British Railways Overseas Offices

[17jwarman]

Can anyone shed any light on BR's offices overseas? I've noticed in old timetables that there were definitely ones in Paris and Brussels, and the timetable also gives me one in Jersey and one in Guernsey, but I'm imagining there were others. The USA perhaps? What sort of services did they provide, where were they, when were they operating etc. Just interested to know, any info or resources would be much appreciated ty.

 

[Tester]

Can anyone shed any light on BR's offices overseas? I've noticed in old timetables that there were definitely ones in Paris and Brussels, and the timetable also gives me one in Jersey and one in Guernsey, but I'm imagining there were others. The USA perhaps? What sort of services did they provide, where were they, when were they operating etc. Just interested to know, any info or resources would be much appreciated ty.

There was definitely one in New York.

I can remember seeing vacancies for it in the BR vacancy list in the 1970s, and idly speculating that it would be an interesting job.

 

[Peterthegreat]

Vienna and Basel definitely.

 

[dazzler]

There was definitely one in New York.

I can remember seeing vacancies for it in the BR vacancy list in the 1970s, and idly speculating that it would be an interesting job.

From memory of reading the same vacancy in the lists of the early 1990s, it was a 6 month temporary posting with included accommodation.

 

[wimbledonpete]

There was one in Dublin, on Lower Baggot Street. I worked there for three months in 1990 - we mainly sold rail/sea/rail tickets to Britain via Dun Laoghaire but could sell any BR ticket, as I remember.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

From memory of reading the same vacancy in the lists of the early 1990s, it was a 6 month temporary posting with included accommodation.

A highly desirable secondment - there was also an office in Hamburg at one time - met the employee when I did a week there for the IVA exhibition in 1988 - another plum posting and he was able to arrange some facilities for me with DB - signalbox visits etc.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Madrid - a railway friend from Derby had a two-week secondment there sorting out and auditing the accounts. He, of course, went by train which was a bit of a marathon back then - unfortunately, it was winter time with freezing temperatures and howling winds for which the city is notorious.

 

[tbwbear]

There were certainly "British Railways" travel agents / offices in Paris and New York in the 1930s - the Big 4 companies created them as a joint venture IIRC and they were actually labelled "British Railways" - Not sure if these locations morphed into BR offices after 1948.

 

[Beebman]

I've found on eBay a 1960s ad from the National Geographic which gives BR addresses in the USA as follows:

New York 20, N.Y.: 630 Fifth Avenue
Los Angeles 14, Calif: 510 West Sixth Street

I'm not sure if we're allowed to directly link to anything on eBay but I've downloaded and attached the ad.

 

[Taunton]

Both those offices in New York and LA were right where airline ticket offices were once concentrated. If I remember correctly (never went inside) the New York one had a streetfront window entrance, whereas the LA one was a room or two in a large office block.

Although there was a counter for customers, most of their work was as a wholesale distribution point to travel agents. BritRail passes, and later InterRail, were a mainstream sale.

If you couldn't wait for tickets to be sent out to you in middle USA, any travel agent there could sell one of these on a Miscellaneous Charges Order (MCO), a document to be exchanged for tickets when in Britain. I suppose the ticket office at Victoria was used to these, but I wonder what the junior clerk at Aberystwyth would make of one ...

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

There were certainly "British Railways" travel agents / offices in Paris and New York in the 1930s - the Big 4 companies created them as a joint venture IIRC and they were actually labelled "British Railways" - Not sure if these locations morphed into BR offices after 1948.

Yes the Paris office of the Big 4 on the Rue Madeleine morphed into the real British Railways in 1948 and lasted well into the '80s.

As an aside, many of the continental railway adminstrations had offices in London - French Railways on Piccadilly for example - which were great for getting system maps, timetables etc as a young enthusiast!

 

[Merle Haggard]

There was definitely one in New York.

I can remember seeing vacancies for it in the BR vacancy list in the 1970s, and idly speculating that it would be an interesting job.

I did, too; the pay in dollars when converted to sterling fror a CO2 ish job seemed astronomical. But fortunately I read a newspaper article that said that N.Y. dustmen on about twice that salary were on strike because it was impossible to live in New York on it.

I wonder if anyone from B.R. ever went.

///

Railfreight International in train ferry days had offices in France, Germany and Italy. In early Tunnel days there was also an RfD man in S.N.C.F control at Lille. Usually but not always the staff went on promotion - the Italian one latterly was a local.

 

[dazzler]

Railfreight International in train ferry days had offices in France, Germany and Italy. In early Tunnel days there was also an RfD man in S.N.C.F control at Lille. Usually but not always the staff went on promotion - the Italian one latterly was a local.

There was also a BR employee at Zeebrugge who was there to inspect wagons bound for the UK train ferry. I'm not sure about any of the previous incumbents, but the last gentleman in that post is British and as far as I am aware still lives in that general area.

 

[Merle Haggard]

There was also a BR employee at Zeebrugge who was there to inspect wagons bound for the UK train ferry. I'm not sure about any of the previous incumbents, but the last gentleman in that post is British and as far as I am aware still lives in that general area.

Interesting thanks, I didn't know that. I never went to Zeebrugge but I did visit Dunkerque quite a few times. There definitely was't such a post there.

One of the problems for British staff working in mainland Europe for B.R. was that when their work finished, returning to Britain meant that they had to get back on the housing 'ladder' here. House price inflation had generally been much higher here than where they had been living when they were away.