Kings Cross & Widened Lines Film

[roythebus]

[nickf]

What an evocative film! So many memories, some of them long buried. I began to make a note of the music used but I was soon overwhelmed: it began with the old theme tune to Panorama, then No Hiding place (thanks for the clue; it had me stumped until I saw it)then Maigret....but so many tunes I gave up trying to identify them and just sat immersed in nostalgia. You could smell the soot and the wet steam. Thank you so much for posting it.

[trt]

The Karelia Suite by Sibelius was the theme for ITV's This Week.

[nickf]

Mar 23, 2016 10:55:31 GMT trt said:

The Karelia Suite by Sibelius was the theme for ITV's This Week.

Absolutely right! And I used to work for This Week too! 0/10 for my memory.

[pitdiver]

Yes what a great film certainly brought back some memories. Although I never used the Widened Lines during the age of steam I certainly usedit when class 31s would run down it.
I would like to query something about Kings Cross St Pancras Metropolitan station. In the film it was later used by the Thameslink service. Was it actually called Thameslink in those days.

As for the music well that was amazing brought back loads of memories. Well done Roythebus

[norbitonflyer]

Mar 23, 2016 13:57:30 GMT pitdiver said:

I would like to query something about Kings Cross St Pancras Metropolitan station. it was later used by the Thameslink service. Was it actually called Thameslink in those days.

Not sure what it was called in the 70s, - was it even used? GN services used York Road and platform 16 - but after the Bedpan electrification it was called Kings Cross Midland, becoming KXTL when the Thameslink service opened.

[Deleted]

Mar 23, 2016 14:02:49 GMT norbitonflyer said:

Mar 23, 2016 13:57:30 GMT pitdiver said:

I would like to query something about Kings Cross St Pancras Metropolitan station. it was later used by the Thameslink service. Was it actually called Thameslink in those days.

Not sure what it was called in the 70s, - was it even used? GN services used York Road and platform 16 - but after the Bedpan electrification it was called Kings Cross Midland, becoming KXTL when the Thameslink service opened.

The 1979 timetable calls it "Kings Cross L.T.". There were only 2 morning peak trains to Moorgate, returning in the evening peak. The northbound trains didn't call at Kings Cross.

[patrickb]

Who spotted the COP Stock

[pitdiver]

As I said earlier I used the service to Farringdon many years ago. I can still remember magically appearing out of the depths of Kings Cross for the return trip to New Southgate.

[theblackferret]

Wiki on it:


KingsCrossWL/MCetc.

suggests it was used up to 1979 & then reopened in 1983 as Midland City.

[roythebus]

No, the Widened Lines services finished in 1978 IIRC when Kings Cross was re-signalled and when the Northern City was re-opened. I worked at KX until July 1978 and the service had finished by then. The name Thameslink wasn't "invented" in those days.

Look on the Vimeo site and there's some film of Paddington with CO stock in the background; another film of the NLL Broad Street-Canonbury. I forgot how run-down that line was in the 1960's. It's understandable why people never used it.

[norbitonflyer]

Eastern region services over the Widened Lines ended in December 1976 when the NCL service (which had been converted to 3rd rail a few months before) was connected to the main line (72 years late!), but LMR services continued for a few years until closed for electrification work in 1982. It reopened in 1983 firstly as Kings Cross Midland City, later renamed KX Thameslink when the connection to Blackfriars was reopened in 1988. The Midland station was certainly in use in 1987, as some victims of the Kings Cross fire had tried to escape through the connecting tunnel from the Picadilly platforms, only to find that it was closed as at that time the MC station was only open at peak hours. During the repair work, the MC station was the only access to the Piccadilly Line platforms.

[stapler]

Thanks for posting this, Roy.
Can you post the links to the other Vimeo videos? I find their site, with its dreaded categorisation, maddening!

[roythebus]

Thanks for the update on the widened Lines closure! As I worked at KX I forgot all about the "other" service using it! Was it as long ago as 1976? time flies.

I can't be more helpful about the Vimeo stuff, I got the link off a closed FB railway group and the Vimeo list of other films popped up on there, though some seem to be clips of a longer compilation. Perhaps try tracking down smockberg whose name appears on the credits.

[Geoffram]

I'm not sure which I enjoyed more: the amazingly busy King's Cross in very evocative black and white, or the amazingly diverse soundtrack. What I want to know is this (and I apologise in advance that it's not an Underground-related comment): how did Smockberg manage to get such clean recordings of TV and radio shows from the 1950s, let alone a crystal clear Radio Luxembourg, when we all had to put up a lot of fading in those days!

[caravelle]

Dear Geoffram , The truth may be a little bit more prosaic than you might think:

Radio Luxembourg jingles
No hiding place opening titles
BBC Fifties Radio Themes 1/2
BBC Fifties Radio Themes 2/2
Maigret

Hope you enjoy and sorry for the off topic.

[roythebus]

Maybe downloaded the tracks from the internet? They're all available these days.

[Deleted]

Love the Kings Cross film. Others are on this page. vimeo.com/user2145498