Recent content by Andy R. A.

The Sleeping Cars off the services from Barrow, Manchester, Liverpool, and Holyhead were all shunted off on arrival at Euston into platform 15, and remained there until sent out to Willesden at 0750. The other portions of seating stock were all sent out to Willesden soon after arrival to free up...

Looking back at my time in the 1970s and 1980s the grades started with 'Junior Railman', normally when people joined straight from school. Then there was 'Railman', 'Leading Railman', 'Senior Railman', 'Chargeman'(Foreman). It then shifted into the Supervisory Grades, from 'A' up to 'D', later a...

The General Linespeed between Drayton Park and Moorgate was 30mph back then. The 313s seemed to manage the 10 minutes between Moorgate and Finsbury Park with no bother, including the voltage changeover at Drayton Park, and the 'Moorgate Control' of 10mph arriving in Moorgate. My hand drawn...

Unfortunately I left Finsbury Park in July 1981, and I hadn't been able to retain the WTT which might have shown the solution. As the Royston service had been revised from June 1981 the previous years WTT, which I still have, isn't much help.

No, all stations. It is only four miles from Moorgate to Finsbury Park. When the line was still operated by London Underground Essex Road was shut on Sundays. My visits there in BR days always made me wonder how it managed to keep open as it always seemed to be deserted, but then my visits were...

Last bit of 'The Book' for 81/82 covering mostly the Sunday workings.

Part 3 of 'the Book', containing most of the Saturday workings following on from the last batch. Last ones with the Sundays to follow shortly.

Paul Stevens in the cab, George Middleton on the phone. 1754032680 I forget which end it was but it had stencilled on the inside of the route indicator box in the cab the legend 'Not to work into Paddington Suburban'.

The next bit from 'The Book'. One thing about this service from 1981 was that it was the first one that introduced some 'economy' measures in the GN Suburban service. Where the three trains on both the Hertford and Welwyn GC services were reduced to two on each line from about 2000, making it...

You have to go back to 1987. That year, the Maintenance Depot at St. Leonards closed, with the remaining Diesel units being transferred and maintained at Selhurst. Three units were required to operate the Marshlink services back then, and there was a late evening/overnight working which would...

I kept a detailed record of my time at Finsbury Park between 1979 and 1981 and my time on the GN. It certainly wasn't all plain sailing, we had a period of train crew shortages, and the 313s were still not performing well. The Rush Hours could be 'quite something'. My first day was on the 30th...

One of my recollections of the Night service on the GN dated 4th October 1980 at Finsbury Park Saturday night/Sunday morning, and DMU substitutions. There was Engineering Works between Wood Green and Welwyn Garden City overnight, and the Overhead Power was off. (Back then the Main Line trains...

This maybe of some interest. Some pages from 'The Book' we had at Finsbury Park. There was a limit on how many pages that can be uploaded, so not complete. This was the 81-82 timetable and I had compiled this just before I left the area for another job. The main changes from the previous few...

In the mid-1970s this was how the incoming Sleeper services were dealt with at Euston to allow Sleeping Car Passengers to remain in their berths until 0730. The method of operation was reasonably interesting. Sleeping Car passengers were allowed to remain in their berths until 0730, meaning...

There is a photo of D814 Dragon at Butts Junction between Medstead and Alton with what is captioned the diverted 0719 Eastleigh to Waterloo on 05.06.66. The photo is in the book 'The power of the Warships' by John Vaughan, OPC ISBN 0-86093-590-6