The first batch of ETH class 31 conversions all had steam heat boilers except 31424. The WR isolated/removed boilers from some of their locos for the Bristol-Pompey service, but the ER locos 31402-411 and 31417 all retained working boilers right up to when MarkI sleepers finished in 1983.
Welcome to the forum!
To elaborate on the GNR(I) sleeper services: these were Dublin (Amiens Street, as it was then) - Derry/Londonderry (Foyle Road), in both directions, and Dublin (Amiens Street) - Belfast (Great Victoria Street), in that direction only (but see below). No two sources seem to agree on the dates when they began and ended, but Patterson's book on the GNR(I) says from "about 1908" to "the end of World War I". (The November 1908 Bradshaw at Timetable World shows the services on pages 901 to 903, but the Belfast working seems to be Belfast to Dublin only, rather than the reverse.)
With double headed locos from Perth to Stirling.
The sleepers did run right up until the Waverley Route closed, but to and from St Pancras not Marylebone.
...but not when I did my first Rover in 1973 (can't remember when it changed) : 0607 arrival ex Inverness passed the 0600 Mallaig on Cowlairs Incline
That's the sort of nonsense you'd expect from today's railway....but not when I did my first Rover in 1973 (can't remember when it changed) : 0607 arrival ex Inverness passed the 0600 Mallaig on Cowlairs Incline
This was a very economical way of working.
The passenger accommodation was available to and from Edinburgh, it was the Sleeping cars that weren't for London passengers. (Presumably sleeping car passengers to and from London were to travel by ECML trains, so as to free up sleeping accommodation for Border stations). You could travel say Edinburgh-Kettering in one, so not necessarily actually empty stock! Presumably not many Sleeping Cars attached .
TBF until 1966 the sleeper arrived at Buchanan Street at 6.25am, while the Mallaig train had left at 6am since at least 1920!.
The Mallaig train was somewhere between 05.45 and 05.55 for many years until settling at 06.00 in the '60s.
Thankyou, that's interesting. The April 1910 Bradshaw (I have the David and Charles reprint) and the Rowledge book agree with the November 1908 Bradshaw that you cite about the direction of the Belfast sleeper. The southbound journey was stretched out to take over 7 hours, with as much time spent stationary at Portadown as the fastest daytime train took for the entire journey, whereas the northbound evening train took less than 4 hours and was in Belfast soon after midnight. Maybe it was northbound only at some other time during its years of operation.
Ran via Settle.
OK, corrected - I didn't check intermediate years.
That closed before Buchanan Street - but it worked, with a 6.0am ex Stirling in 1961.
Don't know about Marylebone, but Paddington to Brikenhead ran.
Manchester to/from Marylebone sleepers happened during West Coast Electrification. There was a brief period when the up sleeper from Liverpool also went into Marylebone, but the down Liverpool sleeper stuck with a Euston departure, I think because it also conveyed news traffic.
For many years there was a (non-passenger) service from Euston to Lairg, though I suspect there was possibly no more than one van that saw both stations!
My understanding is that the through Euston-Lairg van was only on Saturday night/Sunday morning for the London Sunday newspapers.
Yes, Saturday nights only and normally only one van through from Euston to Lairg but it also conveyed newspaper vans from Manchester and from Glasgow to Lairg (and from Euston newspapers to Glasgow Edinburgh, Aberdeen and possibly others).
Interesting the Leeds sleeper went from St Pancras. Wonder when it changed to KX
