Trains that run through London without changes- any without stopping?

[XDM]

Troop trains regularly ran in the 20th century from the Salisbury area via the Richmond line platforms at Clapham junction & on to Shorncliffe Barracks (Folkestone West station). They only stopped once, for half a minute, for a crew change in the Clapham junction up platform, before taking the route London Overground now takes to the boat train line. At one stage it was a weekly military service.

 

[yorkie]

Didn't the Ipswich-Basingstoke service actually start in Norwich?

I am sure it was from Ipswich.

 

[t0ffeeman]

They started from all over the place. Most were Ipswich or Colchester with a couple to Norwich. Had the staff learning the NLL on my train

 

[greatkingrat]

I am sure it was from Ipswich.

They started from just about anywhere! There was one train that started from Norwich, other trains started or finished at any of Stratford, Chelmsford, Colchester, Witham or Ipswich.

http://web.archive.org/web/20020214...railways.com:80/londoncrosslink/timetable.htm

 

[coupwotcoup]

I thought they came from Colchester

Remember catching it once - think I went to Shenfield as I was
going to Staines for football on a Sunday back in 2001.

I'm sure the latter stopped at Stratford then Staines next stop
but I'm sure somebody will know...

As for the train that went from Colchester/Ipswich/
Norwich on its way north to Manchester(?), I seem to recollect
a news story on its first day of operation.

When it pulled into Shenfield at silly o'clock, a whole host of
bleary eyed commuters just climbed aboard, not realising that
the next stop was Watford Junction.

Again, I'm sure somebody with more in depth knowledge can
corroborate this....

 

[DerekC]

My father used to talk about the "Sunny South Express". As a small boy in the 1920s with a view of the WCML from his back garden it was exciting because it had green carriages. According to the NRM website it ran from Liverpool and Manchester to Brighton and Eastbourne, presumably via the West London Line. I have no idea whether it made a passenger stop anywhere (Olympia?) but maybe somebody else does.

 

[30907]

My father used to talk about the "Sunny South Express". As a small boy in the 1920s with a view of the WCML from his back garden it was exciting because it had green carriages. According to the NRM website it ran from Liverpool and Manchester to Brighton and Eastbourne, presumably via the West London Line. I have no idea whether it made a passenger stop anywhere (Olympia?) but maybe somebody else does.

Without getting up to check, I think that one DID stop for passengers at Addison Road, as it was then called.

However, in the 50s and 60s (in particular) there were numerous summer Friday night/Saturday holiday trains from the Midlands and further North to the Kent and Sussex coasts, via Dudding Hill as well as Kenny, and these had no booked stops in the London area.

 

[ViscountFan]

Back in the 70s there was a Summer Saturday service from Poole to Sheffield. I once caught this from Southampton to Basingstoke. After alighting I was surprised to see it heading off towards Waterloo rather than towards Reading as I had expected.

When I checked later I discovered that the next booked call was at St Albans, although whether it found its way there via Hounslow or the West London line I'm not sure.

 

[xotGD]

Stops within Greater London for XC trains via Reading included Olympia, Clapham Jn, Bromley South and East Croydon at one time, but they tailed off to just East Croydon by the end.
There were many engineering diversions, and I got a Brighton train once from East Croydon to Reading via Crystal Palace, Brixton, Clapham Jn (Windsor Lines) and Staines.
All for a Travelcard fare from Reading, too.
I think Ealing Broadway might have figured early on, or was it Slough?

I travelling Slough - Kenny O on one of these services in 1989 with a 47 on the front.

 

[Wookiee]

I remember being on a diverted XC HST that ran non-stop Reading - Coventry via Acton Bank and the WCML.

There used to be a summer Saturdays inter-regional from Poole or Weymouth that was routed from Reading to the WCML using that route as well. I can't recall its destination though.

 

[30907]

Back in the 70s there was a Summer Saturday service from Poole to Sheffield. I once caught this from Southampton to Basingstoke. After alighting I was surprised to see it heading off towards Waterloo rather than towards Reading as I had expected.

When I checked later I discovered that the next booked call was at St Albans, although whether it found its way there via Hounslow or the West London line I'm not sure.

Hounslow - bound to have been via the Dudding Hill route, which isn't accessible via the WLL.

Think this is the one Wookiee is referring to, although it doesn't match his description.

 

[30907]

I remember being on a diverted XC HST that ran non-stop Reading - Coventry via Acton Bank and the WCML.

It would have needed to reverse though.

 

[Wookiee]

Hounslow - bound to have been via the Dudding Hill route, which isn't accessible via the WLL.

Think this is the one Wookiee is referring to, although it doesn't match his description.

It's entirely possible that my memory has failed me regarding the Reading bit. It definitely went WCML from somewhere!

 

[Taunton]

However, in the 50s and 60s (in particular) there were numerous summer Friday night/Saturday holiday trains from the Midlands and further North to the Kent and Sussex coasts, via Dudding Hill as well as Kenny, and these had no booked stops in the London area.

Dick Hardy, from the times he was shedmaster at Stewarts Lane, wrote in his books about these extensive series of summer holiday trains in the 1950s-60s, both timetabled and excursions. Notionally nonstop from the LMR and WR through to the Southern resorts via the West London line, they would stop alongside Stewarts Lane depot to change crews. All sorts of difficulties plagued the operation, crews not knowing particular routes, crews getting on the wrong service, and WR locos which were ostensibly too wide ending up at Southern resorts.

 

[03_179]

Definitely at Kenny O, and I think Clapham Junction.

Yep Clapham Junction, Kenny O then Watford.