King's Cross 1956

[@davidcorbett62]

1956 was the year I was born in N Ireland. We had nothing like Kings Cross but I remember going to sleep listening to the sounds of wagons being shunted. A beautiful reminder of a time now gone. Thank you

[@barry5111]

I lived at Kings Cross and spent hours on platform 10 watching the trains and taking numbers. A rare treat was to get a ride up the platform on the A4 footplate after the train had pulled out. The drivers always seemed to be friendly to us kids and nobody cared about health and safety then.

[@barry5111]

@Nigel What has a fire on the underground got to do with Kings Cross mainline station? The escalator on the underground was old and made of a lot of wood and nobody thought that years of litter and congealed grease underneath might be a bad idea.

[@barry5111]

@Nigel Lessons are always learned through history like the Titanic. elfansafety brought massive benefits and then got stupid

[@RAFchurchlawford4469]

@@barry5111 "elfansafety brought massive benefits and then got stupid" 👍2020-2022

[@robharding4028]

What a wonderful piece of old film, I'm still amazed to see the whole steam engine and the carriages all running to schedule, on such a huge transport system, probably the best in the world in its day.

[@likklej8]

Love the old BR jam and cream coaches and the corridor tender A4

[@billykegs8782]

I always thought the short film of the great snow from 1963 was the best quality footage I ever saw. But this. Mind blowing. How much is out there. This is a gift to the nation.

[@TheMiserablegit]

That is amazing footage - such quality. It is almost like I have a time machine. The only sad thing is that it does not last ten times longer. Thankyou.

[@eds-egg]

I think the lady at 0.32 is enquiring if a trunk has arrived for a Professor Marcus!

[@kenstevens5065]

Fred Olson boat train, I used to catch it at Doncaster about 11am during school holidays to go to Newcastle to see relatives in the early sixties. Deltic hauled. Lunch at 100mph in the Vale of York. Halcyon days.

[@annescholey6546]

The Ladykillers was filmed just down the line beyond Gasworks Tunnel.

[@oscillation9814]

Beautiful film! On it's own it would be a remarkable film, but the colour brings it to life, as if you are watching it yourself! Thank you very much for the upload. :)

[@JAMESDEMU-RailwayModeller]

Excellent video. Some wonderful scenes, thanks for sharing

[@paulaharrisbaca4851]

Steam trains look like big living breathing animals. Totally cool.

[@Britishrailwaystories]

This is stunning. Love it. Thanks for uploading!

[@jamesphipps1558]

Simon A.C. Martin 😎

[@Glenn1967ful]

The boat train would be going to Commission Quay in North Shields to connect with the ferry to Bergen, a service that ran until 1970.

[@soundnicetome]

Remember this so well,back when we had a `proper` railway to be proud of? But along came so called `progress`...and in a blink of an eye,it was gone!

[@TheFlyingScotzman]

i remember seeing bomb damage in the 90s on some of the brickwork on an embankment as you left.

[@waldenhouse]

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing.

[@professorpatpending8731]

Great footage of the time with the pace of daily life then somewhat slower than todays times. Sir Nigel Gressley loco still in action. Kept at York museum? Cheers.

[@matthewlamb3948]

Great video wish it was like this now

[@London1064]

Excellent video

[@mikecawood]

V2s never had chime whistles.

[@johnfellows2867]

Your'e right, an awful squeaky item, what was Gresley thinking of !!

[@justinspeartonkoh1667]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the loco at 0:47 is a LNER Class V2 right? If so, were V2s or indeed any other classes fitted with the A4 chime? Cos to my understanding, the A4 style chime were only fitted to the A4s, P2s and the W1

[@flamedude_1111]

I THOUGHT I WAS GOING CRAZY! Yes that is a V2, and I don't think they were fitted with chime whistles but I could be wrong, yet it sounds so much like an a4 chime whistle.

[@routeman680]

You're right. If there was a chime whistle on the original film at that point it was from an A4 out of shot, not the V2.

[@mcbenman1793]

can somebody please tell me why there is advertising for my local railway in the uk?

[@terencewilliammckenna6121]

Refers in GORDON GOES FOREIGN and TENDERS FOR HENRY.

[@knuckles1206]

Can someone explain the A4 and MK1 having knuckle couplers?

