Night-time at Manchester Victoria in 1972

[Springs Branch]

A recent thread mentioned the number of overnight newspaper and mail trains which ran in the past.

This prompted a look at the May 1972 working timetable at Manchester Victoria – a well-known hot-spot for night-time action in that era.

Here is a list of Newspaper, Mail and Parcels trains which could be seen on any typical weeknight at Manchester Victoria between roughly 20:00 and 07:30.

Of course the station was used by other passenger, freight, empty stock trains and light engines as well – I’ve just focused on the “parallel universe” of parcels, mail and news activity here.


20p15 4H29 Parcels: 20:00 ex-Bolton to Guide Bridge Avenue Sidings

20p39 4O24 Parcels: 20:23 ex-Bolton to Portsmouth

20p51 4J12 Parcels: 18:45 ex-Burnley Central to Rochdale (DPU)

21a52 4J04 Parcels: 21:35 ex-Rochdale terminates (forms 03:35 to St Helens Shaw St) (DPU)

22a15 4J18 Parcels: 19:40 ex-Northwich terminates (calls at Altrincham, Manchester Mayfield & Stockport) (DPU)

22a28 4J15 Parcels: 21:10 ex-Burnley Central terminates (DMU)

22:42 4E20 Parcels: 20:55 ex-Preston to Cambridge (stops on Through Line for train crew relief)

22:50 6H20 Parcels: 20:14 ex-Burnley Central to Guide Bridge Avenue Sidings (stops on Through Line for train crew relief)

22p56 4G05 Parcels: 22:40 ex-Bolton to Birmingham Curzon Street

23:00 6J09 Parcels: to Oldham Clegg Street

23:35 6H04 Parcels: 20:35 ex-Blackpool Talbot Rd Goods to Guide Bridge Avenue Sidings

00:03 1E01 Mail & Parcels: 23:11 ex-Preston* to Huddersfield

00a18 6J09 Parcels: 00:05 ex-Oldham Clegg St terminates.

00:12 1E02 News: to Newcastle

00:20 1E04 News: to York

00a25 1M81 Mail: Portion of 21:50 York to Aberystwyth (detached at Stalybridge) terminates.

00:45 4P22 Parcels: to Preston (combines at Preston with 00:20 Liverpool Lime St to Carlisle Parcels)

01:05 6F01 Mail & Parcels: to Liverpool Lime St via Wigan NW (runs via Parkside & Golborne Jn. Calls at Wigan NW & St Helens Shaw St)

01:18 1D00 News: to Chester (runs via Chat Moss, Winwick Jn & Acton Grange Jn)

01:50 1P55 News: to Barrow-in-Furness (calls at Preston, Lancaster, Carnforth & Ulverston)

01:57 1M43 Mail & Parcels: 01:09 ex-Huddersfield to Carlisle (via Barrow-in-Furness & Cumbrian Coast line. Mail to Whitehaven, Parcels to Carlisle. Stops on Through Line for train crew relief)

02:15 1E26 News: to Leeds City

02:17 4P06 Parcels: 22:30 ex-Birmingham Curzon St to Preston (stops for train crew relief)

02:17 5J76 Parcels: 01:54 ex-Manchester Mayfield terminates (forms 03:35 to Bury) (empty DPU)

02:30 4M17 Parcels: 20:05 ex-Sunderland to Blackpool North (stops for train crew relief)

02p54 4J16 Parcels: 02:15 ex-Guide Bridge Brookside Sidings to Bolton

03:05 1P09 News: to Blackpool North (calls at Chorley & Preston)

03:15 1F65 News: to Southport (runs via Lostock Jn, calls at Wigan NW & Burscough Bridge)

03:20 4M08 Parcels: 18:40 ex-Swansea to Bolton

03:23 1F54 News: to Liverpool Lime St (via Chat Moss, calls at Broad Green to detach van)

03:32 6J08 Mail & Parcels: to Oldham Clegg Street

03:35 1J81 News: to Bury Bolton St (Runs via Middleton Junction & Heywood, calls at Newton Heath D.D. for train crew relief) (DPU)

03:35 1F13 News: to St Helens Shaw Street (runs via Chat Moss & Sutton Oak Jn) (DPU)

03:45 1P97 News & Parcels: to Burnley Central (News to Bolton, Darwen & Blackburn, also calls at Accrington Parcels Depot)

04:20 4M14 Parcels: 01:15 ex-Nottingham to Bolton (stops on Through Line for train crew relief)

04a24 6J28 Parcels: 04:00 ex-Stockport terminates.

