duesselmartin
Established Member
Hi all. What stock did the Intercity services from around Southampton direction Birmingham via Oxford use around 1992. Did all stop and reverse at Reading?
Thanks
Martin
Thanks
Martin
As far as I remember the loco ran around at Reading.Hi Cowley,
Thank you for your quick reply.
There are a number of videos in YouTube, but non shows the coupling of an engine. Although the 43s with buffers do feature.
This made me wonder.
Did the loco run around the train or was a second loco used?
Best wishes from Germany.
Martin
They used the then platforms 8/9 which had a centre road as well, and the timetable always allowed for a runround.As far as I remember the loco ran around at Reading.
For instance I was on the 1518 Manchester to Poole service on 15/2/1992 pulled by 47843 and I caught it from Birmingham New Street to Basingstoke. 47843 was on this all the way and I’m pretty sure it called at Reading. I remember 47s running around on services I was on at other times too.
30907 you’ve just filled in the gaps there, I remember that now.They used the then platforms 8/9 which had a centre road as well, and the timetable always allowed for a runround.
The Cross-Country HST sets were all fitted with short swing-link bogies to allow them to work these services.Does anyone remember what the story was with HSTs?
I remember that they were distinctly not allowed in third rail territory for years but then started to appear. I think the buffer fitted ones first? Eventually there seems to have been no problem with them and Virgin ones even worked to Bournemouth didn’t they? Was this something to do with a swing arm on a bogie or something similar?
I may need to ask an HST person about this because I (clearly) don’t know much about them.
Just what we needed, thanks 43096.The Cross-Country HST sets were all fitted with short swing-link bogies to allow them to work these services.
The power cars used were any of the XC Craigentinny fleet (XC HSTs were split between Laira and Craigentinny at the time - it was Virgin who concentrated them in a single pool), though it should be noted that rigid sub-sector dedication of power cars was not always applied back then, so some East Coast power cars appeared - for example I believe 43096 was on the first HST to Poole!
I'm not certain what the timetable pattern was back then - think it varied a bit over the years. The general pattern evolved into two morning Manchester-Bournemouth trains, which then went back to Edinburgh and two corresponding Edinburgh starters which landed back at Longsight each night. There was also a Poole train (as noted above) but not sure if that was one of the trains mentioned above and extended through.
Think others have answered already, but the core services were booked via Reading General both ways from 1967 or so, leaving only the holiday extras, one of which survived IIRC quite late on in the pre-Voyager era.30907 you’ve just filled in the gaps there, I remember that now.
Do you know if any of those trains going north took a left at Reading West Junction and avoided Reading station?
On a point of pedantry, there is/was no such thing as a Class 47/8. They were 47/4s, just renumbered into the 478xx series to differentiate them as having long range fuel tanks; their design codes remained as 474nn.The 1992 timetable shows a few summer saturday services that did not call at Reading, including a 10:40 Poole - Manchester service with no publicly booked stops between Winchester & Birmingham New St. There was also a 08:40 Newcastle - Poole that ran direct from Tamworth to Leamington Spa, and then non-stop to Basingstoke.
All other services call & reversed at Reading.
I think that loco changes at Reading were possibly eliminated when Class 47/8, fitted with long-range fuel tanks, became available. In my trips in the 1970s and early 1980s, loco changes at Reading were common.