Class 156 Colchester-Barrow

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The 156 working the rather strange one a day service from Colchester to Barrow-In-Furness!

Was this a thing and can someone please tell me which route it took? It sounds fascinating. I bet it took ages!

 

[hexagon789]

Was this a thing and can someone please tell me which route it took? It sounds fascinating. I bet it took ages!

Colchester-Ipswich-Bury St Edmunds-Ely-Peterborough-Leicester-Birmingham-Preston-Ulverston-Barrow

(That's just the routing, it made more stops than just that)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

When did this run?

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Colchester-Ipswich-Bury St Edmunds-Ely-Peterborough-Leicester-Birmingham-Preston-Ulverston-Barrow

(That's just the routing, it made more stops than just that)

Jeez, it went via Birmingham? I expected it to take a similar route to EMR via Nottingham and Manchester and then on to Barrow from there. That must have taken all day.

 

[hexagon789]

When did this run?

Good question, I'm guessing either late-BR or Central Trains.

Its not in any of my BR timetables but the latest I have is summer 1993.

There is a Colchester-Birmingham Sprinter in 1988, retimed and upgraded to Express in 1990 and a seperate Birmingham-Barrow InterCity in 1988 but no complete though service

Jeez, it went via Birmingham? I expected it to take a similar route to EMR via Nottingham and Manchester and then on to Barrow from there. That must have taken all day.

Yes, because it was originally two seperate services - a Colchester-Birmingham and a Birmingham-Barrow (this latter being the remnant of the Euston-Barrow InterCity services).

 

[Polarbear]

Blimey! I recall doing a 156 from Ipswich to Manchester Piccadilly when they were practically brand new, and that was en-route to Blackpool North.

Cant say I recall a similar service that went through Birmingham, but it may have happened.

 

[hexagon789]

Blimey! I recall doing a 156 from Ipswich to Manchester Piccadilly when they were practically brand new, and that was en-route to Blackpool North.

Cant say I recall a similar service that went through Birmingham, but it may have happened.

There were a number of interesting through services in the early years of the 156s, Sunderland-Glasgow for instance is another though at least that went a fairly direct route!

The Colchester-Birmingham in 1988 has a trolley, so I imagine when the service was combined through to Barrow it would've had one too. BR seemed to have a thing for putting trolley services on all kinds of workings in the late-1980s/early 1990s.

 

[JonathanH]

Summer 1989 timetable has a service from Colchester to Barrow-in-Furness departing at 1530, arriving at 2254.

Colchester 1530, Manningtree 1540, Ipswich 1551-1556, Stowmarket 1608, Bury St Edmunds 1625, Ely 1652, March 1710, Peterborough 1727-1730, Grantham 1812, Nottingham 1839-1844, Langley Mill 1906, Alfreton & Mansfield Parkway 1913, Chesterfield 1926, Sheffield 1943-1947, Stockport 2034, Manchester Piccadilly 2043, Manchester Oxford Road 2046-2049, Bolton 2104, Adlington 2114, Chorley 2119, Preston 2131-2132, Lancaster 2153, Carnforth 2201, Silverdale 2207, Arnside 2212, Grange-over-Sands 2217, Kents Bank 2221, Cark 2225, Ulverston 2233, Dalton 2241, Roose 2247, Barrow-in-Furness 2254

The Barrow starter that fed into the Manchester to Peterborough route (0704 from Barrow-in-Furness) went to Cambridge. The inbound working to Colchester was the 0956 from Birmingham New Street.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Summer 1989 timetable has a service from Colchester to Barrow-in-Furness departing at 1530, arriving at 2256.

Interesting. Not routed via Brum.

Was there ever a return through working?

 

[JonathanH]

Interesting. Not routed via Brum.

Was there ever a return through working?

No, table 49 in its early days had a number of cross-workings so different combinations of Barrow / Blackpool / Liverpool went through the Manchester to Peterborough core and on to Norwich / Great Yarmouth / Lowestoft / Cambridge / Ipswich / Harwich / Colchester. Similarly, not all Birmingham trains went to Cambridge.

As I noted the Barrow-in-Furness starter went to Cambridge.

 

[hexagon789]

Summer 1989 timetable has a service from Colchester to Barrow-in-Furness departing at 1530, arriving at 2254.

