Hello, it's me again with more childhood memories.
When we weren't going to Poland by train, we would go to the South of France for our summer holiday and we would go on the Golden Arrow on the outbound journey and the Night Ferry on the inbound. However, this was after 1972 when the Pullman cars had gone. The service still ran under the name of the Golden Arrow, but it was just a BR southern unit in blue and grey with an enhanced First Class service. I say unit but I could swear we had a class 71 on the front. Unfortunately, I just can't remember for sure, so don't quote me on that. We held 2nd class boxes and FIP coupons but I remember my dad blagged us into First Class once (he recognised the train guard - an ex freight guard from Willesden who had transferred to the Southern) so we got into the First class where we had sandwiches, tea and cake served on the way down to Dover Marine.
I think the ferry across to Calais was the Invicta.
At Calais Maritime, we boarded the French boat train, still running as La Fleche d'Or I believe. SNCF green carriages with sort of oval windows and inward opening doors that I had never seen before. I don't remember any Pullmans so they must have gone too. The haulage I seem to remember was a pair of BB67400's leaving Calais. My dad knew that I always liked to see the engine change at Amiens, so we would walk down the platform at Amiens just in time to see the diesels come off, and the electric loco in the form of a BB9200 buffer onto the train for the run to Paris Gare du Nord.
At Paris, we would take the metro with all our cases over to the Gare de Lyon, and join the overnight Cote d'Azur express, travelling in couchettes to our holiday destination in Juan les Pins. The train would leave at 20:42 and the CIWL all sleeping car Blue train would follow from the adjacent platform three minutes behind us, leaving at 20:45.
On the inbound journey, we would take a day train from Juan les Pins to Paris. Initially, green or green/grey SNCF coaching stock, but at some point in the 70's, the new Corail stock was introduced and we travelled in those. I remember the journey from Juan les Pins to Paris took all day and seemed to last forever. At Paris, we would once again take the metro over to the Gare du Nord to join the Night Ferry. We weren't well off enough or had the correct coupons to travel in the CIWL sleeping cars at the front of the train, so we had to slum it in the second class seats. At Lille where the train reversed, I would watch with dad as the engine swap took place (can't remember what it was or whether it was diesel or electric?). An Electric I think.
When we got to Dunkerque Ville, a BB66000 shunting loco would come on to take the train through the docks of Dunkerque to the maritime station and the train ferry. I promised my dad I wouldn't get off so would watch the engine swap through the gangway doors, the sleeping cars and their green luggage fourgons at the rear of the train. Although I promised dad not to get off, I always found the journey from Ville to the docks the most exciting bit so I would keep the inward passenger door open and stand on the step as the train made the several kilometre journey to the docks at walking pace. What I remember most about this portion of the journey were the screeching of the wheel flanges against the rail. As any rail enthusiast will know, the singing rails can almost sound like music and it sounded fantastic echoing off the various dock warehouses and it was great to be standing on that step, hanging on tight to the handrails, and listening to the train traversing the docks of Dunkerque in the early hours. Luckily there was no train guard to tell me off.
At Dunkerque Maritime (although I don't think it was called Maritime), we would all pile off the train to go through passports and customs. The ferry I think was the MV St Germain but I'm not sure when it stopped running so I may be mistaken in my memories. While my parents went off to the saloon, I would dash upstairs to the upper deck to watch the sleeping cars being loaded onto the train deck below. It was great standing on the deck and watching the cars being shunted on, again with the accompanying wheel flange screeching, and then hearing the bogies on each carriage thump as they left the loading bridge and crossed the small gap onto the ferry train deck. I don't know how any of those passengers got any sleep during the loading process.
Once the sleeping cars and fourgons were loaded, the ferry would cast off and I would remain on deck to watch as the ferry had to navigate a lock from the basin to the open sea. It was all really exciting stuff in those days to watch as a child. At Dover, it was the same regime with the passports and customs. My dad would normally be a bit nervous as he would occasionally buy over the duty free limit. He would sometimes put a bottle of Dimple or Johnnie Walker whisky into my backpack, and send me on to walk ahead or to walk near another family so customs would hopefully not stop an innocent looking schoolboy. I have to say we had 100% success rate with this ruse, sorry HM customs.
The boat train to London Victoria I believe was just an ordinary BR blue & grey unit. I don't remember seeing the sleeping cars again so they may have run as a separate train?
In later years, we did not go via Calais or return on the Night Ferry. We started to go to Italy so on the outbound we would travel via Folkestone to Boulogne, then we would join the SNCF green/grey liveried Boulogne to Roma/Napoli couchette cars up to Paris Nord, and then the couchette cars would be taken around the Petite Ceinture to the Gare de Lyon with a BB66000 at the head. We would then be shunted over onto an overnight service to Italy where we would get off at Genoa Piazza Principe the next morning and take a FS grey coaching stock local along the coast to Alassio on the Italian Riviera. Same again for the reverse journey.
Hope this all helps.
An image of a BB9200 that used to take over at Amiens for the run up to Paris.
SNCF BB66000 that would haul the Night Ferry from Dunkerque Ville to the docks, and in later years the Italian couchettes from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon in Paris around the Petite Ceinture.
SNCF BB67400 that would haul the Fleche d’Or from Calais to Amiens.
