This topic has come up in various other threads but with the availability of the Reading station working books from 1982 on Timetable World, plus the existence of many Paddington working books on the BR Coaching Stock groups.io group, it means it's now possible to get a detailed view of services on the Paddington-Reading axis for 5 of the above 12 years (namely 1978, 1981, 1982, 1985 and 1989). Furthermore a WR marshalling book is available for a sixth year, 1984, though this only covers classic hauled stock with HSTs and DMUs missing.
So I thought I'd start a thread on this period to summarise the information that's available. I also have one or two questions but will come to that later.
In 1978 the pattern was very much a clockface one. HSTs had been recently introduced but were not used on the WoE just yet.
The pattern comprised three HSTs per hour at xx15 (Swansea), xx20 (Bristol fast; these alternated between Reading and Swindon, then called Bath and Bristol Temple Meads) and xx45 ("slower" service, calling Reading, Didcot and Swindon then alternating between Bristol and Cardiff). Thus both Bristol and Cardiff got 3tp2h.
Classic loco-hauled services consisted of the xx30 West of England which varied between Penzance, Plymouth and Paignton during the morning though in the afternoon a simpler alternating Penzance (odd hours) and Plymouth (even hours) pattern was seen.
There was also the xx50 towards Oxford, continuing variously to Birmingham or Worcester, though not on a perfect 2-hourly pattern all day. None of the Birminghams at this time continued beyond there.
By 1981 a clockface pattern was still very much the order of the day. The WoE went over to HST, departing at xx25, and a simpler alternating pattern of Penzance (odd hours) and Plymouth (even hours) was seen. The other HSTs seemed to be unchanged while the xx50 classic hauled service to Oxford and beyond remained, though some Birminghams and Worcesters swapped over. Also, by then a more "XC" style operation was in evidence with several services extending beyond Birmingham to the North West and the ex-Poole and ex-Brighton services mostly nicely timed to fill the gaps between the Paddington services to Birmingham. As discussed in other threads, this change came about, I believe, in 1979, so one can say May 1979 was the timetable when XC as we know it was born.
1982 saw more radical changes with the withdrawal of most through Worcester services except the two peak services. The xx15, xx20 and xx45 HSTs were all retimed 5 mins earlier while the xx25 WoE remained but with a slightly different pattern in the morning, the 1225 terminating at Exeter and a three-hour gap in Penzance services (1025 to 1325).
The Oxford services thus changed significantly. They were still mostly xx50 with through services to Birmingham and beyond still, at 0950, 1250 and 1450. Four off-peak services went over to HST and terminated at Oxford, at 1100 (off-pattern; non-stop), 1150, 1350 and 1550.
1983/4 was the first year I visited Reading for enthusiast purposes, doing so three times in early 1984, so was basically the first timetable I got to experience first-hand.
Sadly there are no easily-obtainable records for this year, but I do remember from memory that there were further changes. In particular the number of long-distance HSTs per hour went down to 3, this has been discussed on previous threads and down to a mix of lower demand and HSTs being transferred away to the Midland or XC. I remember the Swansea was on-the-hour and the WoE was xx45 (odd hours Penzance and even hours Plymouth). The Bristol was I think xx15 but I'm not 100% sure. The Oxfords were about hourly but can't remember whether they stuck to the xx50 slot.
In this period the relief line service was 4tph, mostly 117 DMUs, two Ealing, Slough and then Reading or Oxford (alternating) and two calling all to Slough. In the peak there were 9tph on a 20-minute repeating pattern, Reading (Ealing, Slough and all) Slough (most stations) and Hayes (all stations). Of note here is that in 1982 according to the Reading working book, three consecutive off-peak stoppers to Oxford were loco-hauled, the 1301, 1401 and 1501. I remember the following year, i.e. 1983/4, the 1301 was still hauled as I saw it. Interesting to see so many hauled services on stoppers in 1982, presumably these were positioning moves, perhaps for a more frequent Oxford to London fast service in the late afternoon.
1984/5 was another year in which I made multiple visits to Reading, during the summer. I remember the on-the-hour to Swansea remained, the xx45 WoE mostly remained and I think the Bristol was still xx15. However one feature new in 1984, which has been discussed on previous threads, is the reversion to classic loco-hauled operation for the 0945 and 1345 Penzance services, which were consequently re-timed to 0940 and 1340. These were 50-hauled on the occasions I saw them. There is limited information from 1984 in the form of a WR marshalling book on groups.io, which gives information about the hauled services.
