Lucy’s Train Trip to London

Lucy’s decision to leave home and travel to London is dealt with in a couple of sentences in TSS at the end of chapter 5. At the start of the next chapter, her taxi is pulling up outside Portland Row.

From Northumberland she would have got on to the east coast main line (one of the two main north-south railway lines in Britain, along with the west coast main line), probably at either Alnmouth or Morpeth, travelling down to London King’s Cross station. If we assume 1980s-style journey times, it would probably have taken about four hours (with, possibly, a 1980s-style scorching-hot cheese toastie from the buffet car).The scene in the very 1980s train on which Lucy escapes to London was filmed at the Epping-Ongar heritage railway just outside London, which is also home to Biddlesham station, as seen in Episode 3. In real life, Biddlesham is actually North Weald station, and it used to be part of the Tube network!

Until 1994, the Central line offered a little branch line shuttle service that ran from Epping station to three more stations (one of which was North Weald), terminating in the town of Ongar. The line was used less and less over the years until it was closed, and became a privately owned steam railway, operating just between North Weald and Ongar. 

Visiting the railway makes a nice day out – the trip to Ongar is not very far, but you can do it more than once on your ticket, the stations and surroundings are pretty and there’s a cafe and a station shop at North Weald. There’s also a good chance of being able to ride in Lucy’s carriage – the railway doesn’t have many carriages, so it’s usually in use. (It’s one of the blue and white ones – look for the distinctive winged headrests on the seats.)
The railway is not open all the time, but it does operate most weekends in summer and some other dates – it’s best to check their website. On open days, there is a vintage bus shuttle service that picks you up from Epping Underground station and takes you to North Weald, included in the price of your ticket.

[Content provided by Ed]