An accident at Epping

This week we have a guest post from Philip James, looking at another accident he transcribed as part of his role as an NRM project volunteer. Here he puts the case in its local railway context, with a touching personal connection noted in the final image.

Philip has written several posts for us already, found here. Most of the cases he has blogged on are relatively close to his home but some were selected as they illustrated something of importance about how accidents happened. Philip has also interested himself in some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of the project, including how the project data is being created. As ever, we’re grateful to Philip for his work on the project and on this blog post.

 

A few months ago, I came across an accident at Epping on the Great Eastern Railway. Today, the location is the end of the London Underground Central Line but in times past it was a Great Eastern Railway steam line and it continued as a single-track line to Ongar. The line beyond to Ongar is now a preserved railway but distances on the underground are still measured in kilometres with respect to the buffer stops at Ongar (see here).

Accident at Epping

Great Eastern Railway
Date of Accident – 12 June, 1905.
Place at which Accident happened – Epping.
Name of Person killed – Ralph Davison Scragg.
Age of Person killed – 42.
Capacity in which employed – Coalman.
Number of booked working hours per diem^[1] – 10.
How long on duty at time of accident – 1 hour 45 minutes.
Nature of Injury – Fatal.

Description of Accident – About 11.45 p.m. Scragg and engine cleaner TA Bass coaled tank engine No. 1047 at the coaling stage, after which with that engine two waggons^[2] were pushed back into the turntable road, about 45 yards clear of the crossing by Scragg who also uncoupled the waggons and dropped one brake lever. He then set the engine forward over the hand points leading to No. 1 shed road, and left the foot plate to set the points. Afterwards he got upon the engine and stood with his left foot on the edge of the footplate and his right foot on the boards covering the footplate, with his body partly in and partly out of the cab. While in that position he instructed Bass to get the engine back into the shed. When it reached the crossing it was struck by the leading waggon of the two which had been placed in the “turntable road,” but which ran out again owing to the lines being on a falling gradient. Scragg was caught between the leading waggon and the cab of the engine, with fatal results.

Scragg was authorised to move engines in the Locomotive Yard, and was well acquainted with the place. The whole of the operations described were performed under Scragg’s supervision, and it is evident that he failed to properly secure the waggons in question; and to his failure in this the accident must attributed.

Investigating Officer – J. J. Hornby.

 

The Epping Line

To understand the Epping line, it is desirable to know the following. The line was built in stages by the Eastern Counties Railway and its successor the Great Eastern. It diverged from the original line from Stratford to Cambridge near Leyton and passed through Leytonstone and Woodford, among other places, to reach Epping and eventually Ongar by 1865. Another branch left the main line between Ilford and Seven-Kings by means of a triangular junction and ran via Newbury Park, Hainault and Chigwell to join the Epping line north of Woodford. The junction faced London creating a loop.

 

Passenger Services

My reprint of the July 1922 Bradshaw’s Railway Guide [1] shows services to Epping and Ongar starting from Liverpool Street, with Ongar having a succession of through trains although the intervals between them were irregular and generally over an hour. Other London trains started and finished at Epping and others at Loughton increasing the frequency although still with irregular intervals.

Trains also reached the loop at Newbury Park via Ilford. Running via Fairlop, where some terminated, they would join the Epping Services back to London. Hainault station opened in 1903 but was closed between 1908 and 1930 due to a lack of custom and had no service at the time of my edition of Bradshaw.

The timetables also show services from Fenchurch Street although by 1922 these appear to be connections rather than through services. The layout at Stratford was and is complex and movements over the flat junctions to get from Bow Road (Great Eastern) to the Lea Valley Line would cause many conflicting movements. Through services have probably run from Fenchurch Street but been phased out to simplify operation.

Second World War

The 1935 to 1940 New Works Programme included a Central Line Extension east of Liverpool Street to Mile End, Stratford and Leyton and hence in stages taking over the line to Epping and Ongar and the loop to Newbury Park. A new line in twin tunnels ran from Leytonstone to Newbury Park and the section from there to Ilford and Seven-Kings was eventually abandoned although most of its route can still be traced. The junction between Ilford and Seven-Kings is now the site of Ilford carriage depot.

These tunnels were completed before the commencement of the second world war but not yet fitted out for rail use so they were used as a munitions factory by Plessey who were then based in Ilford. Other tunnels were used as tube shelters and these included the Station at Bethnal Green, the scene of heavy loss of life when a crowd of people seeking shelter fell down some stairs and suffocated.

Transfer to London Underground

After the war, the tunnels were fitted out for rail use and the surface lines converted to give the configuration we are familiar with. Services from central London divided to serve the Epping and Hainault branches, the Ongar line operating as a shuttle from Epping.

