The Night Ferry was an international sleeper

Sleeping car

The sleeping car or sleeper is a railway/railroad passenger car that can accommodate all its passengers in beds of one kind or another, primarily for the purpose of making nighttime travel more restful. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American railroads in the 1830s and could be configured...

 train between London Victoria and Paris Gare du Nord

Gare du Nord

Paris Nord is one of the six large terminus railway stations of the SNCF mainline network for Paris, France. It offers connections with several urban transportation lines, including Paris Métro and RER...

 (and later also Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

). It was operated by the SNCF

SNCF

The SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network...

 and the Southern Railway then, following nationalisation on 1 January 1948, the Southern Region

Southern Region of British Railways

The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992. The region covered south London, southern England and the south coast, including the busy commuter belt areas of Kent, Sussex...

 of British Railways.

Rolling stock

Introduced on the night of 5 October 1936, it featured newly contructed sleeping coaches from the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits built to an adapted design to fit the British loading gauge

Loading gauge

A loading gauge defines the maximum height and width for railway vehicles and their loads to ensure safe passage through bridges, tunnels and other structures...

, of the so-called type F (for Ferry). 12 carriages (3788-3799) were built by ANF at Blanc-Misseron (near Valenciennes) in France in 1935-36, of which 1936-built Sleeping Car No. 3792 has now been preserved in the National Railway Museum

National Railway Museum

The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the British National Museum of Science and Industry and telling the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It has won many awards, including the European Museum of the Year Award in 2001...

 in York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

. A further 6 were built in 1939 by the Compagnie Générale de Construction at St. Denis (3800-3805), but only entered service in 1946. A final 7 (3983-3989) came in 1952, also built at St. Denis, to replace wartime losses. Thus, a total of 25 F-sleepers were built, all of the same design. In addition to sleeping cars, the train normally included two SNCF "Fourgon" baggage vans. Only one of those seems to be extant, and is currently stored in French rail sidings along with an unrestored F Class Sleeper Car (see also links to the irps-site below). Each overnight train carried up to five (very occasionally six) sleeping cars. When loaded onto the train ferry the train was split into sections and loaded equally on tracks on the port and starboard sides of the ship, to maintain its balance.

The Night Ferry normally departed from and arrived at platform 2 at London Victoria station. Customs

Customs

Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...

 checks were carried out at the station.

The (First Class) sleeping cars and the baggage vans travelled the entire journey. The British train from Victoria to Dover, and the French train from Dunkirk to Paris, conveyed normal second class coaches of their own railway. The passengers travelling by these walked on and off the ship in the standard way. In addition the British train conveyed one of a pair of standard Mk 1 Brake Composite carriages, which had been modified with a French-style gangway connection at one end. This provided the guard's compartment in Britain and enabled the guard to walk through the train.

Until the Eurostar

Eurostar

Eurostar is a high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains traverse the Channel Tunnel between England and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....

 service began on 14 November 1994, the Night Ferry had been the only through passenger train between Great Britain and Continental Europe. The carriages of the daytime Golden Arrow train did not cross the Channel.

Train ferry

A train ferry

Train ferry

A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as...

 was used between Dover

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

 and Dunkirk to convey passengers as they slept. The train used one of the three Southern Railway train ferries SS Hampton Ferry, SS Twickenham Ferry

SS Twickenham Ferry

Twickenham Ferry was a train ferry built in 1934 for the Southern Railway. She served during the Second World War as a minesweeper and returned to merchant service post-war, serving until 1974 when she was scrapped.-Description:...

and SS Shepperton Ferry, built in the mid-1930s by Swan Hunter

Swan Hunter

Swan Hunter, formerly known as "Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson", was one of the best known shipbuilding companies in the world. Based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, the company was responsible for some of the greatest ships of the early 20th century — most famously, the RMS Mauretania which...

 in Newcastle

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

. Two ships were normally in service with the third as a spare. After the loss of the car ferry in 1953 on the voyage from Stranraer Harbour

Stranraer Harbour railway station

Stranraer railway station is a railway station that serves both the town of Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland and the port for ferries to Belfast, Northern Ireland. The station is 94.5 miles southwest of Glasgow and is the terminus of the Glasgow South Western Line...

 to Larne Harbour

Larne Harbour railway station

Larne Harbour railway station, Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, serves the ferry port for ferries to Cairnryan and Troon, Scotland and Fleetwood, England...

 it was normal for the Hampton Ferry to go to Stranraer each summer to provide a drive on/off car ferry service, and the annual ship overhauls were scheduled in the winter when it would return to relieve the other two in turn. This arrangement ended in 1961. There was also a French-owned train ferry, the St. Germain, built in 1951, and some of the car ferries built later also had rail tracks and were used on the service; the original ships having been withdrawn over the years 1969–1974 (before the end of the Night Ferry).

