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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

First the Cement Factory - now Thameslink's Blackfriars Blight! (Heartlands)

Have you had your invite this morning to Network Rail's 'drop-in information session' at the West Indian Cultural Centre, Fri 17 July 4pm-8pm and Sat 18 July 10am-2pm ?

We're soon going to be hosting the new Thameslink Northern Depot to house and service all those new 50% longer trains which from 2012 will serve the St Pancras Int'l - New Blackfriars link. (There will be a second depot south of the river.)

"These new trains will need new, high performance maintenance facilities and sidings long enough to accommodate them. . . . . Following a careful site selection process an area of operational railway land ownd by Network Rail and located next to Hornsey Station has been chosen to develop these new modern facilities."

This can only mean the narrow stretch south of Hornsey footbridge between the existing track and the New River. Maybe we're lucky after all to have Jewson's and Mermaid Court on the Harringay Station stretch.

So Nessun Dorma's the new Wightman Road anthem. Anyone like to buy a desirable residence with west-facing garden backed by an elevated Network Rail shunting line, with stunning views of London Cement facilities and equally knockout sound from Thameslink's state-of-art depot ?

Not even a W1 Bus would offer an adequate escape route.

Meanwhile visit: www.networkrail.co.uk/thameslink and check 'Thameslink Programme'. "Helpline" 08457 11 41 41 .

Tags for Forum Posts: hornsey rail depot-heartlands, network rail

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I too am concerned about this and would like to know what precisely they propose in terms of new buildings, of location, of new noisy activities and of working hours and controls on night time noise. It is a little odd, and also frustrating, that the new Thameslink services will not actually serve any of our local stations so we shall get little or nothing for tolerating any disturbance that Thameslink brings us. It must also be inconvenient to bring the trains out of their way for servicing and one wonders why they did not choose a site along the line from St Pancras to Luton.

Unfortunately, I shall not be able to attend their sessions on either 17th or 18th July so I hope another HoL member can do so.
If you're up early during week days as I am, you may have heard a relatively new neighbour; that of an idling train at the newly opened shed by the pedestrian bridge at Hornsey Station. An idling car is one thing but an idling train at that time of the morning can be heard across the whole of north Harringay.

Wonder if folk living along Wightman Rd have had their sleep cut short by these trains getting set up for their day of service. And were you consulted on these changes in facilities?
The railway has been in Harringay for a very long time.. It was there before any one of us lived in the area.. It has always been noisy - Railways have a habit of being that..

In the 1950s until the 1980s it was probably much noisier than it is today (the deltic locomotives and diesel railcars, as well as steam before them, were much louder than the electric stock that followed).

Whether the residents need to be consulted, everytime a locomotive is warmed up is IMO a non-starter, but to build a new depot 'off line of route' seems to me to be a rather strange proposition, especially these days when it is usual to try and cut operating costs to a minimum.

Perhaps somebody somewhere feels there will be less resistance to a new depot being constructed in the LBHgy than say in Cricklewood, Hendon etc.,
The shed and siding I'm talking about is 'new'. But then I am directing my question to those that might be affected. :) Of course, the railways are far more preferable to a motorway nearby.
'from 2015 we could well be getting the benefit of these new trains'

Not at all clear why the distant prospect of an occasional train stopping at Stevenage, Finsbury Park etc after December 2015 should win me over to the more immediate nightmare/early-morning-mare of having serried ranks of these beasts champing at the bit in their new stabling between my back garden and Hornsey station.
My bedroom looks over the River to the railway works, and I have to say I haven't been disturbed by idling trains. The worst noise offender is a forklift truck which has an incredibly loud reversing warning signal.

I hope to be able to go to the information session.
John
My bedroom looks over the River to the railway works ....

As did mine in 1928 when, as a 5-year old, I lay in my bed in Wightman Road listening to the steam locos either quietly hissing, or shunting long lines of trucks with a unique sound which is with me to this day. That sound came from the 'slack' between successive trucks being either consecutively taken up, or compressed, as the loco either pulled, or pushed. It was a succession of individual 'clanks', gradually diminishing in volume as they worked their way down the line of trucks to the far end.
But I guess to a child whose only engagement next day was to be up in time to have breakfast and then take a leisurely stroll to South Harringay school those sounds were much more acceptable than they would be today, to someone who must be 'up betimes' to beat the rush-hour traffic ..... etc Perhaps, as someone once said, 'I never had it so good'?

Best wishes,
Arthur Astrop

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