The NLL re-opened today between Stratford and Gospel Oak. Platform
extensions where needed seem to be mostly in place, and the signage is
the same, except at three stations: Canonbury, Highbury & Islington
and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury. These three all have the London
Overground roundel. The last station seems to become an island
platform, whilst the others are both four-platform stations, though
the southern set of tracks/platforms are still being worked on. NLL
trains use the northern pair of tracks at H & I and Canonbury. West of
Highbury, a lot of tracks is missing, but then the westbound NLL takes
over what must have been the former eastbound NLL track through
Caledonian Road. Camden Road and Dalston Kingsland seem to be
unchanged.

On Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:53:06 -0700, Dr. Sunil wrote:

The NLL re-opened today between Stratford and Gospel Oak. Platform
extensions where needed seem to be mostly in place, and the signage is
the same, except at three stations: Canonbury, Highbury & Islington and
Caledonian Road & Barnsbury. These three all have the London Overground
roundel. The last station seems to become an island platform, whilst the
others are both four-platform stations, though the southern set of
tracks/platforms are still being worked on. NLL trains use the northern
pair of tracks at H & I and Canonbury. West of Highbury, a lot of tracks
is missing, but then the westbound NLL takes over what must have been
the former eastbound NLL track through Caledonian Road. Camden Road and
Dalston Kingsland seem to be unchanged.

is it a trip worth going out of your way to travel along? I was half
tempted to take a trip along it after work tonight? (I'm in Canary Wharf,
but going to Canada Water, heading up to DJ, wandering over to Dalston
Kingsland and heading over to H&I before coming back to Stratford doesn't
seem too ridiculous, does it? Would you bother?)

On Jun 1, 4:58*pm, Martin Petrov
wrote:
On Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:53:06 -0700, Dr. Sunil wrote:
The NLL re-opened today between Stratford and Gospel Oak. Platform
extensions where needed seem to be mostly in place, and the signage is
the same, except at three stations: Canonbury, Highbury & Islington and
Caledonian Road & Barnsbury. These three all have the London Overground
roundel. The last station seems to become an island platform, whilst the
others are both four-platform stations, though the southern set of
tracks/platforms are still being worked on. NLL trains use the northern
pair of tracks at H & I and Canonbury. West of Highbury, a lot of tracks
is missing, but then the westbound NLL takes over what must have been
the former eastbound NLL track through Caledonian Road. Camden Road and
Dalston Kingsland seem to be unchanged.

is it a trip worth going out of your way to travel along? I was half
tempted to take a trip along it after work tonight? (I'm in Canary Wharf,
but going to Canada Water, heading up to DJ, wandering over to Dalston
Kingsland and heading over to H&I before coming back to Stratford doesn't
seem too ridiculous, does it? Would you bother?)

I have had a trundle up and down the revamped section today. I would
say that Highbury is well worth a look. The extent of change is quite
amazing plus there are lots of 2011/2012 signs not yet covered over!

I have lots of photos currently loading to Flickr of Highbury,
Canonbury and Caledonian Rd & Barnesbury. I would agree with the OP
that not much seems to have changed at Camden Road. However the
platform extensions are in place but not yet resurfaced at Dalston
Kingsland and the Boleyn Road bridge is fully reconstructed. Platform
extensions are also done at Kentish Town West but not yet open. Gospel
Oak w/b platform extension is still under construction. I saw plenty
of freight on the reopened section too - nearly all electric hauled.

I'll stick the link up to the photos a little later on.

--
Paul C
via Google because my ISP has forgotten about a news server!

On Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:42:35 -0700, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Jun 1, 4:58Â*pm, Martin Petrov
wrote:
is it a trip worth going out of your way to travel along? I was half
tempted to take a trip along it after work tonight? (I'm in Canary
Wharf, but going to Canada Water, heading up to DJ, wandering over to
Dalston Kingsland and heading over to H&I before coming back to
Stratford doesn't seem too ridiculous, does it? Would you bother?)

I have had a trundle up and down the revamped section today. I would say
that Highbury is well worth a look. The extent of change is quite
amazing plus there are lots of 2011/2012 signs not yet covered over!


Right. I'm on it....

On Jun 1, 11:53*am, "Dr. Sunil" wrote:
The NLL re-opened today between Stratford and Gospel Oak. Platform
extensions where needed seem to be mostly in place, and the signage is
the same, except at three stations: Canonbury, Highbury & Islington
and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury. These three all have the London
Overground roundel. The last station seems to become an island
platform, whilst the others are both four-platform stations, though
the southern set of tracks/platforms are still being worked on. NLL
trains use the northern pair of tracks at H & I and Canonbury. West of
Highbury, a lot of tracks is missing, but then the westbound NLL takes
over what must have been the former eastbound NLL track through
Caledonian Road. Camden Road and Dalston Kingsland seem to be
unchanged.

