Lost line?

[petep]

Can anyone please help me with this question.
My grandsons were asking me about steam on the London Underground, and was asked to recall my childhood memories of what I had seen in the late 1940's early 50's. Of course it's along time ago and memories tend to become a little clouded.
As a boy I remembered visiting a bulk storage area above the lines out of Liverpool Street station, and looking down on the trains leaving the station. Not all the tracks were in the open, others ran underneath the buildings we were in.
I seem to remember that there was a line that disappeared into a tunnel in the wall on the right hand side as you left the station. However, I could not remember where it went but believe it was a link to the south of the Thames and known locally as the "Liverpool St. Drain". It was part of the LNER/BR system not the Underground.
Not being able to find information on this line, it begs the question was this my memory playing tricks or did it actually exist.

 

[John Webb]

There was a connection just east of Bishopsgate to the 'underground' line that ran from Shoreditch down to New Cross and New Cross Gate, and was used for small-scale transfers from the ER to the SR at New Cross Gate. Indeed, in 1961 three of us from a secondary school at New Cross would walk up to New Cross Gate Station at lunchtime to eat our sandwiches and trainspot. We were astounded (O that we'd had a camera that day!) when the beautifully 'Great Eastern' decorated J69/1 0-6-0 station pilot (68619) from Liverpool Street came into view with half a dozen vans behind it, shunted them into a siding and disappeared the way it had come. We were left near speechless!

 

[70014IronDuke]

There was a connection just east of Bishopsgate to the 'underground' line that ran from Shoreditch down to New Cross and New Cross Gate, and was used for small-scale transfers from the ER to the SR at New Cross Gate. Indeed, in 1961 three of us from a secondary school at New Cross would walk up to New Cross Gate Station at lunchtime to eat our sandwiches and trainspot. We were astounded (O that we'd had a camera that day!) when the beautifully 'Great Eastern' decorated J69/1 0-6-0 station pilot (68619) from Liverpool Street came into view with half a dozen vans behind it, shunted them into a siding and disappeared the way it had come. We were left near speechless!

Beautiful story. I'm sure all of us who were 'hard-core' spotters up to about 62 or so had similar experiences of one sort or another, each so special we remember them 70 years on. (SAdly, I never saw the Blue Angel.)

I wonder if kids today will remember the time they were playing on their i-phones and ..... ?

 

[edwin_m]

The Liverpool Street line runs partly underneath the former Bishopsgate goods depot, which was the site of the original terminus before extension to Liverpool Street. It burned down in the 1960s and is now planned for re-development but parts of the supporting viaduct are listed and should survive.

The modern East London Line Overground route runs through the site. For many years its predecessor terminated at a one-platform Shoreditch station, although its hours of operation were very limited and the more usual terminating point was Whitechapel. From the platform of this station is was very obvious that the line formerly connected into Liverpool Street, but by the time I visited (probably sometime in the early 1980s) it had been disconnected.

Googling these places will no doubt bring up more details and pictures.

 

[petep]

Thanks John and all who have replied,it's nice to know that my memory hasn't let me down.
With regard to young people gathering photographic material, I have tried to impress on my grandsons that they should take as many photo's as they can, making a photo diary of their exploits for future reference. It's so easy now with phones and digital cameras. The result was, one on a journey to the Wycombe Airfair recently, took over 700 photos of trains and aircraft.
I would have been in my element if we had had this equipment in yesteryear. A photo record of all that has change from my personal view,during my lifetime would be fascinating to look back on now.

 

[PeterC]

I remember my puzzlement as a boy of 11 or so when our train was held outside Liverpool Street at a point where I could see a Met line train standing at Shoreditch. Probably still F stock back then but only just.

