"Tim Christian" wrote in message
...


The only passenger service to taken across by ship was the Night Ferry,
which ceased in 1980. I did the trip and photographed the process about a
month before it ceased. Handling was very smooth: I slept (sober) through
the handling at Dover on the return trip only waking up half-way back to
London (Victoria).

There was one night in, IIRC, 1967 or 1968 when there was heavy rain and
flooding in Kent, and each route the train took was blocked and it had to
turn back. Passengers expecting to wake up on the way in to Paris woke up at
Gravesend.

In the 1960s this was a very heavy train, loading up to 17 vehicles, though
only the wagons-lits and fourgons (vans for registered baggage) went across
on the ferry. Wagons-lit passengers went through customs formalities at
Victoria, though seated passengers went through customs at Dover. The
gangway door between the two parts of the train had to be firmly locked.

Peter