Continuing to delve into a pile of magazines of the period, mostly odd paragraphs here and there on proposals on what was going to happen in the case of closure of St. Pancras, most of it appears speculation laced with some truths.
Only Kettering to Mkt Harbro' was to be closed; the St Pancras - Bedford suburban service was to be extended to Kettering.
Looks to be right, Glendon South to Market Harborough to close. Manton Junction-Corby-Wellingborough-Bedford retained primarily for existing freight, although there is also a mention of a Leicester semi-fast service from Moorgate (via Melton Mowbray) ?
The St P - Glasgow sleeper was diverted to Euston to allow the closure of St Pancras sleeper depot; later, the Euston - Npton - MH - Glasgow one was withdrawn altogether, rather than reverted to St Pancras. Its withdrawal was delayed slightly when someone pointed out that BR had to go through the passenger withdrawal process for Northampton - Market Harbro' as it was the only passenger service to use the line. The line had of course previously closed to passengers and been, in effect, re-opened when the sleeper ran that way.
Although the Glasgow Sleeper service from St. Pancras was diverted there was still a service operating over the Waverley route from Edinburgh to St. Pancras, which strangely wasn't diverted, possibly because of the projected demise of that service with the end of the Waverley route ?
The small Sleeping Car stores at St. Pancras was located in some offices alongside platform 7, and closed when the Waverley service ended. I can remember the place was cleared out in the early 1970s when several lorries turned up to collect whatever else was left over and took the stuff to Stonebridge Park. Somewhere in the back of my mind I recall that there was a fire in this store at some stage, but don't know now if this was before or after the Depot closed ? When the overnight St. Pancras to Glasgow service (1S24 2130 to Glasgow) came back to the Midland it still ran through to Glasgow, but the Sleeping Cars were attached at Nottingham.
All Toton - Brent Midland freight trains were also diverted to run MH Npton, although a service via the MML to Acton was retained.
Although this was indeed proposed it seems that this idea was modified by the later revision of keeping the route via Melton Mowbray and Corby open, with the Toton-Brent workings taking the diversion via Syston-Manton-Corby-Bedford. It is interesting to speculate what might have happened later when the Steel works at Corby closed and the coal traffic started to dry up ?
Although I haven't come across anything which specifically mentions the possible fate of St. Pancras other than 'redeveloped' there are a number of parallels with the fate of other large stations of the period (Glasgow St. Enoch, Manchester Central, and Birmingham Snow Hill).
After closure St. Pancras may have had the mis-fortune to have spent a year or two as a gloomy NCP Car Park, the buildings becoming pray to the un-official vandals, boarded up, and any other windows broken.
Before being a listed structure it may have shared the fate of Broad Street, replaced by another faceless office block ? After being listed it might have been restored much as Manchester Central was, into a Conference/Exhibition Centre, with the added bonus of having a Hotel attached to it, and good transport links, plus a lot of Storage capacity in the basement.
Having worked at St. Pancras (1972-74) I was always glad that it retained its rail services, although a period of neglect followed for a time it still had 'atmosphere'. While the modern day St. Pancras has been saved and has grown in importance I find that I now look at it through the eyes of an old man, the fabric has been saved, but it has somehow lost its soul. (That is just a personal opinion, and I know many don't share that old nostalgia for the past).
Still looking through piles of old magazines to see what else might be lurking there.