Was the Redhill - Tonbridge line operated as part of the North Downs Line at some point?
Yes. No idea when it stopped but I remember travelling on an hourly Reading to Tonbridge train as part of a Southern Region weekly rover when I was a kid.
Was the Redhill - Tonbridge line operated as part of the North Downs Line at some point?
Yes. No idea when it stopped but I remember travelling on an hourly Reading to Tonbridge train as part of a Southern Region weekly rover when I was a kid.
Did the through service cease with electrification of Redhill - Tonbridge? That would have probably been early 90s I think - and might have been a good reason to alter service patterns...
Do I also remember correctly a Newcastle - Durham - Middlesbrough - Saltburn?
Paddington - Birmingham (Snow Hill/New Street) via High Wycombe & Solihull - regular services were diverted via Oxford in the 70s, though there was a remnant peak hour service for a while.
Euston - Inverness via Coatbridge Central 'The Clansman' - disappeared in the 80s (I caught it once from Coventry to Perth in the 90s, but by then it was going via Edinburgh).
South Fylde line - Ormskirk - I remember this happening in the 80s
Also, I seem to remember an Oxford - New Street - Worcester - Oxford run at some point in the 80s.
Manchester Piccadilly - Poole
No, it was well before that. The Reading - Gatwick service appeared in the early 1980's & it was around then that most of the North Downs line services stopped working across Redhill.
When did Barnehurst to Blackfriars (famously the oft-cancelled 8.14) stop being a direct service?
There are no direct services on the Dartford lines to Blackfriars anymore.
The Liverpool-Norwich service has never run via Leicester. It did however run via Loughborough for a while during the early 1990's.
The Liverpool-Norwich service has never run via Leicester. It did however run via Loughborough for a while during the early 1990's.
When sprinters took over from loco hauled trains in 1988 the service on table 49 was basically every 2 hours Norwich-Liverpool, every 2 hours Norwich-Birmingham, every 2 hours Birmingham-Cambridge/Ipswich, every 2 hours Blackpool-Cambridge/Ipswich and a 2 hourly Manchester -Liverpool.
The following year it the Ipswich/Cambridge-Blackpool ran to Liverpool instead with a 2 hourly Blackpool-Nottingham service added.
Colchester and Barrow were 2 destinations added and withdrawn over the years.
During the 1990's the service became the hourly Liverpool-Norwich and Birmingham-Stansted.
Central Trains combined the Liverpool-Birmingham and Birmingham-Stansted services around 1999 if my memory is correct but the SRA split the route again in 2004(?).
The extra summer Saturday trains to/from Gt Yarmouth were also run down to zero over the years.
Hope this helps.
I cannot help thinking that someone high up in British Rail management had a very strong bias against east coast seaside resorts as one or two resorts were effectively destroyed by a gradual running down of train services and the cutting of direct links to London.
Rugby to Gatwick Airport via Northampton springs to mind - for those who don't remember this was a Connex service. When the WCML modernisation started it was curtailed to Watford Junc and then more recently under Southern's operation extended to Milton Keynes Central but curtailed to East Croydon at the other end
I cannot help thinking that someone high up in British Rail management had a very strong bias against east coast seaside resorts as one or two resorts were effectively destroyed by a gradual running down of train services and the cutting of direct links to London.
Kentish Town - Barking, diverted at the western end to Gospel Oak in the early 80s.
I'm sure there used to be a Paddington - West Wales Class 158 Alphaline service in the late 90s, this was then diverted to start at Waterloo in the early 00s then abandoned altogether a year or so later.
I seem to remember that there was one late evening service from Paddington to cardiff or Swansea that was booked for a 158; the one that ran from Waterloo still does as far as bristol, run by SWT.I'm sure there used to be a Paddington - West Wales Class 158 Alphaline service in the late 90s, this was then diverted to start at Waterloo in the early 00s then abandoned altogether a year or so later.
I read some time ago that apparently Southend used to have services to Luton, which I always found a bit odd; the source suggested that Beeching and friends did away with it. Considering the above, is anyone able to confirm as much, and if yes, would it mean that the LOROL service over the GOBLIN is the modern equivalent of this route?
N.B.: I don't suppose I would have used it any time soon. Why would I want to go to Luton...?
Am i the only one who, whenever they see someone refer to LOROL, always think it's an Internet Acronym like LOLOL or ROFLMAO?
Either of which might be a good name for a train company.
:-/
Cross Country services reversing at Gloucester