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Trivia: TOCs running in service into unusual London Termini

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TEW

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I suspect that’s past tense only now. Yes, there was a specific need on those few occasions to close all the SE London Bridge routes, which made the Waterloo option necessary, but I’d expect another future London Bridge full closure to be incredibly unlikely...
Waterloo International is no longer available, but unusued, to provide the required capacity at Waterloo either. The Southeastern services were running in to their own dedicated platform which would be much more of a challenge now.
 
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dk1

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They certainly stopped in Darlington, from memory about 0830 (and virtually empty) but whether it was an Edinburgh or Newcastle start I don’t recollect. There may have been a Leeds one too.

I think it was BR East Coast not GNER.
GNER or any other TOC wasn't about then. The HSTs where standard INTERCITY sets & as stated where woefully underused & one of the all time BR/Eurostar flops.
 

D6700

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On the 14th of December 2005, I was very lucky to travel on board a GNER Eurostar from Peterborough to Waterloo International. Admittedly, this was not a public service, but the GNER Eurostar farewell trip, about a month after they stopped using them.

It was great fun standing in the buffet car, consuming refreshments, whilst riding along the North London Line. I recall being informed that we must take our passports with us, although, in the event, we didn't need to show them.

Some of those on board were a little disappointed that a white set was provided (3312+3311), rather than a GNER blue one, but it was a highly memorable trip, all the same.
 

ctrh136

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Been on a Southern service that was diverted into Blackfriars once when everything fell over at London Bridge. Think it was around 2012 time.
I remember there being a peak hour Southern service from East Grinstead to Blackfriars during one of the blockades at London Bridge.
The other one I can think of is when Southeastern had a service terminating at the London Bridge "Southern" station during engineering works
 

Southern Dvr

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The Waterloo ‘Eurostar’ HSTs were a joke. You could only travel on them with a Eurostar ticket and they just carried fresh air around!
 

Nippy

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Waterloo International is no longer available, but unusued, to provide the required capacity at Waterloo either. The Southeastern services were running in to their own dedicated platform which would be much more of a challenge now.
Waterloo international platforms are used for SWR trains now.
 

Southern Dvr

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That certainly was not the case for the Cardiff-Waterloo HST.

which latterly became a Class 158? That wasn’t related to the Eurostar though was it?

My understanding was the Manchester/Leeds/York services were due to the NoL Eurostars never taking off.
 

Mag_seven

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which latterly became a Class 158? That wasn’t related to the Eurostar though was it?

Well why else would they run a train from Cardiff to Waterloo?

My understanding was the Manchester/Leeds/York services were due to the NoL Eurostars never taking off.

They were indeed, and I'm sure the Cardiff Waterloo service has something to do with the Nightstars from South Wales never materialising.
 

Parallel

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Within the last couple of years, GWR ran HST services from Swansea and Penzance/Plymouth into London Marylebone and vice versa.
 

Alfie1014

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I remember sometime in the late 1980s that an HST got diverted into Liverpool Street one weekday afternoon due to a problem on the ECML, the office pretty much emptied to catch it back to Peterborough!
 

adc82140

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Back in 1993ish, I was on a Class 159 that diverted to Paddington when an IRA attempted bombing closed the SWML between Brookwood and Woking. Diverted after Basingstoke, then stopped at Reading to pick up a route conductor.
 

CyrusWuff

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Not an unusual London terminal, but Chiltern have terminated at Coventry and Birmingham New Street during Engineering Work, and Chiltern 168s made it to Shrewsbury and Wrexham a couple of times in W&S days.
 

Jim Jehosofat

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Years and years ago we had some overnight sleeper services at Liverpool Street, I think it was due to major engineering works at either Kings Cross or Euston.
 

RichJF

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I remember there being a peak hour Southern service from East Grinstead to Blackfriars during one of the blockades at London Bridge.
The other one I can think of is when Southeastern had a service terminating at the London Bridge "Southern" station during engineering works

Yes remember at the old London Bridge seeing a SE service using pl 8-11 on more than one occasion when there was a bomb scare & also a 'person under' at Waterloo East. They seemed to be all Hastings services from what I remember.

SE also used to operate into the Southern side of London Bridge when there was engineering/blocks at Charing Cross/Cannon St and ran via Redhill. This was before the Bricklayers Arms flyover was completed.
 

E6007

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In the very early days of Eurostar, the WoE Sleeper ran from Waterloo via Kensington to Reading and so on
 

E6007

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That is indeed the route they took but for some reason it's become an urban myth that they ran into Marylebone.

If pre-privatisation services are allowed then Intercity West Coast services operating into St Pancras.
Yes there were hourly St Pancras to Manchester via Derby and Dore services during the West coast route modernisation for 18 to 24 months but weren't they really enhanced MML services? Probably used Mk III stock from ICWC services though, perhaps making it a joint venture
 

Bletchleyite

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Yes there were hourly St Pancras to Manchester via Derby and Dore services during the West coast route modernisation for 18 to 24 months but weren't they really enhanced MML services? Probably used Mk III stock from ICWC services though, perhaps making it a joint venture

They used HSTs, though I forget whose. MML ones, I think.
 

CyrusWuff

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The HSTs for "Project Rio" came from Virgin, almost doubling the size of the MML fleet for the duration. Between St Pancras and Leicester they ran in the path of the semi-fast Nottingham services, which were cut back to a Leicester - Nottingham shuttle (with cross-platform interchange at Leicester for London services).
 

transmanche

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If pre-privatisation services are allowed then Intercity West Coast services operating into St Pancras.

Yes there were hourly St Pancras to Manchester via Derby and Dore services during the West coast route modernisation for 18 to 24 months but weren't they really enhanced MML services?
As @Mag_seven mentioned 'pre-privatisation', I suspect he was referring to this kind of diverted service:


Where 47s hauled complete WCML trains from Nuneaton to Bedford, with the 87s then taking them forward from Bedford to St Pancras.

(The so-called 'Project Rio' services were definitely post-privatisation and operated by MML.)
 

Mike99

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I may be wrong but I seem to recall these 15 coach 'Blockbusters' running from Euston before taking the North London Line then via Acton Main Line before joining the Chiltern route at Greenford. I used it a couple of times to connect into other Virgin services at Nuneaton.
I travelled on one service, solely to do just that route, I have a photo somewhere on arrival at Nuneaton
 

306024

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This one is pre-TOC, in fact under British Rail, but qualifies as unusual. Back in the early 80s the organisers of the national Monopoly championship decided to do 'Monopoly on the Move' and chartered a train to visit the four Monopoly stations, Liverpool St, Fenchurch St, Kings Cross and Marylebone. Wasn't the easiest trip to plan but good fun organising it. Think the Liverpool St leg has a Stratford Toffee Apple on it (a class 31/0) if memory serves.
 
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Mag_seven

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As @Mag_seven mentioned 'pre-privatisation', I suspect he was referring to this kind of diverted service:


Where 47s hauled complete WCML trains from Nuneaton to Bedford, with the 87s then taking them forward from Bedford to St Pancras.

I was referring to those workings not the post privatisation "Rio" services.
 
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