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Paul Bigland

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Paul Bigland

Category Archives: St Pancras station

Rolling blog: a tale of two cities.

01 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Birmingham, Hs2, London, St Pancras station, StopHs2, Travel

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Birmingham, Hs2, London, St Pancras station, StopHs2, Travel

I’m on the move again right now, heading for both London and Birmingham, firstly to drop in to St Pancras station and say ‘happy 150th birthday’, then go in search of the massive Stophs2 protest outside the Tory party conference. OK, that last bit was a lie. I’ll probably have difficulty finding them as it looks like it’ll be very much a one man and his elephant sort of protest.

Watch this space…

09:06.

My first train of the day, a ‘nodding donkey working the 0906 to Southport.

The weather here in West Yorkshire stunning. It’s a beautifully crisp and sunny autumn morning with the temperature in single figures. The railways are readying for the leaf-fall season now as I’ve just passed one of Network Rail’s RHTT (Railhead Treatment Trains) that blast leaves off the rails using high-powered water jets. It’s remindex me that must get some lineside shots later in the month, when the leaves gain their full colour before falling.

10:27

I’m now on train number 2 – the 10:2€ Cross-country service from Manchester Piccadilly to Bournemouth via Birmingham. It’s a relatively quiet service (for now) which is just as well as it’s only a four-car. I’ve no doubt it’ll fill up en-route.

Whilst a half-hourly service between Manchester and Birmingham’s an improvement on BR days it’s a pretty poor offering in 2018, mainly because of the time it takes and the type of train. This service will take 1hr 31m.

13:04

So, here I am in Birmingham at the Tory conference, Stophs2 elephant hunting. As expected, they were a bit hard to find, mainly because they’re outgunned and outnumbered by ever other demonstration here! Once I made my way past the ‘God squad’ (who had at least half a dozen people  here) I was held up by a very colourful (and noisy) anti-fracking group of men and women – many of whom had dressed up before I found Joe Rukin, who’d dressed down! Apparently, he was accompanied by Archie Taylor from Warks, but he was nowhere to be seen

Here’s Joe on his own, trying (and failing) to give out leaflets whilst the anti-fracking people behind him heavily outnumber him, in the very back, you can see ‘Ellie’ the inflatable elephant all on her own in a corner!

DG310071crop

Here’s poor Ellie, looking very abandoned…

DG310061crop

So, this is the ‘relaunched’ Stophs2 campaign. Sad, isn’t it? meanwhile, inside the hall, the Government has re-iterated its support for HS2 and there’s several events going on with rail industry leaders throughout the day. Over at New St station, Siemens and the High Speed Rail Industry Leaders have a virtual reality tour of Hs2 and a model of the Velaro Novo…

DG310026crop

DG310047crop

23:11

My tour of two cities turned into one. I got caught up in the completely surreal atmosphere of the Tory party conference and meeting up with colleagues. I also ended up spending an hour or two dealing with picture requests. I have to say, I can’t help thinking this country is screwed, the rhetoric that was coming out of the conference (plus some of the delegates I met) are utterly bonkers. I can’t help thinking that the EU will be breathing a collective sigh of relief to see the back of us…

 

Down memory lane No 3: St Pancras transformed.

24 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in High Speed 1, London, Memory Lane, Rail Investment, St Pancras station, Travel

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High Speed 1, London, Memory Lane, Railways, St Pancras, Travel

I consider myself fortunate to have an extensive photo archive because, whilst the memory may fade as I get older, the photographs don’t. They’ll always be there to transport me back in time and allow me to relive my past – and to reflect on how much things have changed. Here’s one example…

I’ve known London’s St Pancras station ever since the early 1970’s and I’ve been a regular visitor since. It’s hard to credit now but at one time this magnificent building with its fantastic Gothic frontage was threatened with demolition. Luckily, sanity prevailed and it was saved. I remember it in its BR days when it was run-down and shabby, All the long-distance services had been withdrawn so it was often quiet with little activity compared to other London termini. As all trains were diesel operated it could be a noisy, dirty place and glorious arched roof, whilst offering maximum protection from the elements offered little in the way of natural light. Here’s a shot taken in 1991 when the local services to Bedford had already been electrified and diverted via the Thameslink tunnels.

