trisonic Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Very true, Ian. They were a God - send for getting home after a very late night out and often packed too. Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePipersSon Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Looking at the latest photograph - is the illuminated sign an advert, or a comment on what's just come over the loudspeakers? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Here's a link to modern Liverpool Street - on a normal day - 18 platforms of mayhem..... http://www.flickr.com/photos/analog/5140168779/in/photostream/ Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 And at night. Platforms are off to the left. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukechanchan/5283700419/lightbox/ Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted April 20, 2011 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 20, 2011 Major termini haven't been the same in the night since the paper trains were withdrawn. funnily enough i was thinking the same this morning while i was waiting for my train in crewe at 4:45, very quiet place compared to when i used to go there withnmy dad in the 80s Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Major termini haven't been the same in the night since the paper trains were withdrawn. True. The London main line termini used to have a very different feel at night. Soon after I came to London in the 1970s I lived for about six months in a shared flat quite close to Paddington. When coming home from late night shifts (or sometimes just staying up late) It used to be fun to get tomorrow's newspapers today. With the newspaper, parcels, mail trains and the Brutes charging around the platforms, the place became a hive of nocturnal activity once the last passenger trains had gone and there was always somewhere open to get a coffee and a snack. One night I even heard a steam loco but I think it must have been one of LT's pannier tanks on the Circle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted April 21, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 21, 2011 I'm glad others recall the night scene as I do. In many ways the paper trains - and other e.g. parcels activities as per Pacific231G's post - represent the last vestige of the Old Railway. That essential bustle is now only generated during train service hours, with passengers coming and going. At least we are told that there are more of those than in many times past, which is good to hear. Of course, if you are a railway engineer, the loss of all these nocturnal traffics is a major relief - possessions may be granted on main lines without a requirement to "lift for the papers" which for decades compromised the scope of work. It's an ill wind etc.! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 I can remember all the glazed eyes set in pasty faces crammed into a couple coaches on the 3:45am, the waft of alcohol breath............................... Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I can remember all the glazed eyes set in pasty faces crammed into a couple coaches on the 3:45am, the waft of alcohol breath............................... Best, Pete. Yes that sounds familiar. My "favourite" was the train that I used to use in 1967-1969 that used to arrive in Plymouth at 04:18 before continuing to Penzance. It ran semi-fast from Paddington via Bristol and I used to pick it up at Didcot on a Sunday night. It was mainly vans with two or three fairly ancient corridor compartment coaches (one of them a brake second) Apart from a few students the passengers were mainly RN personnel returning to Devonport after weekend leave and most of them got on at Bristol. I was at MN college in Plymouth and the hall or residence, which was in old railway offices opposite the station, wasn't unlocked till about 07.30 so I used to try to sleep for a few hours on Plymouth station usually on a very hard marble slab bench in the main concourse that happened to be near a heater. One night I overslept and woke up in time to get off at Bodmin Road and wait for an hour or so for the first up train, a DMU, back to Plymouth. At every station a little knot of yawning sailors who'd also overslept joined the train. One other aspect of the nightime railway was the quite extensive network of cross country sleepers that BR used to offer. Some of those, including the Newcastle to Exeter and beyond train that I once used, were also parcels trains. This did tend to disrupt sleep though as the loading and unloading at various stations along the route wasn't carried out by Trappist monks. I assume the train also had non-sleeper coaches but I didn't study it in great detail and can't even remember whether there were more than one or two sleepers (Did BR have composite sleepers?) In those days the second class sleeper supplement wasn't outrageous and though it wasn't exactly CIWL you still got tea and bscuits in the morning. In later years I always preferred the sleeper to having to get up before dawn to catch a plane and maybe one day they'll start running them through the tunnel. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagonman Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I commuted through Marylebone in the mid '60s. A very different picture! I did occasionally see a dirty Black 5 sizzling away at the head of 4 or 5 coaches – a semi-fast to Nottingham and the last gasp of the old GCR. Apart from it being scruffy, the station had the only Buffet that closed for lunch. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathan452 Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Wow! There's an AMT Express there - I thought they'd been chucked out of all the London terminals by the big boys like Starbucks etc. I've always loved their milkshakes and nutbars and used to seek them out when in London, but haven't found them for many a long year . . . I feel a visit to Marylebone coming on. JE Noticed last weekend that there is one on platforms 2 and 3 at St.Albans. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I can remember all the glazed eyes set in pasty faces crammed into a couple coaches on the 3:45am, the waft of alcohol breath............................... Best, Pete. You'd love the 03.52 FCC from St Pancras to Bedford then Even better, the 06:04 on a Sunday morning, when everyone who missed the 01:32 finally gets on their way... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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