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