89-535: The Manchester Pullman was a first-class-only Pullman passenger train operated by British Rail , targeted at business travellers. The service began in 1966, operating between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston , and offered an at-seat restaurant service to all passengers. It was hauled by 25 kV AC electric locomotives between the British Rail Class 81 and British Rail Class 86 range. The rolling stock had several peculiarities, one being it had
178-472: A carefully staged set piece, the first Class 395 train and two Class 373 trains arrived through a cloud of dry ice in adjacent platforms within seconds of each other. During the ceremony, Paul Day's large bronze statue The Meeting Place was also unveiled. At a much smaller ceremony on 12 November 2007, the bronze statue of John Betjeman by sculptor Martin Jennings was unveiled by Betjeman's daughter,
267-587: A connection to Australia and Scandinavia. The following year, the LTSR began a service from St Pancras to Southend Central . Boat trains continued to run from St Pancras until 1963, after which they were moved to Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street. The Railways Act 1921 forced the merger of the Midland with the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR) into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), and
356-512: A number of named trains have used the word Pullman in their titles, but these have been normal trains with increased first-class accommodation. The Venice Simplon Orient Express company has sought to recreate the ambience of the heyday of Pullman travel prior to World War II by purchasing much of the previous brown-and-cream Pullman stock from preservation trusts or general storage, and after restoration, began operations in April 1982. In 2006
445-522: A reconditioned chassis dating from 1927), the newest cars were 38 vehicles built for Southern Railway 5-BEL and 6-PUL electric multiple units in 1932. The BTC decided to modernise Pullman services as part of the British Railways 1955 Modernisation Plan , with new rolling stock and diesel or electric haulage. The most radical manifestation of this policy was the building of five new diesel multiple-unit Blue Pullman trains (36 cars) in 1960, in
534-609: A reputation of having one of the most recognisable facades of all the London termini, and known as the "cathedral of the railways". In Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins , the station was one of only ten to be awarded five stars. The station has bilingual signs in French and English , one of the few in England to do so. It was considered Europe's most passenger-friendly railway station in an index created in 2020 by
623-413: A special Pullman livery, pearl grey with blue window surrounds (a reversal of the normal British Rail InterCity livery of the period). Some of the other peculiarities included that the coaches featured inward opening doors, to avoid inadvertently opening during the journey, they were fitted with internal locks for additional safety. There were two sets (rakes) of trains, a London and Manchester based train,
712-704: A special livery of Nanking blue and cream. Among the services which these initially operated were two new trains: the Midland Pullman ( Manchester Central to London St Pancras ), and the Birmingham Pullman ( Wolverhampton Low Level to London Paddington ), which offered business travellers alternatives to West Coast Main Line services at a time when that route was subject to frequent disruption due to electrification work. These were joined in 1960-61 by 44 new locomotive-hauled Pullman carriages based on
801-483: A tunnel from south-east of London to an underground terminus in the vicinity of King's Cross. However, a late change of plan, principally driven by the then Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Heseltine 's desire for urban regeneration in east London, led to a change of route, with the new line approaching London from the east. This opened the possibility of reusing St Pancras as
890-766: Is at the southern end of the London Borough of Camden on a site orientated north–south, deeper than it is wide. The south is bounded by Euston Road (part of the London Inner Ring Road ), and its frontage is the St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel , while the west is bounded by Midland Road, which separates it from the British Library and Francis Crick Institute , and the east by Pancras Road, which separates it from King's Cross station . The British Library
979-467: Is on the former goods yard site. Euston railway station is around ten minutes' walk away along Euston Road. Behind the hotel, the train shed is elevated 5 m (17 ft) above street level and the area below forms the station undercroft which is where most of the shops and restaurants are located, along with the Eurostar departure lounge. The northern half of the station is mainly bounded to
