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HORNSEY BROADWAY
by Kier Hardy
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Hornsey Broadway is situated in North London on the ex-Great Northern main line out of
Kings Cross, with the East London line diverging here. The scene represents the station
to the north, a loco depot at Hornsey Road, and in between is a typical north London landscape.
As well as a section of mainline from Kings Cross, the layout also features a busy North
London route which is regularly used for inter-regional traffic and local suburban services.
In addition to the busy main lines, the motive power depot at the south end of the layout
provides most of the locomotive servicing requirements for the division.
The Northern Heights railway was opened by the Great North Railway in 1867, and served
outlying areas of North London (Edgware & High Barnet) with services from Kings Cross.
Plans to extend the railway as far as Bushey were abandoned during the 1940s,
with some of it having been built but never used.
Had the line been completed all the way to Watford, it would have seen a wide variety
of traffic travelling from the Midland Region to the east side of London, as well as
an extensive suburban service from Kings Cross. The London Transport Northern Line
eventually took over most of the route, with the last part of the link between Finsbury
Park and Highgate just being used for LT stock transfers, and the line being abandoned
during the early 1970s. The potential for a 'Barnet loop' would have allowed ECML
traffic to be diverted through the area.
Hornsey Broadway sets out to represent the line as it would have appeared during the early
1970s, with the junction and line from Stratford joining the GN tracks from Finsbury Park.
During modernisation of the line in the 1930s, a Down Fly-over and additional tracks were
built into the route to allow for better flexibility of services, due to the increase
of suburban living.
The road vehicles will play an important role in re-inforcing the north London flavour and
era of the project. Here a double deck Daimler DMS (EFE) passes an AEC Merlin (Britbus).
Rolling stock for the layout will cover a good cross section of locomotive and DMU types,
to include class 125 and class 501 high-density suburban units. A small scene includes
part of a LT tube station, showing a rake of 1959 stock waiting in the station with the doors open.
