west coast mainline

[macneil]

Thanks for the comments.

The dem file goes to crewe s eventally it will end there the first version will stop jst north of Watford junction.

2020-08-29 031823 by k h, on Flickr

2020-08-29 030414 by k h, on Flickr

2020-08-29 031809 by k h, on Flickr

[cyberdonblue]

Great pictures of the Croxley Branch, Kane. Just a little heads up though, it was only third rail. I believe the 4th rail was in place from Watford High Street as far as Croxley Shed many moons ago (well before my time) because the LT used to stable a bit of stock at Croxley Shed once upon a time. Back in those days though, there was a triangle junction between Watford High Street, Bushey and Watford West with Croxley Shed sitting somewhere in the middle (I think. I don't fully trust my memory these days .) The track bed was still clearly visible in my day but well overgrown.

Superb work though, Mate. Keep plugging away. Hope the health is improving.

Cheers

Dave

[klambert]

Great pictures of the Croxley Branch, Kane. Just a little heads up though, it was only third rail. I believe the 4th rail was in place from Watford High Street as far as Croxley Shed many moons ago (well before my time) because the LT used to stable a bit of stock at Croxley Shed once upon a time. Back in those days though, there was a triangle junction between Watford High Street, Bushey and Watford West with Croxley Shed sitting somewhere in the middle (I think. I don't fully trust my memory these days .) The track bed was still clearly visible in my day but well overgrown.

Superb work though, Mate. Keep plugging away. Hope the health is improving.

Cheers

Dave

I believe it was 4th rail up until the late 60s? Although that's rather before Macneil's time period.


Good to see my 501s have found a route to be at home on, I really should think about updating them really, my 2nd ever train I worked on, were certainly a learning curve.

[macneil]

Do you mean this shed Dave and 4th rail removed.

2020-09-01 010102 by k h, on Flickr


2020-09-01 010305 by k h, on Flickr


2020-09-01 010448 by k h, on Flickr

Karl its still A fine model and fills A gap on the wcml did they ever carry nse livery or nse flashes at all ?

Also I have read that plans had been arond since the 1990s to connect the croxly green branch to the metropoliton line.The branch will be incuded in the route since its being built with some modelers license areas how many people wold be with or against the idea of bilding the unbuilt connection ?

Cheers.

[Meuw]

Hi macneil

Will the route be available for TANE

[macneil]

Not sure what’s compatible these days but it’s being built in ts 2019

[cyberdonblue]

At Croxley Green station it was possible to lean on the fence and watch the LU trains on the Met go by (I did it numerous times .) My Aylesbury to Marylebone route has the Watford Met Branch included - mere yards (maybe a couple of hundred at most) from BR's Croxley Green Station. The plan is/was (not sure where it stands now) to build some sort of concrete abortion across the gap and close Watford Met station altogether. Don't know if it'll ever happen. All I know is there was a lot of resistance when the plan was first announced.

Right up until it was closed, Croxley Shed still had "low level" fittings for the accommodation of the smaller LU trains on each road. The juice rail stopped short of the shed and there was an overhead live rail that had a jumper cable that could be dragged back and forth attached to it. Any Unit going into the Shed stopped at the doors and the Shunter would attach the overhead supply so you could drive in. You would drag the jumper cable along the overhead rail as you progressed. Once you arrived where they wanted you, the overhead jumper was detached so the Unit couldn't move. The shoes on the leading coach were well off the juice rail at the doors but the rear shoes would easily still be in contact thus providing power through the bus line.

Cheers

Dave

P.S. Yes, Kane. That's the Shed I'm talking about.

[evertrainz]

Good to see my 501s have found a route to be at home on ...

This route would serve as a home for a lot of stock, potentially encompassing all four main (five, if we want to consider a 'theoretical' extension to Manchester in the 60s, with 1500V DC Woodhead electrics ) types of traction, spanning steam all the way to electrics. Personally the early days of the WCML beat out the ECML widely in terms of interesting stock!

[PFX]

Fantastic work Kane. Your attention to detail is top notch.
Cheers,
Innis

[electra]

I believe it was 4th rail up until the late 60s? Although that's rather before Macneil's time period.

The North London and Euston-Watford Lines went third rail only in 1970. The fourth rail was retained, for the Bakerloo Line peak hour trains to Watford Junction that ran until 1982; when the service was cut back to Queens Park (and Stonebridge Park in the peaks). The middle rail was retained, after that, but not used and was gradually removed, north of Harrow, as track renewals took place, once it was obvious that the Bakerloo Line wouldn't be getting extended to Watford again. The peak hour service was, once again, extended to Harrow & Wealdstone in 1984 and in 1989, that service became an all day one.

The line to Croxley Green depot also retained the fourth rail, to permit the stabling of Bakerloo Line stock there.

[electra]

...did they ever carry nse livery or nse flashes at all ?

The class 501s? No. They finished around 9 months before NSE came into being. The nearest to a NSE class 501, came in the form of Test Coach Mars (https://www.nsers.org/uploads/3/5/5/9/3 ... 1_orig.jpg) and a pair of the north London based class 97/7 Battery cars; 97707 & 97708 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishrai ... 4337015707).

[Nexusdj]

Found this on YouTube (that you might find interesting) whilst looking for other videos taken in the Watford area : https://youtu.be/YiRO3ZvYrFI

[cyberdonblue]

Found this on YouTube (that you might find interesting) whilst looking for other videos taken in the Watford area : https://youtu.be/YiRO3ZvYrFI

I remember a couple of instances of mainline trains being run over the D.C., Dave. I had a Sunday turn at Watford once where I booked on and dragged about 4 Sparklers through to Euston and back on the D.C. with a 47. I can't for the life of me remember why we had to do it though. All I remember was the main line stuff was restricted to 40 mph on the D.C..

It couldn't have been when the Freightliner full of Johnny Walker whiskey derailed because that was at the north end so no trains were getting into Watford from the north that whole weekend (and Customs and Excise had the place closed up tighter than a camel's arse in a sandstorm withing half an hour anyway - although there was plenty of cut price whiskey knocking about for months afterwards .) The Punters got shipped in from Hemel Hempstead by bus on that occasion and we ran additional non-stop 501 services just in front of the local ones until they got the mainline knitting sorted out.

My fuzzy brain keeps suggesting something nasty happening on the main line around Wembley somewhere that caused those Sunday diversions but I can't really remember anything of note to be honest.

Cheers


Dave

[Briggsy]

My fuzzy brain keeps suggesting something nasty happening on the main line around Wembley somewhere that caused those Sunday diversions but I can't really remember anything of note to be honest.

That'll be because of that Johnny Walker whiskey

[Nexusdj]

I did my usual digging around the net and found that the new Wembley European freight operating centre (FOC) was plumbed into the WCML and connections in use by November 1993 , So I'm assuming the engineering work in October that saw the HST via the DC lines was associated with that .

There's a free download of the signalling notice for that area available from the Signalling Record Society website in the archive section for Trainload freight notices :
https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/ArchiveSignals/brtlf.php :
Willesden - Wembley; Wembley European Freight Operating Centre, new Wembley Yard SB. Sunday 28 November
Non members click on the "6_1993" link in the left hand column to download .