OTD - 10th July 2019 - First electric trains into London Euston

[whole diary]

[stuving]

According to Friday's Times, "on Monday [10th July 1922] electric trains will for the first time carry passengers into Euston". The electric lines to Watford were planned and started before the war, and Bakerloo and Broad Street trains started running in 1915 and got to Watford by April 1917.

Connecting Euston had to wait for the rebuilding of Camden Junction to provide grade separation (as it wasn't then called). "The changes have entailed moving every line and siding at Chalk Farm [as it was then called] except the main up line, and that has been raised. The old Chalk Farm [later called Primrose Hill] main line station has been abolished, but the North London station remains [it closed in 1992]."

The article notes that during the "rush" hours, there would be twelve trains per hour each way between Watford and Willesden, split three ways further south/east. "At the same time the steam service between Watford and Euston will be retained, and indeed improved." I guess that's the main line service to past Watford, but it still sounds unlikely.

[Ralph Ayres]

My July 1922 Bradshaw's timetable has, between 7 and 8am, 2 trains to Euston, 5 to Broad Street and 4 Bakerloo, all calling at Watford High Street so all running on the "DC^▸ (Direct Current)" lines in question rather than long-distance trains on other tracks.  If I moved the one hour window it's likely I'd get 12 trains so the claim perhaps surprisingly seems accurate; Euston doesn't come out of it too well but does have other faster options on the main line.  Just 4 trains in the same period now, all to Euston.

[stuving]

My July 1922 Bradshaw's timetable has, between 7 and 8am, 2 trains to Euston, 5 to Broad Street and 4 Bakerloo, all calling at Watford High Street so all running on the "DC^▸ (Direct Current)" lines in question rather than long-distance trains on other tracks.  If I moved the one hour window it's likely I'd get 12 trains so the claim perhaps surprisingly seems accurate; Euston doesn't come out of it too well but does have other faster options on the main line.  Just 4 trains in the same period now, all to Euston.

I wasn't questioning running 12 tph^▸ (trains per hour) on the DC lines; I'm sure they could have managed twice that. It was the idea that the number of services from Watford on the fast and slow lines would be increased at the same time that sounded odd.

But it now occurs to me that, even if only two slow line paths per hour were newly available into Euston, the benefit of the earlier non-Euston services would not have been taken yet. For one thing, they were rebuilding Chalk Farm Junction. So it was only be after the grade separation was finished that extra capacity on the fast and slow lines became usable into Euston. And I guess almost everything stopped at Watford.

[Electric train]

My July 1922 Bradshaw's timetable has, between 7 and 8am, 2 trains to Euston, 5 to Broad Street and 4 Bakerloo, all calling at Watford High Street so all running on the "DC^▸ (Direct Current)" lines in question rather than long-distance trains on other tracks.  If I moved the one hour window it's likely I'd get 12 trains so the claim perhaps surprisingly seems accurate; Euston doesn't come out of it too well but does have other faster options on the main line.  Just 4 trains in the same period now, all to Euston.

I wasn't questioning running 12 tph^▸ (trains per hour) on the DC lines; I'm sure they could have managed twice that. It was the idea that the number of services from Watford on the fast and slow lines would be increased at the same time that sounded odd.

But it now occurs to me that, even if only two slow line paths per hour were newly available into Euston, the benefit of the earlier non-Euston services would not have been taken yet. For one thing, they were rebuilding Chalk Farm Junction. So it was only be after the grade separation was finished that extra capacity on the fast and slow lines became usable into Euston. And I guess almost everything stopped at Watford.

There are 6 lines between Euston and Watford, UP & DN Fast, UP & DN Slow and the UP & DN Electric.  Although since the 1960's they have all been electric 

So getting 12 tph would not be a challenge, it is only the recent decades that many of the stations have lost there Fast and in a number of places Slow platforms