Trivia: Unusual train services

[route101]

The Sundays only Edinburgh - Oban and return services were aimed squarely at the day trip market and, in any case, didn’t run this summer. Not really an ‘unusual service’.

I'm sure I seen one listed on the scotrail app live departure s last Sunday

 

[rg177]

Edinburgh to Oban definitely ran...

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/G24601/2018/08/26/advanced

 

[DarloRich]

what is unusual about these services? That they start or end in a sightly different location to normal?

 

[Bikeman78]

what is unusual about these services? That they start or end in a sightly different location to normal?

A 156 between Edinburgh and Greenhill upper Jn is pretty rare.

 

[DarloRich]

A 156 between Edinburgh and Greenhill upper Jn is pretty rare.

No - a class 50 between Edinburgh and Greenhill upper Jn is rare - a 156 is a regular occurrence.

 

[route101]

No - a class 50 between Edinburgh and Greenhill upper Jn - a 156 is a regular occurrence.

Class 50 ? What service do they run out of Edinburgh?

Theres no booked turns with 156s apart from the Oban service on the section mentioned

 

[thenorthern]

Barnt Green used to have several trains per day to Bromsgrove to allow school children to attend schools in Bromsgrove however since the Cross City Line extension there are regular trains between the two stations.

I think there used to be a train on Advent Sundays only that ran along the Shotts line which didn't normally have a Sunday Service to allow people to do Christmas shopping.

 

[mm333]

I wonder if the new S&C timetable will mean the end of the Northern pre-Christmas weekly evening shopper specials from Kirkby Stephen to Carlisle

 

[4-SUB 4732]

That Weymouth to Cardiff isnt it in the block that involved an Exeter St Davids to Weymouth via Bristol TM, Bristol Parkway, Swindon, Melksham, Westbury then onwards. It was actually a combination of several services lashed up together

I was responsible for a marvellous Poster for that one - “Long Wey Round”. A friend still has it as well as a Double Royal poster frame.

It was the morning Exeter - Bristol commuter; and because there was heavy pressure from the TransWilts and Heart of Wessex user groups to keep up a through train from Bristol so it went along to Swindon direct then down via Melksham to Weymouth. There was a return to Bristol via Swindon but it didn’t go on to Exeter.

More recently, that rancid service from Charing Cross - Greenwich - Woolwich - Slade Green - Crayford - Sidcup - Lee - Grove Park - Orpington and back that ran every 30 minutes.

The best part was some started / finished at Tonbridge! Ever had direct trains from Greenwich to Tonbridge?

 

[4-SUB 4732]

There's a once day 17.45 fast from Hayes (Kent) to London Bridge.

But via Lewisham! Brilliant!

 

[Deafdoggie]

Back in the early 90s in the Inter City era, there used to be CrossCountry overnight services that operated Friday night/Saturday mornings during the summer only, to Devon & Cornwall.

They were always full. Used to be no buffet on them, but they’d all stop for an hour or so at Bristol Temple Meads so you could get off and get breakfast (at around 4am)
One of them (Edinburgh-Penzance via East Coast) used to go via Paignton too calling at Newton Abbot & Torquay twice! That had to be a HST to avoid running round, the rest I recall as MK2 hauled.
Several services via West Coast to Paignton, Penzance and Newquay. East Coast just the one, as above.
I remember one weekend when XC had had their new uniforms, it was around 1am and the Train Manager boarded at New Street in a bright pink jacket! It certainly kept everyone awake! The uniform didn’t last long!

 

[Cricketer8for9]

I was responsible for a marvellous Poster for that one - “Long Wey Round”. A friend still has it as well as a Double Royal poster frame.

It was the morning Exeter - Bristol commuter; and because there was heavy pressure from the TransWilts and Heart of Wessex user groups to keep up a through train from Bristol so it went along to Swindon direct then down via Melksham to Weymouth. There was a return to Bristol via Swindon but it didn’t go on to Exeter.

More recently, that rancid service from Charing Cross - Greenwich - Woolwich - Slade Green - Crayford - Sidcup - Lee - Grove Park - Orpington and back that ran every 30 minutes.

The best part was some started / finished at Tonbridge! Ever had direct trains from Greenwich to Tonbridge?

Rancid!? I can’t quite work out what the auto-correct did there.

 

[causton]

Barnt Green used to have several trains per day to Bromsgrove to allow school children to attend schools in Bromsgrove however since the Cross City Line extension there are regular trains between the two stations.

From the 4th (I believe) September, the 1539 Hereford - Birmingham New St will call again at Barnt Green for the schoolchildren!

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

Wales & West used to have some unusual workings:

Treherbert-Lostwithiel (presumably run in conjunction with Valley Lines, and ran ECS to the goods loop at Par hence terminating at a somewhat bizarre location)

Highbridge & Burnham-Tenby

Haverfordwest-Par (although the West Wales portion only ran to Exeter, and the Par portion started at Bristol TM so through pax had to change portions.)

In STP engineering work land I have come across a Swansea-Paddington service that ran via Hereford and Oxford, taking about 7 hours. (During the Severn Tunnel Junction remodelling blockade.)

