Progress Through Walthamstow – 28th September 2016
These pictures show the Gospel Oak to Barking Line through Walthamstow.
Note.
- It looks like both tracks have been mostly relaid.
- The slab track under Pretoria Avenue, where it was put in due to a sewer being beneath the bridge.
- There is also slab track at the other end of this section of line, but I suspect, it’s covered with ballast.
From what I could see at Blackhorse Road station, there doesn’t appear to be any foundations for lift towers or ramps to create step-free access to the Overground platforms. On Network Rail’s Access for All list of improvements. the improvements at Blackhorse Road station are listed as Future Planned for 2017/2018.
As the new Class 710 trains will start running in 2018, surely it would be good planning to at least do all the work needed on the Overground platforms now!
Or is there some rule, which says that when you make one line at a station step-free for all, you must do that for all lines?
It is interesting to look at this Google Map of the station.
The Victoria Line station is the square building to the North East of the obvious GOBlin station, with the space between the stations being just grass and some bushes.
In one of the pictures, there is a lot of work going on in this area.
Could it be, that there is a route to create a lift shaft from somewhere in this area, that goes both down to the Victoria Line and on the surface connects to the ticket hall and the bridge over the GOBlin?
It could also be work associated with a new chiller described in this article on the TfL web site., which is entitled Innovative new fan chiller to help customers beat the heat.
If you look inside the station, you’ll see that the escalators down to the Victoria Line platforms, start just to the West of the bridge over the Overground.
Without more information, it’s difficult to work out what is happening.
But it would surely be a good idea to do all the work at the same time and get the station step-free before the GOBlin starts running electric trains.
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 