• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Trivia: trains which divide into more than two sections

Status
Not open for further replies.

bramling

Veteran Member
Joined
5 Mar 2012
Messages
17,685
Location
Hertfordshire / Teesdale
1745 Victoria - Ore & Seaford I believe does, or used to, run as a 12 car and divide at both Lewes and Eastbourne.

This sort of setup was fairly common in Connex days. ISTR there was an hourly service which would start from Hastings as a 4-car, attach a further 4-car at Eastbourne, and then join up with a further 4-car at Haywards Heath, I think originating from Littlehampton.

I think there was something similar in the opposing half hour although I can't remember if this was two or three portions. I know one 4-car originated from Bournemouth. It may well have been a further 4-car from Littlehampton joining at Worthing, and a 4-car from Eastbourne at Haywards Heath, but I could be wrong on this part.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

StephenHunter

Established Member
Joined
22 Jul 2017
Messages
2,118
Location
London
And at Bohumin it combines with the Nightjet from Berlin to Vienna/Budapest, which also carries a Berlin-Przemsyl portion which is shunted somewhere in Silesia onto a Polish night train...
Just to be pedantic, the Kosice-Bratislava sleeper is detached at Zilina in SK, sits there half the night, and then attaches to the first fast train of the day towards Bratislava. I've used it (the other way) and was the only passenger AFAIK, with an attendant who wasn't delighted to see me :(

A break down of the composition:

https://www.vagonweb.cz/razeni/vlak...6|PKPIC:406/41010/41011&nazev=Chopin&rok=2020

16 carriages from three different countries.
 

StephenHunter

Established Member
Joined
22 Jul 2017
Messages
2,118
Location
London
This is a particularly spectacular example (though Hummene, Kosice and Poprad are on the same line) - but the group of night trains that reassembles at Salzburg each night is almost as complex, involving:
Munich to Zagreb, Venice and Budapest
Vienna to Venice and Zurich
Budapest and Prague to Zurich (Prague is only a single sleeper, via Linz) - a separate train from the Vienna one.
And there used to be some complex portion working at Hannover in CNL days - including, briefly, a Prague-Copenhagen couchette, effectively going from a "north/east-west/south" group to its opposite number(s).

The Brussels NightJet sleeper has portions for both Vienna and Innsbruck. At Nuremberg, they meet up with the Hamburg-originating car sleeper containing portions for Vienna and Innsbruck doing a swap of portions.
 

DunsBus

Established Member
Joined
12 Jan 2013
Messages
1,404
Location
Duns
One that did until fairly recently was the Inverness - Wick/Thurso service, which split at Georgemas Junction - it now does two double runs at that end.

Returning to the present, I'm pretty sure that the Waterloo - Basingstoke/Alton service splits at Woking on a Sunday.
 

swt_passenger

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Apr 2010
Messages
31,257
One that did until fairly recently was the Inverness - Wick/Thurso service, which split at Georgemas Junction - it now does two double runs at that end.

Returning to the present, I'm pretty sure that the Waterloo - Basingstoke/Alton service splits at Woking on a Sunday.
But not into “more than two sections”, as requested.

This isn’t really an attempt to find normal 2 way splits like Basingstoke/Alton...
 

Islander58

New Member
Joined
16 Feb 2020
Messages
3
Location
Oxford
How about the Caledonian Sleeper? It splits into three portions at an unadvertised stop AND as a special bonus, one of the portions has two more coaches added to form an advertised service train:
1S25 leaves Euston at 2100 with portions for Fort William, Inverness and Aberdeen; there’s an unadvertised call at Edinburgh (arr. 0354) where it splits: the Inverness portion departs at 0419; Aberdeen portion is 1A25 to (dep. 0439); and 1Y11 to Fort William departs at 0450. The bonus is the two ‘day’ coaches added at Edinburgh to the two Fort William sleepers to form a combined service up to Fort William.
 

iainbhx

Member
Joined
8 Jul 2014
Messages
211
Some trains on the Bayerische Oberlandbahn split into three - one split at Holzkirchen and one split at Schaftlach.
 

HSTEd

Veteran Member
Joined
14 Jul 2011
Messages
16,628
So, time for a trivia question.

We are all aware of trains splitting on their way to their destinations - especially on the former southern region.
This is also planned to be a key part of HS2 operations.

But what regular service comprises the most portions?
As the Highland Sleeper has a good chance of winning and is rather obvious, I am excluding sleepers.

