I can recall in my early Gricing days in the 1960s, that during our time spent at Kings Cross, we would sometimes wander over to St. Pancras "to see if anything interesting was happening." It rarely was. I seem to recall the highlight being the arrival of the "Manchester (Midland) Pullman". Other than that, there were only the occasional trains to be seen and the place looked extremely deserted and unloved. We were soon back in Kings Cross where there was much more going on.
The Midland Pullman would have arrived at about (from memory) 11.00 (thoug it depends on exactly when you went - it varied a bit from the early use of the Pullman). IT may have been quietish at the time (more than KX, but it always was), but there were still trains,whether your memory recalls them or not. Certainly more than in 1990 after Thameslink was introduced.
It should be remembered that in the early 1960s, BR proposed demolishing the entire place, including the former Midland Grand Hotel. They were still wallowing in their success at demolishing Euston's Doric Arch and "developing" the frontage of the station into glass office blocks. They believed they were on a roll, but of course Mr Betjeman had something to say about that.
I thnk it was the later 60s, c 1968, when BR LMR realised that the WCML had lots of spare capacity after electrification and were still desperate to cut costs.
I'm not sure if it was actually proposed, I don't think so, it was merely being considered.
The route was called the Midland Main Line before privatisation, wasn’t it? Which is where the Midland Mainline TOC got the name from.
Not as I recall, no. Of course, if someone had used the term, it would be mostly understood, but it was the privatisation name that made it regularly used, as per ever since.