From Mitre Bridge To Ladbroke Grove – 16th July 2015
I walked from Mitre Bridge to Ladbroke Grove along the |Grand Union Canal.
One aim was to see if I could get decent pictures of North Pole Depot, the Crossrail works and the flyover to the East of the depot.
I am endebted to this article on London Reconnections entitled Old Oak Common Part 2 – Putting the pieces together for this description of what happens in this area.
The track layout below is derived from the Context Reports produced in 2009 by Crossrail for each local authority, and then checked where possible against the HS2 plans. Among other features this shows a new ramp joining the existing GWML empty stock flyover just east of OOC. This new ramp gives a clear route to the Crossrail depot independent of the GWML depot lines, and the plans show it being built across the finger of land at the west end of the ex-Kensal Green Gas Works development site. It will be double track, and the alignment on the incline back down towards Old Oak Common will be widened so that the GWML empty stock has a segregated track down from the flyover.
So the flyover is so that empty stock can get between the depots at Old Oak Common and Paddington.
Note that some of the new Crossrail tracks can be seen in the foreground of the pictures of North Pole Depot, which will be used for the Hitachi Class 800/801 trains for First Great Western. The tracks closest to the fence are the tracks leading to Crossrail’s depot. The two actual running tracks are further over and hidden by the ramp up to the flyover. They can be seen in this post in front of the retaining wall.
I’m not sure where actually Crossrail’s depot will be, but Wikipedia states that it will be at Old Oak Common. The article goes on to indicate that all will change again, when HS2 runs through the area.
Before Crossrail – West Drayton
This Will Be A Charming Station – Rating 6/10
West Drayton has definitely seen better days, but as the pictures show, creating a new station from a collection of pretty good buildings is well under way.
Crossrail’s plans for outside the station look impressive and link the station to the Grand Union Canal. This is said.
The urban realm proposals aim to achieve a high-quality gateway experience by creating a new canal-side pocket park next to the station with tree planting, public seating and steps down to the water’s edge.
At present the station has no lifts, but I would assume the current building works will include these.
I shall be looking forward to going back to an updated West Drayton, as I suspect it will be something of which to be proud.
In fact, my persona of a few years ago will be jealous, after the number of hours I’ve spent on terrible rural stations like Dullingham and Bury St. Edmunds.
Searching For The Dudding Hill Line – Willesden And Park Royal
I took the Overground to Willesden Junction and walked down Old Oak Lane towards Acton.
According to the map, it appeared that the Dudding Hill Line crossed the Grand Union Canal somewhere to the west of the road. So I went for a look.
As the pictures show, I found the line where it crosses the canal on a massive brick bridge. The blue bridge beside it would appear to be curve enabling trains to come down the West Coast Main Line and turn south to Acton.
Horse Power At Camden Lock
The narrow boat, Ilkeston, was today towed through Camden on the Regent’s Canal in the traditional way by a horse on its way to the London Canal Museum.
The horse, a thirteen-year-old Clydesdale-cob cross is called Bunny.
In some ways it brought me back to my childhood, when I can remember the horse-drawn dust-carts in the old borough of Wood Green. They used to use them around the backs of the shops, as one-horse carts were so manoeuvrable.
Onwards to Stratford High Street
I walked onwards from Three Mills towards the Olympic Park along the Three Mills Wall River, which is part of the River Lea.
It was an interesting walk with a lot to see.
You can’t actually reach Stratford High Street at the moment, becuse of construction work.
It looks like they will be encouraging spectators to walk to the Olympic Park from Bromley-by-Bow station along this route. They have put in quite a few places to have a picnic, which you could buy in Tesco’s at Bow.
Along the Hertford Union Canal
From Victoria Park, I turned off the Regent’s Canal and followed the Hertford Union Canal towards the Olympic Park.
It had started to rain and by the time I got to the end of Victoria Park, I took refuge in a pub called Top of the Morning, by the locks at Old Ford.
A Walk To and Around the Kingsland Basin
I walked to the Regent’s Canal this morning and took a quick saunter to and around the Kingsland Basin.
Along the Regent’s Canal to the Angel
I’m about a five or ten minute walk to the Regent’s Canal and today, I walked along the canal to the Angel as it was starting to get dark.
I can remember some of this area in the 1970s and to say it has improved is one of the biggest understatements, anybody can make. I even saw a Norwich City supporter enthusiastically spinning for pike.
This is the third time, I’ve lived near this canal.
In the 1970s C, myself and our young family lived in St. John’s Wood, just north of the canal and we would cross it by the London Zoo to get into Regent’s Park. You used to see the occasional narrow-boat or pleasure craft, but I don’t think there was any easy access to the tow-path. It would probably have been deemed to dangerous anyway to take three small children alongside the water. So when we decry Health and Safety for ruining our pleasure, there must be many more examples like the Regent’s Canal towpath, where different interests coexist together in complete safety.
And then, a few years later when we lived in the Barbican we would often walk up to the Angel to shop walking right past the City Road Basin on the canal. But sadly we never explored.
It is often assumed that canals like this ceased to be commercial arteries, when the railways appeared, but the Regent’s Canal was still busy with freight until the Second World War. It also has another purpose in London’s infrastructure in that under the tow-path for quite a way is one of the city’s main electricity distribution mains. Believe it or not, but the cables at kept cool, by using water from the canal.
A New Canal
Canals in the UK are always thought to be something that were created in the dim distant past, where railways didn’t exist. But two hundred years after it was first mooted, a new canal is being created in the heart of England.
The first tangible signs of the proposed Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway, which has the potential to become one of the great projects of the 21st century, are taking shape in central Bedfordshire.
This is how it is announced on the web site, but the canal, which links the Great Ouse to the Grand Union Canal, looks to have tremendous potential at unlocking leisure activities, by linking the waterways of East Anglia to those of the Midlands.
Everything I’ve read about this project looks sensible and it is one of a number of similar projects that should be performed in these difficult times. Once created, this waterway will still be around in hundreds or even thousands of years.
The Anonymous Widower 