As a corollary, what is the shortest leg of a journey worked by a unit in a portion worked service? Either as a combined set or alone.
 

ld0595

Member
Joined
1 Aug 2014
Messages
569
Location
Glasgow
West Highland services split are into three portions. They start as a 6 car from Glasgow then splits as 2 car to Oban and 4 car to Fort William at Crianlarach. At Fort William, 2 of the coaches then detach onwards to Mallaig.

Of course that'll change once the 153 bike cars are introduced.
 
Joined
20 Aug 2018
Messages
57
Location
Sussex
Before the May 2018 timetable change there was a Southern train that operated between London Bridge & Horsham/Reigate/Tonbridge with the train dividing into three at Redhill

Some trains from Victoria to Littlehampton & Ore would run as 12 car to Haywards Heath, with 4 cars continuing to Littlehampton and 8 continuing to Eastbourne, where the rear 4 would continue to Ore
 

Kite159

Veteran Member
Joined
27 Jan 2014
Messages
19,153
Location
West of Andover
I think SWR services from London to Exeter do 3 splits

There is one which starts with 8/9 coaches splits at Salisbury with the rear unit carrying on to Bristol, then splits again at Yeovil Junction with the rear unit going ECS back to Salisbury, with the front unit carrying on to Exeter. IIRC it's the 19:20 from Waterloo.

Some also split three ways at Salisbury with the rear unit finishing there (I think there is a random one where the front unit goes to Yeovil Junction via Gillingham, the middle unit goes to Yeovil Pen Mill via Westbury and the rear unit terminates at Salisbury)
 

London Trains

Member
Joined
9 Oct 2017
Messages
901
Used to be a peak time London Bridge to Horsham, Reigate and Tonbridge service, splitting at Redhill, until May 2018.

I believe now, other than the Highland Sleeper, no train splits into 3 different portions that all stay in service at the same station.
 

Jamesrob637

Established Member
Joined
12 Aug 2016
Messages
5,205
Shall we go onto European services and move it into the International Transport thread?
 

arb

Member
Joined
31 Oct 2010
Messages
411
For the shortest journey, I think the Redhill to Reigate mentioned earlier beats this, but for a close second place, how about the 17:07 Greater Anglia from Liverpool Street that splits into two portions at Cambridge, with the back half only going to Cambridge North (front half to King's Lynn). This would only count if you're looking at distance rather than time, though, becaue the back portion is allowed a huge 7 minutes to get from Cambridge to Cambridge North (whereas the front half is allowed 6 minutes to get from Cambridge to Waterbeach!)
 

Hophead

Established Member
Joined
5 Apr 2013
Messages
1,192
On (most) Sundays, there are Bognor Regis portions dividing at Barnham off trains from Victoria: they are allowed 7 minutes for this but just 6 minutes to return.
 

61653 HTAFC

Veteran Member
Joined
18 Dec 2012
Messages
17,623
Location
Another planet...
In Bavaria there's a Regional Express departure from Nürnberg Hbf which splits into three (to Regensburg and Hof) along the run to Cheb (CZ). At the very least the Cheb portion won't be going all the way at the moment.
 

SouthernOne

Member
Joined
6 Apr 2018
Messages
33
Back in the late 90’s there use to be an London Victoria to Southampton Central / Littlehampton / Hastings

At Haywards Heath the train will divide the front 8 coaches to Littlehampton and Southampton, the rear 4 coaches to Hastings

It would then divide again at Worthing. The front 4 coaches for Southampton Central and the rear 4 coaches for Littlehampton
 

adamedwards

Member
Joined
4 Apr 2016
Messages
796
My vote goes for the late 70s (?) Liverpool and Manchester to Glasgow and Edinburgh train. Two halves diesel to Preston, shunt with 86 on the front. Split at Carstairs, with diesel taking the rear Liverpool bit to Edinburgh. Took hours as a consequence.
 

tsr

Established Member
Joined
15 Nov 2011
Messages
7,400
Location
Between the parallel lines
Back in the late 90’s there use to be an London Victoria to Southampton Central / Littlehampton / Hastings

At Haywards Heath the train will divide the front 8 coaches to Littlehampton and Southampton, the rear 4 coaches to Hastings

It would then divide again at Worthing. The front 4 coaches for Southampton Central and the rear 4 coaches for Littlehampton

There have also been some particularly stupid workings (in more recent memory) where a train would divide at Haywards Heath for Eastbourne, Hastings and Littlehampton.

The combined Eastbourne & Hastings portion would divide from the Littlehampton portion at Haywards Heath. It would then proceed as 8 coaches to Eastbourne, where the rear 4 coaches of that portion would reverse and continue to Hastings, and the front 4 would terminate and form a working back to somewhere else.

