There appears to be work going on beside Holloway Road tube station, on
some old railway land. Does anyone know what that apparent old alignment
was? Were there plans for a high-level station at any point?

http://www.islington.gov.uk/Council/...road_brief.asp

ESB

In article , (Ernst S Blofeld) wrote:

There appears to be work going on beside Holloway Road tube
station, on some old railway land. Does anyone know what that
apparent old alignment was? Were there plans for a high-level
station at any point?

http://www.islington.gov.uk/Council/...tation/current
consultations/holloway_road_brief.asp

These were extra tracks for freight towards Finsbury Park, surely? This site is the other side oft he ECML from the tube station.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Ernst S Blofeld wrote:
There appears to be work going on beside Holloway Road tube station,
on some old railway land. Does anyone know what that apparent old
alignment was? Were there plans for a high-level station at any point?

http://www.islington.gov.uk/Council/...road_brief.asp

The Piccadilly stations between Kings Cross and Finsbury Park (including
York Road) were replacements for surface stations which shut as soon as (I
think) the underground stations opened.

The economics of closing 4 existing surface stations and building
underground ones have never entirely made sense to me, when they could have
built a pair of (larger) tunnels for GN trains and given over two surface
tracks, with stations, to the Piccadilly.

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

These were extra tracks for freight towards Finsbury Park, surely? This site is the other side oft he ECML from the tube station.

It was Holloway Carriage Sidings. There was an additional bridge span
for the exit, and the buffer stops were more or less at the end of
Stock Orchard Street. Stock would be drawn out and taken past Holloway
North Down box to Finsbury Park No. 2 (just outside Finsbury Park
depot, next to the Down Moorgate line), where the loco would run round
before taking the stock beneath the ECML and up into Kings Cross.

During the 1970s the stock of the Yorkshire and Hull pullmans stabled
there, with ETH supplied by an old BTH-Paxman type 1.

Ernst S Blofeld wrote:
There appears to be work going on beside Holloway Road tube station, on
some old railway land. Does anyone know what that apparent old alignment
was? Were there plans for a high-level station at any point?

Thanks for the info on the Holloway Carriage Sidings. I must be
suffering from selective amnesia as I had forgotten about the old
surface station;

http://www.loveplums.co.uk/Tube/Holl...nian_Road.html

There is demolition work ongoing so there might not be any remnants left
for much longer.

ESB

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006, John Rowland wrote:

Ernst S Blofeld wrote:

There appears to be work going on beside Holloway Road tube station,
on some old railway land. Does anyone know what that apparent old
alignment was? Were there plans for a high-level station at any point?

http://www.islington.gov.uk/Council/...road_brief.asp

The Piccadilly stations between Kings Cross and Finsbury Park (including
York Road) were replacements for surface stations which shut as soon as (I
think) the underground stations opened.

The economics of closing 4 existing surface stations and building
underground ones have never entirely made sense to me, when they could
have built a pair of (larger) tunnels for GN trains and given over two
surface tracks, with stations, to the Piccadilly.

Perhaps because bigger tunnels would have cost rather a lot more, could
not have been worked by steam trains, and would have required some
complicated portal shenanigans at King's Cross to bring the big trains up
to the station whilst the little trains dived down to go to Russell
Square.

That said, i wonder if it was also a cultural thing - the idea of putting
suburban railways in tubes was already popular, but nobody had done it for
a main line. Indeed, we still haven't - not until the CTRL opens!

tom

--
THE DRUMMER FROM DEF LEPPARD'S ONLY GOT ONE ARM!

On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

These were extra tracks for freight towards Finsbury Park, surely? This site is the other side oft he ECML from the tube station.

It was Holloway Carriage Sidings. There was an additional bridge span
for the exit, and the buffer stops were more or less at the end of Stock
Orchard Street. Stock would be drawn out and taken past Holloway North
Down box to Finsbury Park No. 2 (just outside Finsbury Park depot, next
to the Down Moorgate line), where the loco would run round before taking
the stock beneath the ECML and up into Kings Cross.

During the 1970s the stock of the Yorkshire and Hull pullmans stabled
there, with ETH supplied by an old BTH-Paxman type 1.

How extraordinary. Surely it can't have been a very big sidings? Amazing
to think there was a little rooftop depot right next to where i used to
live!

tom

--
THE DRUMMER FROM DEF LEPPARD'S ONLY GOT ONE ARM!

Tom Anderson wrote:

How extraordinary. Surely it can't have been a very big sidings? Amazing
to think there was a little rooftop depot right next to where i used to
live!

Like many urban sidings, it was larger than you'd think. There isn't
much online about Holloway Carriage sidings, but I've found two images:

http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/r...image=10443326

and:

http://www.ingenious.org.uk/See/Transport/Railways/?target=SeeLarge&ObjectID={1D16F73A-AC28-28D3-B4ED-06543BAB1423}&viewby=images

There's also a reference in a railway accident report from 1951:

http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/doc...ingdon1951.pdf

This states that the 14-coach train was examined at Holloway Carriage
Sidings, which gives you some idea of the length of train that could be
accommodated.

There were about ten roads in there, IIRC. Holloway declined in
importance after Ferme Park and Hornsey became carriage sidings. It
was used for the Pullmans, and, along with Finsbury Park carriage
sidings, the non-corridor stock for the suburban services that were
replaced by the GN electrics. Finsbury Park carriage sidings closed
with the electrification, but Holloway remained open for at least a few
more years.

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

How extraordinary. Surely it can't have been a very big sidings?
Amazing to think there was a little rooftop depot right next to where i
used to live!

This states that the 14-coach train was examined at Holloway Carriage
Sidings, which gives you some idea of the length of train that could be
accommodated.

Length is perhaps not the surprising thing, given that railways are long
and thin anyway, so much as ...

There were about ten roads in there, IIRC.

The width! Ten roads would be about fifty metres across, wouldn't it?
That's a decent amount of space - a row or two of houses, i'd say.

tom

--
I do not think we will have to wait for long.

Tom Anderson wrote:

The width! Ten roads would be about fifty metres across, wouldn't it?
That's a decent amount of space - a row or two of houses, i'd say.

Well, as it happens, there's three rows of houses on there now -
Heddington Grove.

Live.local's aerial photography shows the area of the sidings quite
well:

http://maps.live.com