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Derby to Crewe EMT services

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LNW-GW Joint

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There are usually 3 single 153s allocated to the service.
Apart from the fact they are refurbished units, it's about as mean a service as you can get.
Eastbound they leave Crewe only 5 minutes after the LNWR Crewe-Euston via Stoke.
Westbound they are rather better separated from Stoke.
 

NorthWestRover

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It's for the Crewe - Stoke bit I was was asking as I'm doing a Cheshire Day Ranger next month and couldn't decide whether to do the EMU or the DMU. Could do both, of course (especially Eastbound).
 

6Gman

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It's for the Crewe - Stoke bit I was was asking as I'm doing a Cheshire Day Ranger next month and couldn't decide whether to do the EMU or the DMU. Could do both, of course (especially Eastbound).

Good way of ticking off 3 Nottingham 153s. :D

The 1307 ex-Crewe was booked 2x153 in September (possibly because of the Derby blockade?).

Which presumably meant something inbound was also 2x153.
 

The_Train

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It's for the Crewe - Stoke bit I was was asking as I'm doing a Cheshire Day Ranger next month and couldn't decide whether to do the EMU or the DMU. Could do both, of course (especially Eastbound).

Don't hang around in Stoke too long. I once saw 2 guys ask another guy where his car was as they wanted to steal his wheels. When he said he was walking they stole his shoes........
 
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Kettledrum

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There are usually 3 single 153s allocated to the service.
Apart from the fact they are refurbished units, it's about as mean a service as you can get.
Eastbound they leave Crewe only 5 minutes after the LNWR Crewe-Euston via Stoke.
Westbound they are rather better separated from Stoke.

wholly inadequate for this route.
 

Skymonster

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Had a four-car 222 mid-morning / early evening a while ago - first declassified both ways but no announcement to that effect, and the guard dished out bottled water and shortbread biscuits to those of us bold enough to sit in first. Marvellous - that's how the route should be run!
 

NorthWestRover

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Don't hang around in Stoke too long. I once saw 2 guys ask another guy where is car was as they wanted to steal his wheels. When he said he was walking they stole his shoes........

Oh, I've spent some time in Stoke. I won't be there long, trust me!!
 

martinsh

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I think that the 1742 ex Derby and 1907 return are officially allocated to a class 158 during the week (unit comes off Liverpool - Nottingham). Doubled 153s and 156 / 158s are more likely to appear on Saturdays but use is haphazard. More likely to appear for special events (e.g. Uttoxeter races, Derby County V Stoke City etc).

PS now starting to see ex FGW 153s on the route - but you can only tell by the internal trim.
 

43055

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0607, 1907 Crewe to Derby and 1742, 2042 are booked for 158's. The rest are booked for single 153's but is its not unknown for 156 or double sets to turn up. Last week there was a 156 and a double 153 running around during the day.
 

GW43125

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The 12:07 Crewe-Derby was a double 153 on Saturday.
I have also seen it be a 156 before on a Saturday.
 

Wilts Wanderer

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Amazing how the Crewe-Stoke-Derby corridor has suffered decline in the last 20 years. In the late 90s it was an hourly service through to Nottingham and beyond (Lincoln/Grantham/Skegness) using 156s with on board trolley service, and whenever I travelled, well patronised.

Central Trains are the culprits who killed it off, when they withdrew the third (stopping) train each hour between Derby and Nottingham and started splitting the local calls between the two previously fast Nottingham-Birmingham services each hour, which was WHOLLY and laughably inadequate, particularly in the peaks. The lowest of the low came on a Friday in mid-June 2006 (during university going-home season) when the 1718 Nottingham-Birmingham NS produced a single 153 and left about 250 pax with luggage behind. I was going to Bristol on RSTL dependent pass - quickly dashed for the next St Pancras service! EMT restored the third service but unfortunately it goes to Matlock which is pretty useless TBH.
 

