2009 Winton Train in London

This video is primarily about the 2009 Winton Train which left Prague Main Station in the Czech Republic on Tuesday 1st September and arrived in London's Liverpool Street Station on Friday 4th September 2009.

The idea was to re-enact the journey made by the original eight trains and commemorate a ninth train which because of the outbreak of war had been prevented from travelling on the same date some 70 years earlier.

Once in London there was a short ceremony with speeches and presentations (for invited guests only) which was attended by some of the original refugees - plus many family members - and Sir Nicholas Winton (now aged 100) who was the guest of honour.

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The video also includes the memorial statues at both Prague Main Railway station and London's Liverpool Street station.

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Sir Nicholas George Winton MBE is a British man who in 1939 organised the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish Czech and Slovakian children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport.

In November 1938, shortly after Kristallnacht, the British House of Commons approved a measure which (providing some very tough conditions were met) would allow for the entry of refugees from German-occupied Europe.

These conditions included...
...they were younger than 17 years old,
...they had a place to stay,
...a surety of £50 (a LOT of money in those days) was deposited to pay for their eventual return back home.

Throughout the summer Winton placed advertisements seeking families to take the children in, eventually finding homes and arranging safe passage to Britain for 669 children - many of whose parents perished in Auschwitz.

However the start of the war in September 1939 prevented 250 children from travelling on the next train and they are believed to have perished during the war.

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The European portion of the 2009 Winton Train travelled from Prague in the Czech Republic through Germany and Holland to the Hook Of Holland, where passengers transferred to a ship heading for the British Isles.

Pulled by different steam locomotives in the various countries through which it travelled, the European train comprised of nine historic railway carriages of Hungarian and German origin, including the blue liveried luxury saloon of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia which entered service on 7th March1930 - Masaryk's 80th birthday.

The British portion of the Winton Train (Harwich - London) was hauled by No. 60163 Tornado, a brand new (2008) British mainline steam locomotive built by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust.

Tornado is based on an LNER 'Peppercorn' design and includes some safety and operational modifications to make it more suitable for present-day use.

The British coaching stock (passenger carriages) included Pegasus, a cream and brown Pullman Bar Car which incorporates the Trianon Bar which was built in 1951 for the famous Golden Arrow boat train and later rebuilt for heritage mainline use.

Plus the 1950s built Riviera Trains Mk1 red and cream 'The Royal Scot' rake of passenger carriages.

Also here were four vintage London buses and one modern-day coach which were used by some of the invited guests and railway passengers.

Two of the buses are pre-war and carry war-time advertising. These have silver roofs and are EYK 396 / RT 1 and EGO 426 / STL 2377. However, whilst nowadays the body of RT 1 is pre-war the chassis comes from RT 1420 - which dates from 1949. Both buses are owned by the Cobham Bus Museum.

The buses with red roofs are NXP 775 / RT4421 and JXC 194 / RT 1431. Both are owned by Ensign. The blue liveried modern era coach is Lodge Coaches TL07 DGE.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• kindertransport
• London
• Prague
• Winton
• Train
• Liverpool
• Street
• Station
• 1939
• 2009
• refugee
• Czech
• Republic
• Slovakia
• Czechoslovakia
• Tornado
• 60163
• Pegasus
• LNER
• Peppercorn

[citytransportinfo]

I'm sorry, but I do not know.

The information might be available on Wikipedia or a railway discussion group.

Simon

[astralwarrior8]

Yea it is amazing, thanks for that pal.

[metadyneman]

Nice work Simon

[krizvasa]

I found it on the internet... Prague - Pilsen - Furth im Wald - Nurnberg - Frankfurt - Kolm - Emmerich - Rotterdam - Hoek van Holand - Harwich - Stratford - London. I want to say that sir Winton is hero and Winton train is interesting story.

[astralwarrior8]

Thats amazing, I want to know the exact line it takes from Praque to reach London Liverpool Street, do you know?