Trivia: Services, stops and extensions that only exist for operational convenience

[Horizon22]

It would surely be better to run the Southeastern services to Ore and the Southern Victoria services only to Hastings. Southeastern has the faster route to London, and Ore already has services to Eastbourne and Lewes. Anyway, that's straying into speculation!

The number of passengers travelling on Southeastern services from Ore is pitiful, and there were only a handful of services each day anyway.

 

[bramling]

Your post prompted me to look at Ore on google maps and the new estate does make the area look a lot less intimidating than previously. The vintage SR substation does make for an interesting feature !

Of course, the other benefit of terminating trains at Ore is that the Ashford - Eastbourne service can miss it out.

I find those substations positively beautiful, and would quite happily live next door to one! Considering how old they are, they have survived well - of the 1930s design only a couple have disappeared.

 

[yorksrob]

I find those substations positively beautiful, and would quite happily live next door to one! Considering how old they are, they have survived well - of the 1930s design only a couple have disappeared.

I like the cathedral ones near London best !

 

[Journeyman]

I like the cathedral ones near London best !

Those are pretty spectacular, although I have a real soft spot for those 1930s ones. I wonder if there's any redundant ones that I could convert into a holiday home?

 

[bramling]

I like the cathedral ones near London best !

Those too; they’re all beautiful in their way. I must admit I also have a soft spot for the more utilitarian ones found on the London suburban / Kent coast 1950s schemes.

 

[yorksrob]

Those are pretty spectacular, although I have a real soft spot for those 1930s ones. I wonder if there's any redundant ones that I could convert into a holiday home?

I can definitely see one of those daytime home makeover programmes doing one where someone converts an old sub station into a cottage !

 

[bramling]

Those are pretty spectacular, although I have a real soft spot for those 1930s ones. I wonder if there's any redundant ones that I could convert into a holiday home?

There’s a disused 1940s “cathedral” one at East Finchley which LU would I think be only too pleased to offload, with a nice address of The Bishops Avenue!

 

[yorksrob]

Those too; they’re all beautiful in their way. I must admit I also have a soft spot for the more utilitarian ones found on the London suburban / Kent coast 1950s schemes.

Yes, they're a great design. Understated yet practical.

They don't look out of place in the Kent countryside. Like a modern day oast house.

 

[D6130]

Those are pretty spectacular, although I have a real soft spot for those 1930s ones. I wonder if there's any redundant ones that I could convert into a holiday home?

When they were building the substation at Cooksbridge, between Keymer Junction and Lewes in the mid-'thirties, a steam-hauled engineers' train set off from Three Bridges yard one morning carrying the bricks, sand, cement, etc., as well as the builders riding in the brakevan. The guys bailed out at Cooksbridge and spent the nice sunny day merrily bricklaying and by dusk, when the engineers' train returned from Lewes to pick them up, there was a nice shiny new building.....but no sign of the men! The puzzled traincrew looked all around, but couldn't find a single soul. Just when they were about to give up, someone heard a faint cry from within the new substation. The men had forgotten to build the doorway and had walled themselves in! (Source: 'Sir Herbert Walker's Southern Railway' by Charles F. Klapper).

 

[Deerfold]

EMR Leeds-St Pancras services, to get HSTs to Neville Hill.

Not for long - from the May timetable change there will be just one train from St Pancakes to Leeds, presumably demand-driven.

For operational reasons this will then run in service from Leeds to Derby.

End to end pairings on things like Thameslink. There is no rip-roaring demand between Peterborough and Horsham, but it is operationally convenient to connect them for intermediate flows.

Though there is a reasonable demand to/from Gatwick Airport from the North and Luton Airport from the South.

 

[Ianno87]

Stabling at Polmadie is a consequence of the Train Service Requirement, if it terminated in Edinburgh the set would go to Craigentinny, but because there is a TSR requirement to take the train to Glasgow there will also be a clause in the servicing agreement with Hitachi that has one set at Polmadie.

Is it in the TSR because it is known that there is no space at Craigentinny?

Though there is a reasonable demand to/from Gatwick Airport from the North and Luton Airport from the South.

I know. But it's a Peterborough-Horsham service, because that is more operationally convenient than a Stevenage-Gatwick service (say).

 

[Dai Corner]

In previous timetables there was a West Wales (Fishguard?) - Newport, returning to Cardiff Central. Presumably this was to clear the platform at Cardiff as soon as possible.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Is it in the TSR because it is known that there is no space at Craigentinny?

It is the survivor of the two hourly Kings X to Glasgow frequency so it is quite possible Craigentinny had 'sold' the potentially available space to XC / TPE years ago.

 

[IrishDave]

Your post prompted me to look at Ore on google maps and the new estate does make the area look a lot less intimidating than previously. The vintage SR substation does make for an interesting feature !

Of course, the other benefit of terminating trains at Ore is that the Ashford - Eastbourne service can miss it out.

Hasn't been anything that skips Ore since the May 2018 timetable change - the old Brighton-Ashford service did indeed miss it out, but the Eastbourne-Ashford service that replaced it in May 2018 now stops at Ore.

 

[yorksrob]

Hasn't been anything that skips Ore since the May 2018 timetable change - the old Brighton-Ashford service did indeed miss it out, but the Eastbourne-Ashford service that replaced it in May 2018 now stops at Ore.

Ah thanks.

I've only caught the shortened service a couple of times since then, so I must have been snoozing though Ore.