A very enjoyable and busy evening spent at London Paddington which is the terminus of the Great Western Mainline where we see plenty of services from Great Western Railway, TFL Rail, Heathrow Express and London Underground when I had the chance to capture them.
There is a long and vibrant history in regards to London Paddington but I won't go through all of it as there is just so much to tell. So I'll try and keep this as brief but as informative as I can.
The current station wasn't actually opened until 1854, before that there was a temporary station opened in 1838 and served as the terminus for that time.
The current station we all know and love has gone through so many changes in its life time to keep up with the growing population and the ever increasing usage in rail traffic around the UK. Although London Paddington wasn't actually going to be the end of the line to start with. Brunel had proposed that his trains could use London Euston, this would've been very cost affective but he ended up designing his own as he feared that other companies would pose as a threat to his railway with a connection from the Midlands to Bristol.
Once the main station had opened the GWR had demolished the former in 1855. The inspiration for such a grand station came from two places. The first was Crystal Palace and the second was Munich Train Station.
During the later stages of the 1800's track and platforms were added to increase capacity and meet growing demand. So an additional 2 tracks were added in the 1870's, then in 1878 a new platform was built and a further 2 were then added a year later. Whilst all of this work was taking place the roof structure was never touched.
The station used to be lit by gas lights. But because the station was starting to get bigger and busier it meant that newer more powerful lighting was needed. So in 1886 they started experimenting with electric lights running the whole course of the station. At first there were no end of power supply issues but eventually they managed to get the system working, this meant that they could power the terminus, office, goods yard and Royal Oak and Westbourne stations. Something like this had never been done before and soon started to pave the way for electric lighting to be used in all London train stations.
The station wasn't just busy with passengers but also freight oddly enough, the station had a milk dock built and was dealing with over Epps churns of milk every day co in out of the station. It was also used for the transportation of fish, meat, horses and flowers. Not just for the south of the country but for the whole country. Goods would be taken out by horse and cart through the streets of London to their respective destinations.
In 1913 platform 12 was completed, and every year after that for the next 2 years a new platform would be completed. Amazingly during WW1 the station was never hit by German Bombs, primarily because the station itself wasn't a significant military target because there were very little troop movements coming out of that station, Charing Cross and Victoria were the more common ones used for that purpose.
In between WW1/2 more work was done to the station to lengthen platforms and make it more user friendly by adding in New address systems. Or tanoys this day and age. However during WW2 the station didn't favour so well. It became the source of several Luftwaffe attacks and was given heavy damage during the blitz. Yet despite all this the passenger numbers sky rocketed as people were being evacuated from the city into the countryside and holiday makers wanted to get away from the military controlled areas of the UK. Mostly on the South coast of England. The station was first hit by a parachute bomb that detonated on the departure side of the station and the two 500-pound flying bombs destroyed the roof between platforms 6 and 7.
Inside the station you will find a sculpture of Isambard Kingdom Brunel standing proudly overlooking his grand station. The statue itself was completed in 1982.
There is so much to tell about this station it really is an amazing one to read about.
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