Kings Cross station workings early 70's

[Kennilworth]

Hi

I am putting together a session from the 1974 working timetable but I don't know what the proceedure was at Kings Cross at this time. Did inbound locos stay with their trains until they were released by a loco on empty stock duties or did they use the crossovers at the buffer ends of platforms 1,3,5 and 7 to escape?

Were specific platforms allocated for arrivals and departures e.g. platforms 1,3,5 and 7 for arrivals and 2,4,6 and 8 for departures or were they all used equally? The suburban WTT includes loco hauled empty stock workings but unfortunately not light engine workings so any information would be much appreciated.

I would also be interested in any information regarding loco diagrams for this period to try to give a realistic feel to the session.

Thank you in advance for any assistance that may be forthcoming.

Regards

Brian

 

[Vern]

If we are talking about Kings Cross prior to re-modelling, some years ago I played the SIAM Kings Cross 1970 simulation which has the player putting fresh engines on outgoing trains, with the incoming loco released on departure, for servicing or maybe drop on top of an ECS working.

 

[stovepipe]

Sounds an interesting session, and one which takes me back to my earliest experiences 'platform ending'.

In the 1960's there were seperate arrival and departure sides of the station, but this had changed by the 1970's with the increased utilisation of rolling stock, and all platforms were used for arrival and departure successively. At various times of the day ECS was brought in from Bounds Green by usually a Class 31 or occasionally a 40, 46 or 47, sometimes with train engine attached at the rear. On arrival the ECS loco would uncouple and move up to the stops and stay there until the train departed.

ECS locos in earlier years would have also included Cl 23, 24 and 26s. Generally class 40s and 46s worked parcels and sleeper train, 47s and Deltics the principal daytime departures and some sleepers. 31s did the inner and outer suburban trains and also some overnight non-sleeper trains to Leeds.

The ECS loco would then follow the last coach up to the platform end to be released once the train had departed into Gasworks tunnel. The ECS loco would then either shunt forward into gasworks tunnel and drop back onto the loco sidings for use later, or onto another platform to pick up stock to take away ECS - an early morning sleeper arrival for instance. The sleeper train loco would then follow up the stock as it left and perform the Kings Cross 'shuffle' to get over to the loco yard. For platforms on the York Road side of the station, this involved a shunt into Gasworks tunnel and then back to a free platform and then back into the next bore of gasworks tunnel, before finally gaining access to the loco yard by yet another reversal. The loco would commonly then be refuelled in the shed and then depending on it's next diagram either stabled or brought back via another series of shuffles to the front of the next departure.

Most daytime stock remained in the platforms and was turned back out onto the next departure typically 90-120 mins after arrival. Different arrangements applied for sleepers, pullmans and parcel coaches which were generally removed from the station in between use. Deltics were very intensively used and received E(?) examinations at King Cross Shed, otherwise they would go up to Finsbury Park for the higher examinations. This meant every so often a Deltic would disappear into Gasworks after it had been released from the buffer stops. This happened with other loco types too but was less common. If all this sounds manic - it was! The Kings Cross throat was notorious and was worked to it's absolute limit in the busy periods of the day. Great fun to watch, but a tall order to replicate even in Trainz.

Or is it?!

PS for some reason loco loco diagrams are very hard to come by. Deltic diagrams might have been published over the years but I don't have any. Coach working diagrams can be found, but take some deciphering as to what was happening.

 

[Kennilworth]

Hi

Many thanks to you both for your replies which have been most helpful. I now have a clear picture of what happened and I can now start trying to dispose of the incoming locos. It would be nice if I could acquire a station working book for this period but they rarely turn up and when they do the price tends to be prohibitive.

While browsing today I came across this site http://www.napier-chronicles.co.uk/years.htm which has a lot of photographs and information about the Deltics. There is a lot of data for individual locos showing which trains they worked on a particular day. I may be able to collate enough information to get a good idea of which trains were Deltic diagrams. One advantage of having almost all of the mainline WTTs for this period is that they give the train ID code so it is also possible to work out some of their workings from photos of the era where the photo is dated and the loco is displaying its headcode. It will take quite some time though.

Many thanks again.

Regards

Brian

 

[itareus]

The WTTs should have a column header with Timing Load which will be a good guide as to what type of loco is diagrammed to operate the train. If you can get a carriage working book for the same period as the timetable then a combination of the two will increase your chances of reconstructing the loco diagrams.

No small task, best of luck !

 

[Kennilworth]

Hi

The timing loads weren't included in the early 70's WTTs, certainly up to and including 1974. I've been exploring the website that I linked to earlier and, while it doesn't have the diagrams, it does suggest which trains were likely to be Deltic worked. The actual diagram would only be useful for such things as maintenance periods and downtime.

I have a version of the ECML which I have converted to the current track layout as far out as Peterborough and have sessions based on the 2006 WTT for that. These are much easier to put together as the amount of detail in the WTT is tremendous. It tells you what type of train is allocated to a particular service, which platform the train uses at each station and also has all the ECS workings all in the one timetable. The only thing it doesn't have is the freight timings. There is no need to work out average speeds between timing points as all the trains are timed to run at either maximum line speed or their own maximum speed.

Fortunately I get as much pleasure out of the research as I do out of creating and running the sessions.

Regards

Brian

 

[napierdeltic]

It’s very interesting how the operations over the years have changed at the Cross. How the different sections of the station were built and again changed over the years. Where the final servicing area for the locomotive ended up was part of the canal system !

The Motorail service from the Cross interests me. Over the years this changed from using the cattle platform on Holloway Bank in the 60’s to the Cross. The last few years of the Deltics saw the Motorail service in the train shed on platforms 1-4 Cars would drive along the taxi rank road from York road which is now platform 0 and onto the train. This was on trains departing the Cross. How this worked in reverse I never saw. Would the Motorail stock be at the rear of the train arriving at the blocks split and moved over to the milk dock on platforms 17/18 or if the car stock was at the front of the train did the loco use the crossovers at the blocks for another loco on the rear of the train ease the train towards the platform end?

There was a period where the Motorail stock was loaded from platforms 17/18. Locos coming out of ‘Passenger Loco’ would need to run down platform 16 to be released to the main station. This stock once loaded would be coupled to the main train. These trains were so long with parcels, Motorail and passenger stock they would block some of the pointwork and signals. Day booked Deltic passenger trains were maximum load of 14 on the Anglo Scottish Express while night trains were around 16. The day stock in those days would have both Buffet and Restaurant cars. This was before the Deltics worked the semi fasts trains.

You may be interest to know that the complete Deltic diagrams for the summer of 1962 are in a book called Deltics at Work by Allan Baker and Gavin Morrison.

Another interesting working was 4S82 that departs KX Freightliner at 18.55 to Aberdeen returning at 01.55. Freightliners from both Willesden and Stratford would use the route to Edinburgh.

The ECML route is still being built and updated all the time with reference material sourced and paid from our own pockets. The route being so large has some areas needing considerably amount of manhours to be built correctly over a period of time but I do guarantee it will only just get better

Cheers
Stuart
ECML Project Leader