Hi all.
Was wondering if anyone had any timings for the first few years of HST timings on the services from Paddington to Penzance? Most importantly....how they compared with the local hauled services that they replaced. Obviously the big step up in timings was on the London-Bristol-South Wales routes. The Berks and Hants line was nominally 90mph with a few sections of 100 if memory serves me correct. Obviously acceleration, ability to run consistently at line speed and hill climbing ability would have been the HSTs main advantage.
Cheers for any answers.
Accelerations were on average from London for the introduction of HSTs:
Taunton: 15 mins
Plymouth: 18
Penzance: 27
Linespeed was still 90 max when the HSTs were introduced, the work to increase it to 100-110 was only undertaken in 1981-2.
The original pattern was hourly from Paddington at XX:25 from 0725 to 2025, the 0725, 0925, 1025, 1125 (Cornish Riviera), 1325, 1525, 1625 on Fridays, 1725 (Golden Hind) and 1825 extended to Penzance. The 0825 went via Bristol and the 1225 and 1425 remained LHCS.
The "standard" timing to Plymouth was about 3h15 or a few mins longer with two stops - Reading and Exeter, that was by the 0925, 1125, 1325 and 1525. The Plymouth terminators in the even hour slots were about 5-20 mins slower with 4 stops, though some made 6-7 stops such as the two loco-hauled workings and the 0825 via Bristol.
Penzance was just over 5hrs, though the Golden Hind took 5 hours exactly.
Penzance return departure times had no pattern to accommodate variations in stopping pattern to Plymouth:
0518 (Golden Hind, 5hrs to Paddington), 0714, 0903, 1010 (Cornish Riviera), 1203, 1332, 1537, 1623 this allowed
Plymouth a standard departure slot.
From Plymouth services left at XX:00 with 4 exceptions. To prevent the need to stable an extra set in the West and because the first three trains to Penzance have insufficient time to turnaround at Penzance and make it to Plymouth for the standard departure slot, 3 evening trains were off pattern.
The service from Plymouth thus being (*started from Penzance):
0605
0700* Golden Hind
0800 via Bristol
0900*
1000 via Bristol
1100*
1200* Cornish Riviera
1300
1400*
1520*
1600 loco-hauled
1725*
1824*
Services in the up were slightly slower, the fastest being 3h18, one at 3h19 and the rest 3h20 or greater from Plymouth-Penzance. Only one service made 2 stops, the 1332 ex-Penzance, 1520 from Plymouth. The usual was 3 for ex-Penzances, 6 for Plymouth starters.
There were also 3 Paington services, formed by extending 3 Bristol workings - 0920, 1120, 1320. These also forming reliefs to the respective Penzance workings 5 mins later. Returns from Paignton being - 1328, 1515, 1722 going forward from BTM as the 1520, 1710, 1920.
There were other arrangements regarding loco-hauled workings to Newton Abbot and Paignton and rejigging the core HST services such as moving the two-hourly stopping HST to Bristol to an XX:24 path.