Month: June 2025

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:39 — 18.9MB)

We reach Leicester –  UK Rail Journeys
Series 2 Episode 04

In ‘We reach Leicester’ my journey continues northwards, and reaches the Thames Clyde’s first stop in Leicester.

Please click on a thumbnail to see the photographs that go with the podcast:

Radlett Aerodrome:

We pass the remains of the old Handley Page aircraft works at Radlett. In 1937 the pilot of a Harrow bomber misjudges his approach to the airfield. His undercarriage rips off part of the roof of the kitchen car of a London to Manchester express.

The kitchen car continues to Leicester where it is replaced with another. The delay? Only one hour.

Bedford and brickmaking:

We pass the remains of huge gashes in the landscape. These are the result of extracting clay for brick making. At the peak of brick making in 1936, the Stewartby Brickworks, the world’s largest, makes 500 million a year.

Today a thousand homes and a business park are being built as part of the redevelopment of the site.

Kettering:

We cross the river Ouse seven times in the Bedford area, and pass a stretch of the A6 called the Paula Radcliffe Way. The train is passing through beautiful countryside as we travel north.

At the stop at Kettering I marvel at the ironwork in the canopies over the platforms. In the 1970s British Rail submits plans to cut the supports off part way up and put on a plastic roof. The local Civic Society protests and saves the day!

Leicester railway station:

I leave the train at our stop in Leicester. This is the first stop on the traditional route of the Thames Clyde Express.

The modernisers have ruined much of Leicester station. However, the baroque façade remains and it is stunning. The domed clock tower is vaguely Indian in style. The clock is the only hand wound station clock on the railway network.

There is a porte cochere behind the façade. Today you can get a taxi there and go through the entrance to buy a ticket.

The architecture at Leicester has 3 stars in the Simon Jenkins book Britain’s 100 Best Railway Stations.

Listen to the podcast to hear about the journey to Leicester and the story of this magnificent railway station.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music,  Apple Podcasts,  Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, You Tube and others.

Music:

AKM Music licenses Steam Railway and Summer Party for use in this podcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:50 — 17.2MB)

Northward Bound –  UK Rail Journeys
Series 2 Episode 03

In ‘Northward Bound’ I start my journey, leaving St. Pancras on an East Midlands Railway Class 222 Meridian train.

Please click on a thumbnail to see the photographs that go with the podcast:

The Thames Clyde Express:

I am following, as far as is possible today, the route of the Thames Clyde Express. The London, Midland & Scottish railway introduces the express on 26th September 1927.

The Thames Clyde took the longer, and slower, Midland Railway route from London St. Pancras to Glasgow St. Enoch. A route running via Sheffield, Leeds, the Settle to Carlisle line and the Glasgow South Western route north of Carlisle.

Leaving St. Pancras:

As we leave St. Pancras we pass, on our left, St. Pancras Old Church, with its clocktower, and, on our right, the fully refurbished gasometers, or more correctly gasholders, that are part of the Kings Cross revival.

Kentish Town:

We soon pass through Kentish Town station and the site of the old engine sheds. These sheds, opening in 1875, provided the locomotives for the Thames Clyde Express on its London to Leeds leg.

With 3 brick-built roundhouses and workshops the locomotive allocation in March 1959 was 100 locomotives, all of them steam.

The last locomotives are maintained there in 1963 when the site closes. The civil engineers Murphy use some of the surviving buildings today.

Onwards:

We pass through West Hampstead, Cricklewood, Hendon on my journey from the suburban sprawl of outer London towards the north.

Listen to the podcast to hear about the journey through north London and into the countryside.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music,  Apple Podcasts,  Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, You Tube and others.

Music:

AKM Music licenses Steam Railway and Political Dawn for use in this podcast.