04:40 6P13 Parcels: to Todmorden (calls at Rochdale) (DPU)

04:40 5J67 Parcels: 04:15 ex-Bury terminates (forms 09:25 Parcels to Blackpool North) (DPU)

05:00 6P14 Parcels: to Burnley Central (calls at Bolton, Blackburn & Accrington Parcels Depot)

05:25 6J13 Parcels: 04:40 ex-Guide Bridge Avenue Sidings to Oldham Clegg Street (loco runs round in bay platform 10)

05:45 5J13 Parcels: 04:45 ex-St Helens Shaw St terminates (shunts to Bay 8 & forms 07:17 Parcels to Todmorden) (DPU)

06:17 4H18 Parcels: to Stalybridge (worked by DMU. Unit continues ECS to Greenfield to form 07:03 passenger to Manchester Vic.)

06:30 4P18 Parcels: 05:45 ex-Todmorden to Preston (attaches van from Platform 16) (DPU)

07:17 4P19 Parcels: to Todmorden (calls at Rochdale & Littleborough) (DPU)

Notes:-

• Time indicated is departure time.
  - 'a' (as in 04a24) indicates arrival time of a train terminating at Manchester Victoria.
  - 'p' (as in 20p15) indicates passing time of a train not stopping at Manchester Victoria.
• Details above refer to Tuesday to Saturday operations. Services late Sunday night/early Monday morning were often different, with some trains not running.
• All trains are booked for diesel loco haulage, unless indicated as DPU (Diesel Parcels Unit) or DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit)
• 1E01 is the long-standing Whitehaven to Huddersfield TPO (Travelling Post Office). The May 1972 WTTs indicate this train started as a Parcels service from Workington at 17:55, conveyed mail from Whitehaven (dep. 18:50) and carried Reporting Number 1P92 from Workington to Preston, then 1E01 forward from Preston.

It was interesting to see the handful of locally-based Diesel Parcels Units (DPUs) buzzing around the North West in the early hours. Here’s an example of one of these units at work in the daylight.


GMPV Manchester Victoria by John Turner, on Flickr

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Wow, so much mail traffic, must have been an amazing time for watching trains.

If only we could get more parcels traffic off the roads and back onto the rails like this.

 

[Cowley]

A very interesting post Springs Branch. I'd love to have sat overnight watching all the activity. As you say this was just the mail and parcels.
As well as liking real trains I do bit of BR era railway modelling. There's a fantastic railway called Wibdenshaw based on an area in West Yorkshire but set in the 70s which portrays a lot of the parcels workings of that era and your post reminded me of it.

 

[AnonymousUser1]

Wow, so much mail traffic, must have been an amazing time for watching trains.

If only we could get more parcels traffic off the roads and back onto the rails like this.

if only we could persuade people to accept that parcels can only be carried from one station another and then only if served by a direct train ...

 

[Springs Branch]

If only we could get more parcels traffic off the roads and back onto the rails like this.

I did briefly think “bad luck the railway parcels operation couldn’t have hung on a few years until the boom in e-commerce and everyone ordering everything on-line”.

Then I came to my senses and remembered how the BR Parcels operation seemed to be rooted in a past age – based in old, leaky goods sheds & stations in town & city centres like Manchester Mayfield, Oldham Clegg St and Huskisson in Liverpool.

I can’t imagine the 21st Century streamlined “I want it now” model of Amazon etc. squaring with the image of a scruffy bloke with a fag hanging from the corner of his mouth slinging your parcel marked "Fragile" the length of a GUV in Bolton Parcels Depot.

..... I'd love to have sat overnight watching all the activity. As you say this was just the mail and parcels.....

It’s a pity that the heyday of the Mail, Newspaper & Parcels was a time when fewer people owned the standard of gear needed for good night-time photography (and the experience and patience to get the exposure correct), otherwise we might have more of a photographic record.

On the other hand many of these trains could be seen and were regularly captured in photos – during daytime whilst returning as empties for their next night’s work. I remember seeing these long and varied empty van trains myself in the 1970s, although at the time I was a bit too young to be spending all night in Manchester watching the revenue-earning versions.

