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TRIVIA: Services that operated in BR days (Post-Beeching) that no longer run now!

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Jorge Da Silva

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Services that used to run in BR Days, POST BEECHING, that no longer run now.

I'll start Cleethorpes to London Kings Cross via Lincoln, 2tpd (used to be four prior to 1986) ceased in May 1993.

This includes services which ran during the BR Days between 1965 until privatisation, you can include services which ceased after privatisation as long as they existed before then.
 
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RT4038

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Services that used to run in BR Days, POST BEECHING, that no longer run now.

I'll start Cleethorpes to London Kings Cross via Lincoln, 2tpd (used to be four prior to 1986) ceased in May 1993.

This includes services which ran during the BR Days between 1965 until privatisation, you can include services which ceased after privatisation as long as they existed before then.

How about Birmingham-Norwich and Parkeston Quay-Glasgow/Edinburgh?
 

D1537

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Trans-Pennine services that ran to Llandudno/Bangor/Holyhead
Paddington-Manchester/Liverpool/Glasgow
 

Cowley

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Falmouth to Paddington
Barnstaple to Paddington
Plymouth/Paignton to Waterloo/Brighton
 

Llandudno

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Stoke to Llandudno via Greenbank on summer Sundays?
Liverpool Lime Street to Llandudno on summer Saturdays via Halton Curve
Crewe to Lincoln
Liverpool to Plymouth
 

AndrewE

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Crewe to Lincoln
Actually they ran to Skegness... don't know how I overlooked that one from my past. I well remember the guards' announcements "Calling at Alsager, Kidsgrove..." and so on until the triumphant "Boston, Wainfleet and Skegness!"
 

pdeaves

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Paddington <-> Bourne End
Paddington -> Windsor & Eton Central

A huge portion of the old CrossCountry network (all those odd one-train-per-day bits at the extremities)? I mean, Virgin XC ran to Paddington, Brighton, Ramsgate; did those services run in BR days?
 

topydre

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Cambrian Coast Expresses through to London
Quite a lot of Cambrians actually: Aberystwyth - York; Barmouth - Yarmouth etc. I believe there was a 153 that did Aberystwyth-Lincoln a while back: that must have been rammed!!
Not likely to happen any more unless the rest of the network adopts ERTMS...
 

Merle Haggard

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After Beeching - in the 60s at least - there was a network of late-night and over-night services, all gone now.
Examples which I caught when trainspotting were Paddington - West Wales (via Gloucester); 00.15 Euston - Crewe (via Northampton and Birmingham); 0005 St Pancras - Leeds; 0425 St Pancras - Manchester; ?23.30?? Waterloo - Portsmouth (still steam hauled in 1966).
They all called at almost every station along the journey and were of course primarily for mail and newspaper traffic. Catching the last-named (last weeks of steam on the Isle of Wight) one had to walk past what seemed like 20 SR Utility Vans to find a single overcrowded coach behind the Bulleid Pacific, but this was an extreme example.
The stock used was sometimes that not seen in daytime service, for instance the West Wales service I caught included an ex GW coach (with the doors that didn't have slam-locks) and an 'XP64' one, with the stiff bi-fold doors.
Although the overall journey time on these services was slow, at the intermediate stations quite often enormous quantities of mail or papers would be unloaded very quickly indeed, and also the running between stations was usually extremely 'brisk'. I formed the opinion that a lot of the work was 'job & finish'.
 

D1537

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A huge portion of the old CrossCountry network (all those odd one-train-per-day bits at the extremities)? I mean, Virgin XC ran to Paddington, Brighton, Ramsgate; did those services run in BR days?

In general, yes (though I can't remember a Ramsgate train in BR days).
Originating/destination stations on mid-80s services on Table 116 (Reading-Birmingham) were in general - apart from Paddington and Brighton - Portsmouth, Poole, Newcastle, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. There was also the Paddington-Hull/Leeds service around that time, and one evening service ran through to Derby. On Summer Saturdays, you could add Bradford, Leeds, York, Llandudno, Weymouth, Nottingham to that list, and probably a few I've forgotten.
 

Bevan Price

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Lots of Summer Saturday services, e.g.:-
Cleethorpes from Leeds, Manchester (via Gainsborough Central).
Skegness from Leeds, Manchester / Sheffield, Burton Upon Trent, Leicester, London Kings Cross.
Yarmouth from Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester/Sheffield, Walsall/Birmingham, Derby.
Blackpool from Glasgow, Dundee/Edinburgh, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leicester, Birmingham, Stoke On Trent.
 

EbbwJunction1

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The (Fridays Only) Relief between Cardiff Central and London Paddington. It ran at around 4.30pm, just before the regular stopping service, and there were quite a few people who got on (or tried to get on) expecting it to stop at Newport!
 

Sprinter107

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Hereford to Birmingham New Street via Stourbridge Junction and Galton Junction.
 

Ash Bridge

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Manchester Piccadilly to Penzance via Shrewsbury & Hereford Mon-Sat? One train in each direction worked by a 2 car Regional Railways class 158.
 

xotGD

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Newcastle to South Shields, Whitley Bay, Scarborough, Blackpool, Poole, Newquay, Yarmouth (including the Spalding - March line before it was rerouted)

Darlington - Newcastle via Sunderland

York - Shrewsbury

Hull - Lancaster

Leeds - Poole
 

vlad

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There are many of these!

What is now Cross Country used to have a much larger network. For example, when visiting my grandparents I tended to get what was a through train between Preston and Brighton, which went via Manchester, Birmingham and Reading. It wasn't the only train that went from the WCML to Birmingham via Manchester.
 

Snow1964

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Various newspapers trains leaving London about 2am with a couple of carriages included,

The summer through trains to Weymouth Quay from Waterloo

Trains to Bridport (Dorset) until about 1975
 

tbtc

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How about Birmingham-Norwich

Yeah, the service from East Anglia to Civilisation used to be a lot more varied - services from Harwich/ Ipswich/ Norwich/ Cambridge through to Birmingham and also to Liverpool/ Blackpool/ Cumbria (via Grantham as the current EMR service goes but also via Loughborough... some via Derby, some via the south western chord at Dore) - all replaced by a simple hourly Stansted - Birmingham and a simple hourly Norwich - Grantham - Liverpool.

Loughborough has lost a few links over the years (since privatisation it's lost Norwich, Birmingham, Coventry, Manchester plus gained and lost Barnsley), given the significant student population there.
 

Merle Haggard

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In general, yes (though I can't remember a Ramsgate train in BR days)

The Summer Saturdays Virgin service was, I thought, a franchise commitment for the first few years and, though that doesn't necessarily mean it was carried over from BR, I think in this case it was.
Virgin possibly decided that the market for people wanting to travel from Birmingham and Coventry to Margate or Ramsgate for a holiday was limited and instead aimed at the enthusiast one by providing a variety of traction. On the two occasions I used it (and came back on the return working)it was reasonably loaded and the majority of passengers seemed to be traction enthusiasts. It may have only run for one summer with Virgin.
 

High Dyke

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Crewe to Lincoln
Actually they ran to Skegness... don't know how I overlooked that one from my past. I well remember the guards' announcements "Calling at Alsager, Kidsgrove..." and so on until the triumphant "Boston, Wainfleet and Skegness!"
There used to be a Lincoln - Crewe service, mainly using the Swindon built Cl.120 units. They ran from Lincoln St Marks until it closed. Photo here: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/lincoln_st_marks/index13.shtml

Summer Saturday workings used to bring regular seasonal traffic to many locations. One regular move for me was the Sunday only Cambridge - Skegness working, and return.
 
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