Just looking at the famous Table 51 in the goldmine that is Timetable World's full 1982 BR timetable.
It's revealing something which in retrospect seems surprising - namely a good number of Cross Country services, particularly on the Reading route, did not appear to have catering.
Was this actually the case? In particular I notice a discrepancy between the station departure boards which clearly showed the Portsmouth-Manchester (1105 that year) having a cold buffet, yet in Table 51 it's buffetless.
Incidentally, assuming the Reading-Birmingham route is still hourly, it appears that there were more trains from Reading-Birmingham during the period 0630-1730 in 1982 than there are currently, with 12 trains in those 11 hours. Longer trains too of course. (Most years of the 80s, however, there were hours with gaps at Reading...)
It's revealing something which in retrospect seems surprising - namely a good number of Cross Country services, particularly on the Reading route, did not appear to have catering.
Was this actually the case? In particular I notice a discrepancy between the station departure boards which clearly showed the Portsmouth-Manchester (1105 that year) having a cold buffet, yet in Table 51 it's buffetless.
Incidentally, assuming the Reading-Birmingham route is still hourly, it appears that there were more trains from Reading-Birmingham during the period 0630-1730 in 1982 than there are currently, with 12 trains in those 11 hours. Longer trains too of course. (Most years of the 80s, however, there were hours with gaps at Reading...)
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