I’m off to Lublin, Poland on Monday for ‘Spectres of Utopia’, the 11th annual Conference of the Utopian Studies Society, Europe. Due to a combination of madness, environmental concern and a love of trains, I’m travelling by rail. From Nottingham.
I’ve always loved trains. The first house I lived in backed onto the Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury line, just to the east of Bilbrook station. My earliest memory is watching an InterCity train flash past in the dark; the lights glaring. We moved out when I was 2; when I was packing up my favourite toy- a wooden Brio railway- I asked mum if we could take the big railway with us too.
At the age of three, I astonished a book shop owner by sitting on the floor of his shop with a railway book and proceeding to name each class of engine. I could still do that- except for some of the more recent anonymous multiple units (trains where the engine and the passenger accommodation is together, and that run in fixed formation) that now have a monopoly on train travel in the UK. I love going past the former BR Rail Technical Centre just outside Derby when I go home from Nottingham. My grandfather (a BR architect) helped design it, and there’s always a decent array of older engines stationed outside.
I’m doing a bit of touring before I leave the country though, and am currently in Canterbury- staying with Alex and Tammy- and greatly enjoyed my journey down by train today. I was pleased that the train from Nottingham was an HST (or InterCity 125 as they used to be branded) rather than one of the modern Meridian units. HSTs have been around since my childhood (and much longer- they’re into their fourth decade of frontline service now, although they’ve all had engines replaced, meaning they’ve lost their characteristic jet-like howl) and have always had a magical allure: they’re the third fastest diesel trains in the world (although the Guinness Book of Records has them as the fastest as the two who claim to better it are unverified) and are just about the only frequently used passenger trains in Britain to have any kind of allure. They’re a great unsung success of modernism and something I really think we should shout a bit louder about. Though we did when they were built- this is the last 35mm film made by British Transport Films, celebrating their production.
The journey from St. Pancras to Canterbury was by the new Javelin train, which runs on Britain’s first high speed rail line as far as Ashford International (it’s the Eurostar route). I was excited about this, and did enjoy the speeds- but I don’t really enjoy high speed travel: I like to enjoy the scenery, and the paraphenalia you get with High Speed Rail (the tracks are always far more separated from the surrounding scenery, and there’s always a lot of concrete- something which, as George Monbiot has highlighted, means it’s very likely as bad for the environment as flying) looks the same wherever you go- I was struck by how much the new Stratford station looks like French high speed stations, and how much Ebbsfleet International looks like an airport:
For that reason, the train I’m most looking forward to travelling on over the next few days is the one I’ll be getting from Warsaw to Lublin: a proper, locomotive hauled InterCity train that’s decidedly less globalised than the others (I’m also looking forward to Lublin’s cold war era trolleybuses).
At least, I hope it’s like that. PKP (Polish InterCity) does operate some horrible multiple units that look like multiple units you get all over Europe.
I’m going on a sleeper from Cologne-Warsaw, but would rather travel in daylight so I could see the scenery (although this will be my first sleeper experience, which is pretty exciting). And there is, of course, a certain romance to the Eurostar from St. Pancras-Brussels and the Thayls from Brussels-Koln, but I like rickety, old and quirky.
I may not be saying that when I arrive at 7pm on Tuesday, mind.
Tags: High Speed Rail, HST, InterCity 125, Polish trains, rail travel, Spectres of Utopia, trains
Maybe I’m too sensitive but I found that the speed of the Eurostar made me feel quite unwell. I also didn’t like how high the headrests are – it made the carriage feel a little claustrophobic, dark and less communal. And yes those plastic Meridian ones are rubbish compared to the old 125s, which feel more industrial with a frightening rattle in the vestibule, though the windows and seating position do make feel as though I’m gliding along.
I’d need to catch up on my railway history, I’m good up until the 1970s – is there a well written book / article on the 70s – to the recent past?
Somebody should do a blog post on Derby’s railway architecture and history.
Yes yes yes; you’re so right about oversized seats spoiling rail travel. It ruins the view as well as making it less communal. I went first class from Nottingham to London today (it was 40p more, so I thought I’d do it for a change) and not only were the seats uncomfortably large (and with the headrest problem you raise), but they spoiled the view. As did the curtains, which the woman on the other side of the coach to me decided to close.
The 156s are pretty dull units and pretty basic for a 5 hour journey, but they work a treat on the line from Glasgow-Mallaig because the seats are so low so you can see out of pretty much all the windows on the train. They don’t beat the first generation diesel multiple units though, with their views out of the front of the train.
The worst trains for views are the Pendolinos; the windows are bloody tiny. The tilting makes me slightly queasy too. That said, I remember not liking the mark 3 coaches on HSTs as a child because the windows were too high for my little self.
My railway history knowledge is fairly poor; most of what I know I remember from my childhood or glean from reading Rail magazines when I go to see my parents. My dad’s got some fascinating books on Nottingham’s railway history (despite being from Staffordshire), and the Mansfield Road tunnel entrance by the car park at the north of the Viccy Centre is one of my favourite abandoned railway sites. Though it rather pales in comparison to Michigan Central: http://washingtonbus.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/michigan-central-train-station-big.jpg
Yes the Great Central Railway through Sherwood Rise, Carrington and Viccy Centre has left a wonderful inner scar, which is not always visable. Although some say it should never have been built in the first place as it was in direct competition with the already successful Midland, Great Northern and London North Western companies. Edward Watkin was the GCR director and the same bloke who tried to build an Eiffel Tower at Crystal Palace. I think he even had an attempt at a Channel Tunnel which would have had the GCR running through it: Nottingham Victoria – Marylebone – Paris!
Haha! I just discovered that the class of Polish engine in that YouTube clip- though built in Poland- is based on the English Electric Class 83. Indeed, some were built in England and one’s been painted into the classic ‘Electric Blue’ that early British electric engines were in to honour this heritage: http://www.gmfk.pl/cpg144/albums/userpics/10917/DSCF4400.JPG
English engines got to some stranger places though; this deal was kept secret from the Americans…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_HS4000#Sale_to_Soviet_Union
Communist trains made in Loughborough! Well I never.
Ahem, or ‘communist engine’ rather – I must use correct railway terminology.
I know what you mean about watching trains in the dark, I always thought they looked a bit like filmstrips. (I used to be able to see this from my bed until my eyesight started going, grr) If you go from London to Norwich (or vice versa) that route (which goes through my village) still uses hauled intercities. You can hear them and the attendant level crossing from my folks’ house, and it takes a while to acclimatise new animals to these sounds.