not to mention
the Peterborough services and the magic 3-track section, and they want
to merge 24tph into the 2 platform St. Pancras Thameslink....it's all
going to go horribly wrong, I suspect.

That said, I do love these newsgroups sometimes. If you have somewhere
to cite all that from, it'd be great to get that on Wikipedia.