The ' (french: Flèche d’Or) was a luxury

boat train A boat train is a passenger train operating to a port for the specific purpose of making connection with a passenger ship, such as a ferry, ocean liner, or cruise ship. Through ticketing is normally available. __NOTOC__ Notable named boat tr ...

of the Southern Railway and later

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British ...

. It linked

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

with

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maids ...

, where passengers took the ferry to

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

to join the ' of the Chemin de Fer du Nord and later

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...

which took them on to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

History

The ''Flèche d’Or'' was introduced in 1926 as an all-first-class Pullman service between

and

. On 15 May 1929, the Southern Railway introduced the equivalent between London Victoria and Dover while simultaneously launching a new first class only ship, the , for the ferry crossing. The train usually consisted of 10 British Pullman cars, hauled by one of the Southern Railway's

Lord Nelson Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics brought a ...

class locomotives, and took 98 minutes to travel between London and Dover. Because of the impact of air travel and 'market forces' on the underlying economy of the service, ordinary first- and third-class carriages were added in 1931. Similarly the first-class-only ferry, ''Canterbury'', was modified to allow other classes of passenger. The train service ceased at the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

in September 1939. It resumed after the war on 15 April 1946, initially running with the pre-war Pullmans and the Trianon Bar car, a converted twelve-wheeled Pullman. The Southern railway flagship, the replaced the ''Canterbury'' from 10 October 1946. As of 1949, the all-Pullman train was scheduled to depart from London Victoria at 10:30, with the connecting train from Calais reaching Paris (

Gare du Nord The Gare du Nord (; English: ''station of the North'' or ''Northern Station''), officially Paris-Nord, is one of the six large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. The station accommodates the trains that run between the capital ...

) at 17:30, and from Paris at 12:15, with the connecting train from Dover arriving in London at 19:30."Table 21: Golden Arrow (Flèche d'Or)". '' Cook's Continental Timetable'' (3 April – 14 May 1949 edition), p. 94. London: Thomas Cook Publishing. This worked out to a scheduled journey time of 6 hours eastbound and 6 hours, 15 minutes, westbound after accounting for the one-hour difference between

Greenwich Mean Time Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a c ...

and

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries. CE ...

. In 1951, a new set of Pullmans was built, exhibited as part of British Railways' celebration of the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

. In 1961, with the Kent Coast electrification scheme, the train became electric-hauled. That allowed an acceleration to 80 minutes for the down service and 82 minutes for the up service.Southern Region Passenger timetable 5 May 1969 to 3 May 1970. A decline in demand for rail travel between London and Paris saw the last ''Golden Arrow'' run on 30 September 1972 and, in its later years, only the first class section was advertised as a Pullman service.

Preservation

The preserved

Bluebell Railway The Bluebell Railway is an heritage line almost entirely in West Sussex in England, except for Sheffield Park which is in East Sussex. It is managed by the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society. It uses steam trains which operate between an ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

runs a "Golden Arrow" train with Pullman cars "Car 64 (Christine)", "Fingall", "FO 1st class Sappho and an ex- LMS BGZ. The main-line service was revived for a one-off event on 6 May 1994 when it formed part of the celebrations for the inauguration of the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover ...

. It was hauled by the steam locomotive ''Britannia''. The Golden Arrow insignia, of 'Golden Arrow' titles on a green disc with a golden arrow element passing through the two 'O' letters is still a registered trademark and is still today owned by the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The ...

, officially registered to the

Secretary of State for Transport The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent is ...

Literary reference

In Graham Greene's "Travels With My Aunt", the character Zachary Wordsworth, suspected by the London Police of drug-trafficking, uses the Golden Arrow to escape to Paris (Ch.4). The book, published in 1969, notes that twenty pounds, given to Wordsworth by the narrator's aunt, were enough to cover the fare to Paris

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * *

External links

SEMG page

* https://web.archive.org/web/20050424210501/http://www.dover-kent.co.uk/transport/golden_arrow.htm

* {{citation , url=http://www.railwaywondersoftheworld.com/golden-arrow.html, chapter = The Golden Arrow, title= Railway Wonders of the World , date=22 March 1935, pages= 232–239, editor-first=Clarence , editor-last=Winchester , contemporary account of the train Named passenger trains of the Southern Railway Named passenger trains of British Rail 1929 establishments in England 1972 disestablishments in England Railway services introduced in 1929 Pullman Car Company (UK) Railway services discontinued in 1972 International named passenger trains

History

Preservation

Literary reference

See also

References

External links