Before GOBlin Electrification – Walthamstow Queen’s Road
Walthamstow Queen’s Road is of a similar standard to most of the other stations on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line.
The station like Harringay Green Lanes is step-free by ramps and at some point will need lifts.
Sixty-Eight Today
At the date and time of my birth in 1947, thousands of people were being slaughtered in India and Pakistan. Only the area has moved slightly, but all across the world people are fighting over warped ideologies and religions. In a very long list, I’d include places like Belfast, Ferguson and Johannesburg.
It is so pointless. And one of the reasons, why I have no religious beliefs. The main reason, is probably that two branches of my family felt that coming to England was preferable to staying put and being annihilated, because they were the wrong and more successful religion. I can personally understand, wh we have a migrant problem.
I like to think I try to follow the best humanist principles common to most of the world’s great religions. Or at least those they tend to adhere to, when they are not mistreating those who disagree on the nature of God. She would not be amused!
I also believe in and follow the established rules of mathematics, medicine and science!
In the last few weeks, I have been meaning to write something critical of the so-called Islamic State or as I prefer the Ultimate Men Behaving Badly Tendency.
Compared to others in the past they are certainly up there with the Nazis on the treatment of their opponents and minorities, but at least the Nazis preserved most art, even if they nicked it for themselves.
I doubt I’ll ever see a totally peaceful world, as in my view the only thing that will stop it, is when people see religion to be the way to exploit them, that I believe it is and science, engineering and medicine solves or mitigates the real problems we all face in this world, like war, poverty, hunger, disease and natural disasters, like floods, extreme weather and and earthquakes.
Before GOBlin Electrification – Wanstead Park
Wanstead Park station is another tidy station on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line.
It has two steep staircases and no lifts, but the platforms can be easily extended, if needed for the new trains.
In my view the station also needs a light-controlled crossing by the entrance and better placed bus stops, so that transfer to the nearby Forest Gate station is easier.
Before GOBlin Electrification – Woodgrange Park
Woodgrange Park station is one of only two stations on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, that is electrified.
As the electrification stretches all the way to Barking, the only thing the station will need to bring it up to the standrd passengers expect, is perhaps a couple of lifts.
If the platforms need lengthening, there are abandoned sections that could probably be brought back into use. This Google Map clearly shows the usable white and disused sections of the platforms.
Woodgrange Park Station
I estimate from this image that the current length of usable platform is around eighty metres. So they could probably accommodate one of the new four-car trains. But should the platforms be extended to future-proof them for six or even eight-cars.
Before GOBlin Electrification – Upper Holloway
I went to Upper Holloway station on my way to Waitrose.
It is not a grand station, being just two ramps and staircases from the Holloway Road to two more than adequate tidy platforms. It is not unlike Crouch Hill station.
At present there are roadworks outside, as the road bridge over the railway is being replaced. I suspect that this project will have to be completed before electrification through the station is started. Obviously, when the new bridge is finished it will have sufficient headroom for the overhead line equipment.
Upper Holloway isn’t an official interchange but as the station is in middle of a slope between Archway and Holloway Road stations, which eases walking in one direction, it can sometimes be a useful interchange.
But the station will need improvements to its step-free access.
Before GOBlin Electrification – Harringay Green Lanes
To get to the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, I get a 141 bus from outside my house to Harringay Green Lanes station.
It is another tidy station serving a retail park on the site of the old Harringay stadium. Like most of the stations on the line, there are no lifts and the two platforms are served by stairs and ramps.
Other than the inadequate step-free access, note the following about the station.
- The platforms are not unduly long, but there would appear to be foundations from previous ones, that were longer.
- The bridge although obviously sound, probably needs a bit of work to bring it up to the required visual standard.
- The station is an out of station interchange to Harringay station and work could be done to make the walking route easier. I estimate that the distance is about 50% longer than the Hackney Downs/Central Link.
- There is a lot of commercial and retail use in the area, that may be redeveloped.
Note too, that the Piccadilly Line crosses underneath and there is a long distance between the stations either side on that line. No plans exist to create an interchange, but it is a station, where that should never be ruled out.
This is a Google Map showing the area around the two Harringay stations.
The Area Around The Two Harringay Stations
I think that by 2050, Harringay Green Lanes station will be very different.
Have You Got A Bit Of Concrete To Lay?
In this page on their web site, Crossrail have just unveiled their 465 metre long concreting train.
They’ve also put up a video.
It was bought second-hand from the French and delivered through the Channel Tunnel.
Let’s hope it works!
Between South Tottenham And Crouch Hill Stations
The stretch of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line between South Tottenham and Crouch Hill stations is almost rural, as the pictures show.
Note the pictures where the line passes over the junction of Seven Sisters and St. Ann’s Road, which was the site of the former St. Ann’s Road station. This Google Map shows most of the route of the line.
The GOBlin In North London
The area between St.Ann’s Road and South Tottenham stations, has been mentioned for a possible Seven Sisters station on the GOBlin, in Transport for London’s Plan for 2050.
The only things there at present is a lot of overgrown land and a Wickes store. It must be ripe for development as much-needed housing with a station on the GOBlin and a walking connection to the current Seven Sisters station for the Lea Valley Lines, the Victoria Line and in the future Crossrail 2.
Properly developers could make a lot of money here and the only complainers will probably be the low life who use the scrubland for nefarious purposes.
Before GOBlin Electrification – Crouch Hill
I’d never been to Crouch Hill station before, but I went to take these pictures.
It is another tidy station with fairly long platforms, steep staircases and no lifts. Although unlike Leyton Midland Road, the station is in a cutting, rather than on a viaduct.
My pictures were as you can see interrupted by a dreaded Class 66 locomotive, with all its noise and smell passing through. After electrification, hopefully we’ll see something more environmentally-friendly like an elderly Class 90 or a brand new Class 88 locomotive. Unfortunately, I think we’ll see mainly Class 66s pulling freight trains for some years, as there are so many of them and they seem to be pretty reliable, although unloved by the drivers.
Across The North Of The Walthamstow Reservoirs
Between Blackhorse Road and South Tottenham stations, the Gospel Oak to Barking Line (GOBlin) passes between the large reservoirs of the Lea Valley that provide East London with most of its water.
This area to the south of the GOBlin is being developed into the Walthamstow Wetlands. Incidentally, I was once on one of these trains and there was a grandfather (?) with serious binoculars showing a boy of about ten, the various water birds that were visible. Today, all I could identify was a few swans.
Because of the layout of the line, I wouldn’t bet against there being a station called Walthamstow Wetlands or River Lea at the western end of this journey, just before it crosses the West Anglia Main Line.
Is there a Bird or Nature Reserve in the UK with its own rail station?
The Anonymous Widower 