During the off-peak period from 0900 to 1700, in addition to the above two Penzance services, non-dated hauled SX departures out of Paddington were at 0950 (Oxford), 1027 (Penzance - summer timetable only, I think), 1035 (Paignton, the "Torbay Express", I remember this one), 1310 (Oxford), 1450 (Oxford), 1610 (Oxford), 1625 (Cheltenham) and 1657 (Newbury). In addition there were Oxfords at 1050 and 1150 SO. One could probably deduce that the xx50 slot for Oxford remained most hours, with HSTs in the missing hours. The 1310 is an oddity but I'd guess this is a retimed version of the 1307 Paddington-Liverpool of the previous year.
1985 has the full departures book for Paddington on groups.io and shows significant further changes. Oxford services were now at xx10 most hours (1010 HST Cotswold and Malvern Express to Great Malvern; 1110 non-stop HST; 1210 HST; 1310 hauled vacuum-braked stock, extends to Worcester FO; 1425 HST; 1510 HST; 1610 hauled vacuum-braked stock). The Swansea remained on-the-hour. WoE had minor changes, with services at 0940 (hauled stock as in 1984), 1025 (Torbay Express). There was no 1045 to Plymouth at all. Then there was the 1140 (Cornish Riviera, was 1145), 1240, 1340, before the xx45 slot was regained in the afternoon for the 1445, 1545 and 1645. The 0940 and 1340 remained hauled formations, as in 1984.
Notable was the lack of a consistent clockface pattern for Bristol in 1985. Departures were at 1005, 1045, 1145, 1245, 1405, 1505, 1605, and 1655. So in the off-peak period, the xx05 and xx45 slots were both used, I wonder why this was; why didn't they stick to the same time in each hour?
Nothing available for 1986, 1987 and 1988. I did visit Reading a few times in summer 1986 and I think the pattern was fairly similar to 1985. I remember the Swansea was still xx00 and the Bristol services were a bit irregular. I have the feeling the WoE became more irregular, too, but not 100% sure. Oddly I seem to remember a 1543 for Oxford formed of MkI hauled stock which would presumably have been, perhaps, the 1510 ex-Paddington, but no longer an HST. Perhaps this was sectorisation starting to have an influence.
Lastly then to 1989 and by then, full-on sectorisation had of course made an appearance. One effect of this was the introduction of the first regular through off-peak service to Newbury of the modern era, at 1047 (air-braked stock), 1240 (vacuum-braked), and 1440 (air-braked, same set as 1047). Oxford became hauled stock as it was now part of NSE, except a few HST-operated services to Worcester and beyond operated by IC. Departures were at 0915 (Manchester, XC hauled stock); 1015 (air-braked); 1036 (Stratford-upon-Avon; HST); 1115 (Cotswold Express; HST; to Worcester); 1215 (vacuum), 1315 (vacuum), 1415 (air-braked), 1515 (vacuum), 1615 (vacuum; same set as the 1240 Newbury). So aside from the Stratford additional, a perfect clockface throughout the off-peak, even though a couple of the services were IC.
Swansea remained on-the-hour every hour, the one constancy throughout the 80s (and in fact the 90s too) from 1983 onwards.
Bristol now had a simpler pattern of xx30 from 1030 through to 1530, then 1603 and 1655. There was also the 0950 to Paignton via Bristol, entitled the West Country Pullman.
A curious feature of the late peak, however, was the very high frequency of services towards Bristol. There was an 1802 HST to Taunton via Bristol and then two services formed of hauled stock at 1817 and 1823, neither service appearing to be dated. Then a further HST at 1848. Wonder why there were so many services to Bristol in the late peak in 1989? I don't remember this pattern being seen any time since.
WoE was somewhat non-clockface and saw some gaps compared to the mid-80s. For the WoE there was the 0940 (Plymouth), 1025 (Cornish Riviera), 1110 (Plymouth), 1210 (Penzance), 1410 (Penzance), 1538 (Plymouth - hauled stock - all others HST), 1610 (Penzance).
Finally there was, oddly for the era of NSE, a cutback on the stoppers in 1989. Rather than 2 semi-fasts and 2 slows per hour each on a regular 30-min frequency, there were now only 3 stoppers to Slough or beyond in 1989. These were on-the-hour to Reading (Ealing, Southall, Hayes, West Drayton, Langley and all); xx20 to Maidenhead (all stations) and xx45 to Reading (quite a fast service, i.e. Ealing, Hayes, Slough, Maidenhead, Twyford and Reading). Hayes and Maidenhead had improved services as a result of this pattern but many of the other stations had a less even-interval service and some smaller ones dropped to hourly. Wonder why, in the era of NSE and a focus on even-interval services, this change occurred?
