Old St Pancras platforms

[Taunton]

If we are looking at books about London stations, John Betjeman's "London's Historic Railway Stations" is more of a good (fascinating) and learned read than a straightforward history. He teamed up with John Gay who took a string of very charismatic photographs. If you like Betjeman's witty but informed style, it's one of his best. Obviously concentrates on the architecture. A chapter on each terminus in turn, apart from the "new" Euston (it was then), which he airily dismisses in a few lines!

 

[Shimbleshanks]

Not quite the same way of doing things, but the Russians are still building dedicated prisoner transport cars. Seventy-five prisoners, eight guards, and two railway staff, with an on-board kitchen and (I believe) no corridor connection to the rest of the train. Sounds rather cosy to me!

Sounds a lot pleasanter than the travelling conditions most commuters are used to in this country. Of course, the Russian railways go to places that roads don't especially in remote areas, which is where I'd imagine most of their prisons are.

 

[jimm]

I think that since the wide platform was built around 1870 and was referred to as the cab road, it was actually for horse-drawn cabs(often the popular handsome cabs hence the name cab road) originally, this later became taxis etc when horses were replaced by internal combustion engined vehicles. Think Sherlock Holmes!

They are called Hansom cabs, after the man who created the design in the 1830s.

Sounds a lot pleasanter than the travelling conditions most commuters are used to in this country.

I must have missed the barred windows and cells on the latest products from Bombardier and Siemens. While the newer Russian prison coaches are a step up from what went before, they are still small crowded cells on wheels.

Valery Sergeyev, deputy director of the Moscow-based Center for Prison Reform, said the conditions on many trains remain primitive. A dozen convicts are often confined to a space that - on a regular passenger train - would accommodate four. The prisoners, en route to their jails, must take it in turns to sleep.

http://siberiantimes.com/other/othe...ortable-trains-for-prisoners-sent-to-siberia/

 

[Western Sunset]

There was an "Avengers" programme of the mid 1960s, where the PM was travelling in a compartment with a bomb under his seat. Steed and Mrs Peel saved the day (as per usual).

 

[80sGuard]

Oh yes, it would have been quite common until reliable road motor transport became available. There have been no other way of doing it in the 19th century and early 20th.

Mention of Prisoners & Escorts is made in the Ticket Examiners' Handbook, A copy of which I received after passing Conductor Guard training. I've still got it, and here's the relevant extract. The black line in the right margin means it's an amendment - January 1985 in this case.