Editing Liverpool Street station (section)

===="Big Four" (1923–1945)====
By the early 1900s, the success of deep-bore electric trains on the Underground suggested that local services out of London could also be electrified. Following the war, the GER needed more capacity out of Liverpool Street as it was at capacity (serving almost 230,000 passengers daily in 1921), but they could not afford electrification.{{sfn|Jackson|1984|p=119}} They considered high-powered and high-tractive steam locomotives including the [[GER Class A55]] as a possible alternative, but these were rejected because of high track loadings.{{sfn|Duffy|2003|loc = 6.1. The Great Eastern Railway and the Liverpool Street Station experiment, pp. 73–5}}

An alternative scheme was introduced, using a combination of automatic signalling and modifications to the layout at Liverpool Street. The station introduced coaling, watering, and other maintenance facilities directly at the station, as well as separate engine bays and a modified track and station layout that reduced turnaround times and increased productivity.{{sfn|Duffy|2003|loc = 6.1. The Great Eastern Railway and the Liverpool Street Station experiment, pp. 73–5}}<ref>{{cite journal | title = GER The Last Word in Steam Operated Suburban Train Services| journal = Railway Gazette| date = 1 October 1920}}</ref> Services began on 2 July 1920 with trains to [[Chingford railway station|Chingford]] and [[Enfield Town railway station|Enfield]] running every 10 minutes. The cost of the modifications was £80,000 compared to an estimated £3&nbsp;million for electrification.{{sfn|Stratton|Trinder|2000|p=163}} The service was officially called the Intensive Service (as it allowed a 50% increase in capacity on peak services), but became popularly known as the Jazz Service.{{sfn|Jackson|1984|p=119}} It lasted until the General Strike of 1926, following which services generally declined.{{sfn|Jackson|1984|p=122}}

The GER amalgamated with several other railways to form the [[London and North Eastern Railway]] (LNER) as part of the [[1923 Grouping|reorganisation of railway companies in 1923]]. Liverpool Street came under ownership of the LNER, and suffered from a general lack of attention and neglect throughout the 1930s.{{sfn|Jackson|1984|p=123}}

=====Station staff 1935=====
The station master in 1935 was H C R Calver and he had 395 staff under him with his direct reports, including ticket office, parcels staff, signalmen, platform inspectors and porters. Of this number, 75 were passed for fogging duties for when additional staff were required for safe operation of trains in [[Pea soup fog|foggy]] conditions.

In addition to this there were many other staff employed at the station on a variety of duties including policemen (uniformed and plain clothes), locomotive staff, permanent way staff, carriage and wagon examiners, steam heat examiners, electric and gas examiners, telegraph staff, linemen, signal fitters, Goods Manager's Despatch Office staff, outside porters, hotel porters, staff from the continental office and GPO staff.

The former headquarters building of the GER (still a railway office in 1935) was adjacent to Liverpool Street and some departments in that building also had roles in the operation of the station.

Further to that the newspaper companies provided their own staff to load newspaper trains.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Calver |first1=H C R |title=Liverpool Street 1935 Part 1 |journal=Ipswich Transport Society Journal |date=December 1979 |volume=183 }}</ref>{{efn|H C R Calver gave a talk to a meeting of the L.N.E.R. (London) Lecture & Debating Society on 6 December 1935. The material in this section and below was part of that talk.}}

