History UsefulNotes / NationalRail

* London St. Pancras International - so close to King's Cross it shares a Tube station (see next entry); it's also a hop, skip, and a jump from Euston (abut 10-15 minutes' walk down Euston Road, or just one stop on the [[UsefulNotes/LondonUnderground Tube]]). It is now the home of the Eurostar services (hence the "International"). Frankly, it needed some love and was refurbished as a result in the late 2000s/early 2010s to the point it is now considered one of the best stations in the world. Terminus of the Midland Main Line and [=InterCity=] services operated by East Midlands Trains, as well as the [[UsefulNotes|HighSpeedRail High Speed services]] to Kent operated by Southeastern.

* The Class 350 'Desiro' and 390 'Pendolino' Electric Multiple Units. Very common on the WCML; the 350s are commuters and operated by London Midland Trains and the 390s are express units and operated by Virgin Trains. Both of these can easily hit 125 miles per hour and have very smooth rides. In fact, the Pendolinos are so incredibly fast that station announcers warn those on the platform to stay back from the edge as these go rocketing through.

* Class 90: Electrified by overhead wires and operated by several companies.

* London St. Pancras International - so close to King's Cross it shares a Tube station (see next entry); it's also a hop, skip, and a jump from Euston (abut 10-15 minutes' walk down Euston Road, or just one stop on the [[UsefulNotes/LondonUnderground Tube]]). It is now the home of the Eurostar services (hence the "International"). Frankly, it needed some love and was refurbished as a result in the late 2000s/early 2010s to the point it is now considered one of the best stations in the world. 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.

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 non-retrofitted 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.

* Britain has historically the most heavily restricted 'loading gauge' to rail width in the world, which basically means that the trains tend to be less wide and less tall than those on the continent; this can cause issues when shipping freight between countries and indeed the first Eurostar trains, the Class 373, are slightly smaller versions of the TGV designed for use on British lines in the south of England that the service ran through until the opening of High Speed 1. 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, well into the BR era.

The British railway system was the first in the world and one of the most developed, but is now somewhat smaller than it was in the past. This was significantly due to a man named Dr. Richard Beeching who helped close down about a third of the network (mostly smaller branch lines, but it also included most of the longer Great Central Railway (GCR) from London to Manchester via Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield) on grounds of economic non-viability (he proposed further cuts but these were rejected). This didn't really work and some of the lines have since been reopened as railway use has grown, with further reopenings planned or actively campaigned. In addition, there is a controversial proposal to build a up to 250mph (400 [[superscript:km]]∕[[subscript:h]]) high speed line from London to Manchester, dubbed '[=HS2=]', which may or may not see the light of day.

* Class 91: Electrified by overhead wires and operated by several companies.

Privatised under the [[UsefulNotes/JohnMajor Major government]], the track maintenance was ultimately (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, deliberately adopted a culture of defiance (its words) to its own regulator, 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.

** Perhaps most famous as the railway of No. 4468 ''Mallard'' (reached the steam speed record of 126 miles per hour in 1938) and No. 4472 ''Flying Scotsman'' (reached 100 miles per hour). Both designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, they currently live at the National Railway Museum in York, itself a key junction on the LNER network.

--> - '''Music/ThePogues''', "Navigator"

* ''Literature/TheThirtyNineSteps''

* The Turbostar (Class 168, 170-172) DMU/ Electrostar EMU family (Class 357, 375-379, 387) - replaced a larger number of older classes post-privatisation; the variants have different ends to them, but they all combine good top speed with comfort and air condition.

* The Class 66s. An imported German design, these are nicknamed 'Sheds', because, well, they look like one. Very distinctive shapes, due to the pointed roof and large windows. Carry a number of liveries, including Freightliner, EWS, GBRF, Railfreight Services and DB Schenker.
* The Class 70s. Similar to the Class 66s, these are only operated by Freightliner.
* The Class 91s. Electrified by overhead wires and operated by several companies.

** The finale of the Creator/DouglasAdams novel ''Literature/TheLongDarkTeaTimeOfTheSoul'' is set in St Pancreas and the deserted Midland Hotel. [[spoiler: Which is also Valhalla, sort of]].

* The Class 350 'Desiro' and 390 'Pendolino' EMUs. Very common on the WCML; the 350s are commuters and operated by London Midland Trains and the 390s are express units and operated by Virgin Trains. Both of these can easily hit 125 miles per hour and have very smooth rides. In fact, the Pendolinos are so incredibly fast that station announcers warn those on the platform to stay back from the edge as these go rocketing through.
* The Class 220 Voyager DMUs. Operated by Cross Country and Virgin Trains. Like the 390s above, these operate on the same routes and are quite speedy.

