ALL CHANGE ON THE GREAT NORTHERN
GROWING-UP as a boy in leafy north London my memories are still vivid of Grange Park station, where I used to stand and watch the Gresley-designed 'N2' tank engines getting closer and closer, having left Wmchmore Hill on their regular journeys hauling compartmented 'Quad-Art' coaches on services between Moorgatej/King's Cross and Hertford North.
On Sundays, during the main line widening at such locations as Hadley Wood and Pouers Bar, my father and myself would climb into the loft to peer out of the roof window to see what trains were being diverted through the Hertford Loop, and if it looked promising we would get in the car and go to a favourite spot of ours where a footpath ran across the line for the purpose of golfers at Crews Hill. There, we would marvel and spot 'A4s', 'A3s' and others making their way to and from Scotland and the north-east of England.
As time went on, changes were made that saw a regular service hauled by diesel multiple units and suburban passenger stock in the charge of Class 31 diesel locomotives. However, my most vivid memory of that era at our local station was while waiting to catch a train seeing heavy Class '9F' steam locomotives pulling as many as 80 wagons loaded with coal from the North East mines on their way to Ferme Park yard. Standing on the platform there was an experience that never be forgouen, which forced passengers like