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#17327878465481068-636: The Brighton Belle and Golden Arrow following in 1972, by which time most of the coaches used on those trains were at least 40 years old. The Blue Pullman diesels used on the Western Region were a non-standard design which suffered from poor reliability, and were withdrawn when the Bristol Pullman and South Wales Pullman services ceased in 1973. The advent of much faster InterCity 125 trains with new Mark 3 coaches resulted in
1157-590: The British Library , the Regent's Canal and London King's Cross railway station , with which it shares a London Underground station, King's Cross St Pancras . The station was constructed by the Midland Railway (MR), to connect its extensive rail network, across the Midlands and North of England , to a dedicated line into London. After rail traffic problems following the 1862 International Exhibition ,
1246-649: The Class 403 as the Brighton Belle . The Great Western Railway was reluctant to use Pullmans, considering its own carriages luxurious enough. However, in 1928 the company placed an order for seven Pullman cars – four Kitchen Cars and three Parlour Cars, No's 252-258 – with construction subcontracted to Metropolitan Cammell in Birmingham . Initially deployed from May 1929 on the London Paddington - Plymouth Millbay service, amongst standard GWR stock within
1335-711: The Great Northern Railway (GNR). In 1862, traffic for the second International Exhibition suffered extensive delays over the stretch of line into London over the GNR's track; the route into the city via the L&;NWR was also at capacity, with coal trains causing the network at Rugby and elsewhere to reach effective gridlock. This was the stimulus for the MR to build its own line to London from Bedford, which would be just under 50 miles (80 km) long. Samuel Carter
1424-830: The Manchester Pullman name was dropped. Pullman train (UK) Pullman trains in Great Britain were mainline luxury railway services that operated with first-class coaches and a steward service, provided by the British Pullman Car Company (PCC) from 1874 until 1962, and then by British Railways from 1962 until 1972. Many named mainline service trains have subsequently used the word 'Pullman' in their titles, but most of these have been normal trains with increased first-class accommodation. Since 1982 however, some railtours have been operated by companies using Pullman coaches dating from
1513-727: The Mark I design, which were built by Metro-Cammell to modernise the East Coast Main Line Pullman services. Despite new rolling stock, the Pullman company was experiencing difficulties. Although its equity was wholly owned by the BTC, its separate staffing and operations became an anomaly on the state-owned railway system, and staffing of the new Blue Pullmans had created some union disputes. The National Union of Railwaymen urged its integration into British Railways, which
1602-467: The Midland Main Line , while platforms 5–13 lead to High Speed 1 ; there is no connection between the two lines, except for a maintenance siding outside the station. There are also a variety of shops and restaurants within the station concourse. The longer international platforms, used by Eurostar, extend into Barlow's train shed, whilst the other platforms terminate at the southern end of
1691-470: The Netherlands to London. It provides East Midlands Railway services to Leicester , Corby , Derby , Sheffield and Nottingham on the Midland Main Line , Southeastern high-speed trains to Kent via Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International , and Thameslink cross-London services to Bedford , Cambridge , Peterborough , Brighton , Horsham and Gatwick Airport . It stands between
1780-570: The Ocean Liner Express boat train . From 8 July 1929, the vehicles were deployed to a new train, the Torquay Pullman Limited , an all-Pullman service which ran two days a week between London Paddington and Paignton , stopping at Newton Abbot and Torquay only. Not a commercial success, the train returned for the 1930 timetable as a three-car only service, but was withdrawn at the end of the summer timetable, with
1869-545: The Snow Hill tunnel re-opened resulting in the creation of the Thameslink route and the resultant diversion of the majority of suburban trains to the new route. The station continued to be served by trains running on the Midland mainline to Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield, together with a few suburban services to Bedford and Luton. These constituted only a few trains an hour and left the station underused. Following
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#17327878465481958-500: The privatisation of British Rail , the long-distance services from St Pancras were franchised to Midland Mainline , a train operating company owned by National Express , starting on 28 April 1996. The few remaining suburban trains still operating into St Pancras were operated by the Thameslink train operating company, owned by Govia , from 2 March 1997. A small number of trains to and from Leeds were introduced, mainly because
