319361 has just pulled very slowly into the the 'new' siding at Herne
Hill. All three rails look unused-rusty at the moment so this must
still be quite an unusual occurrence! (I have a poor quality photo if
anyone's interested)

On 8 Jan, 09:08, wrote:
319361 has just pulled very slowly into the the 'new' siding at Herne
Hill. All three rails look unused-rusty at the moment so this must
still be quite an unusual occurrence! (I have a poor quality photo if
anyone's interested)

Presumably practice for when the new timetable starts on 22 March.

On 8 Jan, 09:08, wrote:
319361 has just pulled very slowly into the the 'new' siding at Herne
Hill. All three rails look unused-rusty at the moment so this must
still be quite an unusual occurrence! (I have a poor quality photo if
anyone's interested)

Is this in the same position as the old siding, i.e. alongside the
track for platform 4? I can't think where else you could fit in a
siding at Herne Hill.

In all the years I lived not far from there, and used the station,
about 40 years, I think I only ever saw anything in the old siding
twice, each time just an old wagon. Oddly enough, both occasions were
within a few months of each other. I remember that the old siding was
electrified at one time; what was the reason for this? Was it used
for stabling passenger units at one time, or did it at one time
provide access to the yard that used to be there for electrically-
hauled freight trains? Whatever the reason was, it must have stopped
being used for that a very long tome ago.

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...

On 8 Jan, 09:08, wrote:
319361 has just pulled very slowly into the the 'new' siding at Herne
Hill. All three rails look unused-rusty at the moment so this must
still be quite an unusual occurrence! (I have a poor quality photo if
anyone's interested)

Presumably practice for when the new timetable starts on 22 March.

The current timetable shows trains terminating at Blackfriars from the north
at 0816, 0844, 1026, 1056, and 1126, and trains starting from Elephant &
Castle for the north at 0855, 0920, 1618, 1700, and 1740. Do some or all of
these reverse and lay over in the Herne Hill reversing siding?

Peter

On 8 Jan, 15:43, Stephen Furley wrote:

On 8 Jan, 09:08, wrote:

319361 has just pulled very slowly into the the 'new' siding at Herne
Hill. All three rails look unused-rusty at the moment so this must
still be quite an unusual occurrence! (I have a poor quality photo if
anyone's interested)

Is this in the same position as the old siding, i.e. alongside the
track for platform 4? *I can't think where else you could fit in a
siding at Herne Hill.


Yes, it's there, on the eastern side of the tracks adjacent to
Milkwood Road, and there are new gates in the fence and mini-platforms
(whatever they're properly called) so that the drivers can escape!
Until this new siding was put in place, the old tracks of the disused
siding were still there rusting and rotting away camouflaged
underneath some shrubbery.


In all the years I lived not far from there, and used the station,
about 40 years, I think I only ever saw anything in the old siding
twice, each time just an old wagon. *Oddly enough, both occasions were
within a few months of each other. *I remember that the old siding was
electrified at one time; what was the reason for this? *Was it used
for stabling passenger units at one time, or did it at one time
provide access to the yard that used to be there for electrically-
hauled freight trains? *Whatever the reason was, it must have stopped
being used for that a very long tome ago.

On 8 Jan, 16:03, "Peter Masson" wrote:

"Mizter T" wrote:

On 8 Jan, 09:08, wrote:
319361 has just pulled very slowly into the the 'new' siding at Herne
Hill. All three rails look unused-rusty at the moment so this must
still be quite an unusual occurrence! (I have a poor quality photo if
anyone's interested)

Presumably practice for when the new timetable starts on 22 March.

The current timetable shows trains terminating at Blackfriars from the north
at 0816, 0844, 1026, 1056, and 1126, and trains starting from Elephant &
Castle for the north at 0855, 0920, 1618, 1700, and 1740. Do some or all of
these reverse and lay over in the Herne Hill reversing siding?


OK, my mistake, it would appear that it's now in 'proper' use then - I
can't quite see where else the trains you mention would go.

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...

On 8 Jan, 15:43, Stephen Furley wrote:

On 8 Jan, 09:08, wrote:

319361 has just pulled very slowly into the the 'new' siding at Herne
Hill. All three rails look unused-rusty at the moment so this must
still be quite an unusual occurrence! (I have a poor quality photo if
anyone's interested)

Is this in the same position as the old siding, i.e. alongside the
track for platform 4? I can't think where else you could fit in a
siding at Herne Hill.


Yes, it's there, on the eastern side of the tracks adjacent to
Milkwood Road, and there are new gates in the fence and mini-platforms
(whatever they're properly called) so that the drivers can escape!
Until this new siding was put in place, the old tracks of the disused
siding were still there rusting and rotting away camouflaged
underneath some shrubbery.


In all the years I lived not far from there, and used the station,
about 40 years, I think I only ever saw anything in the old siding
twice, each time just an old wagon. Oddly enough, both occasions were
within a few months of each other. I remember that the old siding was
electrified at one time; what was the reason for this? Was it used
for stabling passenger units at one time, or did it at one time
provide access to the yard that used to be there for electrically-
hauled freight trains? Whatever the reason was, it must have stopped
being used for that a very long tome ago.

