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Peterborough North


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Kings Cross for me, I just caught the end of the Deltics and having been in and out of Liverpool Street so many times there was something special about going to Kings Cross, getting to see 55s, 40s, white stripe 31s and HSTs was so different to the usual electrics I saw. I traveled up the East Coast line with a change at Hitchin and a DMU ride, often in the front seat to St Neots to stay with my sister, one of the first long distance solo trips I was allowed to do.

 

Martyn

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G'Day Folks

 

I can remember arriving at Kings Cross on a Quad Art, N2 hauled, at York Road, then watching Gresley Pacific's being turned in the loco, then later being able to work there, so Kings Cross for me.

 

manna

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This is difficult.

 

Paddington would have been on the starting blocks but not being able to get a marmalade sandwich in the buffet kept it out of the running.

 

Waterloo tripped up as the starting gun went, 4CORs and Bullieds slipping like mad were impressive, not quite as the old mechanical destination board, as a kid I could watch that for hours.

 

Victoria, sadly not even at the race track. 8th September 1973, the first time the IRA tried to blow me up.

 

Charring Cross, walking across Hungerford bridge (the foot bridge along side the railway bridge) I got beaten up, they tried to mug me for my coat.

 

Blackfyrers, Holburn Viaduct, Cannon Street and London Bridge never appealed to me as trainspotting locations so no comment.

 

Marylebone and Fencurch Street were visited, never impressed. 

 

I cannot recall visiting Broad Street before it was knocked down, did the replacement building Broadgate but it weren't a train station.

 

This leaves me the other two on the monopoly board and the patron saint of railways station. Two meant going home at various times in my life, one I enjoyed train spotting, so deciding which is my favorite London terminus is hard. 

 

St Pancras before being "modernised" was beautiful and catching a train there to Bedford was wonderful.

 

Kings Cross as a trainspotter was heaven on earth.

 

It has to be Liverpool Street, before refurbishment, all those bridges and tunnels, knowing my away round them we lost the skinhead gang chasing us. It was going home when I lived in Essex. It is where I helped resuscitating a chap, the ambulance turned up and I carried on helping only to find myself in the back of moving ambulance taking the bloke to the Royal London Hospital. That was one of those days when what made Liverpool Street fantastic, was not happening.  There was no train movement, the alarm chain had been pulled and the stationary train was blocking up half the station.  For trains Liverpool Street was constant movement, the EMUs never seemed to stand still. Sadly today has building over the top of it and the view of old has gone.

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Taken from a moving train the Liverpool street tank wagon being shunted.

 

Edited by Clive Mortimore
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Note to self:
Don't stop reading thread just as pandemic hits. Some 110 pages later.....

The polls have made some wonderful reading. And whilst I can't contribute to the current poll, I might upset the apple cart entirely and say one of the biggest misses in preservation was a Thompson A2/2.  The reasoning being that it would have made an excellent static exhibit for many years, and also be an quite visible example of rebuilding a locomotive using an existing locomotive as a basis-other examples exist, but not too many as extreme. There are certainly many other locomotives that deserve to have been preserved ahead of a Thompson rebuild, but it would be nice to have just one still around. Even to help put some myths to bed.

Also Gilbert, some good news-the recent close-ups of the station remind me that, bar printing, the new PN station lamps are just about ready to go. Hopefully these are a touch stronger than the last batch, particularly around the hanging fitting, and I am looking to print them in 2-parts so that painting is easier and looks cleaner and has a clearer lamp. It is a shame that I cannot deliver these in person now, but such is life.

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Sorry, but I missed the start of the poll about favourite London terminus. So I am not sure if we should be talking at any era or present day.

 

Paddington probably has the finest overall roof. But in other ways, it's a bit of a mess and very much in an inconvenient place to get to.

 

St Pancras is certainly impressive for its architecture but Victorian Gothic is not really my bag. And I can recall being so cold waiting for a train there when a north wind was blowing. Full marks though for the clever way that they have used the old beer cellars to create a concourse for Eurostar.

 

I have always loved Liverpool Street. Quirky as it was before and magnificent now. I don't mind that the "new" 1905 part of the station is covered by a bank HQ in exchange for the much improved west side of the station. Probably the best "restoration" job at a London Terminus.

 

But, like others here, my favourite is still Kings Cross. Too small really for its role and the suburban terminus is best ignored. But the elegant simplicity of Cubitt's trainshed can't be beaten, especially now that we can see it properly with the 1970s temporary buildings removed. I also like, unlike many, the new concourse, even if Platform 9 3/4 means that travellers can hardly get through to the trains.  

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I don't know whether it was London termini which did it, or whether it was just poll deprivation, but there were more contributions to this one than to any other so far.  St Pancras led for some time, but a number of later votes swung it in favour of Kings Cross, 11 votes to 7. Four others received some votes, but others got none at all. So the winners still stand proudly side by side, as they have for so many years.

 

Where shall we go today? Let's stick with termini, and the larger ones too. Favourite main line terminus outside London. Needs a bit of thought this one.

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