Colchester 1530, Manningtree 1540, Ipswich 1551-1556, Stowmarket 1608, Bury St Edmunds 1625, Ely 1652, March 1710, Peterborough 1727-1730, Grantham 1812, Nottingham 1839-1844, Langley Mill 1906, Alfreton & Mansfield Parkway 1913, Chesterfield 1926, Sheffield 1943-1947, Stockport 2034, Manchester Piccadilly 2043, Manchester Oxford Road 2046-2049, Bolton 2104, Adlington 2114, Chorley 2119, Preston 2131-2132, Lancaster 2153, Carnforth 2201, Silverdale 2207, Arnside 2212, Grange-over-Sands 2217, Kents Bank 2221, Cark 2225, Ulverston 2233, Dalton 2241, Roose 2247, Barrow-in-Furness 2254

The Barrow starter that fed into the Manchester to Peterborough route (0704 from Barrow-in-Furness) went to Cambridge. The inbound working to Colchester was the 0956 from Birmingham New Street.

Ah, I assumed that the Colchester-Birmingham and Birmingham-Barrow were merged to form the through service but not so. Still quite a trip though.

It's also typical that 1989 is one year of don't have.

 

[Hardcastle]

I worked on the railway 1977-96 and can only remember the Barrow service running via Manchester as i recall it replaced the through Barrow to London Euston service. It also called at Edale on the outward journey idea for days out in the Peak District am not sure about if it did this on the return journey at some point or was cover by another service.

 

[Gloster]

I think that this one produced a fairly good connection out of the DFDS ship from Esbjerg and then at Grantham there was only 10 or 15 minutes wait for the through HST to Hull. Or was it a through train from Parkeston Quay? I know I did Copenhagen-Beverley with very few changes (possibly only on and off the ferry, Manningtree, Grantham and Hull) a couple of times around 1989/1990.

 

[JonathanH]

I think that this one produced a fairly good connection out of the DFDS ship from Esbjerg and then at Grantham there was only 10 or 15 minutes wait for the through HST to Hull. Or was it a through train from Parkeston Quay? I know I did Copenhagen-Beverley with very few changes (possibly only on and off the ferry, Manningtree, Grantham and Hull) a couple of times around 1989/1990.

There were three through trains off Harwich in that timetable:

0728 to Birmingham via Leicester and Liverpool via Sheffield, splitting at Peterborough
1127 to Liverpool via Sheffield
1835 to Manchester via Sheffield

However you are right that the Colchester train connected well into the Hull HST at Grantham.

 

[randyrippley]

When the 156 fleet was introduced they initially ran via Barrow/Blackpool/Liverpool (alternating) via Chat Moss > Piccadilly > Hope Valley > Sheffield (reverse and add a 150) > Alfreton (lose the 150 at Langley Mill) > Nottingham > Peterborough > Ely > then variously Harwich/Norwich/Colchester.
Weekend engineering often saw them routed via Wigan-Bolton and Piccadilly-Huddersfield-Barnsley-Sheffield.

 

[Sprinter107]

Good question, I'm guessing either late-BR or Central Trains.

Its not in any of my BR timetables but the latest I have is summer 1993.

There is a Colchester-Birmingham Sprinter in 1988, retimed and upgraded to Express in 1990 and a seperate Birmingham-Barrow InterCity in 1988 but no complete though service


Yes, because it was originally two seperate services - a Colchester-Birmingham and a Birmingham-Barrow (this latter being the remnant of the Euston-Barrow InterCity services).

I cant remember that train going via Birmingham. I'm sure it went via Nottingham and the Hope Valley.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I cant remember that train going via Birmingham. I'm sure it went via Nottingham and the Hope Valley.

JonathanH has already stated this upthread in post #8.

 

[Iskra]

When the 156 fleet was introduced they initially ran via Barrow/Blackpool/Liverpool (alternating) via Chat Moss > Piccadilly > Hope Valley > Sheffield (reverse and add a 150) > Alfreton (lose the 150 at Langley Mill) > Nottingham > Peterborough > Ely > then variously Harwich/Norwich/Colchester.
Weekend engineering often saw them routed via Wigan-Bolton and Piccadilly-Huddersfield-Barnsley-Sheffield.

This sounds horrendously operationally complex!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Wasn't there a long distance 156 service that ran to and from Harwich as well?

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Lost Railway Services of Greater Manchester: The European

The story of Manchester’s former Boat Train service to Harwich Parkeston Quay Since the Edwardian times, Manchester Victoria station’s canopy and tiled map proudly advertised the fact i…

mancunian1001.wordpress.com

 

[superjohn]

Wasn't there a long distance 156 service that ran to and from Harwich as well?

In the late eighties there was a daily service to Birmingham and Liverpool, it divided at Peterborough. Presumably there was also a return working.

That was the last gasp of the former “European” boat train that once went through to Scotland!

 

[hexagon789]

I cant remember that train going via Birmingham. I'm sure it went via Nottingham and the Hope Valley.

