HORNSEY BROADWAY
by Kier Hardy
Background history to the project
The Northern Heights railway was opened by the Great North Railway in 1867, and served
outlying areas in north London (Edgeware & 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 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 during the 1930s, a 'down' fly-over and a 'up' cut-under were built to allow greater flexibility of services.
Further photographs and information will be added in due course.
Reference Links -
Ron Fisher.Fotopic
Great Northern & City
The Northern Heights Railway
Northern Heights pictorial history
Highgate Station
London Transport DMS pictures
At the time of writing (2011), Hornsey Broadway is a layout under construction. It features a station
to the west, and a loco depot to the east. In between, is a typical north London landscape, structures of
which are being added to frequently. The history of the line modelled has been well documented, and there
are links at the bottom of the page that may be of interest. Initially, the layout will be built as a
stand-alone loco shed layout, going under the name of Hornsey Road. Once that is complete, construction
will commence on the extension to become Hornsey Boadway.
Based losely on London prototypes, these buildings are seen at an advanced stage,
just awaiting some final detailing.
This tunnel mouth shows the 1930s single bore
alongside the original Victorian twin bore. The structure is scratchbuilt from plastic card, and painted
and weathered to represent engineering blue brick construction.
A view showing the merchants house.
In addition to the typical London surroundings, the motive power depot at the east end of the layout
provides most of the locomotive servicing requirements for the Kings Cross area. It is assumed that had the line been
completed, this would have been the GN area motive power depot, instead of Finsbury Park.
The road vehicles will play an important role in re-inforcing the north London flavour and
era of the project. These Daimler Fleetline bus models are based on the EFE product with extra detailing and
light weathering.
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 units. A small scene will include part of a LT tube station, showing a rake of
'59 stock waiting in the station with the doors open.