Quicker in the days of Steam ?

[LE Greys]

I had also forgotten the selby diversion, does anyone have a map of where the ECML used to go? I am struggling to find one?

Roughly, draw a line from Selby swing bridge to Dringhouses. Peter Semmens included a good one in Speed on the East Coast Main Line. Curiously, the Selby Swing Bridge is not the original alignment, the original route ran from Shaftholme to Church Fenton and is still in existance.
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I wonder how reliable they were? EC have their four hour service in the morning to London but the reality is that it's regularly at least five minutes late often around ten.

Not very. They cut out all the recovery margins, so the trains generally arrived about ten minutes late.

To go back to the OP, the ACE of course ran many miles beyond Exeter, all the way into Cornwall for one portion. Losing the branches had a serious effect on through traffic. It makes me wonder what they'll think of the current era on the ECML in fifty years' time.

 

[Chafford1]

In the days of steam the line between Salisbury and Exeter kept a clear passage for the Atlantic Coast Express. there were only 2 places where an express could overtake a stopping train, at Yeovil and Seaton Junction. The timetable introduced after withdrawal of the ACE and the simplified layout did have some semi fast trains. Todays timetable is built around a regular interval all stations service between Exeter and Salisbury.

Of the 49 stations between London Waterloo and Exeter 12 have been closed, three subsequently reopened. The down ACE was allowed 3hr 4min to Exeter Central, today stopping service is approximately the same time. not really a fair comparison, I don't have steam stopping timetable for the line to hand

The 1961 timing for the ACE was 2h 56min to Exeter Central with two stops at Salisbury and Sidmouth Junction (now Feniton).
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In the days of steam the line between Salisbury and Exeter kept a clear passage for the Atlantic Coast Express. there were only 2 places where an express could overtake a stopping train, at Yeovil and Seaton Junction. The timetable introduced after withdrawal of the ACE and the simplified layout did have some semi fast trains. Todays timetable is built around a regular interval all stations service between Exeter and Salisbury.

Of the 49 stations between London Waterloo and Exeter 12 have been closed, three subsequently reopened. The down ACE was allowed 3hr 4min to Exeter Central, today stopping service is approximately the same time. not really a fair comparison, I don't have steam stopping timetable for the line to hand

Table 2 of the attached Western Region timetable from 1965 shows the stopping services between Salisbury and Exeter - operated by DMUs from September 1964 and lasting until March 1966 when many of the intermediate stations closed.

http://www.timetableworld.com/book_viewer.php?id=12&section_id=15

 

[Bevan Price]

Look on Googlemaps or similar:

from Selby swing bridge, the first section to N of Riccall is now the A19 Selby bypass, from there the old route is obvious on the satellite pic (it's a cycle/footpath using Naburn Swing Bridge all the way to Askham Bar).

@tbtc - I don't think there's anything in it at Penmanshiel, the diversion was done for loading gauge reasons (to allow 8' 6" containers) not speed.

Not quite - it was built because Penmanshiel Tunnel collapsed due to ground instability. A new alignment was easier / cheaper than trying to rebuild a tunnel that would remain unsafe / unstable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penmanshiel_Tunnel.