At Port of Dover

Port of Dover

The Port of Dover is the cross-channel port situated in Dover, south-east England. It is the nearest English port to France, at just away, and one of Europe's largest passenger ports, with 14 million travellers, 2.1 million lorries, 2.8 million cars and motorcycles and 86,000 coaches passing...

 and Dunkirk special enclosed dock

Dock (maritime)

A dock is a human-made structure or group of structures involved in the handling of boats or ships, usually on or close to a shore.However, the exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language...

s with sea locks

Lock (water transport)

A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...

 were built so that the train ferry could be kept at a reasonably constant level relative to the railway tracks on the land. It was not possible for railway vehicles to ascend the steep gradient that road vehicles would sometimes have to use crossing a car ferry linkspan

Linkspan

A linkspan or link-span is a type of drawbridge used mainly in the operation of moving vehicles on and off a RO-RO vessel or ferry.Linkspans are usually found at ferry terminals where a vessel uses a combination of ramps either at the stern, bow or side to load or unload cars, vans, trucks and...

 when the tide is at its fullest extent. At high tide the ship could steam directly in or out of the dock, but at low tide the water had to be let out first before departure, like a canal lock, and on arrival water had to be pumped in to bring the ship up to track level. There was a pumphouse

Pumping station

Pumping stations are facilities including pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, such as the supply of water to canals, the drainage of low-lying land, and the removal of sewage to processing sites.A pumping station...

 alongside each dock to perform this rather long-winded process. In contrast the train ferries which used to link parts of Denmark and Scandinavia did not have such problems, as the tidal range

Tidal range

The tidal range is the vertical difference between the high tide and the succeeding low tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation of the Earth...

 in the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

 is far less than at the Strait of Dover

Strait of Dover

The Strait of Dover or Dover Strait is the strait at the narrowest part of the English Channel. The shortest distance across the strait is from the South Foreland, 6 kilometres northeast of Dover in the county of Kent, England, to Cap Gris Nez, a cape near to Calais in the French of...

.

Two ships were required for the service each night. They passed in mid-Channel, the voyage taking about three hours. The ships usually returned in the daytime, carrying only freight wagons. On some crossings road vehicles were also carried alongside the trains, the decks of the ships being level with the embedded rail tracks.

The coaches were chained to four parallel tracks on the decks. The train was not a good timekeeper because of the complexity of loading and offloading coaches. It was the only service of the Southern Railway to be regularly double-headed

Double-heading

In railroad terminology, double-heading or double heading indicates the use of two locomotives at the front of a train, each operated individually by its own crew. The practice of triple-heading involves the use of three locomotives....

, with a Bulleid Pacific

SR Merchant Navy class

The SR Merchant Navy class , was a class of air-smoothed 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotives designed for the Southern Railway of the United Kingdom by Oliver Bulleid...

 and E1 or L class

SECR L class

The SECR L class was a class of 4-4-0 steam tender locomotive built for express passenger service on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway. Although designed by Harry Wainwright, they were built during the Maunsell era.-Background:...

 4-4-0

4-4-0

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels...

 locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

s.

Following electrification of the railway between Tonbridge

Tonbridge

Tonbridge is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 30,340 in 2007. It is located on the River Medway, approximately 4 miles north of Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London...

 and Dover Marine in the late 1950s, the train was usually hauled within England by British Rail Class 71

British Rail Class 71

The British Rail Class 71 was an electric locomotive used on the Southern Region of British Railways, unlike most other Southern Region electric locomotives they could not operate away from the electrified system.- History :As part of the BTC Modernisation Plan of 1955, twenty-four electric...

 electric locomotives. In its final years Class 33

British Rail Class 33

The British Rail Class 33 also known as the BRCW Type 3 or Crompton is a class of Bo-Bo diesel-electric locomotives ordered in 1957 and built for the Southern Region of British Railways between 1960 and 1962....

 diesels or Class 73

British Rail Class 73

The British Rail Class 73 is a United Kingdom model of electro-diesel locomotive. The type is unusual in that it can operate from a 750 V DC third-rail or an on-board diesel engine to allow it to operate on non-electrified routes...

 electro-diesels were often used.

