St Albans Abbey station

[ChiefPlanner]

Enjoying yet another birthday today - would upload pictures of the 140th anniversary , but am unable to do so !

As then operations manager , I ran a through working to Euston which required some point clipping at Watford Junction to make it happen !

 

[Saint66]

140 years! There are some interesting photos of the station from the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s etc where it looks like a station in the middle of abandoned industrial wasteland. Now it’s a very built up area!

What was the working to Euston for?

 

[ChiefPlanner]

140 years! There are some interesting photos of the station from the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s etc where it looks like a station in the middle of abandoned industrial wasteland. Now it’s a very built up area!

What was the working to Euston for?

We were asked if anything special could be arranged , so it was decided to run to Euston with a payload of local schoolchildren who were given special free tickets for the day , with treats donated by a local business etc (it did cause some branch overcrowding on that train for regular users !) - bit better than just a headboard on the train and got some good publicity.

 

[John Webb]

140 years! There are some interesting photos of the station from the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s etc where it looks like a station in the middle of abandoned industrial wasteland. Now it’s a very built up area!

What was the working to Euston for?

It was rather as the branch supplied the local gasworks with coal. I don't have the date the gasworks closed, but Stanley C. Jenkins book "The Watford to St Albans Branch" (Oakwood Press, 2nd. Edition 2008) says that some 100 wagon-loads of coal a day were needed to run it!
There is a photo from 1926 at https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW016807 showing the gas works and station and another from 1950 at https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW030240.

 

[nw1]

140 years! There are some interesting photos of the station from the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s etc where it looks like a station in the middle of abandoned industrial wasteland. Now it’s a very built up area!

I've only ever seen it from the MML, passing through but not stopping - but I'm surprised St Albans had areas that would fit that description even in the 70s!

 

[GC class B1]

The MML station is St Albans City. I don’t think Abbey station is visible from the MML.

 

[nw1]

The MML station is St Albans City. I don’t think Abbey station is visible from the MML.

I meant the city in general, seemed green and pleasant from the train, and it doesn't have a reputation for decaying industry but will freely admit I know little about St Albans in the 1970s!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I meant the city in general, seemed green and pleasant from the train, and it doesn't have a reputation for decaying industry but will freely expert I know little about St Albans in the 1970s!

The massive increased in St Albans "desirability" started witht the Bed-pan electrification with the 317's starting (replacing the ramshackle DMU fleet , along with very well planned track configuration and resignalling from West Hampstead Signal Box , followed later by the introduction of the Thameslink operation. Journey times dropped and reliability greatly improved , with even a 24 hour operation for the railway.

Of course the M25 orbital also greatly helped !

 

[vic-rijrode]

The MML station is St Albans City. I don’t think Abbey station is visible from the MML.

The only station that might just be visible from the MML is St Albans London Road (ex GNR/LNER) on the erstwhile St Albans Abbey to Hatfield branch (the other railway that had the Abbey station as its terminus). It was closed to passengers in 1951 and goods in 1968.

The station building still stands, has been restored and is now Grade II listed. The former trackway is now a footpath and is visible from the MML.

 

[Russel]

I've passed through Watford Junction hundreds of times but never done the branch to St Albans, I'll have to change that one day and it's been one I've wanted to do for ages.

 

[John Webb]

The only station that might just be visible from the MML is St Albans London Road (ex GNR/LNER) on the erstwhile St Albans Abbey to Hatfield branch (the other railway that had the Abbey station as its terminus). It was closed to passengers in 1951 and goods in 1968.

The station building still stands, has been restored and is now Grade II listed. The former trackway is now a footpath and is visible from the MML.

I can confirm that the London Road station can be briefly glimpsed from the MML.
But the Abbey station (what's left of it - just one platform!) is well out of sight some two-thirds of a mile/1km away, in the bottom of the Ver valley.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

The massive increased in St Albans "desirability" started witht the Bed-pan electrification with the 317's starting (replacing the ramshackle DMU fleet , along with very well planned track configuration and resignalling from West Hampstead Signal Box , followed later by the introduction of the Thameslink operation.

In the early days of through working to the Southern, unit diagramming was done by South Central planning, at the request (IIRC) of those on the LM. Not completely straightforward as we had both 319/0 and 319/1 on the route, and as is often the case the timetable didn't allow for a natural 'balancing' of each sub class between Bedford, Selhurst and Lovers Walk each night.

Here's something I took in last quarter of 1980. The Abbey station. The train was late arriving as I recall, the booked driver having phoned in sick, and so a Willesden man on his rest day had been woken up, and hastened to Watford Jn on his m/bike to work the turn.

BOLD - edited.

 

[vic-rijrode]

As an afterthought to this thread, one of my experiences of St Albans Abbey station was on the evening of February 19 1969. I and a few friends were trying to get back to Watford after the football match at Luton was abandoned because of falling snow. We caught the 321 bus from Luton which got as far as the centre of St Albans before road conditions prevented it from going any further. We walked down the hill to the Abbey station where services were still running (albeit very late) and waited in the (then) station Waiting Room (unheated but dry and reasonably welcoming) before a dmu arrived eventually and took us to Watford Junction through an increasing blizzard!

Of ocurse this would not be possible these days - the building containing the Waiting Room is long gone...

 

[thesignalman]

Here's something I took in last quarter of 1980. The Abbey station. The train was late arriving as I recall, the booked driver having phoned in sick, and so a Willesden man on his rest day had been woken up, and hastened to Watford Jn on his m/bike to work the turn.

I think your memory is confused. That would be a Watford driver. Willesden men did not sign DMUs or the branch.

John

 

[Big Jumby 74]

I think your memory is confused

Quite possibly! He may have commented he lived in Willesden, hence the m/bike dash.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Quite possibly! He may have commented he lived in Willesden, hence the m/bike dash.

That was my reasoning also - there was of course a significant traincrew depot at Stonebridge Park back in the day with a very wide range of work , whereas of course Willesden HL traincrew depot - catering to the North London electrics , and after rationalisation of St Pancras depot was a feature of North London Railways / Silverlink added the Gospel Oak diesel service as well.

In my 1996-1999 days , Watford was pretty much all 313 work (including a "not very well" unit kept onto the Abbey Branch with a handul of Northampton Line trains using 321 sets.