History UsefulNotes / NationalRail

** There are finally long overdue plans to electrify the GWML to Reading, Oxford, Bristol, and South Wales.
* London Marylebone. Only six platforms, it provides Chiltern Railways' all-diesel services along the Chiltern Main Line to Birmingham. It was the historic terminus of the Great Central Railway (GCR), which was built to European loading gauge standards and in anticipation of a connection to the Channel Tunnel that never came to fruition. The GCR was closed under Dr. Beeching's "axe".

* London Euston- Home of the West Coast Main Line, which goes to Scotland via Manchester. The WCML is currently owned by a certain Richard Branson as part of the Virgin network.
* London St. Pancras International- so close to King's Cross it shares a Tube station (see next entry), it is now the home of the Eurostar services (hence the "International"). Frankly, it needed some love and was recently refurbished as a result. Terminus of the Midland Main Line and [=InterCity=] services operated by East Midlands Trains, as well as the High Speed services to Kent operated by Southeastern.

All these stations, again, are in [[OneLondonThirtyThreeBoroughs Central London]]. Paddington, Marleybone, Charing Cross, and Victoria are in the City of Westminster; Euston, St. Pancras, and King's Cross are in the Borough of Camden; Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, Cannon Street, and Blackfriars are in the City; London Bridge is in Southwark; and Waterloo is in Lambeth.

* Class 43 (HST) power car - the world's fastest diesel locomotive, the 'Intercity 125' (always operated as two power cars with coaches between them) is nearing the end of its life, but is still very common, especially on the Great Western line.

** This has also precluded the widespread adoption (or indeed much adoption at all) of double-decker trains, the only example being the two 4DD EMUs built for the Southern Railway in 1949, they weren't very successful, but stayed in service until 1971.

In the late 1960s, British Rail bought the TOPS computer system from Southern Pacific to keep track of its rolling stock. They allocated numbers to their locos, ships (yes, they did own some ships) and multiple units in a numbering system that survives to this day - TheOtherWiki has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_locomotive_and_multiple_unit_numbering_and_classification more information]].

Most of the trains in regular service the network now have automatic doors, while the rest have doors that are locked remotely pre-departure and can be opened only after arrival. Bizarrely, to leave a Mk3 carriage[[note]]still the most common type on long-distance services[[/note]]you must open the window, lean out of it, and use the door handle on the outside - much to the confusion of uninformed tourists. Not counting the Eurostar trains, the fastest ones on the network are the Class 91 "Intercity 225" loco-hauled trains found on the East Coast Main Line, the Class 390 "Pendolino" units on the West Coast Main Line, and fastest of all (at 140mph top speed) Southeastern's Class 395 "High-Speed" or "Javelin" trains, which partly use domestic sections of Eurostar track with overhead wiring, and partly third-rail commuter lines at slower speeds.

'''London Termini and interesting London railway stuff'''

Privatised under the [[JohnMajor Major government]], the track maintenance was recently (quite effectively, although the government wouldn't admit it) renationalised after Railtrack decided that it was a shopping mall company which couldn't really be bothered to run a rail network, replaced most of its skilled engineers with unskilled casual labourers working for £5 an hour, 'lost' most records of its infrastructure assets i.e. what was built when and how, became the first British corporation to be convicted of manslaughter after two fatal train wrecks caused by -surprise surprise- sloppy maintenance, virtually shut down the system in a panic for months to make up the maintenance backlog, and then went bankrupt. This did not make the already controversial decision to privatise the rail network any more popular.

** GWR inspired much loyalty in its staff and those who used it. Often known as God's Wonderful Railway, and for many years, even after nationalization as the Western Region of British Rail, seemed to go out of its way to be as different from everybody else as possible. Chances are, an idyllic rural branch line in fictional media is probably a GWR line - dark green engine, chocolate-and-cream coaches. The [[Franchise/HarryPotter Hogwarts Express]] is pulled by a repainted GWR engine (5972 ''Olton Hall''... which has the name ''Hogwarts Castle'' on screen, which has to jokes among railway enthusiasts as a 'Castle' is a larger class of engine), and another GWR engine takes the Pevensie children out of London at the beginning of ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia: Film/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''.

