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Drayton Park StationDrayton Park station is on Network Rail's Northern City Line which carries WAGN services between Moorgate and Welwyn Garden City or Hertford via Finsbury Park. Drayton Park lies between Finsbury Park and Highbury & Islington, and is in Islington, just off the Holloway Road near its southern end, close to the Liverpool Road junction. It stands in the shadow of the new Emirates Stadium being built for Arsenal F.C.. Drayton Park is the first station (travelling northwards) on this line which is not underground, though it is in a deep excavation. Northbound trains emerge from the tunnel they have been in since the start of the line at Moorgate and are immediately into the Drayton Park platforms. From there quite steep ramps take the track up to Finsbury Park whose overground side is at high level, well above the street. Passengers on or off the train at Drayton Park may hear or see clunks, flashes, momentary power blackouts, and moving pickup equipment (on the second and, if present, fourth carriages) as the train changes from the track pickups used on the underground stretch to overhead power on the rest of the line. For some years Drayton Park was the Northern terminus of the then Northern Line Highbury Branch, the original terminus a little further north at Finsbury Park having been cut off by works for the Victoria Line. Indeed at least some of the original Northern City Line tunnels and platforms were reused at Finsbury Park in these works. Part of the ramps now used to reach Finsbury Park from Drayton Park were originally built for that very purpose but much earlier, in the 1940s as part of the New Works Programme (sometimes also called the Northern Heights scheme) which would have seen Northern Line trains travelling from Moorgate though Drayton Park to Highgate High Level via Stroud Green, then on via East Finchley or to Alexandra Palace (not the current station of that name) via Muswell Hill. The cancellation of this programme left the ramps built but unused for many years until the project to build the system that now runs the WAGN services emerged. The ramps are clearly visible from the northern end of the platforms though it is difficult now to understand the original topology with regard to the original low-level link to Finsbury Park. During its period of isolation there was a small stabling yard for the line's stock at Drayton Park. This was visible though derelict for many years, but may soon (2004) be disappearing as building work which does not appear to be railway-connected is now occurring. Its remnants may be seen to the left of northbound trains in the platform.
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