Carterhatch Lane Halt was a railway station built by the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

in 1916 on the

Southbury Loop The Southbury Loop (formerly known as the Churchbury loop) is a line linking Edmonton Green, in north-east London, to Cheshunt. It was opened by the Great Eastern Railway in 1891 although initially it was not very successful and was closed to p ...

line to the north east of London in the United Kingdom. The Southbury Loop line was reopened in 1915 for passenger services for munitions workers to access factories in the

Lea Valley The Lea Valley, the valley of the River Lea, has been used as a transport corridor, a source of sand and gravel, an industrial area, a water supply for London, and a recreational area. The London 2012 Summer Olympics were based in Stratford, in ...

area however the line closed in 1919.

Design

The station was a very basic affair – a wooden platform long enough for two coaches and a couple of oil lamps for illumination. At the time the up line (towards Liverpool Street) was used for goods wagon storage so the platform was built on the down line. The platform was accessed via a wooden staircase from Carterhatch Lane which crossed the line at a loop at this point. The oil lamps were lit by the train guard and all had shades so the light would shine downwards as a war time precaution. When

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

raiders were close the train would be positioned under the bridge and passengers would join the crew there until the danger passed.

Services

Services were operated by a Great Eastern Railway Auto-train operating 15 trains per day between Lower Edmonton Low-Level station and Cheshunt (although later some terminated at White Hart Lane). Motive power for the train was normally a Great Eastern Railway Y65 class (LNER classification F7) 2-4-2T tank engine.

Withdrawal of service

Once World War I was over, the need for the service all but disappeared and the service was withdrawn in 1919. The station name boards and lamps were removed soon after but the structure lasted at least until the outbreak of World War II.

Electrification

In the late 1950s the site was used for an electrification depot as the local

Lea Valley Lines The Lea Valley lines are two commuter lines and two branches in north-east London, so named because they run along the Lower Lea Valley of the River Lea. They were part of the Great Eastern Railway, now part of the ''Anglia Route'' of Networ ...

were electrified. A temporary signal box was opened to facilitate operation of the depot. This opened in early 1958 but was rarely used after electrification was completed in 1960 so the box was downgraded on 7 July 1960 to a ground frame (the line was being resignalled at the time) and then closed in February 1965. The Southbury Loop was electrified in 1959–1960 and passenger services serving the other stations on the loop commenced on 21 November 1960. Carterhatch Lane station did not reopen.

References

{{Reflist Enfield, London Disused railway stations in the London Borough of Enfield Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1916 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1919