After the UsefulNotes/SecondWorldWar, the network was nationalised and became British Railways (later British Rail). Northern Ireland Railways[[note]]Briefly called the "Ulster Transport Authority"[[/note]] was then created in Northern Ireland to run the system there, and today is still functionally separate from the National Rail system in the rest of the UK.

It is now a collection of 26 passenger train operating companies (plus freight companies), which change ownership and name fairly frequently, as networks are merged, split or franchises get revoked early- as in the case of the infamous Connex.

Most of the trains in regular service the network now have automatic doors, while the rest have doors that are locked remotely pre-departure and can be opened only after arrival. Bizarrely, to leave a Mk3 carriage[[note]]still the most common type on long-distance services[[/note]]you must open the window, lean out of it, and use the door handle on the outside - much to the confusion of uninformed tourists. Not counting the Eurostar trains, the fastest ones on the network are the Class 91 "Intercity 225" loco-hauled trains found on the East Coast Main Line, the Class 390 "Pendolino" units on the West Coast Main Line, and Southeastern's Class 395 "High-Speed" or "Javelin" trains, which partly use domestic sections of Eurostar track with overhead wiring, and partly third-rail commuter lines at slower speeds.

London has several major railway stations, referenced in media (there's even a case from the ''ThomasTheTankEngine'' where engines argue about which station is London, not realising they are all correct). In clockwise order from the West direction, these are the current ones:

Common trains to see on the network today) are:

* Pacers - What you get when you stick a Leyland bus body on train wheels. Unpopular, ugly and have been around a lot longer than planned; they aren't really suitable for modern use and their crash protection is dubious.
* 'Second Generation' multiple units - based on the Mark 3 coach, these older sliding door units (such as the Sprinter family) are still common for longer distance, albeit getting long in the tooth.

* Great Western Railway (GWR)- developed by the famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel and initially wide gauge (at 2,140 millimetres, equal to seven feet wide), which accounts for the big tunnels. Most well known is the London-Bristol Great Western Main Line (GWML), which, along with the MML, still has not been electrified for the most part (except for shorter portions around London). The GWR was the only railway to keep its identity after the Grouping.
** GWR inspired much loyalty in its staff and those who used it. Often known as God's Wonderful Railway, and for many years, even after nationalization as the Western Region of British Rail, seemed to go out of its way to be as different from everybody else as possible. Chances are, an idyllic rural branch line in fictional media is probably a GWR line - dark green engine, chocolate-and-cream coaches. The [[Franchise/HarryPotter Hogwarts Express]] is pulled by a repainted GWR engine, and another GWR engine takes the Pevensie children out of London at the beginning of ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia: Film/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''.

* London Paddington: Departure point for the Great Western line, which is non-electrified bar a section that serves the Heathrow services from there, it's a visually impressive station. The Great Western line is currently operated by First Great Western. Dubbed "Worst Great Western" and "Worst Late Western" by many, it recently suffered a fare strike, has the worst punctuality record in the country and has the government considering pulling the franchise. [[TheEngineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel]] would not approve.

* London St. Pancras International- so close to King's Cross it shares a Tube station (see next entry), it is now the home of the Eurostar services (hence the "International"). Frankly, it needed some love and was recently refurbished as a result. Terminus of the Midland Main Line and [=InterCity=] services operated by East Midlands Trains.

** No discussion of this station is complete without discussing the use and misuse of this station by ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', where it is the departure point for the Hogwarts Express via Platform 9¾. Platforms 9 and 10 in real life not only have no wall between them, they are not even in the ECML part of the station. 4 and 5 are used in filming.

*** However, there is a half a trolley sticking out of the wall of the building containing tracks 9, 10 and 11 at King's Cross.

