D6130
Established Member
When I was at Aylesbury (1988-91) it was Banbury in both directions, with the stock stabled there overnight. the Old Oak Commom driver and Paddington guard on the evening job travelled pass back to London, while their early turn colleagues were taxied to Banbury at some unearthly hour of the morning. At that time there was a severe shortage of drivers at OOC and the train was booked for a NSE class 47, in case it had to be covered by an Aylesbury driver, who didn't sign class 50s. The latter did, however, still turn up occasionally....including on the memorable winter's evening in early 1991 when London was blanketed in 'the wrong kind of snow' and the train never got any further than West Ruislip. Meanwhile, I was stuck there for several hours on the Up line with a four car class 115 dmu, while the adjacent LU Central line continued running with minimal delay and took all our passengers forward.Mid 80s, say 1985, it was Wolverhampton both ways; later on it was Banbury down and Leamington Spa up. I'm pretty sure the stock was then stored overnight at Banbury - not sure if the engine stayed with the coaches. The newspaper train was nothing to do with it and, in any case, it was to and from Aylesbury.