Trains of vans returning to Red Bank in Manchester can be seen on David Flitcroft’s website, e.g. here and here.
Also on Flickr, predominantly from Large Logo & RES days, but some Rail Blue era too:-


Winter Newspaper ECS At Buxworth. by neilh156, on Flickr



The Red Bank At Smithy Bridge (Michael McNicholas) by neilh156, on Flickr



Roaring Up The Calder Valley. by neilh156, on Flickr



Rat At Manchester Exchange (Site Of) by neilh156, on Flickr

 

[Cowley]

Ah yes, the Red bank vans were very famous. I've never seen the actual service but have seen lots of photos of it. It used to load up to at least 16 vans or more sometimes didn't it?

It's true what you say about the parcels services. The Red Star depot at Exeter in the 80s didn't exactly look like a centre for excellence.
I think what happened with losing the Royal Mail contract after investing so much money in new locos and depots seems like madness but then pales into insignificance compared to some of the wastefulness seen in the late 50s early 60s with the rush to dieselise.

I do remember seeing a few single car parcel units around on my travels and that for a boy from Devon they were a rare line in the book...

 

[ChiefPlanner]

It's true what you say about the parcels services. The Red Star depot at Exeter in the 80s didn't exactly look like a centre for excellence.
I think what happened with losing the Royal Mail contract after investing so much money in new locos and depots seems like madness but then pales into insignificance compared to some of the wastefulness seen in the late 50s early 60s with the rush to dieselise.

Despite best efforts - the BR parcels services in the 1980's were on the way out due to a whole range of issues - decline of mail order business (especailly in the North West) , major logistical changes in the road transport sector and the growth of non rail connected depots with modern facilities (not like some of the 19thC deports that BR had inherited - though there were some flagship schmes like Tyneside in the 1960's), the 1968 Act which set up the NFC (think National Carriers and Roadline which almost immediately went anti rail bar a bit of Freightliner traffic, the fct tht the BR fleet was poor van wise - 1930's Southern CCT vans in use - many of which looked as it they had come out of a swamp as no-one ever put them through a washing plant , and BR tended to get the most awkward traffics - who can recall stations like Swansea High St awash with massive rolled carpets and awkward boxes ? Damage and delays were unfortunately high. - especially the aforementioned carpets.

BR had some success with the Red Star brand - but much of that was based on marginal operating costs - so when it was stripped out as a stand alone business if failed.

In some respects it is surprising that it lasted as long s it did - and the final nail was the cessation of newspaper traffics which gave a baseload traffic. Cannot think of any other country which still has a "sundries" division - SNCF Sernam division went about the same time as BR did ..?

 

[AnonymousUser1]

It's true what you say about the parcels services. The Red Star depot at Exeter in the 80s didn't exactly look like a centre for excellence.
I think what happened with losing the Royal Mail contract after investing so much money in new locos and depots seems like madness but then pales into insignificance compared to some of the wastefulness seen in the late 50s early 60s with the rush to dieselise.

Despite best efforts - the BR parcels services in the 1980's were on the way out due to a whole range of issues - decline of mail order business (especailly in the North West) , major logistical changes in the road transport sector and the growth of non rail connected depots with modern facilities (not like some of the 19thC deports that BR had inherited - though there were some flagship schmes like Tyneside in the 1960's), the 1968 Act which set up the NFC (think National Carriers and Roadline which almost immediately went anti rail bar a bit of Freightliner traffic, the fct tht the BR fleet was poor van wise - 1930's Southern CCT vans in use - many of which looked as it they had come out of a swamp as no-one ever put them through a washing plant , and BR tended to get the most awkward traffics - who can recall stations like Swansea High St awash with massive rolled carpets and awkward boxes ? Damage and delays were unfortunately high. - especially the aforementioned carpets.

BR had some success with the Red Star brand - but much of that was based on marginal operating costs - so when it was stripped out as a stand alone business if failed.

In some respects it is surprising that it lasted as long s it did - and the final nail was the cessation of newspaper traffics which gave a baseload traffic. Cannot think of any other country which still has a "sundries" division - SNCF Sernam division went about the same time as BR did ..?

it;s hard to imagine any courier type operation managing to work without a hub and spoke type operation ( even RM Letters is hub and spoke , as the mail centres interact as parts of a hub ) an as the hub and spoke model operated by many couriers allows the consumer to order late into the evening for delivery the next day it;s not going to change ( other than the growth of the nested hub and spoke model typified by the supermarket home delivery services and used to some extent by Argos etc and being explored in more depth by amazon etc)

 

[Taunton]

In the early 1980s we used Red Star extensively to exchange computer tapes. I had regular runs between Liverpool and Euston. Local motorcycle couriers (another business that's gone) got in on the act and would pick up from an office and put the Red Star cost on their account. You knew which train it was on, and another courier business at the other end could be sent to get it - or I would visit the parcels deck above Euston's platforms myself on the way home.

