Lines Through Hampstead And Harringay
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the layout of railway lines through Hampstead.
Lines Through Hampstead
I believe that it is a network that will be changed dramatically in the next few years.
In the west of the map, there is a triangular junction to the north of Cricklewood station, which connects the Dudding Hill Line to the Midland Main Line.
Also to the North of Cricklewood station is the old Cricklewood TMD (traction maintenance depot), which is now being developed as Brent Cross Cricklewood with houses, oficces, an extension to the Brent Cross Shopping Centre and a new station called Brent Cross Thameslink.
In the east of the map, Gospel Oak station is prominent and if you take a close look you can see how a double track spur connects the Gospel Oak to Barking Line (GOBlin) at Junction Road Junction to the Midland Main Line at Carlton Road Junction. This short length of line, which is used by freight trains, is also being electrified, so that freight trains can be electric-hauled from Barking and then up the Midland Main Line.
From Carlton Road Junction, freight trains can sneak up the western side of the Midland Main Line and either go North to freight depots like the proposed Radlett or take the Dudding Hill Line to connect with the West Coast Main Line or the Great Western Main Line. You can see the tracks that freight trains would use is this image taken looking south from the bridge at West Hampstead Thameslink station.
Lines Through West Hampstead Thameslink Station
The tracks that freight trains will use are to the far right.
Transport for London’s Transport Plan for 2050 talks about improving the Overground, by using existing lines to create a circular railway based on the GOBlin. It could be routed via the Dudding Hill Line to Hounslow.
Looking at the above image, it would appear that it could be fairly easy for trains from the GOBlin to stop at West Hampstead Thameslink on their way to the Dudding Hill Line. This Google Map shows the station.
West Hampstead Thameslink Station
It would appear that there may even be space for an island platform, but I suspect a bi-directional platform sharing with the current Platform 4, will be much easier to create and more affordable.
The extended GOBlin would then call at Cricklewood station, from where it could either go straight down the Dudding Hill Line or perhaps via a reverse at the new Brent Cross Thameslink station.
This Google Map shows the area between Brent Cross and the Midland Main Line.
Brent Cross
Note the large area of the current Cricklewood TMD to the North East of the triangular junction with Cricklewood station south of the area. The development will be partly on the northern part of the TMD.
The advantage of the indirect route, would be that the Shopping Centre and all the new development in the area, gets good connections from Hounslow and Acton in the West to Holloway, Tottenham and Walthamstow in the East.
If the trains run at the current four trains per hour of the GOBlin, then this line would be a valuable link across North London connecting to the Midland Main Line and Thameslink at either Brent Cross or West Hampstead stations.
It is an interesting proposition.
But it might get even better!
London’s two big problems are housing and transport, so look sat this Google Map of the area to the East of Gospel Oak station.
A Site To The East Of Gospel Oak Station
There is a large site around the triangular junction formed by the GOBlin in the North, the Midland Main Line in the South and the link between the two lines in the East.
It could be used for much-needed housing and other developments in the future. At the present time, it is owned by J. Murphy and Sons, who by chance are the contractors working on the electrification of the GOBlin.
Look at the map and I think that there is enough space to put a new station on the eastern side of junction.
So trains from Upper Holloway station to the Dudding Hill Line could go through.
- Junction Road if that station is built.
- Murphy’s Town
- West Hampstead Thameslink
- Cricklewood
- Brent Cross Thameslink
I think that some of the out-of-the-box-thinkers at Transport for London will come up with some extensive knitting in North London.
Look at this Google Map, which shows the GOBlin through Harringay.
Lines Through Harringay
The GOBlin is or could be very well connected.
- The connection to the East Coast Main Line is being electrified.
- Harringay Green Lanes station sits on top the Piccadilly Line.
- Seven Sisters station will be connected to South Tottenham station by Crossrail 2.
- It is linked to the Lea Valley Lines south of Tottenham Hale station.
Who knows what Transport for London will do with the GOBlin?
