I was a sometime courier on the Nat Holidays charter trains in the 1980s. A friend and colleague of mine was the primary BR 'rep' on the train and also couriered other charter trains. I however was called upon when he was busy or on the occasions when they needed to run more than one train. The rationale for the train was as mentioned to convey passengers from and to London and the Midlands to Carllisle where they would join weekly tours around Scotland. It was more economic to run a train out and back to Carlisle and keep the coach drivers working north of the border. It certainly used the original (MkII) Manchester Pullman stock quite a lot though latterly it could be the MkI or MkII a/c stock from the BR charter train fleet. Using the Pullman set needed a vacumn braked loco though so it was more often a class 81-5 or 86. We used to help the Nat Holidays staff with boarding and alighting and handing out the packed lunches that were provided. It was great fun and a change from our day jobs at the LM HQ in Euston House and the overtime was greatly appreciated too!
On occasions two sets of stock were needed, mostly from memory when there was engineering work, (I remember some S&C diversions), and the extra time needed meant that a single set couldn't do the return and maintain connections with the coaches at Carlisle.
I've got notes of a run on Saturday 22nd June 1985 for example, 09:15 Euston to Carlisle, (MkII a/c stock 7FO+BFK+TSO), 87001 out and 14:50 return both ways via the Independant Lines at Crewe due to the remodelling and resignalling going on.
Also on Saturday 29th August 1987 (32 years ago today!) 09:15 departure again Manchester Pullman set 86101 to Crewe where 47520 took over to run via Sandbach, Stockport, Denton, Ashton Moss Jn, Miles Platting Jn, Manchr Vic, Salford, Bolton and Chorley to Preston, where the coaches met the passengers. 15:17 return via the same route with 86438 taking over from Crewe.
As couriers we had no operational responsibilities and were there to assisit with passengers and liaise if things went wrong. That said I remember one occasion when arriving at Wolverhampton northbound I told the guard about a fault with a coach at the front of the train, he'd gone to investigate and whilst he was doing this there was a mis-communication about the boarding of passengers being complete and the platform staff dispatched the train with the guard still on the platform! As we tended to board passengers from stations together in as few carriages as possible we probably only had one or two doors open and the Pullman stock had inward opening doors which you secured on departure so the guard couldn't just jump back on board! Noticing what was going on I pulled the communication cord in one of the pullman coaches to no avail, we just kept on going! Control were informed and we were evantually stopped by signals at Stafford where a new guard was magicked up and we continued on our way! Different times to say the least.
