Siding at Gordon Hill station

Image: © Marathon Taken: 15 Mar 2017

The Alexandra Palace-Hertford-Stevenage loop was built mainly as a by-pass for the approaches to King's Cross on the main line from Hatfield and was built to main line standards for much of its length. However, it has never carried regular long-distance passenger services and has always primarily been a suburban branch, apart from when there is engineering work or other disruption on the East Coast Main Line through Hatfield. The line was opened as far as Enfield, which was then the terminus, on 1st April 1871. The line was extended to Cuffley from 4th April 1910 and on to Stevenage for freight on 4th March 1918, but passenger trains only started beyond Cuffley on 2nd June 1924. When Gordon Hill opened on 4th April 1910, it was very much a suburban terminus at the limits of London and it retained a frontier atmosphere until the early 1970s. At Gordon Hill villa and cottage development had begun in the late 1880s. To the south of the station the Great Northern Railway opened an 11 acre sports ground for its staff, issuing special cheap tickets from all its London stations. The sports ground is still there although now private. The Piccadilly line extension to Cockfosters took much of the traffic from the line between Bowes Park and Gordon Hill and the late 1940s and 1950s were described by Alan A Jackson in 'London's Local Railways' as "doldrum years for a line which smelt of decay and declines as grotty 'quad-arts' were trundled to and from Hertford North by filthy and now wheezing N2 tanks." The line was electrified in the 1970s. This siding is for a terminus platform used by certain trains to and from London, mainly during peak hours. The up platform is to the left. A photograph of the end of the siding can be seen at http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5312891

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