Trains at: St Pancras International, MML/HS1, 07/03/26

A great afternoon session spent at London St Pancras International on the Midland Mainline and High Speed 1 where we see plenty of services from East Midlands Railway, Southeastern High-speed and Eurostar.

The station was opened by the Midland Railway in 1868. The station earned its name from the St Pancras neighbourhood which was located nearby. Whilst the station is full of majesty and wonder its actually situated on an old slum town known as Agar Town. Because the station was built fairly high up it meant that there was plenty of space in and around the station for an all manner of things to happen. At the time it was used to store beer that was being brought down from Burton Upon Trent. When the station was being designed it was agreed that there would be single span roof covering the entirety of the station with cross tiers for each arch at the station as not to disturb to lower level foundations.

The first ever service to pull into the station was an overnight mail train that came from Leeds.

St Pancras was built by the Midland Railway during the time that their network was greatly expanded with routes going to Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Carlisle. By the time 1902 had made an appearance there were on average 150 trains coming into and out of the station on a daily basis. Although when you compare that to the likes of Waterloo and Liverpool Street it was actually a far less amount.

When the LMS was created in 1921 St Pancras wasn't really treated with much importance, seeing as they chose London Euston as their main base of operations. But the station was still used and steadily got busier and busier as the years progressed. However during WW2 the station was bombed several times over. One bomb fell through the roof of the main shed and right through platforms 2 - 3 and into the lower levels subsquently exploding. Whilst it didn't close the station it did mean that the two platforms were closed for around 8 months until repairs could be made.

When British Railways came into fruition it gave St Pancras significant investment as the LMS had given it next to no attention. The work that took place included new train destinations being reached from the station which started to solidify its name as an important London station. You could now reach North Woolwich, St Albans and Bedford. Long distance intercity trains soon reached Glasgow, Leeds, Nottingham and every other northern station in the UK. In 1957 the signalling system was upgraded giving the control to a central relay which would replace the 3 seperate boxes controlling the line. When the 1960's said hello the station was deemed redundant and faced several attempts at being closed down.

The station roof was in severe need of repair in the 1970's as it neared collapse. Even when British Rail was sectorised the station was still horribly underused. You had Intercity trains serving Leeds, Nottingham and Sheffield and Network Southeast operating the local commuter services to Bedford.

After all this time the station was starting to gain more interest as newer services were being introduced, especially when London Euston was getting a make over it meant that a lot of services were being diverted into St Pancras. There was also the talk of the station being the hub for the international services coming into the UK. Which of course it eventually did.

My next station will be Milton Keynes Central on the West Coast Mainline.

You can find me on Facebook through the group Tornado922, there you will find regular updates, videos and photos from all of my goings on throughout 2026.

You can also find me on Instagram through the name tornado922 where it isn't just rail related content that I produce.

You can now find me on TikTok under the name Tornado_922