Inevitably, 4 things would happen:
1. Nobody could understand this, no matter how it was announced, and everyone for Lewes would end up at Hove.
2. Someone would stay onboard the Eastbourne terminating portion and end up going back to Lewes.
3. Three minutes before leaving London Victoria, the train would be given a stop order for Balcombe, with an 8 coach platform, and Normans Bay, with a 3 coach platform.
4. An unfortunate wheelchair user or someone with a lot of luggage would then join coach 3 of the Littlehampton portion at Clapham Junction and want to travel to Normans Bay.

(And there would be a complete crew change at Haywards Heath, with the crew of the front portion having come off a minimum-length break...)
 

Essexman

Established Member
Joined
15 Mar 2011
Messages
1,380
Going back a long time the Atlantic Coast Express probably had the most. I'm not sure of the maximum served at any one time but Wiki gives us this -

From the beginning the ACE effectively had five destinations, three in Devon and two in Cornwall.

Plymouth, by far the largest city in Devon, was served via Okehampton and Tavistock. The steep gradients and tortuous nature of the route beyond Exeter meant that it was not possible to compete with the Great Western Railway's Cornish Riviera Express in terms of speed, but it was a useful alternative route, particularly for passengers from the South and South East of England, who could make a connection at Salisbury and thus avoid travelling via London.

Halwill Junction was the junction for the two Cornish destinations: Bude, a small but growing resort on the most northerly part of the Cornish coast; and Padstow, a fishing port at the mouth of the River Camel and the Southern Railway's most distant outpost almost 260 miles from Waterloo. At the junction, the Bude carriages were detached and the Padstow section turned south to Launceston, skirting the edge of Bodmin Moor before reaching Camelford. A swift descent to Wadebridge followed, through countryside described by Poet Laureate John Betjeman. The route was completed following the River Camel.

The North Devon portions of the ACE followed the route from
Exeter Central through Crediton to Yeoford before turning north west and reaching the valley of the River Taw at Lapford. Thereafter the line hugged the river to Barnstaple Junction, the junction for the two North Devon destinations of the ACE. From here the Torrington portion followed the estuary of the Taw westward to Instow before turning south along the River Torridge to Bideford and its destination of Great Torrington. The portion for Ilfracombe, another port that owes its status as a holiday destination to the coming of the railways, continued northwards. Started from Barnstaple Junction, the branch for Ilfracombe headed north through Barnstaple Town and on to Braunton before climbing steeply to Mortehoe and then descending more steeply to the terminus at Ilfracombe.

At various times
Exmouth, Sidmouth, Seaton Junction and Lyme Regis had through coaches.[5]
 

PHILIPE

Veteran Member
Joined
14 Nov 2011
Messages
13,472
Location
Caerphilly
Up until 1967 a service ran from Birkenhead (Woodside) to Margate and at Redhill, detached a portion for Brighton and at Sandwich detached another for Dover.
 

Horizon22

Established Member
Associate Staff
Jobs & Careers
Joined
8 Sep 2019
Messages
7,443
Location
London
Occasionally I've seen on the weekend on the CIS a train for "Caterham, Purley & Tattenham Corner". However I'm not sure if that's just the CIS getting confused about Purley and it's just a standard 5/5 split at Purley for the two other destinations?
 

30907

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Sep 2012
Messages
17,864
Location
Airedale
Going back a long time the Atlantic Coast Express probably had the most. I'm not sure of the maximum served at any one time but Wiki gives us this -

At various times Exmouth, Sidmouth, Seaton Junction and Lyme Regis had through coaches.[5]

I imagine the ACE was what the OP referenced, though other trains on the route carried 4-5 portions including the restaurant cars which ended at Exeter.

Exmouth and Sidmouth were served (westbound) until the working was simplified and accelerated in 1962; Seaton (not just the junction), Lyme Regis and Honiton/Exeter were served at different times by a Brake Composite detached at Salisbury to go forward on a stopping train.
 

30907

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Sep 2012
Messages
17,864
Location
Airedale
Up until 1967 a service ran from Birkenhead (Woodside) to Margate and at Redhill, detached a portion for Brighton and at Sandwich detached another for Dover.
Happened to look at a Carriage Working Notice earlier today. The main train was as you say, the Brighton portion continued to Hastings via Eastbourne (cue trivia thread about most reversals...), and the third was Ramsgate via Dover, detached at Ashford.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top