Glimpse the past through old images of Paddington Station in London’s City of Westminster.
Busy Saturday 1947
In 1947, the newsreel captured the typical Saturday bustle of passengers and trains at Paddington Station.
There’s a lovely quick shot of a little boy looking up at the train driver, as the steam rises from the engine up into the air.
Station Issue Title Pathe Pictorial Goes Away For The Weekend (1947) – British Pathé on YouTube
Renovation 1967
British Rail’s gateway to the west, Paddington Station, was given a £2 million facelift in 1967.
All thr tracks and signals were ripped out and replaced.
Amazingly, all this work was scheduled over five non-stop working weeks, while the station remained open with a temporary timetable.
Not only do you see some nice images of the station and quite a few passengers and workers, but you see the amusing sight of men working on the railways in what appears to be their working suits. No overalls, hard hats or gloves!
Paddington Station Facelift (1967) – British Pathe on YouTube
Paddington Station 1985
A home movie of trains arriving at and departing from Paddington Station in 1985.
Includes Inter-City 125’s in their original colours, locomotive hauled trains using class 47′ & 50s with 31s on ECS moves, 50 025 ‘Invincible’, a few DMUs, and London Underground C Stock in as built condition.
British Rail-Paddington August 1985 – Soi Buakhao on Youtube