So if anyone has any old timetables or WTTs for Paddington-Reading who can fill in some of the gaps, they'd be most welcome to contribute here! Same would go for the very early 90s, too. The Turbo-era timetables are available via WTTs on Network Rail but if anyone has CWNs, etc, for the early Turbo era, they would also be of interest.
So I thought I'd start a thread on this period to summarise the information that's available. I also have one or two questions but will come to that later.
In 1978 the pattern was very much a clockface one. HSTs had been recently introduced but were not used on the WoE just yet.
The pattern comprised three HSTs per hour at xx15 (Swansea), xx20 (Bristol fast; these alternated between Reading and Swindon, then called Bath and Bristol Temple Meads) and xx45 ("slower" service, calling Reading, Didcot and Swindon then alternating between Bristol and Cardiff). Thus both Bristol and Cardiff got 3tp2h.
Classic loco-hauled services consisted of the xx30 West of England which varied between Penzance, Plymouth and Paignton during the morning though in the afternoon a simpler alternating Penzance (odd hours) and Plymouth (even hours) pattern was seen.
There was also the xx50 towards Oxford, continuing variously to Birmingham or Worcester, though not on a perfect 2-hourly pattern all day. None of the Birminghams at this time continued beyond there.
By 1981 a clockface pattern was still very much the order of the day. The WoE went over to HST, departing at xx25, and a simpler alternating pattern of Penzance (odd hours) and Plymouth (even hours) was seen. The other HSTs seemed to be unchanged while the xx50 classic hauled service to Oxford and beyond remained, though some Birminghams and Worcesters swapped over. Also, by then a more "XC" style operation was in evidence with several services extending beyond Birmingham to the North West and the ex-Poole and ex-Brighton services mostly nicely timed to fill the gaps between the Paddington services to Birmingham. As discussed in other threads, this change came about, I believe, in 1979, so one can say May 1979 was the timetable when XC as we know it was born.
1982 saw more radical changes with the withdrawal of most through Worcester services except the two peak services. The xx15, xx20 and xx45 HSTs were all retimed 5 mins earlier while the xx25 WoE remained but with a slightly different pattern in the morning, the 1225 terminating at Exeter and a three-hour gap in Penzance services (1025 to 1325).
The Oxford services thus changed significantly. They were still mostly xx50 with through services to Birmingham and beyond still, at 0950, 1250 and 1450. Four off-peak services went over to HST and terminated at Oxford, at 1100 (off-pattern; non-stop), 1150, 1350 and 1550.
1983/4 was the first year I visited Reading for enthusiast purposes, doing so three times in early 1984, so was basically the first timetable I got to experience first-hand.
Sadly there are no easily-obtainable records for this year, but I do remember from memory that there were further changes. In particular the number of long-distance HSTs per hour went down to 3, this has been discussed on previous threads and down to a mix of lower demand and HSTs being transferred away to the Midland or XC. I remember the Swansea was on-the-hour and the WoE was xx45 (odd hours Penzance and even hours Plymouth). The Bristol was I think xx15 but I'm not 100% sure. The Oxfords were about hourly but can't remember whether they stuck to the xx50 slot.
In this period the relief line service was 4tph, mostly 117 DMUs, two Ealing, Slough and then Reading or Oxford (alternating) and two calling all to Slough. In the peak there were 9tph on a 20-minute repeating pattern, Reading (Ealing, Slough and all) Slough (most stations) and Hayes (all stations). Of note here is that in 1982 according to the Reading working book, three consecutive off-peak stoppers to Oxford were loco-hauled, the 1301, 1401 and 1501. I remember the following year, i.e. 1983/4, the 1301 was still hauled as I saw it. Interesting to see so many hauled services on stoppers in 1982, presumably these were positioning moves, perhaps for a more frequent Oxford to London fast service in the late afternoon.
1984/5 was another year in which I made multiple visits to Reading, during the summer. I remember the on-the-hour to Swansea remained, the xx45 WoE mostly remained and I think the Bristol was still xx15. However one feature new in 1984, which has been discussed on previous threads, is the reversion to classic loco-hauled operation for the 0945 and 1345 Penzance services, which were consequently re-timed to 0940 and 1340. These were 50-hauled on the occasions I saw them. There is limited information from 1984 in the form of a WR marshalling book on groups.io, which gives information about the hauled services.
During the off-peak period from 0900 to 1700, in addition to the above two Penzance services, non-dated hauled SX departures out of Paddington were at 0950 (Oxford), 1027 (Penzance - summer timetable only, I think), 1035 (Paignton, the "Torbay Express", I remember this one), 1310 (Oxford), 1450 (Oxford), 1610 (Oxford), 1625 (Cheltenham) and 1657 (Newbury). In addition there were Oxfords at 1050 and 1150 SO. One could probably deduce that the xx50 slot for Oxford remained most hours, with HSTs in the missing hours. The 1310 is an oddity but I'd guess this is a retimed version of the 1307 Paddington-Liverpool of the previous year.
