British Railway Photos

This is yet another shot of the spectacularly restored, and originally spectacular, London Saint Pancras Station, now St. Pancras International. That trainshed must have been one of the bigger jobs, as I remember when it was caked in soot back in the 1990's.

This was after arrival at St. Pancras International. This station was thoroughly renovated in 2004-2007 to accomodate the Eurostar and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, after many years of Eurostar services using the old South Eastern Railway Mainline from London Waterloo. This renovation received international attention, even in America, as St. Pancras for years had been a very second-rate station traffic-wise, even if the building, trainshed, and hotel frontage were spectacular.

This one of the new London Underground S Stock trains, introduced in 2010. There are two sub-classes of these with numbers, S7 and S8. The S8 Class are actually a bit older, as the S7's weren't introduced until 2012. I'm pretty sure this is an S7, as S8's only work on the Metropolitan Line.

This is yet another renovation of the BR-era Intercity 125's interior, this time for First Great Western. I was taking this train directly to Cardiff from London Paddington.

This visit to Grangetown was completely unplanned. I was running an errand with one of my friends, and just spotted this BR-era "barbed wire" station sign. To avoid confusion, perhaps, most of these signs have survived, not only in situ, but also on maps, and the logo also still appears on tickets and in timetables. Grangetown is located south of Cardiff, and is often counted as part of the city, although the maps I've seen are confusing so I don't know if it technically is Cardiff.

This is the entrance to the station, which is, as far as I know, up on that bridge to the right. The sculpture on the wall looks really 1970's, even Communist, although in this location that would be virtually impossible. In truth, a lot of similar artwork existed in America at the time. However, I know next to nothing about its actual origins.

I took this on my way to Cardiff Central Station. The old Great Western Mainline is on that viaduct you can see on the right, and you can see a steam-era water tower on the left. I've taken shots from this angle several times before. This wasn't actually a sunset, but a sunrise, as I had to get a train very early in the morning in order to get the Eurostar in London.

This was my train, still worked by an Intercity 125 after all these years. These trainsets date to 1976, but in some respects they're still the most advanced diesel passenger trains in the world. At the moment, I'm also unaware of anything faster than them, although some DMU's and ICE-TD variants can match them.

When I got to Paddington, I got another look at the trainshed, which is impressive. The oldest parts of the current station date to 1854, and this includes the trainshed. Although many impressive projects had already been built at that time, it must have been one of the largest structures in the world at the time. Although Isambard Kingdom Brunel (founder of the Great Western Railway) was still alive at the time "Brunel's Paddington" usually refers to the earlier station built in 1838.

This was the lead unit on our Intercity 125, #43004.

This is the Paddington Underground station, which actually dates to 1863. This would make it one of the first subway stations in the world, as the original London Underground line was the Metropolitan, opened from Faringdon to Paddington in that year. Surprisingly, it was steam operated until the early 20th Century, which was achieved through ventilation, plus many stations that were open to the sky. Here you can see the remains of that, covered by a trainshed. The steam operation was probably chosen for lack of better technology at the time. The tunneling technology was similarly simple, being cut-and-cover. Essentially, the street was dug up to form a trench, the tracks were installed, and a stone structure was constructed above them to support the new streets, and the utilities, which even in those days were already being installed. Usually they were situated between the tunnels and the streets.

This photo, shot in the opposite direction from the previous one, shows a section open to the sky.

This train appears to be a C-Stock train, which is a 4-rail EMU (like all modern London Underground trains). I didn't see the builder plates on this one (looking on the doorsills also helps), but these were built in two batches in 1977-1978, and 1990-1994. These trains are too tall to use on the newer "tube" underground lines that have been bored 200 feet below the streets since 1890. Instead, they operate on the former steam, or "widened" lines.

Here's the St. Pancras trainshed, constructed in 1867 (although the station didn't open until 1868).

Here's the St. Pancras Station frontage, which is really the Midland Hotel. This was a white elephant until fairly recently, as it originally had been built without plumbing, central heat, or other modern features, and had cost far too much money. When St. Pancras was rebuilt for the Eurostar, the hotel was also modernized and reopened.

Next door to St. Pancras, you can also see the newly-restored London King's Cross station. You can see that the brickwork looks cleaner than it has in a long time, but if you look again, you'll notice that this is the first time since 1863 that the original frontage of the station has been visible (although that canopy is new). In 1863, a series of kiosks were added to the front of the station, serving as newstands, shops, and so on. The kiosk removal in 2013 freed up so much space in front of the station that the area was renamed "King's Cross Square." Incidentally, you can see the old Great Northern Hotel over on the left, behind the CCTV mast. It's called the Great Northern because it was originally the Great Northern Railway that opened King's Cross in 1853.

St. Pancras and King's Cross are literally across the street from each other, separated only by Pancras Road, which is really a narrow side street. The Great Northern Hotel is wedged between King's Cross and the street. The main street serving all three, Euston Road, is out of the frame to the left.

Whenever I visit Wales, the final leg is on the old Great Western Mainline from London Paddington. This was my train, and I noted the number of one of the power units, 43134, something I hadn't done in a number of years (I'm usually too exhausted for railfanning by the time I get to London). #43134 is actually unnamed, although presently and historically, many Class 43 (formerly Class 253) power units have been, both recently and historically.