The LNER Encyclopedia

I lived at Brookmans Park (ECML, 14-3/4 miles from Kings Cross) from 1940 until 1999 and happened across this on a website for that local area. Amongst those seen in the films is Anthony Eden, our Foreign Minister at the time. There have been changes at BP since then, the road over bridge girders were replaced around the mid-1960s, the platform waiting rooms were demolished afterwards and replaced by basic shelters, and the footbridge replaced in the 1970s as part of the electrification programme. I believe that shots of the booking office and slope up to the road over bridge are today much as they were in 1942. For obvious reasons this visit was conducted with the highest security, a small station like BP with the village just to one side of the station made it a good choice. One thing puzzles me though in that with the Prime Minister'a weekend retreat being at Chequers, Buckinghamshire some 35 miles away, and where the group were going to anyway, why the choice ofBP? If the train had been diverted to the Met&GC line they could have left the train at Wendover, only a couple of miles from Chequers, which was an equally remote and small station?

Being wartime maybe they were heading for Hatfield House some 2-3 miles away?.

Were cocktails served?

Been here before.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10624&p=106648&hili ... ov#p106648

Winston Churchill in his work "The Second World War", Book 111 "The Grand Alliance" states that he made Chequers available for Molotov and the Soviet Delegation on the occasion of their May 1942 visit.

Eightpot wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 7:55 pm Winston Churchill in his work "The Second World War", Book 111 "The Grand Alliance" states that he made Chequers available for Molotov and the Soviet Delegation on the occasion of their May 1942 visit.

I'd have thought Russians would prefer Chess.

PinzaC55 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2025 6:58 pmI'd have thought Russians would prefer Chess.

It was always 'real world' chess with the Russians throughout WWII, and Molotov was Stalin's principal 'chess player' outside the Soviet swamp. It should never be forgotten that Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany were allied by the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, by which Russia was supplying Germany with materiel, as an element of the agreed division of Poland between these nations, which event triggered Britain's declaration of war.

Soviet Russia continued to supply Germany under this pact, until the German invasion of Russia had been underway for at least two days! Molotov's actions and continuing contacts with Nazi Germany were monitored very closely at Bletchley and elsewhere by the Western Allies monitoring, as negotiations for cessation of hostilities were regularly on the table, and both Molotov's visit to the UK in 1942, and the Tehran conference in 1943, were specifically directed at keeping Soviet Russia fighting Nazi Germany until victory was achieved.

Both Soviet and subsequent Russia have made much over the years since of their sacrifice made to defeat Nazi Germany; it is pretty plain that the Soviet leadership at the time sowed the whirlwind jointly with Nazi Germany, and the unfortunate Russian people reaped the consequences.

Too many people are unaware of those awkward little details of late 1930s and 1940s Russian policy, or have managed to forget or overlook them.

Has anyone considered in which direction the train has come from?

John