* London Liverpool Street. Used to be grimy and confusing to get around due to its split-level concourse, but was completely refurbished in the early 1980s and is now bright, airy and spacious. Home of the National Express UsefulNotes/EastAnglia services to the Anglia region, the network was formerly known as "one" (sic), which led to jokes, like "The eleven twenty-one one service". Or confusion, as in "[[WhosOnFirst The 1120 "one" service...]]"
** Features in the first ''MissionImpossible'' film.

* London Fenchurch Street. Has a graceful curved pediment above the entrance. Only four platforms and home to c2c, the rebranded LTS Rail. The London, Tilbury and Southend Line, formerly dubbed "The Misery Line", a moniker it has now lost after new trains were introduced (the Class 312 slam door trains were not nice at all). Fairly nice station- just make sure you go out the right exit if you're transferring to Tower Hill. The only London terminus with no directly-linked tube station, although Aldgate and Tower Hill are quite close.

* London Charing Cross. One of the smaller termini with only six platforms, home to Southeasten Trains services to the south-east of England. The closest station to Trafalgar Square and the West End, it sits on the north bank of the Thames, and can be seen from Waterloo. Southeastern Trains are known for their tendency to shut down their entire network if even a single millimeter of snow is detected, something which naturally pisses off the thousands of commuters who rely on it every day.

* London Bridge (always called that, since it's the actual name of the nearby bridge) The main part of the station is a terminus, but some lines run past it and on to Waterloo East and Charing Cross, or to Cannon Street, or to Blackfriars, St. Pancras and beyond on the Thameslink line. Trivia: the station is right next to London's newest and tallest building (as of 2012), the Shard.
* London Waterloo. Named after the 1815 battle (before any more French people complain, they should note Gare d'Austerlitz in Paris), it contained Waterloo International, home of Eurostar until 2007. It also had (until UsefulNotes/WorldWarII) the London Necropolis station next door, a station dedicated to running funeral trains for the London Necropolis company, who ran trains to the Brookwood Cemetery, where over 240,000 people are buried and designed to deal with London's deceased. Waterloo East is a smaller station, between London Bridge and Charing Cross as noted above. It is connected to the main station by a footbridge. The eastern end of the station connects with Southwark Underground Station.

** Recent proposals have been made for all London-bound sleeper trains terminate at the now-disused International part of the station.

* London Liverpool Street. Used to be grimy and confusing to get around due to its split-level concourse, but was completely refurbished in the early 1980s and is now bright, airy and spacious. Home of the National Express EastAnglia services to the Anglia region, the network was formerly known as "one" (sic), which led to jokes, like "The eleven twenty-one one service". Or confusion, as in "[[WhosOnFirst The 1120 "one" service...]]"

Most of the trains in regular service the network now have automatic doors, while the rest have doors that are locked remotely pre-departure and opened only after arrival. Not counting the Eurostar trains, the fastest ones on the network are the Class 91 "Intercity 225" loco-hauled trains found on the East Coast Main Line, the Class 390 "Pendolino" units on the West Coast Main Line, and Southeastern's Class 395 "High-Speed" or "Javelin" trains, which partly use domestic sections of Eurostar track with overhead wiring, and partly third-rail commuter lines at slower speeds.

** No discussion of this station is complete without discussing the use and misuse of this station by ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', where it is the departure point for the Hogwarts Express via Platform 9 ¾. Platforms 9 and 10 in real life not only have no wall between them, they are not even in the ECML part of the station. 4 and 5 are used in filming.

** No discussion of this station is complete without discussing the use and misuse of this station by ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', where it is the departure point for the Hogwarts Express via Platform 9 3/4. Platforms 9 and 10 in real life not only have no wall between them, they are not even in the ECML part of the station. 4 and 5 are used in filming.

* London Paddington: Departure point for the Great Western line, which is non-electrified bar a section that serves the Heathrow services from there, it's a visually impressive station. The Great Western line is currently operated by First Great Western. Dubbed "Worst Great Western" and "Worst Late Western" by many, it recently suffered a fare strike, has the worst punctuality record in the country and has the government considering pulling the franchise. Isambard Kingdom Brunel would not approve.