The line from Hainault to Woodford has also operated as a shuttle service but has also seen through trains from both ends with through trains via Newbury Park being the norm in recent decades. It has also been used as a test track for the Automatic Control of Trains system used on the Victoria Line.

Many of the stations on the Epping line and the loop through Chigwell had goods yards and there were also level crossings. The latter were not compatible with a frequent and electrified service and were closed, generally replaced by bridges nearby. For a time, the line remained connected to the British Rail system through junctions at Leyton and Newbury Park but eventually these were removed and the goods yards closed. The one at Epping is now a station car park although development may have encroached to some extent.

Possible Future Use

There have been proposals to separate the Hainault and Epping branches with one becoming part of the proposed Chelsea Hackney Tube or Crossrail Line 2. The tunnels between Leytonstone and Newbury Park are too small for a Crossrail type scheme so the Epping line would be the likely choice. Current Crossrail plans favour other branches although nothing significant has been done to prevent such a scheme proceeding.

The height of platforms above rail level is a partial exception. After the takeover by London Underground, compromise height platforms were adopted at the former Great Eastern stations but in more recent times the track has been raised so platforms match the floor level of the 1992 tube stock. If part of the system were to be taken over by another scheme, then the track may have to be lowered to suit the height of whatever trains run that way.

The Line Beyond Epping

Beyond Epping, the line to Ongar is single track but with passive provision for a second track. A passing loop at North Weald was lifted while still an operational ‘underground’ line but after preservation, reinstated by the Epping Ongar Railway. The station at Ongar has a single platform but was built in such a way that a second platform could be added and the line extended. Many years ago, I spoke to a resident of Ongar who believed that the Eastern Counties Railway had visons of the line eventually reaching Chelmsford. I have not yet seen anything of substance to confirm or refute this.

Blake Hall station lay between North Weald and Ongar and saw few passengers. It closed some years before the rest of the line and the platform was removed. It has recently been put back[3] but the station building which survives is in private use and is in virtual isolation, there being no settlements of any sort nearby. The line, like many was built with freight in mind and in its early days may have served local farms. The expansion of London left many rural stations serving busy suburbs but the post war Green Belt prevented Blake Hall and others developing in that way.

Willingdale

After the cancellation of the planned airport on the Maplin sands, several sites were proposed for a new London airport. Eventually Stanstead was chosen but before this decision was made, a surprise candidate emerged in the form of Willingdale in Essex. A wartime air station had existed at the site and presumably the Central Line or another line using part of its alignment would have been extended to serve the site. This would have involved double tracking the line to Ongar and a new alignment from there to Willingdale. Conceivably it might have continued from there to Chelmsford.

Closure and Preservation

Prior to closure in 1994, a special run was organised using a train of 1960 tube stock built by Cravens, one of six units built for the Central Line before the decision was taken to order the 1962 tube stock. The centre trailer coach was of 1938 tube stock, a replacement for two coaches of standard tube stock used previously. The 1960 tube stock did see some initial use in pairs through central London but most of its life was as single units on the shuttle services or in departmental use. A video of this special run is available here. The train has been preserved in operational condition.

After closure the line was acquired for preservation and is now run by the Epping Ongar Railway. It was not possible for the preserved railway to take over one of the platforms at Epping, neither was it possible to build a new one just past the existing platform ends due to the change in gradient of the line although a station further on at Epping Glade has been proposed.

 

Miscellaneous

When researching this topic, I discovered frequent references to Epping, New South Wales. The station there has more platforms than its UK namesake and is more modern. This highlights the need for care when conducting research using the internet. No risk of confusion in this case but sometimes search results may not yield what you expect and, in some cases, it may be less obvious when that is so.

 

Photographs

This post was prepared subject to the travel restrictions imposed by COVID-19 so I have been dependent on material from the Internet and some of my own pictures from years ago. As always, I am grateful to my sources and have identified them where possible.

This image, from Flickr, shows the approaches to Epping Station in 1903. Engine C32 class 2-4-2T No.1041 is in the foreground with the goods and coal yard beyond to the left. The passenger station is in the distance. Epping gas works and siding are to the right and a ground frame box is by the up line. The engine is close in the number sequence to that involved in the accident. From this link, it seems both entered service in 1902 and were withdrawn in 1947.  None of the class have survived into preservation although a boiler from one does survive (more here). The method of working is also apparent. The engine is standing on a siding used to provide access between the various lines in the goods yard by means of reversal without fouling the running lines. The turntable is to the extreme left of the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Philip James

 

[1] Per diem – for each day (used in financial contexts).

[2] Wagon and waggon are different spellings of the same word meaning, among other things, a sturdy four-wheeled vehicle for transporting things. Waggon was preferred in British English until a century ago, and it still appears occasionally, but it is fast becoming archaic. I have used the latter spelling to be consistent with the reports which invariably use it.

[3] The new short platform is not accessible by the public.