2047-598: The vacuum brake system, so it could not be hauled by the British Rail Class 87 when they were introduced during the later life of the train as they were air brake only locomotives. It replaced the Midland Pullman (operated by the diesel Blue Pullman units) upon completion of the electrification of the West Coast Main Line . There was also a 'sister' Liverpool Pullman service that ran between London Euston and Liverpool Lime Street . The train consisted of purpose-built British Rail Mark 2 carriages in
2136-709: The 1920s to 1950s to recreate the ambience of the heyday of Pullman travel. The first Pullman Railway Coach to enter service in the UK was in 1874 from Bradford Forster Square to London St Pancras after an assembly of imports from the United States, in an operation pioneered by the Midland Railway , working with the Pullman Company in Chicago . The coach "Midland" was of clerestory roofed design with balconies at both ends. The concept of luxury coaches spread to
2225-464: The 2005 extension. The international platforms do not occupy the full width of the Barlow train shed, and sections of the floor area have been opened up to provide natural light to the new ground-level concourse below. Eurostar's arrival and departure lounges lie below these platforms, adjacent to The Arcade , a concourse fashioned from the original station undercroft which runs along the western length of
2314-536: The 5BEL Trust commenced a project to return a five-car Class 403 Brighton Belle train to mainline operation. This represents the first time that a heritage electric traction unit will return to the mainline. The class 403 bodies are being fitted to class 421 frames. As at June 2019, testing is planned for spring 2020 so that charter and public runs might commence a few months after. The Pullman cars have been popular on preserved railways and museums around Britain, with longer lines hosting regular dining services with
2403-648: The Blue Pullman services to the Midlands. The Blue Pullman sets were then allocated solely to the Western Region and the traditional umber and cream Pullman livery was replaced by a new grey and blue livery, which the Blue Pullman units also received in 1969. Despite this investment in new carriages, use of Pullman services declined. In part this was due to the development of the British motorway network and increasing competition from domestic air travel for
2492-569: The Blue Pullman was recreated with locomotive-hauled Mark 2 rolling stock (since none of the original Blue Pullman DEMUs were preserved) by FM Rail 's Hertfordshire Rail Tours subsidiary and then after its demise, by Cotswold Rail . In February 2008, the Stobart Group launched a Pullman-style railtour company as the Stobart Pullman , operating for a period of just six months with Direct Rail Services Mark 3s . In 2009,
2581-550: The Channel Tunnel Rail Link works did not include work on the fitting out of the station, as these works had originally been part of the separate Thameslink 2000 works programme. Despite lobbying by rail operators who wished to see the station open at the same time as St Pancras International, the Government failed to provide additional funding to allow the fit-out works to be completed immediately following
2670-655: The Consumer Choice Center. From December 2018, as part of the Thameslink programme, services from the East Coast Main Line/ Great Northern Route , also part of the Govia Thameslink Railway franchise, were linked to the Thameslink route, diverting trains previously terminating at Kings Cross into the Thameslink platforms at St Pancras and then through central London to Sussex and Kent. This link
2759-554: The High Speed 1 service was launched on 6 November 2007 by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh . Services were extended to Rotterdam and Amsterdam in April 2018. During an elaborate opening ceremony, actor Timothy West , as Henry Barlow, addressed the audience, which was also entertained by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the singers Lemar and Katherine Jenkins . In
Manchester Pullman - Misplaced Pages Continue
2848-672: The High-Speed Train sets were maintained there and were already running empty north of Sheffield. During the 2000s major rebuild of the West Coast Main Line, St Pancras again temporarily hosted direct and regular inter-city trains to Manchester, this time via the Hope Valley route (via the Dore South curve) under the title of Project Rio . The original plan for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) involved
2937-527: The LMS adopted the LNWR's (the "Premier Line") Euston station as its principal London terminus. The Midland Grand Hotel was closed in 1935, and the building was subsequently used as offices for British Railways . During World War II , bombing inflicted damage on the train shed, which was only partially reglazed after the war. On the night of 10–11 May 1941 a bomb fell onto the station floor at platform 3, exploding in
