How did railtours work in BR days?

[Trackman]

Talking of Merrymakers , i have dug into my collection and stock and have a few of the publicity flyers, handbills and brochures all used to promote the excursions .

i will have all of these and more scanned and listed on my site at www.transportpasttimes

Image 1 - 1972 London Midland Region Issue , detailing the years excursions from LM stations, one trip that catches the eye - Sunday August 6th - Aylesbury to Littlehampton, or 29th April Kensington Olympia to Tenby
Image 2 - 1976 an 80 page booklet again LM region , detailing every trip including to Europe
Image 3+4 - 1975 Eastern Region Leeds District , plenty of interesting trip in 1975 , priced accordingly
Image 5+6 - 1982 - Southern Region Offerings

As mentioned by a number of members already - Six Bells Junction Website , will give you loco details, routes and timings , on Rail Tours, Merrymakers and other specials .

Hope these few might stir some memories , i can scan and list more

Thank you.
That third picture look interesting from 1975, wonder what was going on with the headcode panel on the Deltic?
Talking of the 3rd picture, MYSTEX's still run I think (well not BR), I know somebody who went on one a few years back, I looked it up on RTT and gave them a no-lose bet of £10 before I left that they couldnt guess what the destination was .. it was of all places Lichfield TV. To be fair, it was only a posh lunch affair and returned.

 

[6Gman]

At a notably youthful age we did possibly the last "Taunton Sunday School Treat". Apparently an annual event since at least the 1920s, going on adult reminiscences, lasting fractionally into diesel days, it went on an August Sunday to the delightful beach resort of ... Burnham-on-Sea . Don't know who had the commercial risk, but there were proper Edmonson tickets printed specially for it, bought from the church treasurers - of all denominations. Then there were groups from, it seemed, some local pubs, and just about every railwayman not on duty, and all with wives and kids.

Didn't leave until about 11.30 because all had to go to church first, then march on the road through the town in finery, with parents shambling alongside. 41xx tank and several Taunton branch line non-corridor B sets for a considerable formation. At Highbridge it stopped, reversed into the S&D platforms, and although only one mile finally to Burnham old divisions died hard and the S&D side had steamed TWO 412xx specially (for a Sunday) to do that one mile final leg. Burnham station had closed about 10 years beforehand, but the platform was still there, I think a Highbridge porter came down to sweep it all out the day before.

Sunday schools in Crewe still booked a train for their excursion to Prestatyn (Rhyl was considered a den of sin and iniquity) until around 1971/72.

 

[greyman42]

Talking of Merrymakers , i have dug into my collection and stock and have a few of the publicity flyers, handbills and brochures all used to promote the excursions .

i will have all of these and more scanned and listed on my site at www.transportpasttimes

Image 1 - 1972 London Midland Region Issue , detailing the years excursions from LM stations, one trip that catches the eye - Sunday August 6th - Aylesbury to Littlehampton, or 29th April Kensington Olympia to Tenby
Image 2 - 1976 an 80 page booklet again LM region , detailing every trip including to Europe
Image 3+4 - 1975 Eastern Region Leeds District , plenty of interesting trip in 1975 , priced accordingly
Image 5+6 - 1982 - Southern Region Offerings

As mentioned by a number of members already - Six Bells Junction Website , will give you loco details, routes and timings , on Rail Tours, Merrymakers and other specials .

Hope these few might stir some memories , i can scan and list more

I know that things were cheaper back then but these were still fantastic value.

 

[Taunton]

Weren’t the Manchester Pullman coaches restricted to electric haulage only (or was it just that for the time they were rare in being eth and air-brakes only?)

Actually they were vacuum braked only. Some of the last such built, for 1966. This soon became a problem for the Liverpool Pullman, which was formed of Pullman Firsts and regular Standards. As subsequent generations of mainstream stock were built with air brakes, the Standards could not be replaced with these, a particular issue once air conditioning of all regular stock became normal, so the Standard provision on the key Liverpool train fell behind all the rest on the service. The Pullmans were already air con. They also couldn't be used with Class 87, which did not have vacuum brake equipment.

