Barnet Fair - It Goes There (3)

 Whetstone, Oakleigh Park, East Barnet

Oakleigh Park Station is next stop towards London and looks very similar to New Barner. It has four platform faces of which only two are in normal use ...

... with protective fencing to restrict access. The way in is via a footbridge but in this case the booking office building, intriguingly cantilevers out from the building at platform level ...

The histrory is similar but the progress was different.

In 1866 the Whetstone Park Company, promoters of the Whetstone Park Estate, reached an agreement with the Great Northern Railway (GNR) to construct a new station to serve the development. The station - to be known as Whetstone - would open once 25 houses were complete, although the GNR built the two station platforms immediately (they were completed by June 1866).

Contact between the developer and the GNR took place in January 1869, then again in summer 1871 by which time the development had been renamed to the Oakleigh Park Estate, but it was not until January 1873 that the developer was able to inform the GNR that the 25th house was complete. Accordingly, the GNR authorised the station to be completed, now to be known as Oakleigh Park. It opened to passenger traffic on 1 December 1873. The estate office was situated in Chandos Avenue; a contemporaneous sign is displayed in the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.

As part of works to increase the number of tracks from two to four, the station was completely rebuilt in 1891/2 with two island platforms, a new footbridge and booking office. The 1873 station footbridge at the extreme north end of the station was retained as a public footpath, but with the stairs to the station removed.

By the 1930s the station had gained the suffix For East Barnet, which remained until at least the 1970s.

The Oakleigh Park Estate contained a variety of housing, from that for the emerging "middle management" ...

... to some superior dwellings for the discerning nouveau riche.

Some have more modern properties built in their once extensive gardens ...

... whilst some have been replaced by blocks of flats in matching style.

Some plots have simply been filled with flats in no particular style!

Either way, fbb suspects that the half-hourly 383 will not be bothered with too many three-bell loads between Oakleigh Park and the flesh-pots of suburban Whetstone.

Down the hill a step or three you would find that Totteridge and Whetstone Northern Line Underground station has retained some of its GNR rural ambiance ...

... although Mr Moger will no longer sell you his quality coals and the news agent is no longer offering a wide range of reading matter and, doubtless, smokers requisites!

Likewise, Woodside Park station, once the terminus of the 383 ...

... has had little truck with modernity.

Even the post box remains in place. The back entrance used to be very rural ...

... but the railway infrastructure is still very recognisable.

Still to come - a further look at publicity thanks to two visits by Roger French and a confrontation with some journey planners.

Christmas Gift Ideas (1)

There is always plenty of model railway stuff available second-hand, but Christmas Gifts probably ought to be brand new in shiny boxes to provide that frisson of excitement on Christmas morning. (Socks again - excitement?). So here is one from Rails. 

Very much the workhorse of the London midland Region ...

... Rails of Sheffield had this loco on one its its one-day special offers.

Not to be outdone, Hattons of Widnes have been offering this delightful private owner diesel, ideal for an industrial railway model or a free-lace branch line.

Usually £99.50. At the offer price, even fbb was sorely tempted ... but ...

... the old man has too much "stuff" already; the back yard is not big enough and the stock boxes are already full.

Missing From The Tank Wagon Collection

Produced by Hornby Dublo in their declining years (1962/3) only a short time before the company went phut and the name (but not the products) joined with Triang. Although not exorbitant, they do appear on the market at a too-pricey-for-me level for fbb. £26?

No thanks. £30?

Or £15 and still bidding. Still too much.

But £10 and no bidding?

Hmmm?

It should be delivered tomorrow!

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 8th November