Before Eurostar: St Pancras in the 1990s – Diesel Fumes, HSTs and a Forgotten Victorian Masterpiece

🚂 **ST PANCRAS IN THE 1990s – BEFORE THE EUROSTAR TRANSFORMATION**

Today, London St Pancras International is one of the most magnificent railway stations in the world – but in the 1980s and early 1990s it was a very different place.

Join us as we travel back to a time when this enormous Victorian terminus could feel dark, gloomy, neglected and strangely quiet.

Under William Henry Barlow's magnificent train shed, InterCity 125 HSTs and other diesel trains filled the station with the unmistakable sound, smell and atmosphere of Britain's railway in the 1990s.

Yet behind the grime stood one of Britain's greatest Victorian buildings.

In this video we discover why the Midland Railway built St Pancras, how its extraordinary train shed and Midland Grand Hotel came into existence, and how the station gradually fell into decline.

We also tell the remarkable story of how St Pancras narrowly escaped demolition in the 1960s, and how poet and railway enthusiast Sir John Betjeman became one of the leading figures in the campaign to save it.

Then came an extraordinary reversal of fortune.

The Channel Tunnel and construction of Britain's new high-speed railway presented St Pancras with an entirely new future.

The neglected old terminus was painstakingly restored and transformed into St Pancras International, opening in 2007 as London's new gateway to continental Europe.

From gloomy platforms, diesel fumes and an uncertain future to Eurostar, High Speed 1 and one of the greatest railway restorations Britain has ever undertaken – this is the remarkable story of St Pancras.

🚆 Do you remember travelling through the old St Pancras?

Did you experience the station during the 1970s, 80s or 90s?

Tell us your memories in the comments below!

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Thanks for watching **Trains Trains Trains** – and we'll see you again soon for another journey into Britain's railway past!

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