I wonder if in conversations in the pub near TfL’s offices, they wish that they still had the Palace Gates Line to play with. You can see it’s line on the map above as it goes away to the North West from Seven Sisters station.
I do find it strange however, that the route of Crossrail 2 from Seven Sisters to New Southgate, very much follows the route of the Palace Gates Line.
So can we assume, that the Victorians got that one right too?
Leeds Station And The New Entrance
On my trip up to Burnley, I went up via Leeds station and because of the weather, I came back the same way.
On the way up the new southern entrance to the station wasn’t open, but it opened on Sunday morning.
Apart from a few snags, it seemed to be a great addition to the station.
This Google Map shows the new entrance under construction in the South-west corner of the station.
New Southern Entrance To Leeds Station
This image also shows the solid nature of the 2002 station roof, which is glass and not plastic like Manchester Victoria, Birmingham New Street and Crystal Palace stations.
Roof technology has moved on and I suspect costs have moved down.
One problem they may have is the shops like Boots, WH Smith and M & S are outside the barriers in the old (north) entrance.
So passengers needing these shops after entering the station on the south side, will have to go through the barriers to do it.
This problem will probably be solved with a new south concourse.
With other expansion, including new platforms and splitting Platform 1 into three separate platforms and the arrival of HS2, Leeds station is certainly having a lot of men (and women!) in!
A Curious Problem With My Credit Cards
A few months ago, I tried to order some goods from IKEA for my kitchen. They weren’t delivered and my credit card wasn’t debited, so the only harm done was I waited in for a whole day for a non-delivery.
Over the next couple of months, I tried several times to repeat the order, but in no cases was it ever completed. Immediately, When I entered the details of either of my credit cards, the order disappeared.
To solve the problem, I took a bus to IKEA in Tottenham and placed the order personally, paying with my American Express card at the check-out. I also got the direct e-mail address of the Kitchen Department and sent them a couple of e-mails to assure them, that if they didn’t deliver, they’d be deep in the doodah.
The goods were eventually delivered on the day, but the driver’s sat-nav got him lost in the mews at the back of my house.
I put it down to some form of problem with the delivery system, that checks the credit rating of the purchaser. But as Experian have confirmed, my credit rating is good and the only problem, is that I’m not correctly on the Electoral Roll. And that’s not for dint of trying, but for some reason they seem incapable to get it right!
However, today I needed to buy a coach ticket from National Express for the Ipswich-QPR match on Boxing Day.
So I entered my details to buy the ticket and tried to pay by credit czrds. Both were rejected.
I phoned both credit card suppliers and there was no problem with either card.
As a last resort, I phoned National Express direct and bought the ticket traditionally from the Call Centre at the cost of a long phone call and a booking fee.
But it wasn’t without trouble.
Both my credit cards were rejected by the system used by the very patient Colin in the Call Centre, as was my debit card.
Their system knew about me from my previous four failed attempts to buy tickets on-line and I wondered if it was rejecting them because of my address, which was on some sort of blacklist.
I’ve often thought this, as my house was tenanted for several years before I bought it and the tenants did runners leaving piles of debts to several companies.
In the end, Colin and I felt this was all rather silly, so I thought about trying an alternative e-mail address, as this was probably the key used to access my address on their computer.
It worked and I got my ticket.
Intriguingly in both cases, I got my goods or tickets, when I broke the link between debit/credit card address and the address for the card.
In IKEA, this was by putting the AMEX card through a till and with National Express, it was by giving them an e-mail address for which they had no physical address details.
I am drawn to the inevitable conclusion, that software checks my address against County Court Judgements. And I think there could be a lot of them, due to the history of the property!
Surely, if I can’t purchase on-line, because of the debts of previous owners or their tenants, who lived here, before I bought the house, then that is illegal!
The only way to lose them, would be the same way to get rid of bindweed from your garden. Move!
Unless of course, someone reading this knows better?
An Alternative Source Of Celias
It would appear that Waitrose are no longer stocking Celia gluten-free lager.