3026-431: The London area services to North Woolwich, St Albans and Bedford. Long-distance trains reached Glasgow, Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester, with famous named trains including The Palatine to Manchester, The Thames-Clyde Express to Glasgow, and The Master Cutler to Sheffield (transferred from King's Cross in 1966, which itself had transferred from Marylebone eight years earlier). On 7 October 1957,
3115-632: The London being a slightly longer formation than the Manchester-based one. Each train operated an outward journey in the morning and a return in the evening, thus being at its base each night and weekend. The trains were occasionally used at weekends for premium charter services. London to Manchester trains can be routed via Crewe or Stoke-on-Trent , the Pullmans served Watford Junction , Wilmslow and Stockport , so were all routed via Crewe. Another peculiarity for inter-city trains of that time
3204-479: The MR decided to build a connection from Bedford to London with its own terminus. The station was designed by William Henry Barlow , with wrought iron pillars supporting a single-span roof. At 689 feet (210 m) by 240 feet (73.2 m) wide, and 100 feet (30.5 m) high, it was then the largest enclosed space in the world. Following the station's opening 1 October 1868, the MR built the Midland Grand Hotel on
3293-495: The MR, as the major routes to Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Carlisle opened during this time. By 1902, there were 150 trains arriving and leaving the station daily, though this was far less than at Waterloo or Liverpool Street. As well as Midland services, the Great Eastern Railway (GER) used St Pancras as a " West End " terminus for trains to Great Yarmouth , Norwich , Lowestoft between 1870 and 1917. At
3382-518: The Midland Main Line to the St. Pancras branch. Instead, due to the value of the land in such a location the lower area was used for freight, in particular beer from Burton . As a result, the undercroft was built with columns and girders, maximising space, set out to the same plans as those used for beer warehouses, and with a basic unit of length that of a beer barrel. The contract to build
3471-497: The author Candida Lycett Green . Public service by Eurostar train via High Speed 1 started on 14 November 2007. In a small ceremony, station staff cut a ribbon leading to the Eurostar platforms. In the same month, services to the East Midlands were transferred to a new franchisee, East Midlands Trains . The low-level Thameslink platforms opened on 9 December 2007, replacing King's Cross Thameslink. St Pancras has retained
3560-428: The beer vaults underneath. The station was not significantly damaged, but was closed for eight days, with platforms 2–3 remaining closed until June. In 1947 the St. Pancras junction was relaid with prefabricated trackwork, along with associated changes to the signalling system. On the creation of British Railways (BR) in 1948, St Pancras received a significant investment after neglect by the LMS. Destinations included
3649-474: The carriages stored at Old Oak Common TMD . A proposal was made to return the full seven-car train in summer 1931, but the decision was taken not to operate the service. At the end of the year, the decision was made to terminate the experiment, and the carriages were sold to the Southern Railway, joining their Western Section carriage fleet pool at Clapham Junction . The GWR replaced them in 1932 with
Manchester Pullman - Misplaced Pages Continue
3738-756: The demise of the Mark 1 Pullman services on the East Coast Main Line in 1978. By this time the Liverpool Pullman on the West Coast Main Line had also been discontinued, leaving just the Manchester Pullman . This was finally dropped in 1985, being replaced by increased first-class accommodation on ordinary West Coast Main Line services. A new batch of Mark 3b carriages built for this purpose initially carried Intercity Pullman branding and individual carriage names, but they were ordinary Open Firsts in otherwise standard InterCity livery. Subsequently,
3827-528: The east by Camley Street, with Camley Street Natural Park across the road. To the north-east is King's Cross Central , formerly known as the Railway Lands, a complex of intersecting railway lines crossed by several roads and the Regent's Canal . Several London bus routes have stops nearby, including 73 , 205 and 390 . The station's name comes from the St. Pancras parish, whose name originates from
3916-472: The eastern part of the extension immediately adjacent to the entrance. As part of the construction of the western side of the new train shed that now began, an underground "box" was constructed to house new platforms for Thameslink, which at this point ran partially under the extended station. In order for this to happen, the existing Thameslink tunnels between Kentish Town and King's Cross Thameslink were closed between 11 September 2004 and 15 May 2005 while