02998. 43096. 43119. 56110. St Pancras. 1.9.91.

On the far left you can see a parcels van stabled in one of the centre roads. This would have been part of a travelling Post Office set that sat here during the day before being used overnight. The HST sets had taken over from the earlier ‘Peak’ Class diesel locos to run the remaining long distance services to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield. The Class 56 was sat here as St Pancras was a traincrew depot and BR drivers were still passed out to work both passenger and freight trains.  The old taxi rank to the left was deserted in those days. The only time it sprang to life was in the evenings when it would be full of Royal Mail vans delivering sacks of letters to the various mail trains which left the station each night, adding welcome life to what was a sadly underused station. Here’s an October 1993 shot of the Travelling Post Office train which was always stabled in ‘siding A’ during the day before coming to life in the evening. I can’t remember where this used to run to now, maybe others do?

3546. 47606. Waiting for the night shift. St Pancras. 01.10.93

Now we move on a few years – to April 2002…

10373. 170106. St Pancras. 3.4.02. 10373.

Here’s a post-privatisation scene when services were run by Midland Mainline who took over BR services in 1996. Class 170 Turbostars had been introduced in 1999 to run the stopping services to Leicester freeing up HSTs for other work. They didn’t last long as they were transferred to Central Trains in 2004 after being displaced themselves by the arrival of the Class 222 ‘Meridian’ fleet. The station was looking sadly neglected at this point, but appearances can be deceptive, as you’d have noticed if you’d turned around from this view. The station was being prepared for its new role as an international terminus…

11195. Building the East side station. St Pancras. 17.10.02. 11195.

This view taken a few months later in October 2002 shows the new Eastern train shed being built outside the Barlow roof . The whole area was one massive building site that was constantly changing. I was very lucky to get to visit the Hs1 construction sites on a regular basis as I was documenting the project for RAIL magazine. If you want to see more of the photos of HS1 being built, visit this gallery on my Zenfolio website.

At the same time the new platforms and trainshed were under construction work was going on at the front of the station to extend the London Underground ticket offices and concourse on Kings Cross St Pancras tube station. This entailed demolishing the ramp at the front of the station, building the new entrances to the tube station, then rebuilding the ramp.

10752. Frontage. St Pancras. 19.6.02. 10752.

On 8th April 2004, shortly before the Barlow train shed was closed for conversion to the new Eurostar terminus, there was a last ‘Peak’ at St Pancras when 45112worked a special train to Derby and back.

21066. 45112. St Pancras. 08.09.04

For a while the Thameslink line was severed in order to allow construction of the ‘Thameslink box’ (which would later house the new Thameslink station. This meant that Thameslink trains from the North terminated in the new East side platforms which would later be used by the high-speed ‘Javelin’ service into Kent. Here’s the first of the class, 319001 in Connex livery and 319450 in Thameslink livery on the 29th October 2004.

DG02052. 319001. 319450. St Pancras. 29.10.04.

Finally after years of being a building site St Pancras was reopened as an international station by Queen Elizabeth 2nd on the 6th November 2007. It remains one of my favorite stations. The transformation was a superb job by all concerned. The station went from a dingy, decaying, underused space to a destination in it’s own right. Compare some of the early photos to these…

DG19899. St Pancras International. 1.12.08.

DG13604. Champagne bar. St Pancras International. 14.11.07.

DG79695. St Pancras through a fisheye lens. 3.5.11.

DG245805. 4011. Train 9004. St Pancras International. 14.6.16

DG83088. St Pancras. 1.6.11

It’s sometimes easy to forget just how much of our railway heritage has been transformed since privatisation. First St Pancras, then Kings Cross next door. Now things have moved on up the road to Euston, which is to be completely rebuilt as the London terminus of High Speed 2. I look forward to documenting that fantastic project too…

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