Along with the removal of much of the old railway infrastructure at Dover Marine (renamed Dover Western Docks in 1979), the Night Ferry enclosed dock at Dover has been filled in and is now used as an aggregates terminal.

The Second World War stopped services, but they resumed on 15 December 1947. A service to and from Brussels was added in the 1950s.

In the winter sports seasons of 1967-68 and 1968-69 the train carried a daily through sleeping car to and from Basle, Switzerland, where onward connections to skiing resorts were provided.

Final years

Plans to build the Channel Tunnel were scrapped in the 1970s on cost grounds. This gave the Night Ferry a short reprieve; a tunnel would have inevitably led to the end of conveying passenger carriages by train ferry.

By the 1970s the carriages were dated and in need of replacement. They were not air conditioned, and during the ship voyage, while inside the ship, they became notably hot in summertime. This was exacerbated by the chaining of the vehicles to the ship's deck, an activity underneath the sleeping compartments which inevitably woke most passengers up during the middle of the night. The carriages were over 40 years old, and by some margin were the oldest passenger vehicles running on the British network. The CIWL livery was replaced on some, but not all, carriages by standard SNCF blue sleeper car livery including the SNCF logo and a prominent white stripe along the bodyside. Consideration was given to using British Rail Mark 1 sleeper carriages built in the late 1950s, but these too were dated and the idea was never adopted. The Night Ferry platform and trains as it was in 1974 are featured towards the end of the final Steptoe and Son

Steptoe and Son

Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old...

 episode, the 1974 Christmas special.

British Rail Mark 3 sleeping cars introduced in the early 1980s were unsuitable for the Southern Region's loading gauge. Competition from air services also affected the train. The Night Ferry was withdrawn on 31 October 1980.

The Channel Tunnel

An attempted resurrection of British-Continental sleeper services under the Nightstar

Nightstar (train)

The Nightstar was a proposed overnight sleeper service from various parts of Britain to continental Europe, via the Channel Tunnel. To run alongside the Eurostar and north of London day time Regional Eurostar services, the Nightstar was the last part in a round the clock passenger train...

 (a play on Eurostar

Eurostar

Eurostar is a high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains traverse the Channel Tunnel between England and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....

) brand after the opening of the Channel Tunnel

Channel Tunnel

The Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...

 in 1994 was abandoned after many of the coaches (night coaches, sleepers, and food service cars) for it had been built. Competition from cheap airlines in the 1990s meant the service could never be profitable, and the proposed service faced daunting logistical issues as well. The coaches were never used in Europe; they were sold to Canada's Via Rail

VIA Rail

Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....

.

Timetable

The down journey London-Paris took 11 hours
Winter timetable 1959/1960

down	station	up
21:00	d London Victoria a	09:10
22:42	a Dover Marine d	07:20
05:34	d Dunkerque a	01:21
09:00	a Paris d	22:00
08:44	a Bruxelles d	21:15

Further reading

• George Behrend and Gary Buchanan, Night Ferry, Jersey, 1985.
• George Behrend, Große Expresszüge Europas, London 1962, ch. 2 (p. 11-34).
• J. van Noord describes the last run of the Night Ferry in a journal article from De Telegraaf, 1. Nov. 1980; reprinted in M. A. Asselberghs, Daar komt de Trein (Amsterdam 1981) p. 160-171 (in Dutch).
• The Night Ferry figures in the film The Ipcress File
  The Ipcress File (film)
  The Ipcress File is a 1965 British espionage film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Michael Caine, Guy Doleman, and Nigel Green. The screenplay by Bill Canaway and James Doran was based on Len Deighton's 1962 novel, The IPCRESS File. It has won critical acclaim and a BAFTA award for best...
  
  (1965); and in the detective novel Murder on the Night Ferry by Bryan Edgar Wallace (also 1965).

External links

• http://www.eastbank.btinternet.co.uk/ferry.htm
• http://www.dover-kent.co.uk/transport/night_ferry.htm
• http://www.semgonline.com/misc/named_09.html
• http://www.irps-wl.org.uk/nightferry.shtml
• http://www.irps-wl.org.uk/nightferryvan.shtml
• http://www.irps-wl.org.uk/homepage.shtml