4005-476: The entrance to the London tunnel. On 4 September 2007, the first test train ran from Paris Gare du Nord to St Pancras. Children's illustrator Quentin Blake was commissioned to provide a huge mural of an "imaginary welcoming committee" as a disguise for one of the remaining ramshackle Stanley Building South immediately opposite the station exit. St Pancras was officially re-opened as St Pancras International, and
4094-474: The first Pullmans to be painted in the now familiar umber and cream livery. Hitherto the Brighton Pullmans had been painted dark mahogany brown with gold lining and scrollwork. Some of the older cars had the name in an oval panel on the side. In 1903 Mr. Billinton changed the colour of the ordinary L.B. & S.C.R. coaches to umber brown with white or cream upper panels, and in 1906 this colour scheme
4183-487: The foundations of the roof interfering with the space beneath, and to simplify the design, and minimise cost, it was decided to construct a single span roof, with cross ties for the arch at the station level. The arch was sprung directly from the station level, with no piers. Additional advice on the design of the roof was given to Barlow by Rowland Mason Ordish . The arches' ribs had a web depth of 6 ft (1.8 m), mostly open ironwork. The span width, from wall to wall
4272-466: The fourth-century Christian boy martyr Pancras of Rome . The station was commissioned by the Midland Railway (MR), who had a network of routes in the Midlands and in south and west Yorkshire and Lancashire, but no route of its own to London. Before 1857 the MR used the lines of the L&NWR for trains into the capital; subsequently, the company's Leicester and Hitchin Railway gave access to London via
4361-563: The late 1950s the image of Pullman trains remained luxurious, but the rolling stock was increasingly outdated. The PCC was bought by the British Transport Commission (BTC) in 1954. The BTC was the public body that controlled the nationalised transport in mainland Britain. At this point most of the Pullman fleet was somewhat elderly – apart from ten new cars which had entered service in 1951-52 (the building of seven of which had commenced in 1939, and another of which had
4450-526: The line blockade. Eventually, on 8 February 2006, Alistair Darling , the Secretary of State for Transport, announced £50 million funding for the fit-out of the station, plus another £10–15 million for the installation of associated signalling and other lineside works. The fit-out works were designed by Chapman Taylor and Arup (Eurostar) and completed by ISG Interior Plc Contractors collaborating with Bechtel as Project Managers. The client
4539-440: The main motivation for the London extension, the Midland realised the prestige of having a central London passenger terminus and decided it must have a front on Euston Road. The company purchased the eastern section of land on the road's north side owned by Earl Somers . The passenger station was designed by William Henry Barlow and constructed on a site that had previously been a slum called Agar Town . The approach line to
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#17327878465484628-604: The more opulent Charles Collett designed GWR Super Saloons . During World War II all Pullman services were suspended. They resumed operation shortly after the end of the war. The Pullman agreements were continued by British Railways upon nationalisation in 1948, while the Pullman company remained privately owned. The company acquired the lease on the former Taff Vale Railway carriage and wagon works in Cathays , Cardiff , which then maintained both Pullman stock as well as BR rolling stock, and residual private owner wagons. By
4717-561: The office blocks that replaced the Euston Arch. The station offices in the listed former Midland Grand Hotel building were subsequently refurbished in 1993, including a new roof with 275 tonnes of Westmorland Green slate. After the sectorisation of British Rail in 1986, main-line services to the East Midlands were provided by the InterCity sector, with suburban services to St Albans, Luton and Bedford by Network SouthEast . In 1988
4806-502: The other UK railway companies thereafter. The PCC was formed in 1882 and named after the Pullman concept pioneered in the United States by the American railroader George Pullman . The company entered into contracts with the railway companies to operate Pullman services over their lines. Pullman trains offered more luxurious accommodation than ordinary mainline trains. The PCC had its own workshops at Brighton . Pullman Car manufacture
4895-495: The outer edge. It was 689 feet (210 m) long, 240 feet (73.2 m) wide, and 100 feet (30.5 m) high at the apex above the tracks. Local services began running to the Metropolitan Railway junction underneath the terminus on 13 July 1868. The station itself opened to the public on 1 October. The first service was an overnight mail train from Leeds. St Pancras was built during a period of expansion for
