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New Southgate to London Kings Cross described from a class 373.
It’s been getting on for 20 years since I did these actions, but they are still ingrained. I realize now that the steam era drivers I worked with would not have forgotten it all either.
It’s been getting on for 20 years since I did these actions, but they are still ingrained. I realize now that the steam era drivers I worked with would not have forgotten it all either.
We can only remember our memories, not the memories of others, but how fun exchanging them would be!
I’m doing 100 mph, with no traction power applied, the tracks curving to the left as we approach the North portal of Wood Green Tunnel.
I’m doing 100 mph, with no traction power applied, the tracks curving to the left as we approach the North portal of Wood Green Tunnel.
In a flat fronted unit, with less weight, it was usual to let the compression of air as one entered the tunnel slow you to the 95 mph maximum permitted speed of the line that started at the tunnel entrance, but here in the cab of the Nolly unit . . .
a Class 373 3xx North of London variant, it seems churlish to expect the streamlined 800 ton unit to scrub off its speed in such an undignified way, so moving the power handles backwards from off so as to apply the lightest of rheostatic braking
(using the traction motors of the 6 powered axles at each end of the train to retard the train by demanding of them to generate electricity rather than use it) will see the speed indicator un-leach itself from the “Magic Ton” it has been stuck on the previous few miles,
and it now shows 95 mph as it flashes past the little black and white red circled speed limit sign and plunges into the same massive piece of earth that the great Alexandra Palace sits upon.
Bursting out of the South portal, untroubled by the overhead line neutral section where one isn’t allowed to draw traction power through because we’re still free-wheeling, and we have the Northbound Hertford North line passing overhead,
before coasting through Alexandra Palace station, where the Southbound Hertford line joins up with our line, the East Coast mainline. A glance to the right and we can see the water works, a glance to the left revealing old carriage sidings,
a gasworks or at least the giant container for the product itself. Then, in seconds, there’s Hornsey station and a right-hand curve, then a swoop to the left at maximum cant,
8 inches difference between rail heights giving us 8 degrees of leaning into the curve before revolving through an arc to get maximum cant to the right as we tear through Harringay station.
The tracks straighten now, with the station of Finsbury Park ahead, and the actual Finsbury park coming up on the left. A touch of brakes for an upcoming slight reduction in permitted speed as we storm through the busy station and then we start to descend down the hill,
past the football ground, into a cutting where the Up Slow beside us to the left ascends to the heavens allowing us to dive under it, brake some more, lean left, and then we’re into Copenhagen Tunnel, back on the brakes to get us down to around 45 mph,
emerging into Belle Isle, site of an old signal box of that same name, before plunging into Gasworks Tunnel and down to 15 mph, before emerging on the rise into the Kings Cross Throat, where each train is distributed to its allocated platform,
of which there are 8 mainline ones at the time I’m talking of, only 2 of which we can use so the theatre indicator is carefully checked.
That little dip and then the climb up is to be able to pass under the canal and over a sewer, I believe. Whatever the reason, it makes it tricky to maintain 15 mph along the platform without slowing, so some power is required to keep the train at its required speed.
In a Nolly, we can only use platforms 1 or 6, as the length of the train is difficult to accommodate in most of these platforms without obstructing points and crossings here. Finally, we must ignore the stop marker and pull up much closer to the buffer stops than other trains,
which we do, controlling the train with a finger flick of the PBL brake lever. Put the train in mid-gear, like neutral in a car, apply the train brakes with at least 1 bar of pressure reduction, from the 5 bar that would be the release position,
and operate the door open switch to release the doors, allowing passengers to now open their individual door on each coach. Annoyingly, the black button that they have to push, gives no indication of when to press it, or that it has been pressed,
which means many times the queue at the coach door can be seen standing impatiently but going nowhere until somebody wises up and pushes the button decisively again!
Then, after shutting down and securing the train, I hop onto the Victoria Line, for a short journey to Oxford Circus, before crossing to the adjacent platform there, and taking a Bakerloo train the rest of the way to Waterloo to book off from my home station.
I smile wryly as we cross under the Thames, knowing from what I’ve read that the roof of the train is about 6 feet beneath the river bed, when so many people are nervous about Channel Tunnel, when that is buried safely some 80 metres from the sea bed.
