WGC Railway Station

By Frank C

Hello all. I started my railway career in September 1966, by reporting to George Evans, who was then Station Manager at WGC. I saw his clerk first, John Shipsey, and was later taken in a Ford Anglia to Welwyn North, where I trained in the booking office, but also got to visit the signal box. After a month or two I was sent to the old East Side ticket office on the footbridge at the Garden City station, where I sold tickets in the morning rush peak from what was really nothing more than a tin hut sticking out off the bridge. For the rest of my shift, I worked in the parcels office. Never forgotten those days. Here’s a photo of the goods yard after it was extended towards the end of the war. It was still quite busy in the 60s and had an evening service to Whitemoor, Cambs as well was receiving traffic for Welgar, Norton Abrasives and Lincoln Electric, amongst others.

This page was added on 17/06/2014.

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  • In the many years I have lived here, I don’t ever remember having to buy a platform ticket to use the footbridge.   The purpose of it being built was that people had easy access FOR FREE to the east side. My mum used to often cross the bridge to work in the morning and evening.

    A point of interest is that platform tickets weren’t above 2d anywhere in Britain.   In Welwyn Garden they cost 1d, and boy do I remember Mum and Dad having trouble constantly with the machines when I caught a train to go and see family.

    By George Boston (06/05/2016)
  • Another thing I remember about working on the station in the mid 60s was that it was necessary to buy a platform ticket to use the footbridge to cross from the East Side to the West Side. I think it cost 6d a go and that one of the large employers, Polycell? , bought season tickets for their staff just so they could use the bridge

    By Frank Cheevers (17/04/2016)
  • By the 1960s onwards and into the 1970s the Up yard & associated sidings were shunted by a British Railways 0-6-0 350hp diesel shunting locomotive. The 2 resident staff who worked in the Up yard during those years as shunter’s was a fella called Fred a west indian gentleman who lived at Finsbury Park in north London and who travelled to & from Finsbury Park daily during the week and Sid who lived at Cole Green along the Hertford road and who use to ride a push bike to & from the station daily during the week.

    As well as dealing with several Goods trains that were booked to start and finish in the Up yard and also shunting a few Goods wagons & vans that mite be attached or detached to other Goods trains calling into the Up yard during the day or night they also dealt with the Shredded Wheat traffic that also started and finished in the Up yard as well during those years.  

      

    By Michael S (03/10/2014)
  • The shunting engine used by far the most at WGC was Class N7 0 – 6 – 2 Tank No 69678.

    Now how sad is it that I remember that?!   That is purely rhetorical;  no marks out of ten, thank you.

    By Robert Oakhill (15/07/2014)
  • In the early 1950’s, when I was very small, my mother would occasionally take me to Welwyn Garden City railway station where, for the price of a platform ticket (one old penny), we had an afternoon’s non-stop entertainment, watching the seemingly endless procession of express and local passenger trains and goods trains.  When there was nothing else happening, there always seemed to be a tank-engine shunting trucks in the goods yard.  These visits began, for me, a lifelong interest in railways, eventually culminating in my working for 20 years for British Rail in Derby.  Although I am now retired, I still have an interest in railways and railway engineering.

    By Jim Scott (28/06/2014)