Here's my addition to the above.

I went to have a look at the section through to Dalston as that was
scheduled to have the most work done.

At Gospel Oak the westbound platform extension is still under
construction.

At Kentish Town West both platform extensions have been completed but
the new bits are not yet open to the public.

No sign of huge change at Camden Road other than what looked like
mounts for new signals.

East of Camden Road the alignment has been altered to create the
additional freight capacity and to put the NLL in the centre of four
tracks.

At Caledonian Road & Barnesbury a significant reconstruction has been
undertaken with new electrification, new tracks and a revamped station
including new bridge, lifts and stairs. All to the Network Rail
modular design which looks over engineered, cheap and horrible.

At Highbury and Islington the scale of change is quite breathtaking. I
couldn't quite believe my eyes when I stepped off a NLL train. The NLL
platforms are larger and more substantial than I imagined. There are
new lifts and a much wider upper concourse that more than doubles the
old area behind the ticket gates. There are much wider stairs down to
what will be the centre platform for w/b NLL and s/b ELL services.
There is also a new overbridge at the western ends of the platforms.
The ELL tracks still have a lot of work to be done to them and the
future platform 1 is really the site office for the contractors. I
suspect that commuters using the place this morning got the shock of
their lives.

At Canonbury the new NLL platforms are in place as is the new bit of
the centre platform for the ELL. The w/b ELL platform has a lot of
work still needed - there is a missing overbridge and lift towers and
stairs not connected together! Of all of the locations Canonbury
looked the most rushed and it was evident to my eyes that there'd been
a last minute rush to get it to the point of being ready for
passengers. There are no train indicators, PA or CCTV at Canonbury so
it's staff with loudhailers and scribble boards for the time being.

At Dalston Kingsland the platform extensions are in place but not
finished yet. The new Boleyn Road footbridge is all done and dusted.
To the west the new line to Dalston Junction is much in evidence. The
trackform is there and you can see down the tunnel now. Tracks are
partly in place but much is still to do. Looks hopeful though.

Passenger and freight trains were both running OK on the new line
although there were some minor delays to NLL trains. When I first
boarded a NLL train it was quite quiet but loadings were noticeably
higher about 2 hours later - word had obviously got about that the
trains were running again.

There are a lot of new signals in place but many of them are covered
over. While I am not familiar with the NLL signalling of old it does
look like capacity is pretty much as per the old days with what must
be supplementary sections not yet commissioned. It also looked like
Canonbury tunnel had not been reconnected signalling wise - the signal
was covered over at Canonbury.

Photos are still loading up but most of them are there at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24759744@N02/

Paul Corfield

On Jun 1, 12:28*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Jun 1, 11:53*am, "Dr. Sunil" wrote:

The NLL re-opened today between Stratford and Gospel Oak. Platform
extensions where needed seem to be mostly in place, and the signage is
the same, except at three stations: Canonbury, Highbury & Islington
and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury. These three all have the London
Overground roundel. The last station seems to become an island
platform, whilst the others are both four-platform stations, though
the southern set of tracks/platforms are still being worked on. NLL
trains use the northern pair of tracks at H & I and Canonbury. West of
Highbury, a lot of tracks is missing, but then the westbound NLL takes
over what must have been the former eastbound NLL track through
Caledonian Road. Camden Road and Dalston Kingsland seem to be
unchanged.

Here's my addition to the above.

I went to have a look at the section through to Dalston as that was
scheduled to have the most work done.

At Gospel Oak the westbound platform extension is still under
construction.

At Kentish Town West both platform extensions have been completed but
the new bits are not yet open to the public.

No sign of huge change at Camden Road other than what looked like
mounts for new signals.

East of Camden Road the alignment has been altered to create the
additional freight capacity and to put the NLL in the centre of four
tracks.

At Caledonian Road & Barnesbury a significant reconstruction has been
undertaken with new electrification, new tracks and a revamped station
including new bridge, lifts and stairs. All to the Network Rail
modular design which looks over engineered, cheap and horrible.

At Highbury and Islington the scale of change is quite breathtaking. I
couldn't quite believe my eyes when I stepped off a NLL train. The NLL
platforms are larger and more substantial than I imagined. There are
new lifts and a much wider upper concourse that more than doubles the
old area behind the ticket gates. There are much wider stairs down to
what will be the centre platform for w/b NLL and s/b ELL services.
There is also a new overbridge at the western ends of the platforms.
The ELL tracks still have a lot of work to be done to them and the
future platform 1 is really the site office for the contractors. *I
suspect that commuters using the place this morning got the shock of
their lives.

