Question about the (historical) boat train, London to Paris
 

In Sherlock Holmes stories and other works either set or written in the early 20th century (I mean both fiction and non-fiction), people always seem to be rushing to catch the boat train from London to "the Continent," usually Paris.

My question: do any history buffs know how that worked? Upon reaching Dover (presumably; or another Channel port?) were the coaches uncoupled and shunted on to a ferry, then re-coupled on the French side? Or did the passengers have to get off the train, get on to a ferry, and then get on to another train in France and continue their voyage?

Since most of these trips seem to have occurred during the night, the former seems more likely, but I don't know whether it was technically possible.

This is on my mind at the moment because I recently took the Eurostar, London to Paris and back, for the first time.

I believe it was caled the "boat train" simply because it was the train the met the boat coming across. To my knowledge they did not put trains onto a ferry - just passengers.

I don't know of any boats that ever carried trains crossing the Channel. But there is a ferry on the <i>Etoile du Nord</i> run from Paris to Copenhagen that does just that.

You might find this article interesting, yes the night boat train did indeed involve putting the the train carriages on to a ferry. http://travel.guardian.co.uk/rail/st...319597,00.html

I did take the day boat train from Paris to London in the mid-60s. The Paris TA selling us our tickets strongly discouraged us taking the night train. Having read the article, I wonder why?

Fascinating stuff, ron! Thanks.

Maybe the reason the Night Ferry was recommended against is because of the noise. I remember the ferry to Denmark as a series of clunks and bangs disturbing my sleep at Chinese water torture intervals.

The overnight train was running as late as 1978, when it was a handy way of getting to earlyish meetings in Paris without having to get up about midnight to catch the 0630 Air France. From memory, the daytime Golden Arrow, as featured in every boy's magazine of the 50s (well, The Eagle, anyway), had stopped by then.

You went through outbound UK passport control at Victoria station (pre-Thatcher, we still had that kind of pointless job-creation scheme for bureaucrats, and the inept government of the time also restricted how much money you could take out of the country, so there was bit of the impertinent questioning we'd fought two wars to keep out) and got on the train. About two hours later, just as you were finally getting to sleep, you were jolted for about another hour, as the carriages got shunted onto to a specially adapted boat, at I think Newhaven. The engine, I understand, didn't get on the boat, though I think there was a specially adapted engine that used to pull the daytime train and ran on both sides.

Another couple of hours later, same thing again. A few hours later still, you arrived at Paris.

Where you'd meet colleagues who'd flown, and were a lot perkier - and better fed, since there was no significant catering that I remember - than the idiots who'd got the train.

All of us flew back. And even then, the plane was cheaper.

I wonder if the demise of the boat train was hastened by cynicism?

Somwhat perkier, perhaps. They did, after all, have to arise at oh-dark thirty to get to LHR. But not a whole lot better fed - I've flown PAR-LON, and the FAs hardly had time to throw a croissant and a Mini Bonbel at us.

I think the 'Night Ferry' went through Dover, where Wagon-Lits sleeping carriages were decoupled and shunted onto a ferry, which then sailed to Dunkerque, to continue the rail journey to Gare du Nord. Paris service started in 1936, and in 1957 a carriage was added for Brussels. Both services closed after the final sailing on 31st October 1980. See http://www.dover-kent.co.uk/transport/night_ferry.htm
The word 'Boat Train' didn't refer to this service, but any train service that was scheduled to link with a particular ferry sailing.

Alec's absolutely right.

In Holmes' day, and still a bit even now, &quot;boat trains&quot; were special trains timed to fit in with boat sailings, generally going to special maritime stations. You'd get off the train, and walk across the quay to the ship.

And not just for France. There's a huge literature around the boat trains that went to Liverpool and Southampton maritime stations for transatlantic ships. There's still a really seedy train that connects with the midnight boat from Fishguard to Ireland.

And then of course there was the boat-train to Harwich.

It connected with the service to the Hook of Holland, and spawned the slogan &quot;Harwich for the Continent&quot; - with innumerable versions of the graffiti traditionally scrawled underneath describing the right place for the rest of us.

We took the night boat train in the early sixties I don't remember much about it except that it was a really unpleasant experience. The crossing was rough and we were in tiny bunk beds in a tiny,not very warm room.

I love flanneruk's posts -- always chock full of information, sometimes with personal reference thrown in.

I guess you had to live through those pre-Thatcher days to feel the anger.

As a frequent visitor -- but only a visitor -- in those days, it did feel as though the country was going down the toilet. But then everywhere else was, too. (70s US: Nixon, Vietnam, inflation, energy crisis, NYC in bankruptcy, recession everywhere)

I remember taking the boat train Paris-London as a teenager on my FIRST solo trip to England, in mid-summer 1970. ( I took the London-Harwich- Holland one too in 1971).

London-Paris took 8 hours. I was dead tired and drifted into sleep in the late-afternoon sun, as we wended our way to London.

I remember waking to see, out of the window, in slanting golden light, a village green or common with young men in white playing a leisurely game of cricket.....Even the 70s couldn't ruin some things English.