As I can’t live without them, I went to the Celia web site and searched for an alternative supplier near me.
I found Harvest E8, just up the road from Dalston Kingsland station.
It certainly is a well-stocked organic shop.
My Useless John Lewis Credit Card Statement
I recently bought a winter coat in Marks and Spencer. The zip has gone, so I want to find the store, where I bought it, as I use several of the large ones in London regularly. I probably bought it with my John Lewis credit card, so all I need to find is a transaction at over a £100 for Marks and Spencer to get a date and store.
But I can only get the last statement as a spreadsheet, which just gives dates, values and not the store. It’s not even formatted to the sort of level, that a child of six could program.
Quite frankly it’s utter crap!
Unlike with Amex, which gives you everything you need to trace purchases, in an easy-to-read clickable format.
Do John Lewis expect me to keep paper copies of all my purchases?
Paper is so Nineteenth Century!
It’s Only Cash Or Contactless Credit Card For Me!
I had a chat with a solicitor, I met on a train yesterday about credit card fraud. I said that I try to use my contactless card if possible and get mildly annoyed if a company expects me to enter my pin for a purchase of about a tenner.
She agreed and said she had been involved in formulating the legal basis of the payments policy of a large retailer. She made some interesting points.
- Fraud on contactless cards seems to be lower than predicted. We both added a caveat of Not Yet!
- Some retailers have reported a strong move from cash to contactless cards.
- Research has shown, that people keep contactless cards very safe, in a place like a deep pocket, to avoid accidental transactions.
I also said that a policeman had told me, that stolen contactless cards aren’t often used in a contactless manner. She said that thirty quid isn’t worth getting caught for, when there’s a bent shop where you can make thousands.
I said that, I once used my ordinary card in a branch of a well-known franchise to purchase an SD card. The lady, who served me, was a Muslim from her dress and when my card didn’t work in the machine, she told me that she’d used the wrong one. So she asked me to put my card in another. Which I did and the purchase was completed.
Within a few hours my card had been cloned and some expensive purchases were made. My companion confirmed it was a trick beloved of small shops and garages.
So I had been conned by a simple sleight-of-hand! Did the money end up with Islamic State? Probably not, but you do wonder!
I now only use cash or contactless credit card for my smaller purchases.
I also now rarely use small shops, unless I’ve known them for some time. And I certainly wouldn’t use a credit card without it being contactless.
Bicester Village Station
C and myself spent a good few days at the up-market Shopping Outlet at Bicester Village soon after it opened.
Now it has a Bicester Village station to go with the shops.
Incidentally, the announcements for the station on the train are also given in Chinese.
Thoughts On Credit Cards
I have recently been trying to buy something on IKEA using my John Lewis Partnership Card, which is managed by HSBC.
Twice it has gone through IKEA’s site, but then HSBC have deemed the transaction to be fraudulent and have cancelled it. In one case I waited in all day for a non-existent delivery.
My other preferred on-line card is American Express, which seems to have developed a clever way of card checking. They ask if they can look up your location using your connection, as obviously, if that corresponds to the card and delivery addresses, there is a high chance that the transaction is genuine.
But IKEA doesn’t take Amex and as I don’t use my Visa card on-line because of the dreaded Verified-by-Visa waste of time and space, I was a bit stumped on how to order the next phase of my kitchen.
Then this morning, I tried the Visa and guess what? The Verified-by-Visa didn’t kick in. So perhaps, Nationwide and IKEA have come to my conclusion, that it is a hindrance to business against their joint interest.
Let’s hope the delivery gets through this time!
A John Lewis With Its Own Station
John Lewis didn’t have a store in Birmingham, but they opened one in the Grand Central Shopping Centre on Thursday above the reopened New Street station.
It is pretty spectacular to say the least.
The comedians will start to be calling the West Midlands, the White Country, if stations of this style appear all over the area.
I wonder when you last saw the sun in the main Birmingham station!
The Anonymous Widower 