70014IronDuke

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Amazing how the Crewe-Stoke-Derby corridor has suffered decline in the last 20 years. In the late 90s it was an hourly service through to Nottingham and beyond (Lincoln/Grantham/Skegness) using 156s with on board trolley service, and whenever I travelled, well patronised.
.....
Not just the last 20 years. I don't think I've been on it since 1974, but in those years it felt as if it were treated as a first class cross-country, if secondary line. We had the Swindon-built 3-car units (also to Lincoln and Skeggy, and on the Matlock branch to boot) - I don't know the class number. <Googles - looks like they were Cl 120> I can't say that I remember trains as particularly full, or the units being fast - but they were pretty comfortable for a DMU and I was truly shocked to hear most of the trains had degenerated to single unit Class 153s.
 

70014IronDuke

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Oh, I've spent some time in Stoke. I won't be there long, trust me!!

Stoke is the only place I've ever been threatened with having my teeth knocked out - by a shopkeeper!

I was visiting one Saturday in, I think, October 73 to do some photography for a friend in Hanley. As I walked up the (long) road from the station on the south pavement, I noticed an interesting shop on the north side of the road. IIRC, it was a bicycle shop, and the guy had a bike or two on the facade as decoration. Whatever, I thought it was an interesting photo - and I took my old Exakta VX1000 out and was preparing to take a shot and this fellah comes rushing out and said he'd do me in if I took a pic. I was totally perplexed as to what he was so worried or excited about. I should have called the police and insisted on my rights, but I wasn't so bothered and couldn't spare the time or hassle, and as he was massive, I put my camera away. It was only then that I noticed the name on the shop - I totally forget what it was, but it was 'funny' (like Bigbottom's Bikes or something of that ilk) - and the penny dropped that this was what he was peed off about. In fact, I had only been interested in the patterns and shadows on his facade, not his family name.
 

Wilts Wanderer

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Stoke is the only place I've ever been threatened with having my teeth knocked out - by a shopkeeper!

I was visiting one Saturday in, I think, October 73 to do some photography for a friend in Hanley. As I walked up the (long) road from the station on the south pavement, I noticed an interesting shop on the north side of the road. IIRC, it was a bicycle shop, and the guy had a bike or two on the facade as decoration. Whatever, I thought it was an interesting photo - and I took my old Exakta VX1000 out and was preparing to take a shot and this fellah comes rushing out and said he'd do me in if I took a pic. I was totally perplexed as to what he was so worried or excited about. I should have called the police and insisted on my rights, but I wasn't so bothered and couldn't spare the time or hassle, and as he was massive, I put my camera away. It was only then that I noticed the name on the shop - I totally forget what it was, but it was 'funny' (like Bigbottom's Bikes or something of that ilk) - and the penny dropped that this was what he was peed off about. In fact, I had only been interested in the patterns and shadows on his facade, not his family name.

Haha brilliant! I recall going into Stoke in the 90s there was a large warehouse near the line with the name ‘Shufflebottom’s’ painted in massive black lettering - literally cried with laughter as a 10-yr old.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Amazing how the Crewe-Stoke-Derby corridor has suffered decline in the last 20 years. In the late 90s it was an hourly service through to Nottingham and beyond (Lincoln/Grantham/Skegness) using 156s with on board trolley service, and whenever I travelled, well patronised.

Central Trains are the culprits who killed it off, when they withdrew the third (stopping) train each hour between Derby and Nottingham and started splitting the local calls between the two previously fast Nottingham-Birmingham services each hour, which was WHOLLY and laughably inadequate, particularly in the peaks. The lowest of the low came on a Friday in mid-June 2006 (during university going-home season) when the 1718 Nottingham-Birmingham NS produced a single 153 and left about 250 pax with luggage behind. I was going to Bristol on RSTL dependent pass - quickly dashed for the next St Pancras service! EMT restored the third service but unfortunately it goes to Matlock which is pretty useless TBH.

Not to mention the period when it ran on from Crewe to Manchester Airport!
I was once the only passenger on this leg.
At the very least it should run as far as Nottingham - maybe the Derby remodelling will now allow an extra service.
The service between Crewe and Stoke has thankfully doubled, with WMT using 350s which even north of Stoke are full of folk on cheap London tickets.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Haha brilliant! I recall going into Stoke in the 90s there was a large warehouse near the line with the name ‘Shufflebottom’s’ painted in massive black lettering - literally cried with laughter as a 10-yr old.

