Thru Londons Battle The Railways Carried On

The great London railway termini are prime military objectives, the nerve centres of the nation's transport-and in spite of air raid alarm, and bombs the railways just have to carry on. Here is a vivid description of the wartime working of Metropolis Station which William Forrest wrote for the News Chronicle 1940.


OF the thousands of bombs rained on London since the blitz began, some, no doubt, were aimed at Metropolis station. None found its mark, and not for a single moment was the work of the station brought to a stop.
When the sirens sound Metropolis Station takes note, but carries on. Nor has it any spotters to give the warning of imminent danger and bring its work to a temporary halt. Night and day, raid or no raid, the trains steam in and out of Metropolis Station-more trains, and longer ones, than ever before.
As the stationmaster said to me, the railways just got to carry on.
He quoted impressive figures. In every weekday during the Battle of London 98 steam trains came in and out of Metropolis Station. Ten of these were run in duplicate, so that actually the number is 108. In addition, 110 suburban trains-known as residentials, came in and out daily.

In the first three weeks of September the booking office at Metropolis Station took as much money in passenger fares as in the whole of a normal September. And the parcels traffic one week was equal to that of pre-Christmas week.
Fifteen coaches used to be about the maximum for main-line trains. Now you can see the giant locomotives regularly pulling 17 coaches out of Metropolis, and sometimes even one or two more. And every compartment is loaded to the limit'. The station master was loud in his praise of the child evacuees. They're grand, he said. The other day I watched them during an alarm. When the guns began to fire they all got terribly excited, but not with fear-no, they were arguing furiously about the sort of guns that were being fired!
Not once, he added have I seen a case of panic at this station. I'm a Northerner myself, but I really must take off my hat to the Londoners.

The loud speaker broke in on our talk: An air raid warning has just been sounded. Passengers can go to the shelters or proceed by their trains.
We walked out to the main departure platform. It was a daylight raid, but one of the more exciting ones, with the planes already over London and the guns firing briskly. There were the booking offices still open at first they used to close during raids, but now they carry on. There were the collectors punching the tickets at the barrier and forgetting that they ought to be wearing their steel helmets during a raid.
Here was the guard urging passengers to get aboard the train, where they would be safe from falling shrapnel. And at the far end of the platform I could see the tin-hatted heads of the driver and fireman protruding from the cab of the engine.
The driver had already arranged the special headlight code which tells the signalmen on the route that the train has already been informed of the raid.

In a few minutes, while the guns were still firing into the clouds the whistle blew, the green flag waved, and the 4.10 for Somewhere in England steamed slowly out of Metropolis.
Until the train reached the limit of the air raid zone it would keep to a maximum of 15m.p.h. Then, on entering the All Clear zone, it would be stopped at the first signal cabin and the driver informed of the “All Clear” The normal headlight would at once be restored and the train proceed without speed restrictions. If it should later run into another air raid it would be stopped again, notified of the raid, change the headlight and reduce; the speed.

Inevitably the trains in and out of Metropolis run late. But they keep on running. While the Alarm was still on I looked in at one of the signal cabins near the station. Like all the other railway personnel, the signalmen were still at their posts.

Besides their steel helmets they have been provided with steel boxes, one for each man and just big enough to hold him in which they can take temporary cover if the bombs begin to fall perilously near.
Darkness and the night alarm. The buses stop, the taxis quit the streets. But passengers still make for Metropolis Station by Underground, and the trains are there to take them on their way.