[@Steven_Rowe]

All Mark 1s had Buckeyes, when the coaches were coupled together the buffers were retracted. The A4s with corridor tenders also had Buckeyes that could be swung down under the hook so that screw couplings could be used

[@nigelmitchell351]

Just how many of those 750 diesels approached anything like the proposed availability or reliability?

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

+nigel mitchell All of them. Some were designed like some steam locos with low axle loading for high route availability eg Type 3 Class 37 They start at the turn of a key and are superior to steam. Cut the steam locos. Break them apart and melt them down!

[@nigelmitchell351]

+heelfan1234. Really Mr Heelfan you should read our rail history, many types never even paid for themselves. Many built without even a prototype. Most steam locos paid a thousand times over.

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

nigel mitchell Wrong, many classes of steam locos were also failures.

[@trainmaniacstudios8216]

+heelfan1234 True. But the BR standards were only 10 years old at the time. It was just crap maintenance that let them down. In the next 30 years newer diesels would be introduced and then you would deny what you just said and say that the older diesels are seriously crap. But yeah the 1960's were certainly known for their unreliability.....

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

Train Maniac True that the Standards didn't have a chance to prove their full worth, but even their full worth could not match that of the diesels which do not need cleaning out and firing up at 3.00am in the morning. However both steam and diesels pollute and must be replaced by electric traction, the electricity being produced by non thermal sources.

[@saeedurrahman2056]

Just imagine it's 63 years ago

[@beyondDCC]

Funny how so many of the men walked with hands in pockets, compared to today.

[@Glenn1967ful]

Six years later, Kings Cross would be mostly diesel and the A4s would be replaced by Deltics.

[@johnpirie4804]

And thirty years after that the diesels were starting to be replaced by electrics.

[@AlanSnowdonArchive]

Ahhh...Brings back some of the days of my (mis-spent?) youth on the end of the then Platform 10 at The Cross. Good stuff comes in small packets! But railways exist to serve the travelling public - not Railway Enthusiasts. I think LNER had been the only one of the Big Four to couple engine tenders to their trains with the Buckeye. On the fragmented 21st Century British rail system different Operators can use different, non-compatible couplers. So if a train breaks down, and another firm's train is behind it -Trouble! Progress?? Do they have this problem in mainland Europe?

[@hollyhamilton3094]

As you can see locos and stock were fitted with Screws and Buckeyes. Maunsell stock and Bulleid also used Buckeyes....

[@AlanSnowdonArchive]

Screw couplings were, under sensible BR, ALWAYS available - below the buckeye IF there was one.

[@Lytton333]

So the travelling public are not enthusiasts for railways then.. Unless they travel on a preserved railway, they seem to be enjoying themselves much more on those, rather than the stressful, miserable bearpit that the network is. Now Voyager.. I think not.

[@tomedy_official]

So mutch was done in those days

[@russellgxy2905]

Am I seeing this correctly? Did... SNG at 1:29 have a US-style knuckle coupler in addition to the buffer, hook & chain? Same with the coaches right after?? When did this happen? I didn't think BR coaches got the swing-drop knuckles until decades later

[@v8pilot]

I remember in the 50's Southern Region coaches had knuckle couplers. But not the locos.

[@jamesoates1334]

Not 100% sure, but maybe only the corridor tenders, LNER coaches had Pullman style corridor connections so therefore knuckle couplers.

[@granskare]

this is something we in USA did not become interested in, why, is a mystery

[@jimihendrix991]

Mrs Wilberforce sent me... (and her parrot).... 😉

[@jacksugden8190]

Year I was born

[@Wujek937.]

The Loud House

[@fordlandau]

Yet they built steam locomotives until 1961 !

[@michaelhampton9493]

The last steam engine built was Evening Star in 1960

[@knuckles1206]

@@michaelhampton9493 New industrial steamers kept being constructed until 1971. i believe china kept making em until 1999.

[@gst-1015]

Diesels are much better than steam

[@saltspringrailway3683]

I can see you need prayer. Next you'll be saying colour light signals are better than semaphores and computer centres are better than mechanical signal boxes.

[@knuckles1206]

Based

[@henrydover-porter1008]

That guy was talking shit

[@babyboo5642]

Ew. Disliked. The 1990s and 2000s were better

[@TheMusicalElitist]

You’re a moron.