King’s Cross throat: Past, present, future

KING’S CROSS station is to partially close for three months in early 2020, to enable Network Rail to complete a £ 237 million asset renewal and track remodelling project that will increase capacity at Britain’s ninth busiest station ( RAIL 843).

As well as replacement of all track, subsystems and overhead line equipment for a distance of 1½ miles from the buffer stops, the approaches will be rationalised for the first time since 1972 (when the current layout was installed by British Rail).

Switches and crossings will be moved from the platform ends to beyond Gasworks Tunnel, while tracks will be relaid in the tunnel’s eastern bore in order to increase the station approaches from four tracks to six (as seen in the computergenerated image, bottom right).

The main image from Colour Rail’s archive shows the tunnel in September 1971, when all three bores were still in use. Class 55 ‘Deltic’ 9006 The Fife & Forfar Yeomanry runs light while negotiating the old track layout, while D9004 Queen’s Own Highlander and D9019

Royal Highland Fusilier are also present in the locomotive stabling and refuelling point to the left.

The Deltics would last until December 1981, when the fleet was finally withdrawn from their East Coast Main Line duties in favour of High Speed Trains. Electrification was completed at King’s Cross for suburban services in 1977 and for Anglo-Scottish trains in 1991.

The contemporary image (above right) was taken by RAIL photographer Paul Bigland from the same spot at the end of Platforms 8/9 on January 16. Apart from the tunnels, the only recognisable feature is the building with the triangular roof above.

Built in 1850 by the Great Northern Railway and expanded in 1888, this was once an area for unloading fish and other perishable goods brought in by rail. It now houses a Waitrose supermarket and an events space.

Offices and residential buildings have sprung up alongside it, as part of the multimillion-pound redevelopment of 67 acres of redundant railway lands around King’s Cross. This commenced following the decision in 1996 to re-route Channel Tunnel traffic into the adjacent St Pancras International.

The concrete structure to the left provides vehicular access for Network Rail, and will eventually form the basement of Google’s proposed 11-storey London headquarters.