-->-- '''Music/ThePogues''', "Navigator"

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 all, at least ''twelve'' stations in Central London open today can be counted as being "major" termini--rather more than the number in other large cities (for comparison, Paris has six, Berlin four, and New York two[[note]]Although the low number for New York can be attributed in part to the general decline of rail travel in the United States and in part to the American mania for "union stations"--that is, single stations to host multiple railroads (New York Penn presently plays host to three, even with the decline)--the fact that the rail-crazy Europeans also have fewer stations just goes to show how strange London is.[[/note]]). This is in large part because of the aforementioned bit with the large number of railway companies in Britain; each liked to operate its own smaller station rather than gather together in a few larger ones. So we now have twelve big stations. In clockwise order from the West direction, these are the current ones:

* London Cannon Street - a commuter station serving the City of London (ie the financial district) with platforms extending onto the river. The original victorian concourse was replaced by a bland 1960s building, but the red brick walls and towers at the river end have been refurbished. Trains using the station have to negotiate a tight curve around Southwark Cathedral, which causes a lot of wear and tear on the wheels.

* London Charing Cross. One of the smaller termini with only six platforms, home to Southeastern 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 Victoria: 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. It still has some international connections, as many tourists use it to go to and from Gatwick Airport because nobody's told them it's cheaper to go from Blackfriars.
* 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 tallest building (as of 2014), the Shard.

* Mark 3 coaches - still very common on long-distance routes, usually hauled by a locomotive with a driving trailer at the other end or sandwiched between two HST power cars - the HST versions are not compatible with other Mark 3 stock). These include the above-mentioned manually operated doors and in most cases, toilets that flush directly onto the track... which is why there are signs telling you to flush them while stationary.

* LMS Stainier Class 5 aka 'Black Five' - 842 of these steam locos were built for mixed traffic work and survived into the BR era; 18 ended up preserved and remain highly popular for railtours.

----

The British railway system was the first in the world and one of the most developed, but is now somewhat smaller than it was in the past. This was significantly due to a man named Dr. Richard Beeching who helped close down about a third of the network (mostly smaller branch lines, but it also included most of the longer Great Central Railway (GCR) from London to Manchester via Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield) on grounds of economic non-viability (he proposed further cuts but these were rejected). This didn't really work and some of the lines have since been reopened as railway use has grown, with further reopenings planned or actively campaigned. In addition, there is a controversial proposal to build a up to 250mph (400 km/h) high speed line from London to Manchester, dubbed '[=HS2=]', which may or may not see the light of day.

'''London Terminals [sic] and interesting London railway stuff'''

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 all, at least ''twelve'' stations in Central London open today can be counted as being "major" termini--rather more than the number in other large cities (for comparison, Paris has six, Berlin four, and New York two[[note]]Although the low number for New York can be attributed in part to the general decline of rail travel in the United States and in part to the American mania for "union stations"--that is, single stations to host multiple railroads (New York Penn presently plays host to four, even with the decline)--the fact that the rail-crazy Europeans also have fewer stations just goes to show how strange London is.[[/note]]). This is in large part because of the aforementioned bit with the large number of railway companies in Britain; each liked to operate its own smaller station rather than gather together in a few larger ones. So we now have twelve big stations. In clockwise order from the West direction, these are the current ones:

** Where Paddington Bear arrived. There is a statue of him at the station.
** Features in the second ''AustinPowers'' film.
** The Agatha Christie novel ''4.50 From Paddington''.

* 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 refurbished as a result in the late 2000s/early 2010s to the point it is now considered one of the best stations in the world. 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.

** Part of ''[[Film/TheBourneSeries The Bourne Ultimatum]]'' is filmed there.

The British railway system was the first in the world and one of the most developed, but is now somewhat smaller than it was in the past. This was significantly due to a man named Dr. Richard Beeching who helped close down about a third of the network (mostly smaller branch lines, but it also included most of the longer Great Central Railway (GCR) from London to Manchester via Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield) on grounds of economic non-viability (he proposed further cuts but these were rejected). This didn't really work and some of the lines have since been reopened as railway use has grown, with further reopenings planned or actively campaigned. In addition, there is a controversial proposal to build a up to 250mph (400 km/h) high speed line from London to Manchester, dubbed 'HS2', which may or may not see the light of day.

** There were 22 versions with a buffet car in place of the trailer coach; these were known as '4-BIG'.

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 all, at least ''twelve'' stations in Central London open today can be counted as being "major" termini--rather more than the number in other large cities (for comparison, Paris has six, Berlin four, and New York two). This is in large part because of the aforementioned bit with the large number of railway companies in Britain; each liked to operate its own smaller station rather than gather together in a few larger ones. So we now have twelve big stations. In clockwise order from the West direction, these are the current ones:

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 through their Sealink ferry business) and multiple units in a numbering system that survives with some changes to this day - TheOtherWiki has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_locomotive_and_multiple_unit_numbering_and_classification more information]].

