Kings Cross was the home of teak carriages for almost 100 years, first as the home of the Great Northern Railway, then the LNER and finally under British Rail.
To most people that means Gresley Bogie carriages, however 120 or more years ago, it was short, 6 wheeled carriages designed by Francis Howlden.
When the GNR first reached London it used a station called Maiden Lane, north of the present Kings Cross station. The first train to leave Maiden Lane was reported in the Times to consist of Golden Teak carriages, which were most comfortable and well equipped.
From the first, the GNR was a typically Yorkshire company, being what is called cautious with money, hence their first carriages were finished in bare wood, teak, rather than go to the expense and time involved in painting them. Although now a protected species, at the time Teak was widely available, a good, strong, long lived wood. It had been used for years by the East India Company to build ships which transported goods back to England. Indeed one of the oldest still floating ships in the British Navy, HMS Trincomalee which was built in 1817, unlike HMS Victory which was built 52 years earlier, however, it has not needed a number of replacement timbers, and is not in dry dock.
Even before the Great Exhibition, in 1851, it was established practice on the GNR that all carriages were in Lined Teak Livery. Indeed at the end of the Exhibition, the GNR refused to buy some sample carriages from one of their established carriage suppliers who had been an exhibitor, because they were painted.
Early GNR carriages were all built by outside contractors, as the company established itself, and understood their traffic patterns. Companies such as Walter Williams (Later C. W. Williams, his son) Joseph Wright ( which eventually became Metro Cammell) Birmingham Carriage and Wagon, and others built for the GNR.
Once the railway had been authorised by parliament, carriages were ordered and built, not as trains, rather as individual numbers of particular vehicle types.
Indeed it was not until 1866 that carriages were built in Doncaster for the first time as complete trains. The first trains were for the East Coast Joint Railway, which had been established in 1860, between the Great Northern Railway, North Eastern and North British companies. This was the route from Kings Cross to Edinburgh, which once the Forth Bridge had been built from 1882 until 1890 was completed with no off rail interruptions.
This was the route which later became famous for the Flying Scotsman train.
It is surprising to know that the journey , before the introduction of the Forth Bridge, was for 10 1/2 hours, which for some 25 years undertaken in 6 wheeled carriages similar to the one we are seeking to preserve and restore. There was an half hour stop at York for the 10 o’clock Special Scotch Express for lunch, but for much of that time carriages did not have toilets, which would have made travelling pretty worrying for many people.
After the opening of the Forth Bridge, 8 wheel rigid and then various bogie carriages, from 12 wheelers, and clerestories, down to the later 8 wheeled ones made famous by Nigel Gresley were used along the East Coast Main Line up to Scotland. This was the route taken by the Famous train and engine called Flying Scotsman as well as Mallard’s speed run in 1938.
Gresley carriages were used by the LNER into Kings Cross from 1923 well into BR time with steam engines.
Having survived about 130 years our carriage shows the longevity of Teak Carriages, and certainly deserving of saving and restoring.
Now she has been moved down to Quainton Road, from Tanfield, in the North East, with help from members of the Great Northern Railway Society, she is under cover for the first time in over 50 years, to dry out so that we may know what is necessary to bring her back to life.
You can join us on the journey by subscribing to the restoration fund.
