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When was Huntingdon Station "downgraded"?

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tom73

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As far as I know, up until the 1970's or so, some "Inter City" trains out of King's Cross called at Huntingdon. On occasions this allowed a faster limited stop service to overtake. When did this come to an end with Huntingdon becoming a "local outer suburban" station?
 
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Aictos

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Electrification I think. 125s stopped there in 1988 I’m sure.

I believe that’s right as you had the Huntingdon to Hitchin DMUs so they stopped the IC services at Huntingdon to provide connections from Peterborough to Huntingdon - I await to be corrected though.
 

Bald Rick

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Yes, electrification. IIRC the wires reached Huntingdon in late 1987, and that’s when the first ‘commuter’ services started running with EMUs. I think it became permanent in the summer ‘88 timetable.
 

Mag_seven

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The first Kings Cross-Edinburgh service of the day used to stop at Huntingdon in GNER days I'm sure.
 

Ianno87

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Consulting timetables (weekdays)

October 1988
0605 King's Cross-Aberdeen (called at 0646)
0650 King's Cross-Leeds (0731)
2100 & 2315 King's Cross-Leeds (2137 & 2352)
0619 Grimsby Town(!) - King's Cross (at 0831) - "The Humber-Lincs" via Lincoln
2103 Leeds-King's Cross (at 2300)


May 1993
0600 Kings Cross-Edinburgh (called at 0643)
2015 Leeds-Kings Cross (called at 2203)

Nothing in September 1997 or May 1998.

Though I could swear I recall a late ICEC/early GNER timetable c.1996 with a call...


(Off topic, but the May 1998 TT reveals GNER ran, Fridays only, a 2000 Glasgow Central-King's Cross...arriving 0310 Saturday morning!)
 
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Southern Dvr

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Wasn’t a rather influential Conservative MP resident there which I think had something to do with its Intercity status for a time.
 

Ianno87

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It also temporarily got a service again in the post-May 2018 timetable disruption when (IIRC), the first morning Up VTEC/LNER train called - can't recall if it was for staff or schoolkids.
 

RLBH

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Wasn’t a rather influential Conservative MP resident there which I think had something to do with its Intercity status for a time.
John Major was the MP for Huntingdon, and still lives in the area. I would certainly be inclined to count him as influential in the late 1980s.
 

30907

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John Major was the MP for Huntingdon, and still lives in the area. I would certainly be inclined to count him as influential in the late 1980s.
Unless the 0831 fast to London was his work, not very effective!
Before the full HST timetable was introduced, the Deltic plus 8 York stoppers served Huntingdon, and there were one or l/h Peterborough commuter trains nonstop or nearly so to Hunts.
But electrification removed those!
 

Arglwydd Golau

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Before the full HST timetable was introduced, the Deltic plus 8 York stoppers served Huntingdon, and there were one or l/h Peterborough commuter trains nonstop or nearly so to Hunts.
But electrification removed those!
I recall catching the Deltic-hauled stoppers in the late 1970's travelling from West Yorkshire to St. Neot's, memory plays tricks, but if they originated from York I must have changed at Doncaster. Presumably these were the Deltic's last hurrah. Early morning and evening loco-hauled Peterborough trains called also at St. Neot's, Sandy, Biggleswade and Hitchin
 

tom73

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Consulting timetables (weekdays)

October 1988
0605 King's Cross-Aberdeen (called at 0646)
0650 King's Cross-Leeds (0731)
2100 & 2315 King's Cross-Leeds (2137 & 2352)
0619 Grimsby Town(!) - King's Cross (at 0831) - "The Humber-Lincs" via Lincoln
Are you certain it was Grimsby Town and not Cleethorpes? Nowhere to reverse a full length train (locomotive + carriages) at Grimsby Town at that time, and all the 50's/60/early 70's direct trains to/from London went on to or started from Cleethorpes.
 

Ianno87

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Are you certain it was Grimsby Town and not Cleethorpes? Nowhere to reverse a full length train (locomotive + carriages) at Grimsby Town at that time, and all the 50's/60/early 70's direct trains to/from London went on to or started from Cleethorpes.

Was looking at Table 26, which didn't show a line for Cleethorpes...will double check in one of the local timetables.
 

Ianno87

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Are you certain it was Grimsby Town and not Cleethorpes? Nowhere to reverse a full length train (locomotive + carriages) at Grimsby Town at that time, and all the 50's/60/early 70's direct trains to/from London went on to or started from Cleethorpes.

Was looking at Table 26, which didn't show a line for Cleethorpes...will double check in one of the local timetables.

Just checked, and it did indeed start from Cleethorpes at 0612. Shown as an HST.
 

lordbusiness

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I grew up in Huntingdon and went to school at Hinchinbrooke which started my interest in trains as the Lower School was the opposite side of what is now the northbound car park.
IIRC around 77/78 we had Cleethorpes and Leeds stoppers northbound, mainly 47/4's, (usually FP and GD with the occasional HO). I haven't a clue where the southbound ones came from but assume the same. I don't ever recall direct trains to York but there may have been a few- every time I went to York we always changed at PBO. Deltics stopped less frequently until the HST came along. There was also a smattering of 31 hauled stoppers with Mk1's, presumably only going from/to PBO in the morning and evening peaks. 40's and 46's were also quite common but I never remember seeing one stop at Huntingdon. There was a northbound stopper around 0850 - just before the bell rang for school that often produced a more exotic foreign 47- CD and even an LE allocated on more than one occasion (?)

Freight was mainly 31's with a handful of 47/0's, 40's and 25's.

The favourite train for London spotting trips was a PBO- KX which left Huntindon at about 0750 and got to KX about 0900 with one stop at St.Neots unless my memory is failing.
I remember the DMU services to Hitchin all too well- to be avoided at all costs if on a spotting trip to the smoke although I vaguely remember taking one all the way to Welwyn GC to see the 313's when they first came in.