That was my mistake in presuming that the Colchester-Birmingham and Birmingham-Barrow services shown in my 1988 timetable were merged to form the Colchester-Barrow in 1989 which was not the case

When the 156 fleet was introduced they initially ran via Barrow/Blackpool/Liverpool (alternating) via Chat Moss > Piccadilly > Hope Valley > Sheffield (reverse and add a 150) > Alfreton (lose the 150 at Langley Mill) > Nottingham > Peterborough > Ely > then variously Harwich/Norwich/Colchester.
Weekend engineering often saw them routed via Wigan-Bolton and Piccadilly-Huddersfield-Barnsley-Sheffield.

Wow, that's a very complex service pattern/arrangement but BR seemed very keen to make good use of the Sprinters on a wide variety of routes

 

[randyrippley]

Wow, that's a very complex service pattern/arrangement but BR seemed very keen to make good use of the Sprinters on a wide variety of routes

Its the kind of long distance service the 156's were built for, and why they had long-range fuel tanks compared with other stock. The whole point of them was long-distance non-IC routes, linking disparate parts of the country. Sectorisation ruined the vision of a national provincial network.

 

[hexagon789]

Its the kind of long distance service the 156's were built for, and why they had long-range fuel tanks compared with other stock. The whole point of them was long-distance non-IC routes, linking disparate parts of the country. Sectorisation ruined the vision of a national provincial network.

I appreciate that, just the way in which there were many one-off extensions etc on services operated by them makes it seem sightly more unusual

 

[JonathanH]

Sectorisation ruined the vision of a national provincial network.

Did it really? It just simplified the network into one where connections were needed and attention could be focused on particular routes rather than trying to link everywhere to everywhere. In many ways, the simplification of routes actually helps standardise connections all day - we still have the ticketing basis for these provincial routes that existed in 1989, just with an overlay of operator specific fares.

Taking for example, Blackpool to Manchester trains - these are now modern 6-car electric units going to Hazel Grove and Manchester Airport and with a change at Manchester Piccadilly, you can still get to Norwich. There don't need to be through trains from Blackpool to Norwich (or indeed Colchester to Barrow-in-Furness) for it to be considered a network. Far better to have suitable rolling stock for each part of the journey.

 

[Ianno87]

Did it really? It just simplified the network into one where connections were needed and attention could be focused on particular routes rather than trying to link everywhere to everywhere. In many ways, the simplification of routes actually helps standardise connections all day - we still have the ticketing basis for these provincial routes that existed in 1989, just with an overlay of operator specific fares.

Taking for example, Blackpool to Manchester trains - these are now modern 6-car electric units going to Hazel Grove and Manchester Airport and with a change at Manchester Piccadilly, you can still get to Norwich. There don't need to be through trains from Blackpool to Norwich (or indeed Colchester to Barrow-in-Furness) for it to be considered a network. Far better to have suitable rolling stock for each part of the journey.

Precisely. Cambridge is far better off having a regular hourly link to Peterborough, Leicester and Birmingham, than an erratic pattern of trains to various far flung places where the vast majority of passengers aren't interested in going, and still not even achieving a regular hourly 'local' link to Peterborough.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Its the kind of long distance service the 156's were built for, and why they had long-range fuel tanks compared with other stock. The whole point of them was long-distance non-IC routes, linking disparate parts of the country. Sectorisation ruined the vision of a national provincial network.

Wasn't that more for things like TPE, though? Imagine the (non-)punctuality of things like Liverpool-Norwich all over the country.

 

[randyrippley]

Wasn't that more for things like TPE, though? Imagine the (non-)punctuality of things like Liverpool-Norwich all over the country.

This was years before TPE was a gleam in a civil servants eye.........

And to be honest my experience between Preston-Nottingham was that timekeeping was pretty good - except for one sunday evening ride into a storm where the guard at Nottingham admitted conditions were so bad he didn't know which route we were going to take Sheffield - Manchester. We eventually ran Sheffield - Wakefield Westgate (reverse) - Wakefield Kirkgate (reverse) - through Mirfield and reversed somewhere midway on the line to Brighouse, then - Huddersfield - Piccadilly. A real trip into the unknown.

 

[Bletchleyite]

This was years before TPE was a gleam in a civil servants eye.........

And to be honest my experience between Preston-Nottingham was that timekeeping was pretty good - except for one sunday evening ride into a storm where the guard at Nottingham admitted conditions were so bad he didn't know which route we were going to take Sheffield - Manchester. We eventually ran Sheffield - Wakefield Westgate (reverse) - Wakefield Kirkgate (reverse) - through Mirfield and reversed somewhere midway on the line to Brighouse, then - Huddersfield - Piccadilly. A real trip into the unknown.

That's almost as good as the train I was on (possibly the only one ever?) that called at Harrow and Wealdstone 3 times.

(Called once, stopped due to a fatality, set back wrong-line to the station, called again, sat there for 2 hours, went south to cross to the fast line, didn't cross to the fast line, went back north and called once more!)