4984-466: The passengers who could afford the Pullman surcharge, but improvements to British Rail's normal first-class service also had an impact. For example, the Mark 1 Pullmans lacked air-conditioning, while later batches of ordinary Mark 2 stock had this feature as standard in both first and second class. The Southern Region had not modernised its Pullman rolling stock, and was first to discontinue its Pullman trains. The Bournemouth Belle ceased in 1967, with
5073-468: The rebuilding of Euston and the consolidation of these services. By the 1960s, St Pancras was seen as redundant, and several attempts were made to close it and demolish the hotel (by then known as St Pancras Chambers). These attempts provoked strong and successful opposition, with the campaign led by the later Poet Laureate , John Betjeman . Jane Hughes Fawcett with the Victorian Society
5162-479: The reconstruction was Alistair Lansley , a former colleague of Nick Derbyshire recruited by RLE. To accommodate 300-metre+ Eurostar trains , and to provide capacity for the existing trains to the Midlands and the new Kent services on the high-speed rail link, the train shed was extended a considerable distance northwards by a new flat-roofed shed. The station was initially planned to have 13 platforms under this extended train shed. East Midlands services would use
5251-429: The restored sets. The list below is of the railways that have or once had a Pullman coach. St Pancras railway station St Pancras railway station ( / ˈ p æ ŋ k r ə s / ), officially known since 2007 as London St Pancras International , is a major central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden . It is the terminus for Eurostar services from Belgium , France and
5340-409: The signalling at St Pancras was upgraded, replacing the three original boxes with a power box controlling 205 route switches and 33 points over a network of 1,400 relays. From 1960 to 1966, electrification work on the West Coast Main Line between London and Manchester saw a new Midland Pullman from Manchester to St Pancras. These trains and those to Glasgow were withdrawn following the completion of
5429-422: The station by a new concourse at its north end. This original design was later modified, with access to the Eurostar platforms from below, using the station undercroft and allowing the deletion of the visually intrusive bridge. By dropping the extension of any of the Midland platforms into the train shed, space was freed up to allow wells to be constructed in the station floor, which provided daylight and access to
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#17327878465485518-481: The station crossed the Regent's Canal at a height allowing the line reasonable gradients; this resulted in the level of the line at St Pancras being 20 ft (6 m) above the ground level. (By contrast, the lines to the adjacent King's Cross station tunnel under the Regent's Canal.) Initial plans were for a two or three span roof with the void between station and ground level filled with spoil from tunnelling to join
5607-509: The station substructure and connecting lines was given to Messrs. Waring , with Barlow's assistant Campion as supervisor. The lower floor for beer warehousing contained interior columns 15 ft (4.6 m) wide and 48 ft (14.6 m) deep, carrying girders supporting the main station and track. The connection to the Widened Lines (St. Pancras branch) ran below the station's bottom level, in an east-to-west direction. To avoid
5696-476: The station's façade. George Gilbert Scott won the competition to design it, with an ornate Gothic red-brick scheme. St Pancras has been widely praised for its architecture and is now a Grade I listed building . St Pancras came under threat during the 20th century; damaged in both World War I and World War II by bombs, and then in the late 1960s by plans to demolish it entirely and divert services to King's Cross and Euston . A passionate campaign to save
5785-683: The station, led by the Victorian Society , Jane Hughes Fawcett , and Poet Laureate John Betjeman , was successful, and St Pancras was awarded Grade I listed status just 10 days before demolition was due to commence. At the start of the 21st century, the complex underwent an £800 million refurbishment to become the terminal for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link/High-Speed 1/HS1 as part of an urban regeneration plan across East London , and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in November 2007. A security-sealed terminal area
5874-407: The station. The design and project management of reconstruction was undertaken on behalf of LCR by Rail Link Engineering (RLE), a consortium of Bechtel , Arup , Systra and Halcrow . The original reference design for the station was by Nick Derbyshire , former head of British Rail's in-house architecture team. The master plan of the complex was by Foster and Partners , and the lead architect of
5963-617: The terminus, with access via the North London Line , which crosses the throat of the station. The idea of using the North London line was rejected in 1994 by the transport secretary , John MacGregor , as "difficult to construct and environmentally damaging". However, the idea of using St Pancras station as the terminus was retained, albeit now linked by 12.4 miles (20 km) of new tunnels to Dagenham via Stratford . London and Continental Railways (LCR), created at