It used to be known as the Engineer's Siding (there was an ACE at Herne
Hill). It was connected at the country end and divided into 2 as it went
round the corner to Loughborough Jn. It may have been a loop at one time but
not in the last 40 years. There were also quite extensive sidings on the up
side of the City lines.

MaxB

On 8 Jan, 17:04, "Batman55" wrote:

It used to be known as the Engineer's Siding

I think the two wagons that I saw on it were engineer's ones, so that
would make sense. It's still a bit of a mystery as to why it was
electrified, unless it ever an engineer's train worked by a class 71,
ar one of the handful (3?) of Southern Railway d.c. locomotives. It
seems far more likely that such a train would have been steam, or
possibly Diesel in later years, worked.

If I remember correctly the access to the siding was controlled by an
elecric point machine, not ba a ground frame, and there was a buffer
stop at the extreme Southern end, beyond the point connecting to the
main line, by the bridge over the road junction. This consisted of a
wooden beam as far as I can remember, with a pair of wagon buffers
attached to it. Between these was mounted a coupling hook, whose
purpose was not clear. I suppose that if you were to propel a train
into the siding and then haul it back right up to the buffers then you
could attach a coupling to the hook, but then you couldn't release the
loco; indeed, it would be the loco which was coupled to it.

The siding was shortened at least twice, one of these occurring not
very long after I saw the siding used, maybe 25 years ago now. An old
bufferstop used to be visible which I suspect was the original end of
the siding, a good part of the way towards Loughborough Junction
station, but I can't remember exactly where.

My mother worked at Elephant and Castle for a while around 1968-70,
and I used the line from time to time, but I don't think the yard at
Herne Hill was there then. There was a coal yard further North,
somewhere near the remains of Camberwell Green station I think.

What's the new siding being used for? Is this something to do with
the re-building of Blackfriers station?

On Jan 8, 6:04*pm, Stephen Furley wrote:

What's the new siding being used for? *Is this something to do with
the re-building of Blackfriers station?

It's a product of the Thameslink Programme - trains that currently use
the soon to close Moorgate branch will be diverted through
Blackfriars, and a few of these will reverse in said siding (in
addition to and/or in place of those that already do).

On 8 Jan, 16:24, Mizter T wrote:
On 8 Jan, 16:03, "Peter Masson" wrote:

"Mizter T" wrote:

On 8 Jan, 09:08, wrote:
319361 has just pulled very slowly into the the 'new' siding at Herne
Hill. All three rails look unused-rusty at the moment so this must
still be quite an unusual occurrence! (I have a poor quality photo if
anyone's interested)

Presumably practice for when the new timetable starts on 22 March.

The current timetable shows trains terminating at Blackfriars from the north
at 0816, 0844, 1026, 1056, and 1126, and trains starting from Elephant &
Castle for the north at 0855, 0920, 1618, 1700, and 1740. Do some or all of
these reverse and lay over in the Herne Hill reversing siding?

OK, my mistake, it would appear that it's now in 'proper' use then - I
can't quite see where else the trains you mention would go.


These are the current booked workings. All trains currently using the
siding have workings "via" rather than terminating / starting there,
eg it is not a destination origin point. All the trains liste above
do, as summised run that way, with the temporary exception of the
10.26 arrival which forms a route learner to Sevenoaks.

From an operating perspective this is a very useful bolthole. Until it
opened it was not possible to "turn" a Southbound 8 car service short
before Wimbledon or Sutton. Even turning 4 cars could only be done
with shunts at Herne Hill, Tulse Hill or Streatahm which were never
really practical.

I have "used" it twice to recover very late running Southbound
services with 8 cars for right time starts Northbound, with resultant
services having the slightly strange honour of starting at
Loughborough Junction !


Here is the list, with relevant trains they are formed by / form,
sorry no times for the sidings as I am not at work for a few
days...........

1J85 07.10 Bedford to Blackfriars
5J44 08+19 Blackfriars to Elephant & Castle
2H44 08.55 Elephant & Castle to Luton

1J62 07.32 Bedford to Blackfriars
5J67 08+48 Blackfriars to Elephant & Castle
1G67 09.20 Elephant & Castle to Bedford

1J90 09.18 Bedford to Blackfriars
Currently forms
5B91 10+26 route learner to Sevenoaks, but would
run via the reversing siding to Cricklewood.

1J91 09.48 Bedford to Blackfriars
5J63 10+56 Blackfriars to Elephant & Castle

1J92 10.18 Bedford to Blackfriars
5J92 11+26 Blackfriars to Elephant & Castle

5J91 15+15 Cricklewood Depot to Elephant & Castle
1G91 16.18 Elephant & Castle to Bedford

3J19 15+54 Cricklewood Depot to Elephant & Castle
2K19 17.00 Elephant & Castle to St Albans

5J96 16+15 Cricklewood Depot to Elephant & Castle
1G98 17.48 Elephant & Castle to Bedford



Hope this is of interest

Fat Richard