A very busy evening session spent at Welwyn North on the East Coast Mainline where we see plenty of services from: London Northeastern Railway, Hull Trains, Grand Central, Thameslink and Great Northern.

Welwyn North was built in 1865 roughly 15 years after the area had started to get cleared for the viaduct that was being built at the time along with the opening of the line, the viaduct itself is the most impressive structure in the surrounding area, the foundations of the bridge are built on floats, this is due to the fact that the ground is unsuitable for standard bridge foundations. The valley itself is called the Mimram Valley. The floats for the bridge are consisted of mixed timber beams and burnt chalk.

The tunnels that you see here were all hand dug at the time and the work was carried out mostly by irish workers who came over to the country for the vast amount of work that was available at the time. Because the workers didn't have any official housing at the time they pitched up tents along the upper side of the valley and over the course of a few years formed a community which then lead to housing and such, the workers themselves all moved on and people from around the country started to move in. Especially people coming out of London.

When the station was in its full swing it was used as both a freight and passenger station with the bulk of the freight being agricultural with some coal getting dropped off. There isn't any evidence of this anymore as the car park is on the former sight of the sidings.

The station, Tunnel entrances and the viaduct are all listed which means that they cannot be demolished.

My next rush hour film will be from Milton Keynes on the West Coast Mainline.

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