Unadvertised Services

[telstarbox]

Great thread. On the football theme do the Great Northern / West Anglia routes run unadvertised trains for Arsenal / Spurs matches respectively?

 

[nw1]

What about the 11.40-ish Reading to New Street Tyseley DMU which ran on multiple occasions in the summer of 1986, which has been mentioned on other threads? This ran in a gap in the generally-hourly XC service.

This didn't appear in any timetables and wasn't even in the working books, but I did see it either twice or three times that summer.

Suggests it was a service which ran on likely-busy days (so perhaps all summer) but would have been removed at quieter times.

 

[Springs Branch]

The Ormskirk branch of Merseyrail had long-standing unadvertised EMUs running after the last and before first trains - presumably for staff use.

From Liverpool Exchange there was a 00:20(MX) / 00:35(MO) to Ormskirk, calling at Kirkdale and Aintree with stops on request at any of the other stations beyond Kirkdale.

This unit left Ormskirk (unadvertised) at 00:55(MX) / 01:05(MO) for Liverpool Exchange, calling only at Aintree and Kirkdale, arriving in Liverpool around 01:30

A few hours later, there was a non-advertised EMU at 04:15 from Aintree to Ormskirk, which then formed an unadvertised 04:33 all stations (except Sandhills) Ormskirk to Liverpool Exchange.

The attachments below show these trains in the May 1968 working timetable. The trains above ran under Class 2 headcodes, indicating available for passenger use. Additional Class 3 (ECS) "Q" paths were provided in the early hours for de-icing trains as required on both the Ormskirk and Southport lines.

Unadvertised late / early Merseyrail trains continued after the closure of Exchange and opening of the Liverpool Link. From 1977 the 00:20(MX)/00:35(MO) to Ormskirk and 04:33 Ormskirk to Liverpool still ran, but to/from Central Low Level.

 

[Taunton]

The attachments below show these trains in the May 1968 working timetable. The trains above ran under Class 2 headcodes, indicating available for passenger use. Additional Class 3 (ECS) "Q" paths were provided in the early hours for de-icing trains as required on both the Ormskirk and Southport lines.

We remember these de-icing trains after we moved up from Somerset to The Wirral in the 1960s. The house was not quite a mile from the electric line.

It was a cold and icy winter, which the family blamed on us now being "in the north". So far north, in fact, that we could see the Northern Lights. These were an intermittent flashing in the sky, against the low clouds. We initially used to look out of the (railway-facing) upstairs windows to see this novel upper-atrmosphere phenomena. You can guess the rest ...

 

[clockend]

Great thread. On the football theme do the Great Northern / West Anglia routes run unadvertised trains for Arsenal / Spurs matches respectively?

GN used to in pre COVID times. Three or four before and after games to/from FPK via HFN and WGC

 

[6Gman]

Passenger trains to Thorpe Arch Royal Ordnance Factory were unadvertised and I suppose so were trains to other similar factories that had their own stations.

Quite a few ROFs had unadvertised passenger trains.

 

[matchmaker]

I seem to remember back in loco hauled days, there was an 0100 Queen Street to Oban mail train that also carried passengers, but didn't appear in the public timetables.

 

[Dai Corner]

I seem to remember back in loco hauled days, there was an 0100 Queen Street to Oban mail train that also carried passengers, but didn't appear in the public timetables.

I seem to remember that some time later there was a DMU from Queen Street to some north Glasgow suburban station to connect with the Fort William sleeper? I don't know whether it was advertised widely or appeared in published timetables.

 

[Gloster]

I seem to remember back in loco hauled days, there was an 0100 Queen Street to Oban mail train that also carried passengers, but didn't appear in the public timetables.

The 01.00 Queen Street to Oban (arrive 04.27) is in the 1975 public timetable