Broad Street requiem - Class 501 units resting up on a Sunday
<b>London Termini - Broad Street</b> 
The scene at Broad Street station, not too long before the station's final closure, with three of the Class 501 units parked up for the weekend - one still in the BR blue livery [Train set 147], and two in the final blue and grey refurbished livery [Train set 141 + 1]. M75161 (DTBS) is at the front of Set 141 - in their latter years, some of the coaches were swopped around in the formations due to withdrawals.

City of London tower blocks are looming in the background - an ominous reminder of the inevitable fate of this once fine station, whilst the Buddleia grows rampant across the tracks in the disused platforms.

Broad Street was originally opened in 1865 as the main terminus of the North London Railway network of suburban services. Although much run down by the time this photo was taken, the station architecture still gives a hint of the station's more glorious past.

Less than a year after I took this photo, the Richmond service was diverted to Liverpool Street, and in the following year all services at Broad Street ceased, and the Victorian monolith was raised to the ground.

<b>BROAD STREET STATION CLOSURE</b> - By 1985, only 6,000 passengers per week were using Broad Street station and only about 300 arrived daily in the morning peak. As property prices grew in the bull market of the mid-1980s, British Rail was keen to sell the site off for office use. From 13 May 1985 the service to Richmond was diverted away from Broad Street [using SR 2-EPBs], leaving only the peak hour Watford Junction services. It was agreed that Broad Street would be closed with the last remaining trains diverted to Liverpool Street once a new connecting chord was built from the North London Line. Until this was done, it was possible to accommodate this last service from the outer end of one platform, and therefore in November that year demolition of the station began. The remaining single platform was used until the last train left on 27 June 1986, when the station was formally closed on 30 June 1986 - more on Broad Street station here: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Street_railway_station_" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Street_railway_station_</a>(England)

And on the Class 501s here: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_501" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_501</a>

Taken with a Soviet made Zenith TTL SLR camera and standard lens. <b>Scanned from the original negative with no digital restoration.</b>

You can see a random selection of my railway photos here on Flickriver: <a href="http://www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/</a>
broadstreet london station class501 emu electric m75161 wpd22objects