Remarkable! Approx what year would that have been Taunton?

1961 I think.

No mention of the Branch Line Society. They ran tours into little known branches.

They seemed to disappear for a long period, but have made something of a comeback in recent times.

 

[Lemmy282]

I know that things were cheaper back then but these were still fantastic value.

They were, but remember wages were not that good, I was on about £14 a week in the mid 70's, so a £3 rail ticket took a fair proportion out of what was left after I had paid my board at home.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Distinction needs to be made between enthusiast railtours and the thousands of day excursions like Merrymakers (a LMR London Division brand name) in the late 60s and 70s, eventually killed off by Thatcher's accountants who didn't understand marginal profits and decided it was bad stock utilisation to have older coaches used only at weekends.

(Having just come across this thread) I think that the penny had dropped on older coaches only used at weekends rather earlier.

The Reshaping Report in 1963 had highlighted that of 18,500 hauled coaches a mere 5,500 were in 'all year' service and a staggering 10,900 only on summer and high peak services. Of these, the 'worst' 6,000 were used on a derisory number of occasions and were managing to cost £2.9 million more than the embarrassingly low revenue that they generated (£0.5 million). Unsurprisingly a lot of these went quite quickly and the fleet was down to 12,950 by the end of 1965 (the year during which Dr Beeching departed).

The cull continued briskly in the 'white heat of the technological revolution' (possibly a reference by Harold Wilson to the idea of surplus railway scrap being sent to the furnaces to emerge as 'new' steel for car manufacture?), being down to 7,699 by the end of 1970. There was then something of an easing off, with 7,154 making it through to 1974. But along with eye-watering fares increases soon after (working out at no less than 50% in the worst year) there was scope to reduce further to 5,885 at the end of 1979, only by which time had Margaret Thatcher entered 10 Down Street.

Obviously there were various operational and engineering factors at work too. Some coaches had been displaced by new EMUs (e.g. King's Cross suburban); HSTs were entering service; the transition from vacuum to air braking and steam to electric heating (eth) was making marshalling and locomotive provision more awkward; air conditioning on Mark IID onwards meant that eth was needed all the year round; asbestos had been found in many older vehicles; pathing for occasional 75/90-mph trains on 100/125-mph main lines was becoming harder; provision of suitably-trained staff for run-rounds; etc.. These all militated against the chances of the older coaches actually generating any real (even marginal) profit from occasional use. This was even more the case as the dwindling number of such vehicles meant that there often had to be long empty stock movements to re-position them for revenue-earning work.

 

[Magdalia]

I think that the penny had dropped on older coaches only used at weekends rather earlier.

Broadly speaking I agree with this analysis.

In the late 1960s and 1970s Merrymaker programmes (other brand names are available) in what eventually became the NetWork South East area mainly used rolling stock that worked commuter services on Mondays to Fridays. This was available for other work at weekends except on summer Saturdays when it would be used on dated trains to and from the seaside.

Electrification of suburban lines significantly reduced this source of rolling stock, particularly the GN suburban and BedPan schemes.

The extent of the local Merrymaker programmes would also be affected by availability of locomotives and/or traincrew, especially if there was freight to move at weekends.

 

[Beebman]

I think that the penny had dropped on older coaches only used at weekends rather earlier.

I travelled on a number of railtours in the 1970s with my parents which used Mk1 coaches that had seen better days with faults such as flat batteries for lighting and steam heating leaks. Also I remember spotting a couple of interesting individual examples of rolling stock being used - for example a Reading-Blackpool Merrymaker in September 1971 included Cravens prototype FO W3082 which had been declassified to 2nd class. We didn't travel on that but 4 years later we did travel on the first-built Mk1 FO M3000 which was included in an LNER Society railtour from St.Pancras to York just after the opening of the NRM.