As mentioned before, the end came when electrification arrived and the 312's took over.
 

Arglwydd Golau

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I grew up in Huntingdon and went to school at Hinchinbrooke which started my interest in trains as the Lower School was the opposite side of what is now the northbound car park.

The favourite train for London spotting trips was a PBO- KX which left Huntindon at about 0750 and got to KX about 0900 with one stop at St.Neots unless my memory is failing.
I remember the DMU services to Hitchin all too well- to be avoided at all costs if on a spotting trip to the smoke although I vaguely remember taking one all the way to Welwyn GC to see the 313's when they first came in.
.

Yes, I remember the original school next to the railway line. persuaded the Maths master to let us out early one day in 1968 to allow us to watch 'Flying Scotsman' go through on the non-stop run to Edinburgh. (Also remember being 'done' by the Latin master for having a half-pint in the Station Buffet)
The 07h50 was a convenient service to London from St. Neot's (about 08h10) where I lived, in my day it also stopped at Sandy, Biggleswade and Hitchin. The DMU's seemed slow after a good run to Hitchin on the Cambridge train.
 

lordbusiness

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Yes, I remember the original school next to the railway line. persuaded the Maths master to let us out early one day in 1968 to allow us to watch 'Flying Scotsman' go through on the non-stop run to Edinburgh. (Also remember being 'done' by the Latin master for having a half-pint in the Station Buffet)
The 07h50 was a convenient service to London from St. Neot's (about 08h10) where I lived, in my day it also stopped at Sandy, Biggleswade and Hitchin. The DMU's seemed slow after a good run to Hitchin on the Cambridge train.

I haven't used Huntingdon for many years but that buffet was a good one- proper one with a bit of Character. Did it not burn down a couple of years ago?
 

superjohn

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Did it not burn down a couple of years ago?
Not quite. Around 2005 a rival coffee outlet opened on the platform. This was subject to an arson attack which spread to the main station building and caused considerable damage. The original buffet survived and remained open until 2017 when the owners retired. Being independent it was certainly different to the usual station offerings. The coffee was certainly an ‘acquired taste’ but their bacon sandwiches were very welcome on cold mornings.

Back to the original subject. I recall the last Intercity calls being the 0600 ex Kings Cross and the previously mentioned Cleethorpes up train which called around 0834. I think these lasted up until privatisation.
 

Arglwydd Golau

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Thanks for that comment, superjohn! I can only recall the old station before it was rebuilt. I think the last train that I caught from Huntingdon was an overnight train to Newcastle in 1981...incidentally, I presume it was rebuilt when the wires reached Huntingdon?
 

malc-c

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Not sure if it has any bearing on this thread, but I found this information on the net regarding Sandy station, which was rebuild so that only the slow lines were served by the platforms

By the early Sixties the ever-increasing demand for high-speed running necessitated the upgrading of the ECML. This involved the renewal of trackwork at major junctions plus a general easing in the curvature of the route in conjunction with the replacement of hundreds of miles of outdated Victorian-era semaphore signalling with modern multiple aspect (MAS) signalling. Following closure of the Oxford to Cambridge 'Varsity Line' in 1967 Sandy station was considerably rebuilt in the early 1970s to provide a 4-track layout with platforms on the slow lines only, which effectively removed a 2-track bottleneck. Sandy signal box closed in December 1977 when the Peterborough power box came into use, making Sandy the most southerly point of the Peterborough's power box's area while the power box at Kings Cross controlled the ECML south of Sandy into the capital.

My thinking is that if you are remodelling one station in that area, then its quite possible that Huntingdon and possibly Biggleswade (needs researching) may have been re-organised around the same time ?
 

bramling

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Not sure if it has any bearing on this thread, but I found this information on the net regarding Sandy station, which was rebuild so that only the slow lines were served by the platforms



My thinking is that if you are remodelling one station in that area, then its quite possible that Huntingdon and possibly Biggleswade (needs researching) may have been re-organised around the same time ?

ISTR Arlesey was the other bottleneck, the situation here being helped by the station’s closure at the time. Unthinkable today that Arlesey closed, being both a railhead and a reasonable sized town in its own right.
 

30907

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Not sure if it has any bearing on this thread, but I found this information on the net regarding Sandy station, which was rebuild so that only the slow lines were served by the platforms



My thinking is that if you are remodelling one station in that area, then its quite possible that Huntingdon and possibly Biggleswade (needs researching) may have been re-organised around the same time ?

Biggleswade was quadrupled in 1901 according to Wikipedia (I would have guessed in LNER days, ditto St Neots, but anyway well before electrification).
 

A0wen

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ISTR Arlesey was the other bottleneck, the situation here being helped by the station’s closure at the time. Unthinkable today that Arlesey closed, being both a railhead and a reasonable sized town in its own right.

Arlesey's not really a town - a big village perhaps, with a population of 5000. I can get why it closed, that area north of Hitchin used to be quite rural though by the 80s you were seeing a growth in commuter traffic and for places like Shefford or Stotfold it meant heading to Baldock, Biggleswade, Hitchin or Stevenage to connect with the train - Arlesey addressed that quite nicely being situated just off the A 507.
 

Ianno87

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Arlesey's not really a town - a big village perhaps, with a population of 5000. I can get why it closed, that area north of Hitchin used to be quite rural though by the 80s you were seeing a growth in commuter traffic and for places like Shefford or Stotfold it meant heading to Baldock, Biggleswade, Hitchin or Stevenage to connect with the train - Arlesey addressed that quite nicely being situated just off the A 507.

I also know some people from Letchworth/Baldock railhead to Arlesey to head north too.
 
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