The District Controller's View No. 13 - The North London Railway
The railway press of the pre-Beeching era often waxed lyrical about the extent of congestion suffered by cross- London traffic- the problem became so acute that British Railways almost spent a fortune on upgrading the Cambridge Bletchley - Oxford line to take some of the pressure from the North London yet no detail has ever been published before describing this congestion or the operations behind it.
This book illustrates in considerable detail the nature of the problem and the various operational components that came together to form such a complex system of trains.
It is generally thought that the North London was a line worked almost solely by Standard LMS 3F 0-6-0T shunting engines from Devons Road. In fact, the North London was probably the most cosmopolitan route in the country and although Devons Road and its 0-6-0T's did a prodigious amount of work, so did the engines of other regions with ex- LNER J6, J15 and J17 0-6-0's frequently rubbing shoulders with Q1, '700' and Q 0-6- 0's from the Southern.
For the first time the operational detail of this most colourful system has been placed between the covers of one book with every train - passenger and goods - that operated on the North London receiving a mention.
Softback, 92 pages, black & white photos, track plans
ISBN: 9781901056389
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Updated: 2 January 2025