My “home from home” for the first few years of my time in London. I was normally passing through, and didn’t spend a lot of time watching what was moving about, as the allure of St Pancras and Euston drew me away, … but I did have a fond familiarity for it; the dirt, scaffolding dripping water; roar of the Deltics; and screech of brakes of the 31s at the buffers.
The slope road down to York Road Station at the entrance of the “Widened Lines” to Farringdon and beyond at the neck of King’s Cross. An untarnished roof crowns a new D55XX as it pauses with an eastbound train: a steamer ia obscured by its own smoke. 5####AR01-KGX-D55##-PAS_U
In green livery with white stripes, D5596 demonstrates the steep entry from Kings Cross down to the widened lines as it takes a passenger service towards Farringdon. The old wooden signal box, and a clutter of signalling is all around, prior to its redevelopment, and new buildings are springing up behind it. 69###AW01-KGX-D5596-PAS_U
Heading into the tunnels out from King’s Cross with a ‘down’ ACS service, 9014 “THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON’S REGIMENT” blasts exhaust skywards. A suburban unit and the stabling point are immediately behind, with a Class 47 is in the goods sidings beyond. 7####AC01-KGX-D9014-PAS_D
31402 is pictured crossing the front of York Road station at King’s Cross onto the Widened Lines in the days when there was a commuter station in use there and goods trains running to Farringdon and beyond. The new Power Signal Box has replaced the steam-age one, once centrally situated on the space shown between the tracks in the picture. 76###AM01-KGX-31402-LIGHT
1504 runs into Kings Cross as rail staff wait for its passing. In the far background is the new Signal Box, and before that the old Box and signal gantries soon to be replaced, along with the installation of electrification overheads. A Class 31 brings in ECS. 7####EB01-KGX-d1504-LIG_U
With both engines pumping out exhaust, one of the East Coast ‘racehorses’ 9009 “ALYCIDON”, heading a train of Mk2 stock at Kings Cross Station, begins to pull away. Behind it 5608 is on empty stock working. The scaffolding beyond is part of the station clean-up. 72###AE01-KGX-d9009-PARKD
Staff cross towards the track 312031 will soon leave vacant as it slips out of Kings Cross Station in 1976, not long after the overhead wires and resignalling have been completed. These type of units were the commonest at this time – this particular unit with its no-longer needed blinds neatly set to four rectangles. 76###AI01-KGX-3~031-PAS_U
New overhead catenary fronts the tunnels at the end of Kings Cross Station as 46048 and 31405 emerge into the sunshine together, but on separate tracks. Cable runs, trunking and assorted debris lie around, and rusty track is being taken out of commission. 770809A01-KGX-46048-LIG_U
312015 emu is parked before the stop blocks at Kings Cross, across the platform from a Class 31 on ECS duties. Scaffolding and sheeting behind are erected in connection with cleaning the station interior; a process that seemed perpetual in the years I lived there. 780521A01-KGX-312XX-PAS_U
Works are being completed behind screening at King’s Cross Station as 55022 backs in to the platform, guided by the hand signals of the second man in the nearest cab. The façade of the new signal box is still pristine, and the signals are fully under its control. 781120A01-KGX-55022-LIG_U
31188 runs on to the Stabling Point at King’s Cross Station, to join the ‘Deltic’ and 47s already there. Taken before the renewal of signalling and OLE cramped the view, an exhaust-surrounded DMU makes for the suburban platforms from the tunnel mouth. 8####AB01-KGX-31188-LIG_U
In the morning sun, with engines shooting out exhaust, the driver of 55016 talks with the Guard, prior to it leaving with a northbound passenger service at Kings Cross. Carriage doors are open so although departure is close, it isn’t absolutely immediate. 8####AZ01-KGX-55016-PAS_D
A 3-car Hertford North Service waits in Platform 6 of Kings Cross Station in 1983. I have always thought these EMUs with their dismal yellow ends and oversize numbers hideous, and the seats inside extremely uncomfortable: poor design all around. 830423A01-KGX-313XX-PAS_D-
I can remember seeing this distinctive Stratford shunter at Liverpool Street, but what it was doing at Kings Cross – or any other shunter at this time, come to that – I’ve no idea. 08803 is carrying its former number (D4001), cycling lion transfer and black livery lined in red, the cockney sparrow emblem, and ‘Liverpool Street Pilot’ painted on its sides. 8####BL01-UNK-08833-PARKD
In March 1979 a deserted late-night Kings Cross finds HS40000 ‘KESTREL’ before the buffers, presumably on a test run visit of some sort, as its headcode and A1 condition intimate. This beautiful machine follows the lines of the Class 47s, but is of much greater power, and it was a great shame a bulk order was not placed by British Rail. 7903#AA01-KGX-HS~00-PARKD
The Eric Curnow Collection 