Between Walthamstow Queen’s Road And Leyton Midland Road Stations
These pictures show the Gospel Oak and Barking Line (GOBlin) between Walthamstow Queen’s Road and Leyton Midland Road stations.
This part of the route isn’t as interesting as the section I covered in The Bridges Of Walthamstow.
Note.
- In my peek at Walthamstow Queen’s Road station, nothing much seemed to have happened at the station.
- The track in the Gospel Oak direction appears to have been removed and track replacement seemed to be happening in the region of the Baker’s Arms Bridge.
- The cutting is well-buttressed between the Shrubland Road Bridge and the relatively-new Alobert Road Bridge
- You can see pairs of piles for electrification gantries east of Queen’s Road Bridge.
- The embankment that carries the line through North East London appears to start around the Boundary Road Bridge.
- The railway arches don’t seem to be in the worst of conditions, even if they do have a touch of the Arthur Daley’s.
What I find strange about this line is the lack of a station at Bakers Arms. It’s not that there ever was one, but as the line crosses the major Lea Bridge Road and on this line, that is usually a good enough reason for a station, I’m surprised the Victorians didn’t build one.
The Barking Gospel Oak Rail User Group suggest one in this page on their web site.
There may be a lot of reasons to build a station at Bakers Arms.
- It is near to several new hotels and housing developments.
- It is better positioned than the two adjoining stations.
- It is well served by lots of buses.
- It is on a busy main road.
But contrary to that.
- The buses can take you to the better connected stations of Walthamstow Central and Lea Bridge, in under fifteen minutes.
- It might be a difficult site on which to build a station.
- Reopening the Hall Fsrm Curve may be a better option.
It should probably have been built, when one of the adjoining developments was constructed.
The Anonymous Widower 
I go past this every day! I saw that one track had been removed (presumably to put in some cabling to do with the electrification works) and I said to myself “So that’s why they had to close a large portion of the line!”. Well, that and the fact that on the viaduct section between Queen’s Road and Woodgrange Park (largest section I think), there is nothing in the way of reversing facilities, so it’d have to be “one engine in steam” for a while, over one track. I guess this would have been more complicated to achieve than its worth.
Comment by Joshua | June 15, 2016 |
I suspect that the track needed replacement, as they’ve pulled up a lot of the Gospel Oak-bound track and have started to replace it. When this track is complete, they’ll do the Barking-bound track. They seem to be using a crane on the existing track.
When they renew the track, I suspect they’ll might add an extra crossover somewhere.
It looks like they’re burying a plastic duct to carry electrical cables. But the power for the overhead cables will probably come from the two ends of the line from existing electrification. Connecting to the grid is an expensive business, so it is preferable to connect to existing systems.
Comment by AnonW | June 15, 2016 |
Ah, that makes a lot of sense. I figured they may have been using the opportunity to do general track replacement.
An extra crossover on or near the viaduct section certainly would be nice. I wonder if they’d have any space to do it on the viaduct itself. I believe there is space at the ramp which descends from the bridges down to the cutting to the west of Queen’s road.
Connecting the supply at either end sounds the best solution too, as it’s not such a long route and limited space/inconvenient to put in a substation in the middle of the route.
Comment by Joshua | June 16, 2016
I know this line! I used to take it go get to Blackhorse station
Comment by Thursday | June 17, 2016 |
When it’s done up with new electric trains, it’ll be a big asset to the area.
Comment by AnonW | June 20, 2016 |
The reason for removing the tracks is to lower them to give sufficient clearance under the bridges for the 25kv catenary. One track(Gospel Oak to Barking direction) has been replaced with slab track through Queens Rd and now the other line has been replaced. Work on lowering the platforms at Queens Rd seems to be taking place. I haven’t yet visited other sections.
Comment by Maurice Reed | August 13, 2016 |
I must go and have a look. They cetainly seem to be dsoing it properly.
Comment by AnonW | August 13, 2016 |