In 1989 London Regional Transport announced the return of a full weekday and weekend service to Ongar. It began on 30th October of that year, and a huge banner was strung along the fencing at the junction with Ongar High Street declaring the new services. By this time I had made a number of visits to Ongar and the 30th October 1989 was another. Some of the pictures shown below were four years earlier on what was no doubt my very first visit to the Central line’s outpost! Previously I’d been no further than Leytonstone/Newbury Park in spite of being a regular user of the line in the early 1960s between Gants Hill and Ealing Broadway.
1962 stock at Ongar during February 1985. All photos by the author.
Ongar signal box with its short lived Blake Hall station closed sign. 1985.
Ongar signal box was taken out of use on March 23rd 1969. Control of the station was later transferred to North Weald. This control was handed to Epping when the passing loop and box at North Weald closed. The sign at Ongar declaring the closure of Blake Hall station (closed 1981) was a prominent feature at the time but didn’t last very long – and neither did the signal box! The Epping-Ongar railway has a replacement signal box similar to the old one.
The end of the line looking very overgrown. 1989.
General view of the station from the main road. 1985.
Despite the introduction of new ticket machines in 1992 and a complete tidying up of the station area to make services more attractive, it was very underused and soon reverted to peak hours only until 1994 when services were finally withdrawn. On that very same day the Aldwych branch service was too withdrawn. I managed both by doing the first Aldwych service of the pm peak then straight to Loughton where I caught the first service through to Ongar.
The brand new station tube roundel which stood adjacent to Ongar’s High Street must have been one of the furthest in all of the Tube’s empire! October 1989.
The Central Line’s 1992 tube stock actually visited Ongar during trials. Here’s one view of the 1992 stock at the Essex terminus, another, and passing Blake Hall.
Hopefully some more pictures covering Ongar will be published sometime 🙂
Post first published 25th May 2016. Reissued for the 30th anniversary year of the line’s closure as part of the London Underground system. Picture below shows the original post from 2016.