All business that has now been lost to e-mail attachments.

I also sent one down from Waterloo to a business in Yeovil. The guy there, a grumpy old so-and-so, called later and, among other complaints, said there was the cost of sending a taxi 3 miles each way out to Yeovil Junction station for it. I said that we could be responsible for many things, but not for where the London & South Western Railway had built their Yeovil station in 1850. He had no answer to that one!

 

[eastwestdivide]

A related nocturnal hive of activity up to the early 80s was the series of loco-hauled newspaper trains out of Southern Region London termini, most of which were in the public timetable, and carried a single Mk1 BSK for passengers. Departure times around 0200-0300 for 73/33 haulage to exotic destinations like Ramsgate, stopping at various points on the way.

 

[edwin_m]

There was quite a lot of investment in parcels facilities in the 60s. I visited the abovementioned Parcels Deck at Euston a few weeks ago and it was obviously a major structure designed for swift interchange with road vehicles round the outside accessing via ramps from street, and "trains" of BRUTEs in the middle arriving via smaller ramps from the platforms. These rose from the widest platforms where presumably most parcels trains would have been dealt with, but I think there was also a BRUTE route behind the stops and below the passenger access ramps to get to all the other platforms as well.

Although Oldham Clegg Street gives the impression of being a Victorian ruin in its last days of passenger service, the parcels depot was purpose-built after it closed. Apparently Oldham was a big centre for mail order warehousing, making use of the space in the former cotton mills.

 

[randyrippley]

I also sent one down from Waterloo to a business in Yeovil. The guy there, a grumpy old so-and-so, called later and, among other complaints, said there was the cost of sending a taxi 3 miles each way out to Yeovil Junction station for it. I said that we could be responsible for many things, but not for where the London & South Western Railway had built their Yeovil station in 1850. He had no answer to that one!

The LSWR had the sense to use Yeovil Town in addition to the Junction. You should have blamed Beeching for his cuts!!!

 

[RichmondCommu]

Cleethorpes to Manchester Red Bank newspaper empties was a regular class 40 turn in the early 1980's and early one summers morning my friends and I were waiting for it to run through Edale station. It duly appeared with a class 40 at the front and with a door on one of the vans swinging as the train passed through. Even now I often think about what might have happened if one of us had been hit by the door, given that all our attention was focused on trying to photograph the train.

My other memory is of a parcels DMU being almost a certainty at Buxton on a weekday afternoon before carrying its load of goods up to Manchester. Having never actually seen one depart I always assumed that it was attached to a DMU rather than running by itself.

 

[Taunton]

Visited a house backing onto the Buxton line at Hazel Grove in the 1980s, and I saw the single parcels car running a couple of times. I think it had schedules in the Working Timetable. I don't believe it was mu'd with passenger services. The few purpose-built parcels cars seemed like that, the ones at Reading were the same, although they often ran with a GUV pulled behind. I quite often seemed to pass them running on the Relief Lines when heading into Paddington.

However in Scotland the cars which were converted from former Western Region single units did work like this. Returned once with friends in what must have been summer 1977 from Inverness to Edinburgh, changing at Stirling to a connecting dmu and impressing them by snagging seats right at the front of the train waiting in the bay. About five minutes before departure one of these single parcels cars shunted around ahead of us, came slowly down towards us, and was coupled ahead. I hope all the parcels enjoyed the view!

One of these converted parcels cars gave me what was probably a unique view of duplicate numbers on the system, well into the TOPS era when this supposedly couldn't happen, car 55015 sat in one of the east end bays at Edinburgh Waverley, with Deltic 55015 across the platform departing to London.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ah yes, the Red bank vans were very famous. I've never seen the actual service but have seen lots of photos of it. It used to load up to at least 16 vans or more sometimes didn't it?

Platform 11 at Manchester Victoria station with seemingly never-ending trains of newspaper van at the late night period was indeed a sight to behold. Unfortunately, the once fast avoiding route that bore sharp left at the east of the station towards the iconic Red Bank carriage sidings is no more and now resembles the Cheetham Hill elevated arterial forest.

