This is the scene of the 1975
accident - a 1938 stock London Underground train arriving from
Old Street didn't stop at the station and instead ploughed straight
into the wall at the end of the tunnel. An old stationmaster
stated that the marks on the wall are from the impact: the square
indentation in the middle was from the coupling unit and the
two small round marks below/either side were from the buffers.
The validity of that however
has been questioned by Richard Griffin who said "...the 1938 stock's coupler was a Wedgelock
similar in shape to the auto couplers still used today...those
trains didn't have twin circular buffers, rather a single rectangular
one above the auto coupler."
Paul Ogram also commented "...the "buffer marks" are simply
flaws in the brickwork and the square hole is associated with
the single oleo buffer which used to be in place at the end of
the sand drag."
The platform (number 9) was
closed for ten days following the crash and the line taken over
by British Rail less than eight months later.
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The other platform serving the Hertford/Welwyn trains has this
at the tunnel end: a Greathead Shield that got stuck when the
tunnel was being built and was just left there (this is according
to the same station master who afforded the information detailed
above about platform 9).
(2008)
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Emergency stairs:
Moorgate station has been rebuilt three times. 2nd
October 1936 saw the opening of a new ticket hall serving all
the lines, and with it the consequential closure of the Northern
City Line ticket hall (this 'new' ticket hall was itself rebuilt
in the mid-1970s). Passageways lead to the lift shafts, to the
Metropolitan line, plus there are these, leading toward the
old ticket hall. Access is prohibited now due to their dangerous
condition.
This photo, taken in the late 1970s, shows, as Paul
Ogram describes, "the gleaming white tiles of the London
Underground".
The passageways accumulated dirt for a quarter of
a century after this photo was taken but were cleaned up in 2004.
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Emergency stairs: opposite view from the photo above,
taken a quarter of a century later.
©2004. Paul Ogram
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Emergency stairs: the stairway shown above splits
left and right. This is the downward view from the right-hand
staircase.
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Emergency stairs: looking up at the left hand staircase.
©2004. Paul Ogram
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Emergency stairs: looking up at the right hand staircase.
©2004. Paul Ogram
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Lift shaft entrance.
(2008)
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Beyond the turn off leading to the lifts, the passageway continues
en route toward the Metropolitan line.
(2008)
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Taken in Nov 2002, this shows a poster still in situ;
certainly very evocative of a bygone age.
©2002. Paul Ogram
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The Metropolitan line passage.
(2008)
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Just before reaching the Metropolitan Line, one comes across
this enormous ventilation fan. Some measure of its size can be
gained from comparing it to the pipes, then looking at the size
of the pipes in the preceding photo (in what is a generously
sized passage!).
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Looking back toward the platform 10 direction.
©2004. Paul Ogram
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