6052-411: The time of British Rail privatisation, was selected by the government in 1996 to reconstruct St Pancras, build the CTRL, and take over the British share of the Eurostar operation. LCR had owned St Pancras station since privatisation to allow the station to be redeveloped. Financial difficulties in 1998, and the collapse of Railtrack in 2001, caused some revision of this plan, but LCR retained ownership of
6141-420: The train shed extension was completed. The rebuilding cost was in the region of £800 million, up from an initial estimate of £310 million. In early November 2007, Eurostar conducted a testing programme in which some 6000 members of the public were involved in passenger check-in, immigration control and departure trials, during which the "passengers" each made three return journeys out of St Pancras to
6230-477: The turn of the 20th century, St Pancras had a faster service to Cambridge than from King's Cross, at 71 minutes. GER services were suspended because of World War I and never resumed. The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LTSR) began boat train services from St Pancras from 9 July 1894, following the opening of the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway . The trains ran from St Pancras to Tilbury via South Tottenham and Barking . Tilbury Docks then provided
6319-435: The undercroft. The reconstruction of the station was recorded in the BBC Television documentary series The Eight Hundred Million Pound Railway Station broadcast as six 30-minute episodes between 13‒28 November 2007. By early 2004, the eastern side of the extended train shed was complete, and the Barlow train shed was closed to trains. From 12 April 2004, Midland Mainline trains terminated at an interim station occupying
6408-581: The wall of his barn where it still kept good time. Decades later during the stations renewal as 'St Pancras International', Dent of London were able to create an exact replica of the clock by using the original as a template. Hoggard was invited to the 2007 grand re-opening of St Pancras, and able to see the impressive new clock installed exactly where the original had been. Also in 1978, a Private Eye piece claimed that British Rail really wanted to demolish St Pancras but were opposed by "a lot of long-haired sentimentalists" and "faceless bureaucrats" and praised
6497-436: The western platforms, Eurostar services the middle platforms, and Kent services the eastern platforms. The Eurostar platforms and one of the Midland platforms would extend back into the Barlow train shed. Access to Eurostar for departing passengers would be via a departure suite on the west of the station, and then to the platforms by a bridge above the tracks within the historic train shed. Arriving Eurostar passengers would leave
6586-437: The works were carried out. Thameslink services from the north terminated in the same platforms as the Midland Main Line trains, while services from the south terminated at King's Cross Thameslink. When the lines were re-opened, the new station box was still only a bare concrete shell and could not take passengers. Thameslink trains reverted to their previous route but ran through the station box without stopping. The budget for
6675-426: The world renown Dent the unique time-piece was financially valuable, but during removal it was somehow dropped, shattering on the floor below. Now worth far less money, it was sold to Roland Hoggard, a train-guard nearing retirement, for £25. It took over a week for Hoggard to transport the giant broken clock, a few parts at a time, to his Nottinghamshire home, where he diligently pieced it all back together, to hang on
6764-447: Was 245 ft 6 in (74.83 m), with a rib every 29 ft 4 in (8.94 m). The arch was a slightly pointed design, with a reduced radius of curvature at the springing points. The Butterley Company was contracted to construct the arches. The total cost of the 24 rib roof and glazing was over £53,000, of which over half was for the main ribs. The cost of the gable end was a further £8,500. The single-span overall roof
6853-401: Was London and Continental Railways who were advised by Hitachi Consulting . In 2005, planning consent was granted for a refurbishment of the former Midland Grand Hotel building, with plans to refurbish and extend it as a hotel and apartment block. The newly refurbished hotel opened to guests on 21 March 2011 with a grand opening ceremony on 5 May. By the middle of 2006, the western side of
6942-466: Was also adopted by the Pullman Car Co., with the name of the car in large gilt letters..." This was the beginning of the tradition of PCC services operating with a brown-and-cream livery and named carriages, which continues to the present day. Pullman trains were mostly locomotive -hauled, although from 1932 the electrified Southern Railway and its successors operated electric multiple units ,