 

[Rover]

I visited the above mentioned Parcels Deck at Euston a few weeks ago and it was obviously a major structure designed for swift interchange with road vehicles round the outside accessing via ramps from street, and "trains" of BRUTEs in the middle arriving via smaller ramps from the platforms. These rose from the widest platforms where presumably most parcels trains would have been dealt with, but I think there was also a BRUTE route behind the stops and below the passenger access ramps to get to all the other platforms as well.

I worked at Euston in the late 80s as a parcels clerk. You're right in what you say. Parcels were loaded into brutes on the parcels deck at the top and taken down ramps to the trains. Underneath the main concourse behind the buffer stops was access for royal mail, catering, parcels etc to all the platforms.

Every London termini had a parcels office and there was a series of road vans that circumnavigated them in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions known as "cross-town", they operated all day and through the night. So if you sent a parcel to London Euston you could collect it at Charing Cross if you wanted to or if sending one to Portsmouth you could take it to King's Cross and it would go to Waterloo in the cross-town van.

Some of the practices though were archaic, from a different age, for example if a customer came to collect a parcel the clerk would find a card for it and put it out for a railman to go and find it and bring it to the office. Sometimes it took so long it was quicker to go and fetch it yourself. Many a time I would see one of the railmen swigging a can of lager whilst looking for a parcel - it wasn't good.

One day I had gone to get some fish and chips for lunch and was walking back up the road access ramp up to the parcels deck. There had been a spate of bicycle thefts form the parcels deck, couriers used them to deliver documents around London. I was walking up the ramp eating my chips when I heard car horns blaring out and two cars came racing down at speed chasing a guy on a bike, I got out of the way quick, one car went past me overtaking the bike and pulled in front of it into the wall, the guy on the bike hit the car but managed to stay in the saddle - it was straight out of The Sweeney, in fact it probably was The Sweeney!

They were great days and I enjoyed it very much.

Kev

 

[Bungle965]

Platform 11 at Manchester Victoria station with seemingly never-ending trains of newspaper van at the late night period was indeed a sight to behold. Unfortunately, the once fast avoiding route that bore sharp left at the east of the station towards the iconic Red Bank carriage sidings is no more and now resembles the Cheetham Hill elevated arterial forest.

I have always wondered about that stretch of track that can be seen, where did the line used to go? Also do you know when it was closed?
Thanks for any help.
Sam

 

[Ash Bridge]

I have always wondered about that stretch of track that can be seen, where did the line used to go? Also do you know when it was closed?
Thanks for any help.
Sam

I think it was the Cheetham Hill Loop Line, possibly closed during the (late?) 1990s, rejoining what is now known as the Calder Valley Line at Thorpes Bridge Junction.

 

[Bungle965]

I think it was the Cheetham Hill Loop Line, possibly closed during the (late?) 1990s, rejoining what is now known as the Calder Valley Line at Thorpes Bridge Junction.

Thanks very much for that information.
Sam

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

 

[Taunton]

Photos of the Newcastle to Red Bank return empty vans used to feature regularly in magazines in the 1960s, it was steam hauled to a very late date and double headed due to its weight. Black 5s and Jubilees seemed to prevail.

I worked at Euston in the late 80s as a parcels clerk

Possibly you were giving me those computer tapes from Liverpool.

I was up on the old parcels deck again only this year, there's a NR/TOC construction contractor now have their administration offices up there in the old parcels offices

http://www.spenceltd.co.uk/contact.html

 

[edwin_m]

I think it was the Cheetham Hill Loop Line, possibly closed during the (late?) 1990s, rejoining what is now known as the Calder Valley Line at Thorpes Bridge Junction.

The Bury line went over it at Irk Valley and there was a connecting curve towards Bury where Queens Road tram depot now is. The Metrolink Oldham route uses the old line north of here, as well as the other connecting curve which allowed trains to access it via Collyhurst.

 

[Ash Bridge]

The Bury line went over it at Irk Valley and there was a connecting curve towards Bury where Queens Road tram depot now is. The Metrolink Oldham route uses the old line north of here, as well as the other connecting curve which allowed trains to access it via Collyhurst.

Was the closure of the line due to it being considered surplus to requirements at that time, and would it be useful if still available today?

 

[30907]

Was the closure of the line due to it being considered surplus to requirements at that time, and would it be useful if still available today?

Yes and doubtful.

 

[edwin_m]

I don't think it would have any use today, unless perhaps several more platforms were added to Victoria where the Arena is. And even then the existing four tracks up the bank could cope with several more platforms, as they do at Birmingham New Street for example.