At Canonbury the new NLL platforms are in place as is the new bit of
the centre platform for the ELL. The w/b ELL platform has a lot of
work still needed - there is a missing overbridge and lift towers and
stairs not connected together! *Of all of the locations Canonbury
looked the most rushed and it was evident to my eyes that there'd been
a last minute rush to get it to the point of being ready for
passengers. *There are no train indicators, PA or CCTV at Canonbury so
it's staff with loudhailers and scribble boards for the time being.

At Dalston Kingsland the platform extensions are in place but not
finished yet. The new Boleyn Road footbridge is all done and dusted.
To the west the new line to Dalston Junction is much in evidence. The
trackform is there and you can see down the tunnel now. Tracks are
partly in place but much is still to do. Looks hopeful though.

Passenger and freight trains were both running OK on the new line
although there were some minor delays to NLL trains. *When I first
boarded a NLL train it was quite quiet but loadings were noticeably
higher about 2 hours later - word had obviously got about that the
trains were running again.

There are a lot of new signals in place but many of them are covered
over. *While I am not familiar with the NLL signalling of old it does
look like capacity is pretty much as per the old days with what must
be supplementary sections not yet commissioned. It also looked like
Canonbury tunnel had not been reconnected signalling wise - the signal
was covered over at Canonbury.

Photos are still loading up but most of them are there at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24759744@N02/

Thank you for the report and the pictures. You were very informative.

At Caledonian Road & Barnesbury a significant reconstruction has been
undertaken with new electrification, new tracks and a revamped station
including new bridge, lifts and stairs. All to the Network Rail modular
design which looks over engineered, cheap and horrible.

Didn't go that far - even if it's not so nice, I'll have to take a trip
up to see it as it's obviously changed dramatically.

At Highbury and Islington the scale of change is quite breathtaking. I
couldn't quite believe my eyes when I stepped off a NLL train. The NLL
platforms are larger and more substantial than I imagined.

Completely agree. I was mightily impressed with what was there. Loads of
space. Obviously, it will look even better once the south side is
completed. The only pain I had was that it finally put paid to any idea
that the "Old Highbury and Islington" entrance won't ever be re-opened. I
seem to remember some time back that abandonedstations.co.uk claimed it
was going to be re-opened when the ELL came up to H&I, and while I knew
it was never going to happen, it was finally laid to rest. Ahh well.
Otherwise, a fine job.

At Canonbury the new NLL platforms are in place as is the new bit of the
centre platform for the ELL. The w/b ELL platform has a lot of work
still needed - there is a missing overbridge and lift towers and stairs
not connected together! Of all of the locations Canonbury looked the
most rushed and it was evident to my eyes that there'd been a last
minute rush to get it to the point of being ready for passengers. There
are no train indicators, PA or CCTV at Canonbury so it's staff with
loudhailers and scribble boards for the time being.

Not a shock - one of the posters the other week had stuck his head over
the wall and said it looked like they'd hardly started with it.... Also,
it was throwing it down at the time, and there's only a small shelter
there IIRC? Couldn't they have put in some sort of roof? Couldn't have
been that expensive to put one in?

Photos are still loading up but most of them are there at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24759744@N02/

Awesome!

One final point, why do they still have "Temporary Sign" all over EVERY
sign? What's the point? Why have they done this?

On 1 June, 11:53, "Dr. Sunil" wrote:
The NLL re-opened today between Stratford and Gospel Oak. Platform
extensions where needed seem to be mostly in place, and the signage is
the same, except at three stations: Canonbury, Highbury & Islington
and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury. These three all have the London
Overground roundel. The last station seems to become an island
platform, whilst the others are both four-platform stations, though
the southern set of tracks/platforms are still being worked on. NLL
trains use the northern pair of tracks at H & I and Canonbury. West of
Highbury, a lot of tracks is missing, but then the westbound NLL takes
over what must have been the former eastbound NLL track through
Caledonian Road. Camden Road and Dalston Kingsland seem to be
unchanged.

Does this explain why I've seen a pair of 86s on a containter train on
the WCML for the first time in ages?

On Tue, 1 Jun 2010 21:39:05 +0000 (UTC), Martin Petrov
wrote:
One final point, why do they still have "Temporary Sign" all over
EVERY
sign? What's the point? Why have they done this?

Not DDA compliant? As someone with no sight issues (other than a need
for glasses) I find those black on orange ones hard to read, assuming
they are that type.

Failing that maybe a planning permission issue - but isn't the
railway usually exempt?

Neil

--
Neil Williams, Milton Keynes, UK

Once upon a time, Paul Corfield wrote:

Photos are still loading up but most of them are there at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24759744@N02/

Brilliant set of photos - thank you!

--
- The Iron Jelloid