Linked to all of this is the very active 'heritage' railway scene in the UK, which got started in the 1960s as BR removed steam from the main line. A good number of old locomotives were saved from scrapping by a Barry Island owner who decided it made more economic sense to sell them to the preservation movement than cut them up. Many of these run on (mostly) single-track heritage lines that are reopened passenger lines, where they have been joined by ex-BR locomotives and some Diesel Multiple Units, but there are companies that do fairly expensive steam tours on the mainline, something guaranteed to make regular users gawp in amazement.

* 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 refurbished as a result in the late 2000s/early 2010s to the point it is now considered one of the best stations in the world.. 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.

Privatised under the [[UsefulNotes/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, deliberately adopted a culture of defiance (its words) to its own regulator, 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.

It is now a collection of 24 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. These companies frequently incorporate the name of their owner into their name (Arriva Trains Wales or Abellio Greater Anglia) or reference a historical Big Four company (Southern).

* 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 had 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 to the point it is now considered one of the best stations in the world.. 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.

* London King's Cross. Home of the East Coast Main Line (current operators Virgin Trains East Coast and two open access operators, First Hull Train and Grand Central). UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground station, King's Cross St. Pancras, is a six line station and the busiest on the network. It's been claimed, probably inaccurately, Boudica is buried there. Has recently undergone a major renovation.

** Recently reconstructed, and now uniquely has platforms running across the River Thames with entrances on both banks.

** In ''Film/MrBeansHoliday'', the titular character sets out from here.

The British railway system was the first in the world and one of the most developed, but is now somewhat smaller than it was in the past. This was significantly due to a man named Dr. Richard Beeching who helped close down about a third of the network (mostly smaller branch lines, but it also included most of the longer Great Central Railway (GCR) from London to Manchester via Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield) on grounds of economic non-viability (he proposed further cuts but these were rejected). This didn't really work and some of the lines have now been reopened as railway use has grown.

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. These companies frequently incorporate the name of their owner into their name (Arriva Trains Wales or Abellio Greater Anglia) or reference a historical Big Four company (Southern).

* London Marylebone. Only six platforms, it provides Chiltern Railways' all-diesel services along the Chiltern Main Line to Birmingham and beyond - it is the only non-electrified London terminus. 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 King's Cross. Home of the East Coast Main Line (now re-nationalised as "East Coast" after the franchise holder unceremoniously pulled out mid-tenure). UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground station, King's Cross St. Pancras, is a six line station and the busiest on the network. It's been claimed, probably inaccurately, Boudica is buried there.

*** Creator/JKRowling has stated that she had got confused when writing the first book and had been visualising the platforms at Euston (which, like King's Cross, are platforms seperated by two rails).

** It's the only London terminus which Sherlock Holmes never used, even though he supposedly lived just round the corner in Baker Street - because the station hadn't been built when the stories were written.
*** Well, not when some of the stories were written anyway. Marylebone Station opened in 1899, so it pre-dates all of the post-Reichenbach Falls stories.
** ''Music/TheBeatles'' departed from this station in A Hard Day's Night.
* London Euston- Home of the West Coast Main Line, which goes to Scotland via Manchester, London Midland services to Birmingham and London Overground trains to Watford Junction. The WCML is currently owned by a certain Richard Branson as part of the Virgin network. The current station is an unpopular 1960s concrete affair that is a controversial replacement for the original that was knocked down along with the famous arch.
* 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 to the point it is now considered one of the best stations in the world.. 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.

* London Blackfriars

* London Victoria
** 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. It still has some international connections, as many tourists use it to go to and from Gatwick Airport because nobody's told them it's cheaper to go from Blackfriars.
* 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 tallest building (as of 2014), the Shard.

* Britain has historically the most heavily restricted 'loading gauge' to rail width in the world, which basically means that the trains tend to be less wide and less tall than those on the continent; this can cause issues when shipping freight between countries and indeed the first Eurostar trains, the Class 373, are slightly smaller versions of the TGV designed for use on British lines in the south of England that the service ran through until the opening of High Speed 1.
** 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, well into the BR era.

* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' had a go as well- rather ironically, as Creator/MichaelPalin is himself a trainspotter.

(This is of course, not just confined to the UK).

* London King's Cross. Home of the East Coast Main Line (now [[strike: owned by National Express under the name National Express East Coast after a franchise yank from the previous owners]] re-nationalised as "East Coast" after the franchise holder unceremoniously pulled out mid-tenure). UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground station, King's Cross St. Pancras, is a six line station and the busiest on the network. It's been claimed, probably inaccurately, Boudica is buried there.

Privatised under the [[UsefulNotes/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.

-->--'''Music/ThePogues''', ''Navigator''

** Features in the first ''MissionImpossible'' film and also in ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]''.

Note that the ticket and pricing structure is ''insanely'' complicated and often even railway company staff don't know the best option to offer you for your journey. There are apocryphal reports that one particular journey had ''30'' different ticket options available to choose from at that time. Your best bet is to use one of the many online ticket finder websites to find the best deal.