Kings Cross 9:45 a.m. July 1919 - The ECJS Expresses
A representation of London Kings Cross on a July morning in 1919 and the first three ECJS Express Passenger Trains for Scotland are preparing in platforms 6, 7 and 8. The 9:50 a.m. for Edinburgh, the 10:00 a.m. "Scotch Express" for Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth and Aberdeen and the 10:35 a.m. for Edinburgh. There will only be two further timetabled day time trains for Scotland, the 11:20 a.m. and the 2:20 p.m. "Afternoon Scotch Express". A lot of passenger traffic travelled overnight, so "the red-eye" is not a modern phenomenon.
A GNR H4 2-6-0 stands in platform 7 with the set for the 10:35 a.m. It is made up of older clerestory ECJS stock, but it remains a high-quality train. The coaches would not be cascaded away from service on the East Coast Main Line until after 1926.
A GNR C1 4-6-2 Ivatt Large Boiler Atlantic stands in platform 6 with set for the 9:50 a.m. Like the 10:35 it is made up of older ECJS clerestory roof coaches.
A GNR C1 4-6-2 Ivatt Large Boiler Atlantic stands in platform 8 with the set for the premier East Coast train, the 10 a.m., which at this time was not officially named, but was known to GNR employees as "The Scotch Express". This is not the crack non-stop express hauled by Gresley pacific 4-6-2s, that is still eight years away in the future, though the name "The Flying Scotsman" would be in use by 1924. The agreement between the East Coast and West Coast companies limiting the speed of the expresses which was put in place following the 1890s "Races to the North" was still in place, but times were changing and it would be abandoned in the mid-1920s. The set making up the 10 a.m. was the best on the ECJS, being made up of elliptical roof bogie stock built between 1906 and 1914. This included a new three-coach catering core including Raven's all-steel Kitchen Car, built at York in 1914.
A view of the 10 a.m.'s Diagram 49A Brake Third.
A view of the 10:35 a.m. from the footbridge.
A view of the 9:50 a.m. from the footbridge
The 9:50 a.m. and the 10:35 a.m. from the south end of the platform near the idling N2 empty stock engines.
The brakes. From left to right, the 56ft6in Diagram 39B on the 10 a.m. the 46ft6in Diagram 36 on the 10:35 a.m. and the 46ft6in Diagram 36 on the 9:50 a.m. There was a high demand for luggage space on all ECJS trains. People did not tend to travel light back then.