Recent content by Fleetwood Boy

I’ve always been a bit puzzled about the decisions regarding both the Lochwinnoch Loop and the Kilmacolm line. The latter had every potential to be a solid middle class commuter line, just like the nearby Inverclyde and Ayrshire lines. And with some imagination could also have served Linwood...

In the 1970s, we sampled three Mystery Tours from Blackpool by train. Great fun for us, but even at the time I thought there was a big risk for holidaymakers getting an exciting trip back to their home town. First one ended up in Newcastle and Berwick behind 40008, second to York with 40106...

There’s an excellent summary of the Grouping plus examples of how the Grouping immediately affected tickets in the current Transport Ticket Society’s current Journal. Thoroughly recommend it.

Whilst there may be something in the Greyhound Bridge story, I’m sceptical about lobbying for a motorway on the Marton Direct line as it was many many years before it was reused. Given the way rail traffic was changing, I can’t see the Direct line surviving under any circumstances.

Wonder what the service pattern would have looked like nowadays if Beeching’s plans had been adopted. I guess effectively the Fleetwood line might have been saved but probably a single-track line with an hourly service like the current day South branch? Whereas the line to Central via Lytham...

DP2 appears to have been incredibly successful and I’ve always felt a class of those (rather than the over ambitious Class 50s) were the ones that got away. I still don’t really understand why Lion got built (although it appears to have been more successful than anything Brush had a hand in).

Slightly off topic, but the bit I never understand is why BR went to the effort of these trial locos but ordered the Brush Type 4s which weren’t part of the trial. What was the point?

Don’t think you needed separate tickets just because two companies were involved? Revenue shared out behind the scenes (Railway Clearing House function?). And certainly not just because it took two days. Issuing company would depend where starting from in London. Euston (or St Pancras) by...

Of course we can close to finding out if there had been a few more 08s.

That’s interesting thanks. I’ll need to check Timetable World sometime again, but I seem to remember running times for stoppers via either route were about the same and as I said the loop had better located stations. My theory has always been that they simply kept the line that was perceived as...

Fascinating insights thanks. And I’d forgotten the DMCs in the Trans Pennine sets. I still the ScR could have just gone with blue star 120s rather than the 126s. Would have made it easier to make up mixed sets like the one you describe for the North Johnstone loop. You may have unintentionally...

Two things have just occurred to me reading these fascinating replies. Firstly, that the first class accommodation in the longer-distance "express" DMUs was all compartments, so the ability of first class passengers to partake of anything from the buffet/restaurant would have meant balancing it...

Weren't the Westerns already on their way out once the Class 50s were ordered? I'm sure I tread somewhere that it was always the plan to cascade the 50s to the WR, because electrification to Glasgow was factored into the future plans? So not so much that the WR realised they had to get rid of...

I don’t know for certain, but have a feeling that the NU is probably referring to the NU Yard which is/was to the south of the station rather than the station itself. Whilst I’ve come across EL used to differentiate the former East Lancs Railway platforms from the rest of Preston station, I’ve...

I’m sure I remember reading that BR mandated electric traction under the wires wherever feasible (I seem to recall it was to avoid diesel exhaust contaminating the OHLE?). Probably wasn’t applied pedantically (eg Liverpool portions of trains from Scotland switched to diesel traction at Preston...