 

[delt1c]

I commuted into Liverpool St until 2011 and you could see Shoreditch station on the left with A stock in the platform As an aside I worked with London Transport on the late 70's and we had a canteen at Liverpool St which used the old tunnel connecting the mainline with the underground, always wondered what happened to this ( and the old BR dinning club) on redevelopment

 

[PeterC]

I commuted into Liverpool St until 2011 and you could see Shoreditch station on the left with A stock in the platform As an aside I worked with London Transport on the late 70's and we had a canteen at Liverpool St which used the old tunnel connecting the mainline with the underground, always wondered what happened to this ( and the old BR dinning club) on redevelopment

IIRC before redevelopment platforms 1 and 2 were slightly longer than the other Suburban platforms as they originally went into the tunnel, and of course the two Main Line platforms (can't remember if that was 9 and 10 or 10 and 11) were much longer as well, both for longer trains and, originally, to serve sidings under the Great Eastern Hotel which later became the Circle Line ticket hall.

The rooms inserted into the tunnel extended slightly beyond the wall of the Circle Line cutting giving the impression of a portakabin being squeezed out of a toothpaste tube.

 

[delt1c]

Remember eating in the Liverpool St Canteen and windows in Kitchen open you could see the Underground trains passing, an unusual dinning experience

 

[BTP69E]

I commuted into Liverpool St until 2011 and you could see Shoreditch station on the left with A stock in the platform As an aside I worked with London Transport on the late 70's and we had a canteen at Liverpool St which used the old tunnel connecting the mainline with the underground, always wondered what happened to this ( and the old BR dinning club) on redevelopment

I remember that tunnel canteen, it used to be open all night. So I would pop in there when on night duty in the small hours after the main station was quiet.

 

[randyrippley]

I think you'll find these pages interesting
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/shoreditch_el/index.shtml
http://underground-history.co.uk/shoreditch.php

gives a potted history of the line and station

 

[BTP69E]

I think you'll find these pages interesting
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/shoreditch_el/index.shtml
http://underground-history.co.uk/shoreditch.php

gives a potted history of the line and station

Thanks for the link. It has re awakened old memories. BTP69E

 

[edwin_m]

Another nearby lost line came off the Tilbury line near Shadwell (first part of the viaduct still visible) and served a good station where Aldgate bus station now is.

 

[PeterC]

Another nearby lost line came off the Tilbury line near Shadwell (first part of the viaduct still visible) and served a good station where Aldgate bus station now is.

There were several large goods stations in short branches of the LT&S in that area.

To be pedantic a study of old maps shows the bus station next to the goods station rather than on the same site.

 

[racyrich]

Another nearby lost line came off the Tilbury line near Shadwell (first part of the viaduct still visible) and served a good station where Aldgate bus station now is.

Coincidentally that viaduct stub that led to Haydon Square goods depot is in imminent danger of demolition.
The adjacent hotel wants to expand.
There's local opposition as the viaduct wall is embedded with WW2 bomb shrapnel and is the last such reminder.

The viaduct has been swarming with orange-clad workers this week.

 

[David Burrows]

There was a connection just east of Bishopsgate to the 'underground' line that ran from Shoreditch down to New Cross and New Cross Gate, and was used for small-scale transfers from the ER to the SR at New Cross Gate. Indeed, in 1961 three of us from a secondary school at New Cross would walk up to New Cross Gate Station at lunchtime to eat our sandwiches and trainspot. We were astounded (O that we'd had a camera that day!) when the beautifully 'Great Eastern' decorated J69/1 0-6-0 station pilot (68619) from Liverpool Street came into view with half a dozen vans behind it, shunted them into a siding and disappeared the way it had come. We were left near speechless!

The East London Line was also used reguarly during summer months until the mid 1960s by Sunday excursion trains from Loughton to various Kent and Sussex resorts. I believe these ran every couple of Sundays and consisted of six corridor coaches (the maximum which, with engine attached, would fit in clear in the centre platform line at Loughton) and until the end of steam at Stratford were worked by a J15 (trip-cock fitted) to Liverpool Street via the connection at Leyton and forward from Liverpool Street via Shorditch by 2 x J69s. As a youngster Living at Loughton I would bike down to the station to see them depart. They were certainly a wonderful sight wandering along the Central Line amidst the underground trains.