Golden Arrow
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The Golden Arrow or the Flèche d'Or was a connection with luxury trains and canal ferries between London and Paris . A change between train and ferry was necessary in each of the canal ports on the English Channel .
history
The Fleche d'Or went on the railway network of the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord in 1926 as a pure first class - Pullman train between Paris and Calais in operation. The operator was the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits , and after the Second World War, the SNCF took over economic responsibility for the train that ran on its network. On the English side, the "Golden Arrow" was operated by the Southern Railway from 1929 and from 1948 by British Railways . Between Calais and Dover , passengers had to transfer to the Canterbury ferry, which was also exclusively first class .
The train usually consisted of 10 to 12 Pullman cars and took 98 minutes from London to Dover. As early as 1931, the forces of the market - not least the emergence of air traffic , which withdrew the targeted wealthy clientele - forced a changed concept: the train now also carried ordinary first and third class cars on the English side . The ferry has been adapted accordingly.
Due to the Second World War , the connection was interrupted between September 1939 and April 15, 1946. Then the train continued to operate with the old fleet of cars until it could be replaced by new Pullman cars in 1951, which had been ordered as early as 1938 but whose delivery was delayed due to the war.
In 1961 the traction on the British side was switched to electric operation . In France, on the other hand, the train was still hauled by a steam locomotive between Calais and Amiens until 1969 . Class 231 K locomotives were used. The Flèche d'Or was the last purely 1st class train in Western Europe to be hauled by a steam locomotive .
In 1972 the service fell victim to the falling demand for an upscale rail link and was discontinued on September 30th. The clientele addressed by the offer had switched to air traffic .
Preservation in a museum
Museum transport modeled on the train is offered on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex . On May 6, 1994, on the occasion of the opening of the Canal Tunnel , the train was “revived” once with historic vehicles .
literature
- RW Kidner: The Southern Railway . South Godstone, Surrey: The Oakwood Press (1958).
Movie
- Goden Arrow . Commercial. Great Britain 1930. 35mm silent film .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Klee and Stefan Vockrodt: Gare du Nord: the largest of the great . In: Railways in Paris = Railway History Special 2 (2015). ISBN 978-3-937189-94-9 , pp. 16-21 (21).
- ^ After John Huntley: Railways in the Cinema . London 1969, p. 129, available from: British Transport Films .