European Railroad Discussion > A Texan's view of England, Part 3 - London proper

We spent a couple days doing touristy things Americans do in London.
My bride like to shop and had a couple stores specifically she wanted
to spend time in. Fortunately there were two stores side by side near Hyde Park
(I could not tell you what they were) and she figured she would be there for a
couple hours which worked great for me, having no interest in that. I escorted
her to the exact location of her gathering spot, worked out a rendezvous time and place,
and walked briskly to Knightsbridge tube station and zinged myself over to Kings Cross.

I walked next door to St Pancras station, which is a massive Victorian station. Inside is
a glass enclosed sub-terminal for the EuroStar train to Paris and not accessible to such a
commoner as myself. One end of the structure is occupied by the London Renaissance Hotel
which I have already decided we will stay next visit. Anyway my target was Kings Cross so
after a quick tour I went back to Kings Cross. On my way out I spied this cute roadster in front
of St Pancras - can anyone ID that for me please?

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At Kings Cross I stood behind the exit turnstiles and waited for passenger who had just
de-trained to come through. There is another section for departing passengers and gate
attendants monitoring passengers as they pass through to the departing trains. Well,
when the exiting passengers were gone, I noticed a couple of the gated exits remained open, so
passing through one of those, I walked down a platform under the glassed covered train shed
to the outdoors and platform end. I heard the announcer call for one of the trains to depart
and turned around and recorded that, not knowing that for the next hour I would witness a train
arriving or departing ever couple minutes, or so it seemed.

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At the other end of the platform from the train shed, trains arrive and depart
through a set of tunnels, under what and where to I have no idea, but it makes
for a surprise when an arriving train suddenly emerges because they seeming just
burst through the bore. After about 20 minutes and 10 or so trains later I see
a station official come walking towards me as I am standing on the end of the platform,
well behind a painted line saying something like "do not pass this point" or some such.
I am thinking, Oh boy, the s**t is about to come down on me and I have no ID (I left
my passport locked in the safe in the hotel).

As he approached me he smiled and said hello, and I repeated a pleasantry back to him.
He walked past, checked something in a electrical box then, no doubt from my accent, asked me
where I was from, and we had a short conversation about our stay and the weather. I don't
know why this came to me but he said something like "you picked a good week to visit London" and
I replied a line I remember from Napoleon Solo in an episode of Man from U.N.C.L.E. in which
his code word to another agent was "Nice day, if it don't rain". We exchanged goodbyes, and he departed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/17 11:48 by WrongWayMurphy.

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After a bit I noticed a couple of teens on an adjacent platform,
one with a camera and another a notepad and pen. They were obviously doing
what I was doing only recording the movements on film and paper. Unlike these lads,
I had no idea where any of these trains were going or coming from. I really wanted
to go talk to them but it was time to leave and meet the wife back near Hyde Park.

On the way back down the platform I noticed another foamer on the elevated walk bridge
inside the station enclosure, shooting trains from above. I figured since there were stairs
right there I would check it out and maybe have a word with him. As I climbed the stairs,
he bailed out. One would have thought I was wearing my grim reaper mask. Anyway here is a
shot from above (last pic).

I returned to our meeting place and to my surprise she only picked up one thing and it was on sale,
so that made this side trip complete. We went down the street a couple blocks to Harrods, and I
cant really describe that place other than it has the most crazy obscure and pricey stuff on this planet. I must admit, the toy department was the most awesome thing in the store and nothing
like I have ever seen. Its a good thing our kids are grown but yet no grandkids, because she
could have broken the bank here.

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The next day we boarded a Virgin train to Manchester. It was a great ride and
exceptional service in the First Class coach. Lucky for us the Doubletree Hotel we
were staying in Manchester was right across the street from Manchester
Piccadilly station.

More boring stuff from the northern part of the trip in future installments.

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Thanks for posting the photos from London.
Made numerous business trips over there 1978-1997.
Never had time to railfan or take photos.
Looks like you had the opportunity to do some real railfanning.
ALLEN

Thanks for the great pictures, as a Londoner it's always interesting hear how we look to others.

The car is a Japanese number from the early nineties, while very few in number they are very fashionable among a certain age group (eg my elder daughter coveted one before she had children!). I will have to enquire further regarding the make and other specs.

The tunnels at the end of the platforms at Kings Cross take the line under the Regent's Canal (which predated the railway by a few decades). At this point the canal runs almost due East - west, and so all three main line railways into London from the North have to cross it. The earliest route, that into Euston dating from the late 1830s, has a bridge over the canal about a mile out. This led to a steep incline out of the station which was originally worked by cable haulage. The next station chronologically was Kings Cross dating from the 1850s. As you can see the tunnels are very close to the station as so is the canal. St Pancras next door dealt with problem by having the tracks at a higher level with a large "undercroft" at street level. Originally used for storing beer which came down from the Midlands, this space now forms the main Eurostar reception and shopping mall.

Interesting account of your capital adventure. The little coupe is a Nissan Figaro. I'd prefer a corvette... or Aston Martin... ;-).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/17 23:10 by exhaustED.

Great pictures !!! Thanks for sharing !!!:):):)

The track details are great! Now build a layout like that with that many trains operating.

Jim

The car is a Nissan Figaro according to the askmid website.

Great pics. I live in Yorkshire so regularly use VTEC to London. The guy who walked upto the end of the platform would almost certainly be doing a security check. He would register his presence electronically using the electrical box. Chris uk.

Hartington Wrote:
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> The car is a Nissan Figaro according to the askmid
> website.

It reminded me of a 55-57 T-Bird that got shrunk a bit.

TJY

Thanks for the great pics AND the narrative. Headed to London in a few weeks and was curious about accessibility of platforms to railfans - er, trainspotters.