 

[4-SUB 4732]

Wales & West used to have some unusual workings:

Treherbert-Lostwithiel (presumably run in conjunction with Valley Lines, and ran ECS to the goods loop at Par hence terminating at a somewhat bizarre location)

Highbridge & Burnham-Tenby

Haverfordwest-Par (although the West Wales portion only ran to Exeter, and the Par portion started at Bristol TM so through pax had to change portions.)

In STP engineering work land I have come across a Swansea-Paddington service that ran via Hereford and Oxford, taking about 7 hours. (During the Severn Tunnel Junction remodelling blockade.)

Treherbert to Lostwithiel, Highbridge to Tenby and Haverfordwest to Par really do upset me.

The Swansea - Paddington via Hereford is an interesting one.

During the Christmas 2015 (?) works (it was a few months after Bath anyway), they were going on at Milford House about doing the 'usual' timetable, but lazily hacking trains back at Reading or Slough (or even Swindon or Oxford).

My request for the passenger benefit, given the routes that Worcester and Bristol sign collectively, was for the Hereford HSTs every 2 hours to come down via Ashchurch and work up as the Golden Valley services to Reading from where they would turn back; with the Worcester - Oxford section operated hourly using a 166 as a Shrub Hill - Gatwick Airport service. This was because they still had to offer at least an hourly fast Oxford - Reading and such; and the platform capacity at Reading was looking a bit squeezed with all this terminating nonsense going on.

Suffice to say the answer "It's not the done thing" was used, again, and they were running all sorts of scrappy services. It is a great shame as I have no doubt a lot of passengers would have preferred to stay on trains as much as possible when there was the prospect of buses from Slough to Hillingdon and the like; and of course they did manage to get some trains into Marylebone but then the next time it happened they failed to run them via Oxford Parkway when that had opened and instead used Ealing Broadway to terminate a plethora of High Speed services which was ill-equipped to deal with them.

 

[tsr]

A few years ago, some colleagues once took advantage of the "extra hour" during a clock change to run a rather interesting service from Victoria to Brighton which avoided numerous possessions (which were also taking account of the extra time). If I remember correctly...
0102 departure from Victoria (via Selhurst) - West Croydon (reverse) - Norwood Junction (reverse) - East Croydon - Redhill lines - Brighton

Rumour has it that it went via Hove and reversed as well, but I can't recall exactly. The South London diversion was to avoid both Cottage Bridge and the Fast Lines, and Crystal Palace was closed, or something like that.

I don't know if this is the only time a Brighton service has called at both West and East Croydon in the same journey, but I wouldn't be surprised.

I believe this is one of the grim occasions when a couple of Selhurst crew had the joy of a duty booking on at about 0100, to pilot the train to West Croydon and back. The crew on that service wouldn't normally be guaranteed to have route knowledge to West Croydon. Probably also one of the last times a conductor was diagrammed to work out of West Croydon other than for route learning.

There's a once day 17.45 fast from Hayes (Kent) to London Bridge.

Plus some non-stop unadvertised services returning from Hayes late at night. This is to run the stock back to a station in London with staff who can detrain and lock out the service. Drivers do not typically lock DOO trains out of service at stations which are potentially unstaffed, such as Hayes.

 

[Harbornite]

2C71 1911 Hereford to Dorridge runs on Saturdays

Interesting. I was aware of the limited service between Gloucester and New Street that's operated by WMR but not this one! Good to know that Hereford still has a direct service to Snow Hill, just like pre-1967...

 

[A Challenge]

I'd imagine services that do not run every weekday, or only run on specific weedays, are quite unusual these days. Are there still some Friday night only services out of London terminals? There was of course the Stockport-Stalybridge Parliamentary that was Fridays only but I think that's on Saturdays now?
Back in the day, I can remember Wednesday-only market day short workings into Pwllheli on the Cambrian Coast line and I think there was a Monday-Weds-Fri (or something similar) on the Kyle Line or somewhere in Scotland.

There's a service that is to Plymouth (M-Th) and Penzance (F) from Paddington.

Also the train that starts at Esher and runs nonstop through Surbiton

 

[4-SUB 4732]

There's a service that is to Plymouth (M-Th) and Penzance (F) from Paddington.

Also the train that starts at Esher and runs nonstop through Surbiton

That is a bit of a whopper, it must be said!

 

[JBuchananGB]

I think the 0740 Liverpool Street which runs non-stop to Wickford then all stops to Southminster is somewhat unusual. Used to be ECS but nowadays shows as 1J10 in passenger service.

 

[mm333]

The recently installed 2C00 0602 from Leeds-Hull via Knaresborough must be a contender. 2h37 to do a journey that direct takes 57 minutes.