=====Signal box operation 1935=====
In 1935 the approaches to Liverpool Street and the station itself, were controlled by seven signal boxes, which fell under the responsibility of the Liverpool Street station master. The boxes were:
* '''East London Junction''' - this was primarily for traffic to and from the [[East London Line]] and in 1935 a route onto the Southern Railway via [[Whitechapel railway station|Whitechapel]] 
* '''Bishopsgate North''' - this box controlled the suburban line only; it was situated on the former (closed 1916) [[Bishopsgate (Low Level) railway station|Bishopsgate Low Level]] down suburban platform.
* '''Bishopsgate South''' - stood on the former Down Local platform of [[Bishopsgate (Low Level) railway station|Bishopsgate Low Level]] and controlled traffic on the Local and Through lines. 
* '''Liverpool Street West''' - was the controlling box for the station working. All trains were block signalled, irrespective of whether they were running into the west or east side of the station. The box had 203 active levers and 37 spare and during the busiest period of the day there were six signalmen on duty along with a telephone and booking lad. A train to Liverpool Street East Box would be block signalled from the West box.
* '''Liverpool Street East''' - situated at the country end of Platform 11; it had 127 active and 9 spare levers, and controlled traffic passing on or off the Local or Through lines, into or out of platforms 11 to 18. Departing trains would be despatched to the west box.
* The remaining two signal boxes were platform boxes whose purpose was to electrically lock a platform out when a train had arrived in it. The platform would not be freed (so other trains could not be routed into it) until all the vehicles brought into it were cleared and the platform was again ready for another train to be accepted. These boxes were located at the country ends of Platform 4/5 and 14/15.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Calver |first1=H C R |title=Liverpool Street 1935 Part 2 |journal=Ipswich Transport Society Journal |date=February 1980 |volume=185}}</ref>

=====Second World War=====
Thousands of Jewish refugee children arrived at Liverpool Street in the late 1930s as part of the ''[[Kindertransport]]'' rescue mission to save them in the run up to the [[World War II|Second World War]]. The Für Das Kind Kindertransport Memorial sculpture by artist Flor Kent was installed at the station in September 2003 commemorating this event. It consisted of a specialised glass case with original objects and a bronze sculpture of a girl, a direct descendant of a child rescued by [[Nicholas Winton]], who unveiled the work.<ref>{{cite news|author=Rothenberg, Ruth |url=http://website.thejc.com/home.aspx?AId=18059&ATypeId=1&search=true2&srchstr=+%2Bkindertransport+&srchtxt=0&srchhead=1&srchauthor=0&srchsandp=0&scsrch=0 |work=The Jewish Chronicle |location=London |date=19 September 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921152720/http://website.thejc.com/home.aspx?AId=18059&ATypeId=1&search=true2&srchstr=%2B%2Bkindertransport%2B&srchtxt=0&srchhead=1&srchauthor=0&srchsandp=0&scsrch=0 |archive-date=21 September 2016 |title=Kindertransport statue unveiled |url-status=dead }}</ref> The objects included in the sculpture began to deteriorate in bad weather,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://website.thejc.com/home.aspx?AId=40954&ATypeId=1&search=true2&srchstr=%20%20kindertransport%20&srchtxt=0&srchhead=1&srchauthor=0&srchsandp=0&scsrch=0|title=Kindertransport monument derailed at Liverpool Street|work=[[The Jewish Chronicle]]|date=8 December 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110044045/http://website.thejc.com/home.aspx?AId=40954&ATypeId=1&search=true2&srchstr=%20%20kindertransport%20&srchtxt=0&srchhead=1&srchauthor=0&srchsandp=0&scsrch=0|archive-date=10 November 2016}}</ref> and a replacement bronze memorial, ''[[Kindertransport – The Arrival]]'' by [[Frank Meisler]] was installed as a replacement at the main entrance in November 2006.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ajr.org.uk/index.cfm/section.journal/issue.Nov06/article=711 |title=New Kindertransport statue installed |work=The Association of Jewish Refugees |date=November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202005243/http://www.ajr.org.uk/index.cfm/section.journal/issue.Nov06/article%3D711 |archive-date=2 February 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The child statue from the Kent memorial was re-erected separately in 2011.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/54206|title=Kindertransport Sculpture|publisher=Imperial War Museum collections|access-date=9 November 2016}}</ref>

During the war, the station's structure sustained damage from a nearby bomb, particularly the Gothic tower at the main entrance on Liverpool Street and its glass roof.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/liverpool-street-station|title=Liverpool Street Station|website=20th Century London|access-date=25 August 2016|archive-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202001516/http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/liverpool-street-station|url-status=dead}}</ref>

As a precautionary measure the large and weighty West Side hanging clock was brought down to platform level and served as an enquiry office for the duration of the war.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hawkins |first1=Chris |title=Great Eastern in town and country Volume 2 |date=1991 |publisher=Irwell Press |location=Pinner,UK |isbn=1-871608-25-2 |page=25}}</ref>