7031-707: Was also carried out by Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company and Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Co . The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was the first UK railway company to operate a complete Pullman train, the Pullman Limited, which started on the London Victoria to Brighton route on 5 December 1881. As Mr Smail recounts: "...In 1906 the LBSCR introduced three new thirty-five ton twelve-wheelers Princess Ena, Princess Patricia, and Duchess of Norfolk. These last three cars were
7120-486: Was completed in 1962, with it integrated with British Transport Hotels in January 1963. The Pullman company then ceased to exist as a separate legal entity, but Pullman trains continued to be operated. British Rail went on to build a final 29 cars in 1966, based on the Mark 2 design. These were used on new Manchester Pullman and Liverpool Pullman services over the newly electrified West Coast Main Line, replacing
7209-464: Was constructed for Eurostar services to mainland Europe via High Speed 1 and the Channel Tunnel , with platforms for domestic trains to the north and south-east of England. The restored station has 15 platforms, a shopping centre, and a coach facility. London St Pancras International is owned by HS1 Ltd and managed by Network Rail (High Speed), a subsidiary of Network Rail . St Pancras
7298-533: Was instrumental in its preservation, and was dubbed "the furious Mrs. Fawcett" by British rail officials. Many of the demonstrators had witnessed the demolition of the nearby Euston Arch a few years previously and were strongly opposed to the distinctive architecture of St Pancras suffering the same fate. The station became Grade I listed building in November 1967, preventing any drastic modifications. The plans were scrapped by BR in December 1968, realising that it
7387-528: Was made in the hope that a high-speed service could connect the two stations and was announced at a ceremony headed by Claude Solard, Director General of SNCF . St Pancras contains four groups of platforms on two levels, accessed via the main concourse at ground level. The below-surface group contains through platforms A and B, and the upper level has three groups of terminal platforms: domestic platforms 1–4 and 11–13 on each side of international platforms 5–10. Platforms A & B serve Thameslink, 1–4 connect to
7476-684: Was made possible by the construction of a pair of single-track tunnels, named the Canal Tunnels ; these tunnels start immediately off the St Pancras Thameslink platforms, dive under the Regent's Canal , and join the East Coast Main Line where the North London Line and High Speed 1 pass over the top. In October 2019, St Pancras was twinned with the Gare de Bordeaux Saint-Jean , Bordeaux , France. The association
7565-473: Was more cost-effective to modernise the hotel instead, though they disliked owning it. In the 1970s, the train shed roof was in danger of collapse, and the newly appointed Director of Environment Bernard Kaukas persuaded the company to invest £3m to save it. In 1978, British Rail attempted to raise funds with the sale of the impressive 18 foot diameter station clock, allegedly to a wealthy American collector for £250,000. Custom made for St Pancras station by
7654-564: Was solicitor for the parliamentary bill, which was sanctioned in 1863. The main economic justification for the MR extension was for the transport of coal and other goods to the capital, which was hindered by a 1s 9d toll on GNR lines. A large goods station was constructed between 1862 and 1865, sited to the west of the King's Cross coal depot between the North London Railway and the Regent's Canal . Although coal and goods were
7743-519: Was that some of the Pullmans were routed via the Styal Line thus precluding a Stockport station stop. For a while in the late 1970s, the Manchester Pullman was the only remaining regular Pullman service in Britain. The rolling stock eventually came to be seen as dated, and in its later life could not be hauled by Class 87 locomotives because the rolling stock had no air-braking. In May 1985 it
7832-399: Was the largest such structure in the world at the time of its completion. The materials used were wrought iron framework of lattice design, with glass covering the middle half and timber (inside)/slate (outside) covering the outer quarters. The two end screens were glazed in a vertical rectangular grid pattern with decorative timber cladding around the edge and wrought iron finials around
7921-656: Was therefore replaced with Mark 3 stock, when non-Pullman standard-class coaches were also added. This was part of a revival of the Pullman brand by InterCity, with Merseyside and Yorkshire services being launched on the same day. After the withdrawal of the East Coast Pullman trains, the Manchester Pullman once again remained as the only Pullman train on British Rail. The West Coast Main Line InterCity services were taken over by Virgin Trains in 1997 and
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