It's still there alongside the main line - locally known as Jones & Shuffs, plumber's merchants I think.
 

Deafdoggie

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Don't hang around in Stoke too long. I once saw 2 guys ask another guy where his car was as they wanted to steal his wheels. When he said he was walking they stole his shoes........

This service was originally 12 coach trains, that’s the reason there’s only one coach left!

They really need to be better spaced with the London Trains on the Crewe-Stoke bit. Two trains an hour, but an hourly service!
 

Bevan Price

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In Central days, there used to be some Class 150s on the Derby - Crewe line, in addition to some 156s or 158s. I think it degenerated mostly to single 153s after EMT took over, but did not retain any of the 150s. (And single 153s on some of the Matlock line services are equally inadequate.)
 

OuterDistant

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Amazing how the Crewe-Stoke-Derby corridor has suffered decline in the last 20 years. In the late 90s it was an hourly service through to Nottingham and beyond (Lincoln/Grantham/Skegness) using 156s with on board trolley service, and whenever I travelled, well patronised.
I often wonder how much of it is down to improvements on the parallel A50 and A500 roads, the timeline(s) of which seem to match up with its period of decline.
 

edwin_m

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Crewe isn't that much of a destination in itself but has a lot of connections. However, improvements in CrossCountry and the Nottingham-Liverpool service mean that most journeys between the East Midlands and north west England or western Scotland can now be done more easily by other routes. Even North Wales is just as quick and considerably more comfortable from Nottingham via Manchester.
 

Baxenden Bank

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PS now starting to see ex FGW 153s on the route - but you can only tell by the internal trim.
Are these the ones with legroom only for pygmies? Totally shocked the other day when I caught one out of Stoke. Hate traveling this route nowadays, I always end up with a bad back from sitting legs akimbo or twisted.
 

Baxenden Bank

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Haha brilliant! I recall going into Stoke in the 90s there was a large warehouse near the line with the name ‘Shufflebottom’s’ painted in massive black lettering - literally cried with laughter as a 10-yr old.
Still there. Jones and Shufflebotham aka Jones and Shuffs - builders merchants.
 

Qwerty133

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Unless you happen to live in the Matlock area like I do, then it's pretty useful actually.
It is also a much better use of units diagrammatically as it is impossible to do a round trip from Derby to Matlock in less than an hour and while just about possible it would not be feasible for a unit to be scheduled to do Derby to Nottingham and back in an hour but allowing 2 hours for either of these would see a unit spending most of each hour not in use so a unit can be saved by combining the 2 services which couldn't happen if it was the Crewe service that continued to Nottingham.
 

Deafdoggie

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I often wonder how much of it is down to improvements on the parallel A50 and A500 roads, the timeline(s) of which seem to match up with its period of decline.

But did the road improve because the train service declined? Or did the train service decline because the road improved?

I don't know how passenger numbers have altered, I suspect not that much, but instead of spreading everyone over two coaches of a train, they are now more cosy in one coach. Certainly the London trains have helped ease the situation between Crewe and Stoke (apart from Longport) It is one of those situations where everyone is agreed that longer trains and more trains are needed. It is just none of those feel they should be the ones to pay for it!
 

Ianigsy

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Not just the last 20 years. I don't think I've been on it since 1974, but in those years it felt as if it were treated as a first class cross-country, if secondary line. We had the Swindon-built 3-car units (also to Lincoln and Skeggy, and on the Matlock branch to boot) - I don't know the class number. <Googles - looks like they were Cl 120> I can't say that I remember trains as particularly full, or the units being fast - but they were pretty comfortable for a DMU and I was truly shocked to hear most of the trains had degenerated to single unit Class 153s.

I do wonder whether it had a more prestigious status in BR days (and quite possibly LMS days before that) because of the number of BR staff and particularly management who might have needed to use the service on a daily basis if they were based in Derby but had meetings in Crewe or vice versa.
 

Deafdoggie

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I do wonder whether it had a more prestigious status in BR days (and quite possibly LMS days before that) because of the number of BR staff and particularly management who might have needed to use the service on a daily basis if they were based in Derby but had meetings in Crewe or vice versa.

I remember it (just-I'm not that old!) having First Class!
 
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