Well there we are. On examining the 1979 one, I can find through carriages Munich-Athens and Munich-Istanbul as well as Venice-Athens and Venice-Istanbul in table 15, "Tauern Orient Express", from Munich via Salzburg, Villach, Ljubljana, Zagreb (or from Venice via Trieste, Ljubljana, Zagreb), splitting and joining in Beograd, then via Skopje/Thessaloniki for Athens, and Sofia for Istanbul.
Depart Munich 1730 on day A, arrive Athens 1000 day C, Istanbul also 1000 day C.
Actual days of operation for the through carriages look quite complicated!
A note under the table says it's no longer possible to travel Paris-Istanbul without changing, e.g. at Venice or Munich, or the Simplon Express Paris-Beograd with an overnight stay in Beograd to pick up onward trains eastwards.
For the ferry via Brindisi, Table 1440 shows a departure from Brindisi at 2000 for Patras 1200, and a connecting bus at 1230 for Athens arrive 1600.
Interesting, thanks.
I have been to Greece regularly in recent years and, probably as a result of the crisis, there are no through trains from Athens to anywhere beyond Thessaloniki now except one daily to Alexandroupoli, not too far from the Turkish border.
From Thessaloniki there was daily trains to Sofia and Belgrade in 2016 (I think the Belgrade went via Skopje) but certainly nothing into central Europe. Not sure if these have run in the last couple of years, I have a feeling they stopped, at least temporarily, for financial reasons.
Not sure what the pattern was like in that 'golden period' post-Eurostar and pre-credit-crunch; whether one could have, for a time, departed London and reached Athens only changing twice (or two times, see other thread
) at say Paris and Munich, or three times at Paris/Munich/Belgrade or Paris/Munich/Zagreb.
The Ocean Liner trains were however really difficult to find detail on, they only ran on odd days, and were so unbalanced that the majority must have required empty stock returns, some large liners in their heyday needing three or more services. They were hauled stock to the end, of various sorts, and although there were dedicated sets some days just happened to have coinciding in and out services which needed real scratch formations from across the Region. Some of the earliest Mk 2 stock was built for these services, which I believe was initially painted green.
Now you mention this, it is bringing to mind vague memories of untimetabled hauled stock speeding through Woking in the 1983-85 period. Perhaps 73s, which would make sense for a third-rail line. No consistency in their timings. Some may have been Pullman stock. Not sure if I'm just imagining it though.
Back to the Dover/Folkestone boat trains, wondering how the diagramming worked?
Presumably as return boat trains were often delayed, they would need a layover of several hours at Victoria before their next service, to avoid delaying the subsequent service. Guess they shunted into the Victoria sidings for a while.
Were any outbound boat trains formed off incoming 'regular' commuter services? For instance in 1981 (ABC, timetableworld) there were regular boat trains not long after the morning peak, so I'm wondering if these were actually formed off regular Chatham line commuter arrivals into Victoria, as the 12CEP stock would be equally suitable for morning peak services?