Newspaper trains

[jopsuk]

Is that the paper (off topic) - which reported the Titanic Disaster as "Local man lost at sea" ?

Reputadly, though I think the actual supposed headline was "North east man lost at sea". Thing is, especially back then, north east men were constantly being lost at sea, what with it being a fishing-dominated area.

 

[matchmaker]

I can remember spending a night shift at Bo'ness Junction signal box on the Edinburgh - Glasgow line in the 1970's. The single train that passed between 1am and 5am was newspapers.

 

[RichmondCommu]

I have a dim recollection of actually being able to see the printing presses rolling from outside the building in Manchester (early 60s?).

As well as the News trains there were also empties the following day - often of great length and weirdness. [There was a Perth - Red Bank {Manchester} which ran as a passenger train as far as Motherwell! Used it once; Class 26 to Mossend, then an 85 to Motherwell where I alighted. God knows what happened to anyone who had nodded off!]

This reminds me of chasing Class 40's on Cleethorpes - Red Bank empties in the early 1980's. Memories!

 

[AnonymousUser1]

Just a few years ago, early editions of Sunday papers were available in central London from around 8pm Saturday evening - that's how early they are printed nowadays!

That may no longer be the case, now that print sites have moved further away from central London.

According to my dear old mum, just before the Lincolnshire Echo went to weekly, TPTB were printing one edition remotely which arrived at newsagents so early in the day the newsagents sacked all the evening round boys / girls and put the Echo round in the Morning round bags ... compared to the mid 1990s when there were up to three editions a day (County, City and City Final)...

 

[Mugby]

In Manchester, at Manchester Victoria station, newspaper trains of inordinate length were always to be found late at night on the very long platform 11 that conjoined to platform 3 at Manchester Exchange station. The nearby area of Withy Grove was a centre of newspaper printing.

Wasn't it one of these trains which made the famous Heaton to Red Bank CS train every morning?

I only realised a couple of weeks ago that Red Bank doesn't exist any more!

 

[Universediver]

When I worked in London in the 1990's I used to pick up Sundays papers on Saturday evening from Waterloo. Do any London stations still offer this service?

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Is that the paper (off topic) - which reported the Titanic Disaster as "Local man lost at sea" ?

My local paper (the South Wales Argus) allegedly reported the Titanic Disaster as "Liner Sinks in the Atlantic - No-one from Gwent Involved" ... !

Back on topic .... in the seventies and eighties, I remember coming onto Cardiff Central Station late at night and picking up copies of papers that had just been delivered. The paper shop was shut, but there was a barrow outside the main concourse.

I've also picked up the following days' papers in a number of pubs in London and elsewhere from I guess about 10.00pm. At one time, the opposite used to happen on Orkney, where the Sunday papers weren't delivered until Monday, as there were no ferries on Sunday. I don't know whether this has changed, but I guess it must have.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

On a kind of reverse of the above it used to be possible to buy early editions of regional evening papers at London terminii (Liverpool Echo, Birmingham Evening Mail, Manchester Evening News, Wolverhampton Express & Star at Euston - Yorkshire Evening Post, Evening Chronicle at Kings Cross, Evening Argus at Victoria) and I imagined that they were sent down by train.

Nowadays only one or two of the more widely regional papers like the (Glasgow) Herald, Yorkshire Post, Birmingham Post are available. Do they still come down by rail ?

 

[ChiefPlanner]

On a kind of reverse of the above it used to be possible to buy early editions of regional evening papers at London terminii (Liverpool Echo, Birmingham Evening Mail, Manchester Evening News, Wolverhampton Express & Star at Euston - Yorkshire Evening Post, Evening Chronicle at Kings Cross, Evening Argus at Victoria) and I imagined that they were sent down by train.

Nowadays only one or two of the more widely regional papers like the (Glasgow) Herald, Yorkshire Post, Birmingham Post are available. Do they still come down by rail ?

Regrettably not - but you used to be able to get the Western Mail at Paddington.

 

[dvboy]

According to my dear old mum, just before the Lincolnshire Echo went to weekly, TPTB were printing one edition remotely which arrived at newsagents so early in the day the newsagents sacked all the evening round boys / girls and put the Echo round in the Morning round bags ... compared to the mid 1990s when there were up to three editions a day (County, City and City Final)...

When I worked in a Lincoln petrol station in the 2000s we'd often have the Echo by 9am at the latest (they daily papers would arrive around 5am).
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

On a kind of reverse of the above it used to be possible to buy early editions of regional evening papers at London terminii (Liverpool Echo, Birmingham Evening Mail, Manchester Evening News, Wolverhampton Express & Star at Euston - Yorkshire Evening Post, Evening Chronicle at Kings Cross, Evening Argus at Victoria) and I imagined that they were sent down by train.

Nowadays only one or two of the more widely regional papers like the (Glasgow) Herald, Yorkshire Post, Birmingham Post are available. Do they still come down by rail ?

The furthest east you'll get the Express and Star these days is at Birmingham New Street, although they do send copies out to newsagents on the North and Mid-Wales coast in summer.

 

[AnonymousUser1]

When I pick one up in Leeds they also have different reviews and sometimes a different 15-minute interview from the London edition.

the reviews / cultural bit is localised / regionalised .... but which one depends on where the papers were put on a train etc ...

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Wasn't it one of these trains which made the famous Heaton to Red Bank CS train every morning? I only realised a couple of weeks ago that Red Bank doesn't exist any more!

Indeed this is the case. Platform 11 at Manchester Victoria for outgoing newspaper trains and Red Bank carriage sidings for the storage of the returned empty stock was part of the Manchester railway heritage in those days.

 

[Ploughman]

If I wanted a paper on arrival at Kings Cross in the 80s - 90s all I needed to do was pick one up from the selection posted in the supports to the footbridge, many regulars used to post their finished papers there and pick up another one.

 

[merlodlliw]

Indeed this is the case. Platform 11 at Manchester Victoria for outgoing newspaper trains and Red Bank carriage sidings for the storage of the returned empty stock was part of the Manchester railway heritage in those days.

When I met the 0208 ex Vic/Exchange at Rhyl always on platform two, due to a passenger carriage being attached at Chester, we had to haul the hundreds of bundles over the lift to platform one,where we sorted into newsagents supplies.
During the Sunday prior to Christmas passenger carriages of old vintage were used on this train for carriage of papers,this was a nuisance having to haul the bundles to the doors.This was in the 60s when goods vans were in use for other goods.

My friends in Holyhead were finished working when I started on Sunday, the West North Wales papers arrived on the 1020 ex Man Victoria