 

[TurboFintan]

Central Trains in their earlier days joined up routes with through trains (e.g. combining Birmingham to Nottingham and Nottingham to Skegness) creating very unusual end-to-end journeys. Here are some examples:

Birmingham - Crewe - Preston
Stoke - Stafford - Nuneaton - Coventry (before the Euston to Crewe trains)
Birmingham - Nottingham - Skegness
Birmingham - Nottingham - Lincoln - Grimsby Town
Grantham - Nottingham - Birmingham - Hereford
Derby - Birmingham - Liverpool
Sleaford - Lincoln - Nottingham - Birmingham - Cardiff
Gobowen - Shrewsbury - Birmingham - Nottingham
Manchester Airport - Crewe - Derby - Nottingham
Shrewsbury - Birmingham - Nottingham - Lincoln
Skegness - Nottingham - Leicester - Nuneaton - Coventry
Norwich - Nottingham - Birmingham - Liverpool
Stansted - Birmingham - Liverpool
Worcester - Birmingham - Nottingham
Stafford - Rugeley - Birmingham

 

[bussnapperwm]

Central Trains in their earlier days joined up routes with through trains (e.g. combining Birmingham to Nottingham and Nottingham to Skegness) creating very unusual end-to-end journeys. Here are some examples:

Birmingham - Crewe - Preston
Stoke - Stafford - Nuneaton - Coventry (before the Euston to Crewe trains)
Birmingham - Nottingham - Skegness
Birmingham - Nottingham - Lincoln - Grimsby Town
Grantham - Nottingham - Birmingham - Hereford
Derby - Birmingham - Liverpool
Sleaford - Lincoln - Nottingham - Birmingham - Cardiff
Gobowen - Shrewsbury - Birmingham - Nottingham
Manchester Airport - Crewe - Derby - Nottingham
Shrewsbury - Birmingham - Nottingham - Lincoln
Skegness - Nottingham - Leicester - Nuneaton - Coventry
Norwich - Nottingham - Birmingham - Liverpool
Stansted - Birmingham - Liverpool
Worcester - Birmingham - Nottingham
Stafford - Rugeley - Birmingham

Don't forget Yarmouth to Barmouth...

 

[MotCO]

...Sounds like it could be fun (a bit like that service from Orpington which starts from platform 1 in the evening which runs fast to London Bridge)

There is also a morning train 08.46 starting from Orpington Plat 4, first stop London Bridge.

 

[Adsy125]

The SWR service that runs weekdays only Waterloo-Salisbury, via Salisbury, Yeovil and Westbury. Admittedly it pauses at Westbury for a couple of minutes and technically is a different train from Westbury in practice it isn't.

 

[4-SUB 4732]

There is also a morning train 08.46 starting from Orpington Plat 4, first stop London Bridge.

Admittedly the notion of a non-stop train from Orpington to London Bridge isn’t rare; but I assume your meaning is because it’s a 465/376 service and designed to be a contra-peak capacity buster?

 

[4-SUB 4732]

Some that spring to mind:

- The Victoria to Sheerness (and back) peak trains that we obviously assumed would be long gone years ago.

- Some morning SE Metro services that run fast from places like Blackheath to Dartford or Lewisham to Dartford.

- The new Gillingham to Victoria via Bexleyheath train early in the morning which started as an ECS from Gillingham to Dartford in May and quickly became a passenger service because Thameslink were so inept. I believe it’s the first through service (except engineering work) from Strood to Victoria in a long time and definitely Higham.

- There used to be a service that started from Bearsted and went to Bedford circa 2009/2010 despite the train having to come through Ashford Intl to get there!

- There’s now a host of strange Southeastern stops on fast trains to Victoria (and Blackfriars?) in the morning including at Crofton Park, Penge East, Sydenham Hill and West Dulwich. Not entirely sure why when there’s the standard timetable of trains from Orpington to Victoria and Beckenham to Blackfriars!

- Someone mentioned a new service that will start at Mill Hill and go to Luton (?) or St Albans in the next couple of weeks as Thameslink get more drivers available. The stock will come straight off Cricklewood.

- The new trains to / from Baldock on the ‘traditional’ GN.

- Watton at Stone terminators. Despite being able to run back from whence they came on both lines to Molewood Junction, which seemed sensible, they in fact go to Langley to reverse.

- I used to like the old 03:25 (?) off Peterborough to Kings Cross which stopped only at Huntingdon, St Neots, Biggleswade, Hitchin, Stevenage, Hertford North, Cuffley, Gordon Hill, Enfield Chase, Winchmore Hill, Palmers Green, Alexandra Palace, Hornsey, Finsbury Park and Kings Cross (from memory!) as it was the key staff train and all of those stations had GN staff that wanted / needed to get to London for around 05:00.

 

[NorthWestRover]

I did 18.50 Helsby to Ellesmere Port today. Besides me, there were two other passengers who did the whole journey (they were not together). A man got on at Ince and Elton and went to EP. No one boarded at Stanlow and Thornton. First time on the line for me. Bit eerie around Stanlow passing between the various chemical/oil factories... Unit was 142 042.

It's a peculiar little route. Is the morning diagram any busier?

 

[SSp]

The recently installed 2C00 0602 from Leeds-Hull via Knaresborough must be a contender. 2h37 to do a journey that direct takes 57 minutes.

Wasn't there a Preston to Blackburn via Manchester earlier this year or 2017? I imagine that could be used tactically!

 

[InterCity:125]

My train was on time, does that count as unusual?