Privatised under the Major government, the track maintenance was recently (effectively, although the government wouldn't admit it) renationalised after Railtrack decided that it was a shopping mall company which couldn't really be bothered to run a rail network, replaced most of its skilled engineers with unskilled casual labourers working for £5 an hour, became the first British corporation to be convicted of manslaughter after two fatal train wrecks caused by -surprise surprise- sloppy maintenance, virtually shut down the system in a panic for months to make up the maintenance backlog, and then went bankrupt. This did not make the already controversial decision to privatise the rail network any more popular.

->''The supply of [[TheBritishEmpire an Empire]]''

-->--'''ThePogues''', ''Navigator''

After the SecondWorldWar, the network was nationalised and became British Railways (later British Rail). Northern Ireland Railways[[note]]Briefly called the "Ulster Transport Authority"[[/note]] was then created in Northern Ireland to run the system there, and today is still functionally separate from the National Rail system in the rest of the UK.

** GWR inspired much loyalty in its staff and those who used it. Often known as God's Wonderful Railway, and for many years, even after nationalization as the Western Region of British Rail, seemed to go out of its way to be as different from everybody else as possible. Chances are, an idyllic rural branch line in fictional media is probably a GWR line - dark green engine, chocolate-and-cream coaches. The [[Franchise/HarryPotter Hogwarts Express]] is pulled by a repainted GWR engine, and another GWR engine takes the Pevensie children out of London at the beginning of ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia: TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''.

The British railway system also has the distinction of hosting the world's most scenic railway journey, as voted by the travel magazine ''Wanderlust''. The West Highland line, which links Glasgow to the highland port towns of Oban and Mallaig, has held the title for three years, beating the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Cuzco-Macchu Picchu line in Peru. It passes over Rannoch Moor and the Glenfinnan viaduct, where HarryPotter was attacked by Dementors. In summer, part of the route is hauled by "The Jacobite", one of the last working steam engines in Britain.

Previously a massive batch of 120 privately owned companies, in 1921 the government amalgamated these into four big networks, known as "The Big Four". These were:

->''The supply of [[BritishEmpire an Empire]]''

->''"To all passengers. There is a chance that your train may ignore a faulty stop signal, run a badly-sited red light, and kill you. In the old days, British Rail would apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but none of the politicians or companies that make millions from our privatized rail system have the guts to take the credit any more. Have a pleasant journey."''
-->--'''Daily Mirror''' spoof.

** As well as playing Paddington a few times, the station has appeared on its own. The most memorable appearance (although it's not stated as such, you can ID it via the timetables) is in the classic in both senses of the word ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Doctor Who and the Silurians" where a lot of people keel over and die from an alien virus.

** The Midland Hotel, which takes up much of the impressive frontage of the station, was renovated back into a hotel and luxury flats shortly after Eurostar moved there, having served as railway offices for some years and stood empty since the mid-1980s. The Spice Girls' debut video, ''Wannabe'', was filmed in the then-deserted building.

** Until the advent of Eurostar and direct connections through the Channel Tunnel, Victoria was where you started your journey to the continent. Regular trains ran to Dover and Folkestone to connect with the channel ferries, not to mention more luxurious trains such as the Golden Arrow and the London extension of the Orient Express network.

* London Waterloo. Named after the 1815 battle (before any more French people complain, they should note Gare d'Austerlitz in Paris), it contained Waterloo International, home of Eurostar until 2007. It also had (until WorldWarTwo) the London Necropolis station next door, a station dedicated to running funeral trains for the London Necropolis company, who ran trains to the Brookwood Cemetery, where over 240,000 people are buried and designed to deal with London's deceased. Waterloo East is a smaller station, between London Bridge and Charing Cross as noted above. It is connected to the main station by a footbridge. The eastern end of the station connects with Southwark Underground Station.

** It was used a few times for RunForTheBorder plots in ''TheBill'' when Waterloo International was there.
** In MrBeansHoliday, the titular character sets out from here.