Was wondering whether, in BR days (let's say the 1980s, to be specific) a given loco-hauled service would always be scheduled to have a loco from a particular depot?
To give a specific example: I'm thinking particularly Cross-Country style diesel-hauled services. The Reading-Birmingham route was generally 47s and Mark IIs in this era, but was each service always, in theory, scheduled for a 47 from a particular depot? For example let's say the 0930 Reading to Birmingham scheduled to run with a Bescot loco, at least in theory?
The 47s on this route seemed to be mostly Bescot, Bristol or Cardiff depots (BS, BR, CF) for fairly obvious reasons, presumably they were shared with the South West cross-country route. However on one occasion (a day in early January 1984 when I spent much of the day at Reading station) the 0805 Portsmouth to Manchester was hauled by a Stratford loco, 47474. In fact this was when I became more aware of specific depots, as someone I was with pointed out the rarity of a Stratford loco on such a service. (One wonders how it ended up on this service? Maybe Norwich-Birmingham had a few Stratford 47s scheduled and it was put on the southbound Portsmouth XC service the previous day at New Street in the absence of any BS, BR or CF locos?)
I do also remember that despite there being a daily Poole-Newcastle and v.v., this was generally not hauled by GD 47s (which remained an unseen rarity) at Reading. Presumably they only did the part north of Birmingham, if at all.
To give a specific example: I'm thinking particularly Cross-Country style diesel-hauled services. The Reading-Birmingham route was generally 47s and Mark IIs in this era, but was each service always, in theory, scheduled for a 47 from a particular depot? For example let's say the 0930 Reading to Birmingham scheduled to run with a Bescot loco, at least in theory?
The 47s on this route seemed to be mostly Bescot, Bristol or Cardiff depots (BS, BR, CF) for fairly obvious reasons, presumably they were shared with the South West cross-country route. However on one occasion (a day in early January 1984 when I spent much of the day at Reading station) the 0805 Portsmouth to Manchester was hauled by a Stratford loco, 47474. In fact this was when I became more aware of specific depots, as someone I was with pointed out the rarity of a Stratford loco on such a service. (One wonders how it ended up on this service? Maybe Norwich-Birmingham had a few Stratford 47s scheduled and it was put on the southbound Portsmouth XC service the previous day at New Street in the absence of any BS, BR or CF locos?)
I do also remember that despite there being a daily Poole-Newcastle and v.v., this was generally not hauled by GD 47s (which remained an unseen rarity) at Reading. Presumably they only did the part north of Birmingham, if at all.
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