1985 has the full departures book for Paddington on groups.io and shows significant further changes. Oxford services were now at xx10 most hours (1010 HST Cotswold and Malvern Express to Great Malvern; 1110 non-stop HST; 1210 HST; 1310 hauled vacuum-braked stock, extends to Worcester FO; 1425 HST; 1510 HST; 1610 hauled vacuum-braked stock). The Swansea remained on-the-hour. WoE had minor changes, with services at 0940 (hauled stock as in 1984), 1025 (Torbay Express). There was no 1045 to Plymouth at all. Then there was the 1140 (Cornish Riviera, was 1145), 1240, 1340, before the xx45 slot was regained in the afternoon for the 1445, 1545 and 1645. The 0940 and 1340 remained hauled formations, as in 1984.
Notable was the lack of a consistent clockface pattern for Bristol in 1985. Departures were at 1005, 1045, 1145, 1245, 1405, 1505, 1605, and 1655. So in the off-peak period, the xx05 and xx45 slots were both used, I wonder why this was; why didn't they stick to the same time in each hour?
Nothing available for 1986, 1987 and 1988. I did visit Reading a few times in summer 1986 and I think the pattern was fairly similar to 1985. I remember the Swansea was still xx00 and the Bristol services were a bit irregular. I have the feeling the WoE became more irregular, too, but not 100% sure. Oddly I seem to remember a 1543 for Oxford formed of MkI hauled stock which would presumably have been, perhaps, the 1510 ex-Paddington, but no longer an HST. Perhaps this was sectorisation starting to have an influence.
Lastly then to 1989 and by then, full-on sectorisation had of course made an appearance. One effect of this was the introduction of the first regular through off-peak service to Newbury of the modern era, at 1047 (air-braked stock), 1240 (vacuum-braked), and 1440 (air-braked, same set as 1047). Oxford became hauled stock as it was now part of NSE, except a few HST-operated services to Worcester and beyond operated by IC. Departures were at 0915 (Manchester, XC hauled stock); 1015 (air-braked); 1036 (Stratford-upon-Avon; HST); 1115 (Cotswold Express; HST; to Worcester); 1215 (vacuum), 1315 (vacuum), 1415 (air-braked), 1515 (vacuum), 1615 (vacuum; same set as the 1240 Newbury). So aside from the Stratford additional, a perfect clockface throughout the off-peak, even though a couple of the services were IC.
Swansea remained on-the-hour every hour, the one constancy throughout the 80s (and in fact the 90s too) from 1983 onwards.
Bristol now had a simpler pattern of xx30 from 1030 through to 1530, then 1603 and 1655. There was also the 0950 to Paignton via Bristol, entitled the West Country Pullman.
A curious feature of the late peak, however, was the very high frequency of services towards Bristol. There was an 1802 HST to Taunton via Bristol and then two services formed of hauled stock at 1817 and 1823, neither service appearing to be dated. Then a further HST at 1848. Wonder why there were so many services to Bristol in the late peak in 1989? I don't remember this pattern being seen any time since.
WoE was somewhat non-clockface and saw some gaps compared to the mid-80s. For the WoE there was the 0940 (Plymouth), 1025 (Cornish Riviera), 1110 (Plymouth), 1210 (Penzance), 1410 (Penzance), 1538 (Plymouth - hauled stock - all others HST), 1610 (Penzance).
Finally there was, oddly for the era of NSE, a cutback on the stoppers in 1989. Rather than 2 semi-fasts and 2 slows per hour each on a regular 30-min frequency, there were now only 3 stoppers to Slough or beyond in 1989. These were on-the-hour to Reading (Ealing, Southall, Hayes, West Drayton, Langley and all); xx20 to Maidenhead (all stations) and xx45 to Reading (quite a fast service, i.e. Ealing, Hayes, Slough, Maidenhead, Twyford and Reading). Hayes and Maidenhead had improved services as a result of this pattern but many of the other stations had a less even-interval service and some smaller ones dropped to hourly. Wonder why, in the era of NSE and a focus on even-interval services, this change occurred?
So if anyone has any old timetables or WTTs for Paddington-Reading who can fill in some of the gaps, they'd be most welcome to contribute here! Same would go for the very early 90s, too. The Turbo-era timetables are available via WTTs on Network Rail but if anyone has CWNs, etc, for the early Turbo era, they would also be of interest.
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