As I child I recall Victoria being a huge and complex station and there were about nine bay platforms on the south side. Bury trains normally left from some of these and dived under the rest of the tracks via the Collyhurst Tunnel, now used by Metrolink. The Red Bank route provided an alternative for any trains between the various routes via Crumpsall and the through side of the station without having to cross the path of all the terminating trains. It was also a less severe climb that way than via Miles Platting, but that's less of a concern today with no steam and almost no freight.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Yes and doubtful.

I don't think it would have any use today, unless perhaps several more platforms were added to Victoria where the Arena is. And even then the existing four tracks up the bank could cope with several more platforms, as they do at Birmingham New Street for example.

As I child I recall Victoria being a huge and complex station and there were about nine bay platforms on the south side. Bury trains normally left from some of these and dived under the rest of the tracks via the Collyhurst Tunnel, now used by Metrolink. The Red Bank route provided an alternative for any trains between the various routes via Crumpsall and the through side of the station without having to cross the path of all the terminating trains. It was also a less severe climb that way than via Miles Platting, but that's less of a concern today with no steam and almost no freight.

I appreciate the replies, many thanks chaps!

 

[Springs Branch]

Platform 11 at Manchester Victoria station with seemingly never-ending trains of newspaper van at the late night period was indeed a sight to behold.

As well as the length of the newspaper trains, it’s also interesting to see the number of different trains using Platforms 11 & 11 Middle throughout the night.

The services operated in logical flights, with further destinations leaving first (e.g. Newcastle & Barrow-in-Furness) and closer places like St Helens or Southport later. Seemingly as soon as one train was due out of Platform 11 another set of empty vans was timed to arrive from Red Bank for loading.


Another consequence of the late-night newspaper “rush hour” in the 1970s appears to have been a partial reprieve for part of Manchester Exchange station – albeit only for newspaper trains, not passengers.

Manchester Exchange officially closed in 1969, but throughout the 1970s, the large island platform (formerly Exchange’s P.4 & P.5) seems to have been used to load a handful of newspaper trains in the early hours. WTTs show these numbered as Victoria Platforms 18 & 19!

The trains involved (in 1972) were:-

- Platform 18: 01:18 News to Chester
- Platform 18: 03:23 News to Liverpool Lime St.
- Platform 19: 00:12 News to Newcastle

In the last full year it was open (1968) the above trains were timetabled to depart from Manchester Exchange.

Presumably the attraction was easy road access to these platforms for newspaper delivery trucks via the roadway starting by the Irwell bridge at the intersection of Chapel St & Victoria St, plus undercover accommodation for loading on rainy nights – as I recall Exchange’s roof survived a good few years after the actual station closed.

Look for Exchange's "Inclined Roadway” on this diagram to see the access I’m referring to, plus this picture from http://petertandy.co.uk/class25.htm showing “Platform 19” on the left in December 1984 - minus roof, but with modern lighting installed (click on image to enlarge).

 

[Rover]

Possibly you were giving me those computer tapes from Liverpool.

Very likely.

 

[PeterC]

When Murdoch moved the News International traffic to road I have a vague recollection that they expected to carry on using station facilities at the country end of the trunk haul to sort the bundles of papers for local delivery.

Is my memory playing tricks?

 

[edwin_m]

I don't think it has been mentioned, and some of you may already be aware, but the national papers printed in central Manchester as well as London. Hence, looking at the fascinating list in the OP, there were several departing news trains but no arrivals (they might have worked back as parcels or been returned empty to Red Bank during the day).

What did for news traffic was not only Murdoch but also improving technology that allowed printing to take place at a larger number of sites. This shortened the physical distribution chain and allowed later stories to be sent to the more distant parts of the country, but meant there wasn't enough volume on individual journeys to justify the use of rail.

 

[Ploughman]

In 76 as a teenager I used to work Part time for a local wholesale newsagent in Southport.
We used to meet the Manchester Paper train in Chapel St.
Normally a Bedford CF van (Like a Transit) and 2 VW Vans
Somehow we used to speed through the side gate onto the platform, handbrake turn on the platform and load up. One or two overshoots and smack into the train vans.
This was usually around 04.30 in the morning maybe a bit earlier.
Papers back to the yard, sorted into rounds and reloaded back in the vans and out to the shops. Back to the yard and finish for about 06.30.

The job was Mon to Sat with Sundays loads delivered by Lorry.
A year or so later it all delivered by lorry.