• Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Kings Cross electrification

Status
Not open for further replies.

telstarbox

Established Member
Joined
23 Jul 2010
Messages
6,371
Location
Wennington Crossovers
When did the wires first go up at Kings Cross? I saw "The Imitation Game" last night which is set in World War II and had scenes filmed at Kings Cross using 'Black 5's. The wires were clearly visible in the film.

(Edit: I thought the film was really good and the sight of OHL didn't temper my enjoyment of it!)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gibbo53/10403552025/
 
Last edited:
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

ianhr

Member
Joined
17 Sep 2013
Messages
534
Today's Euston would have looked far too modern for the 1940s! Mind you I don't think the old Euston looked much like Kings Cross.

No the old Euston had no resemblance at all to King's Cross and there were several other anachronisms in the film. As already mentioned the overhead catenary was not installed until the 1970's and they were using 1950's Mark I stock to represent 1940 (I did however notice a railwayman with an LMS cap badge). I doubt that Tippex correcting fluid was available in 1951, and the leading actress could not pronounce the name of the Swiss mathematician Euler.
The sets and locations were far too twee and manicured and lacked the authentic grime and shabbiness of 1940s and 1950s Britain. The dialogue and mannerisms were those of the 21st century....people did not speak or act like that in the 1940s and 1950s.

I feel I may be 'nit picking' and after about 20 minutes of this decided I would just enjoy the film for what it is....... a very good film! After all most younger people will be quite unaware of any of the above short comings! I have lived too long!

Incidentally most of the screen play corresponds quite closely with Andrew Hodges excellent and very detailed biography of Alan Turing and this is an impressive achievement. Difficult to see how they could have crammed any more into 2 hours entertainment.
 

Searle

Established Member
Joined
4 May 2012
Messages
1,580
Location
Ladbroke Grove
I'm looking forward to seeing this film, because I've been told that there are many incorrect 'facts' in it, and I've just learnt about the enigma machine in a university course! :P
 

snowball

Established Member
Joined
4 Mar 2013
Messages
8,144
Location
Leeds
I'm looking forward to seeing this film, because I've been told that there are many incorrect 'facts' in it, and I've just learnt about the enigma machine in a university course! :P

There's also the 2001 film Enigma, based on the novel by Robert Harris, which was on BBC4 last week.
 

ac6000cw

Established Member
Joined
10 May 2014
Messages
3,910
Location
Cambridge, UK
Please don't tell me it had a rake of mk1s behind it aswell<(

It did (as far as I could tell) - at least they were in lined maroon.

But I thought it was a very good film overall - it's only people like us that would notice minor issues like that (and if the LNER had had the money, there might have been wires at King Cross by 1939....)
 

ic250

Member
Joined
3 Apr 2014
Messages
60
Today's Euston would have looked far too modern for the 1940s! Mind you I don't think the old Euston looked much like Kings Cross.

Its hard to know what they could have used to imitate the old Euston. Perhaps Preston, as it has a similar pitched roof? Or maybe Carlisle or Glasgow Central? All three are electrified, however.

I suppose Marylebone would have been a good substitute, given it has no wires (but Network SouthEast red livery), though of course the GCML didn't run into Bletchley (nor connect at all with the LNWR main line).
 

nlogax

Established Member
Joined
29 May 2011
Messages
6,022
Location
Mostly Glasgow-ish. Mostly.
When did the wires first go up at Kings Cross?

There's great footage online of a 1976 railtour where you can quite clearly see the then-new knitting gradually making its way south to KX - correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears to stop short of Copenhagen Tunnel.

Also worth catching as the 31+suburban stock make their way along York Road and Hotel Curves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcpb9oZ6f3g
 

Ash Bridge

Established Member
Joined
17 Mar 2014
Messages
4,214
Location
Stockport
and if the LNER had had the money, there might have been wires at King Cross by 1939....

That's an interesting thought! Class77s on Anglo-Scottish Expresses, Class76s on semi-fasts, & class 506 etc. EMUs on stoppers to Peterborough...:p
 

swt_passenger

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Apr 2010
Messages
34,270
I never understood why they didn't wire all the way to Peterborough in the 1970's.

Electrification plans for the main routes were drawn up in the fifties and sixties and would have had fairly clearly defined scope boundaries between the suburban systems and the long distance parts of the network; and in this case I suspect Peterborough was well beyond the notional boundary.

I have a book on ECML electrification somewhere at home, I'll see if I can find a confirmation of that later.
 

TheEdge

Established Member
Joined
29 Nov 2012
Messages
4,498
Location
Norwich
Its an amazing film but there are some historical errors in it. The "abomination" scene at OHL'd Kings Cross with LMS staff all boarding Mk1s is the worst but doesn't hurt the film. There is an awful representation of a U Boat wolfpack (10 plus subs all next each other in a group) and inexplicably the UK happen to have a German military Enigma machine with front plate at the start of the war.

Still, its one of the best films I've seen in a long time and the relatively minor errors are not really connected to and don't impact the plot.

Go and see it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top