Cricklewood Sidings Decommissioned and built over parts

[sad1e]

Looking on railmaponline.com on the historical view , Cricklewood Sidings used to be much larger ,with a reversing loop to the north? Any idea on why these areas of the sidings were decommisoned and built over , I cannot seem to find any info on this online.

Some of this change is obviously due to Brent cross west being built and there was a waste transfer facility nearby that used to be Accessed from the sidings but that has had a demolition permit out since spring and hasn't seen trains since 2021 , I have no idea about the fate of the rest of the sidings though

 

[edwin_m]

Looking on railmaponline.com on the historical view , Cricklewood Sidings used to be much larger ,with a reversing loop to the north? Any idea on why these areas of the sidings were decommisoned and built over , I cannot seem to find any info on this online.

Guessing here, but I do know huge amounts of coal used to come into London via the Midland, and I assume this is where long trains would be split up and portions sent to various terminals around London, and vice versa for the empties going north. The reversing loop might be for locomotives to transfer between arrivals on one side and departures on the other without needing to visit a turntable.

The link below is a map from 1913 - there may be better maps elsewhere on this site but they sometimes take a bit of finding. The reversing loop isn't there but there is what looks like a motive power depot on the west side.

View map: , Sheet 1 - London County Council municipal map of London. - Town Plans / Views, 1580-1919

As to why it was reduced, freight by rail declined drastically after WW2 and what left was increasingly handled in trainloads rather than needing individual wagons to be shunted. So there was much less need for sidings and numerous large yards across the country were drastically reduced or shrunk completely. Some of Cricklewood east side was taken over for carriage sidings. Another factor may have been that it was intended at one time for the M1 to continue towards central London, using some of the railway land in this area.

 

[John Webb]

The book "St Pancras to St Albans - Midland Main Line" by Geoff Goslin and J E Conner, published by the Middleton Press (ISBN 1 901706 78 8) in 2002 covers Cricklewood in some detail. The 'reversing loop' at the north end was the 'Brent Loco Line' and was essentially for locos arriving at the east side sidings to get to the loco shed on the west side and back (token working in force) without having to cross all six running lines. It was in use by 1905 (John Gough - a Midland Chronology) and it closed in 1968; not clear why it's not on an OS map from 1913!
According to a diagram in the book (from the MR in 1912) the east side ('UP') sidings dealt with traffic to the south and east side of London via the Met 'Widened Lines'. The west side sidings dealt with traffic going to the south and west side of London via the Acton Branch.

As edwin_m says above, individual wagon-load trains declined rapidly in the 1960s, and by the time I was regularly passing through Cricklewood from 1969 onwards many of the sidings were already little used.

 

[swt_passenger]

…It was in use by 1905 (John Gough - a Midland Chronology) and it closed in 1968; not clear why it's not on an OS map from 1913!

As per the map sub heading, the 1913 map may not yet have been fully updated outside the LCC area. I’ve seen this before somewhere else, but in this example only the bottom right area within the red dashed line might have been up to date.

 

[bangor-toad]

Hi,
I've no idea as to the "why" there were changes but there's a fabulous high resolution photo of the area on the NLS website:
NLS Air Photo Mosaics 1944-1950

Zoom in and look at all that freight!
Cheers,
Mr Toad

 

[ChrisC]

Guessing here, but I do know huge amounts of coal used to come into London via the Midland, and I assume this is where long trains would be split up and portions sent to various terminals around London, and vice versa for the empties going north. The reversing loop might be for locomotives to transfer between arrivals on one side and departures on the other without needing to visit a turntable.

I’m probably drifting a bit towards the nostalgia section of the forum here but this may be relevant.

Back in the 1950’s my dad worked at the Kirkby in Ashfield loco shed, which was a Midland shed in the Nottinghamshire coalfield. I can remember him, years later, talking about having to stay in overnight lodgings in Cricklewood. He was a fireman on the steam trains at Kirkby in those days so I presume he lodged in Cricklewood whilst working on the coal trains from Nottinghamshire to London.

 

[John Webb]

For a sight of part of the sidings, this 1925 oblique aerial photo on the 'Britain from Above' site is worth a view: https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW013748

 

[D Mylchreest]

Hi,
I've no idea as to the "why" there were changes but there's a fabulous high resolution photo of the area on the NLS website:
NLS Air Photo Mosaics 1944-1950

Zoom in and look at all that freight!
Cheers,
Mr Toad

The line of the loco loop is still marked in part by a curved line of trees

View map: Ordnance Survey, London sheet F (includes: Hendon; Wembley; Willesden.) - Ordnance Survey Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952

 

[Adrian Barr]

Any idea on why these areas of the sidings were decommisoned and built over

This was Brent Yard (not to be confused with Willesden Brent).

Guessing here, but I do know huge amounts of coal used to come into London via the Midland

There's a bit more info in British Marshalling Yards by Michael Rhodes (1981).

In a section on the London yards, he mentions the "National Freight Plan" of the mid-1960s which attempted to concentrate traffic on fewer yards, leading initially to the closure of Ferme Park, Feltham and Ripple Lane yards.
Neasden Yard on the GCR London Extension was also closed, leading to more traffic being routed via the Midland to Brent Yard:

Heavy coal traffic from Yorkshire and the Midlands was transferred to the Midland Main Line and marshalled at Brent Yard.
...Trains from Toton to Brent were transferred to Acton at the end of the 1970s leaving just a few stabling sidings at the old Midland Railway yards.

Decline of the coal traffic into London along the Midland Main Line must have played a major factor in the decision to close the yard.

Some photos
-A 9F seen with Brent to Toton empties circa 1954: https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidwf2009/8619309639/
-A view looking north in 1977, when still semaphore signalled: https://www.flickr.com/photos/loose_grip_99/53426493895/
-1979 view with a 25 on parcels and a 56 which has arrived on an MGR train: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnel_one/24906944292/
-Cracking shot of a peak passing on the main line in 1979: https://www.flickr.com/photos/54a_south_dock/7775479266/
-Contemporary scene showing Cricklewood aggregate terminal (in the triangle formed by the main line and freight chords to Dudding Hill): https://www.flickr.com/photos/justinfoulger/53542346237/

On the same (up) side of the line as the now-closed Waste transfer station, there was also a rail-served warehouse for a company called "Jerich" that used to receive paper products in bogie vans from Europe, via the channel tunnel and a daily trip from Wembley yard. It gets mentioned briefly in this 2018 planning document about the "new sidings and train stabling facility" in this area.