What services changed and when?

[MikeWh]

Was the Redhill - Tonbridge line operated as part of the North Downs Line at some point?

Yes. No idea when it stopped but I remember travelling on an hourly Reading to Tonbridge train as part of a Southern Region weekly rover when I was a kid.

 

[swt_passenger]

Yes. No idea when it stopped but I remember travelling on an hourly Reading to Tonbridge train as part of a Southern Region weekly rover when I was a kid.

Did the through service cease with electrification of Redhill - Tonbridge? That would have probably been early 90s I think - and might have been a good reason to alter service patterns...

 

[Buttsy]

Paddington - Birmingham (Snow Hill/New Street) via High Wycombe & Solihull - regular services were diverted via Oxford in the 70s, though there was a remnant peak hour service for a while.
Euston - Inverness via Coatbridge Central 'The Clansman' - disappeared in the 80s (I caught it once from Coventry to Perth in the 90s, but by then it was going via Edinburgh).
South Fylde line - Ormskirk - I remember this happening in the 80s
Also, I seem to remember an Oxford - New Street - Worcester - Oxford run at some point in the 80s.
Manchester Piccadilly - Poole

 

[Polarbear]

It's hard to believe life before the Cross City line in Birmingham, but prior to it's inception in the late 1970's, there were only 3 peak hour trains per day to Redditch & the (few) stations between New St & Barnt Green received hardly any trains.

From Lichfield City, (no services to Trent Valley either), trains ran to New St, then out to Kidderminster.

Did the through service cease with electrification of Redhill - Tonbridge? That would have probably been early 90s I think - and might have been a good reason to alter service patterns...

No, it was well before that. The Reading - Gatwick service appeared in the early 1980's & it was around then that most of the North Downs line services stopped working across Redhill.

 

[Buttsy]

Liverpool Street - Watford
Wolverhampton - Coventry used to be 2 separate services centred on New Street.

 

[tbtc]

Do I also remember correctly a Newcastle - Durham - Middlesbrough - Saltburn?

Aye, it continued until Arriva Trains Northern days, a bi-hourly Pacer bombing it along the ECML, stopping at Chester le Street (the one service to do so).

This was back when Newcastle only had a bi-hourly TPE service to Manchester through Durham, but there were some direct services from Newcastle to Manchester via Sunderland too IIRC.

 

[Schnellzug]

Paddington - Birmingham (Snow Hill/New Street) via High Wycombe & Solihull - regular services were diverted via Oxford in the 70s, though there was a remnant peak hour service for a while.
Euston - Inverness via Coatbridge Central 'The Clansman' - disappeared in the 80s (I caught it once from Coventry to Perth in the 90s, but by then it was going via Edinburgh).
South Fylde line - Ormskirk - I remember this happening in the 80s
Also, I seem to remember an Oxford - New Street - Worcester - Oxford run at some point in the 80s.
Manchester Piccadilly - Poole

... Poole-Glasgow; Poole-Liverpool; Weymouth-Liverpool; in fact, anything to Liverpool at all that didn't necessitate changing into a suburban EMU.

yes, you revolutionised cross-country travel, mr. branson, didn't you.
:roll:

 

[Buttsy]

South Coast - Glasgow/Edinburgh via Preston...
Perth - Carlisle via Coatbridge
Reading - Salisbury
Reading - Portsmouth Harbour via Fareham
Tenby - York
Oxford - Paignton

The latter 2 I know were Saturday dated trains, but I miss them. The latter gave Foxhall curve and Melksham when there were no other services over those lines.

 

[Daz28]

When did Barnehurst to Blackfriars (famously the oft-cancelled 8.14) stop being a direct service?

There are no direct services on the Dartford lines to Blackfriars anymore.

 

[shaun]

I'm sure there used to be a Paddington - West Wales Class 158 Alphaline service in the late 90s, this was then diverted to start at Waterloo in the early 00s then abandoned altogether a year or so later.

 

[Tomonthetrain]

Stourbridge - Birmingham new Street ceased in 00's

 

[Bald Rick]

No, it was well before that. The Reading - Gatwick service appeared in the early 1980's & it was around then that most of the North Downs line services stopped working across Redhill.

I regularly used Reading - Tonbridge service well into the late 80s. The Reading - Gatwick was limited stop, and the Tonbridge was a few minutes behind it off Reading calling all stops. I certainly remember getting on a train at Tonbridge to go to Guildford in 1988.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

When did Barnehurst to Blackfriars (famously the oft-cancelled 8.14) stop being a direct service?

There are no direct services on the Dartford lines to Blackfriars anymore.

That train used to be almost famous as a daily cancellation , to the extent that T shirts were made "I travelled on the 0814 Barneshurst to Blackfriars" - made Radio 1.

Reason was something to do with the crewing and so on. Struck a chord that did ! (circa 1981)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Swansea - Manchester via Gloucester and Bham ........

 

[4SRKT]

In 1987 it was like this off peak:

Hourly Reading > Gatwick limited stop (Wokingham, North Camp, Guildford, Deepdene, Reigate, Redhill).
Hourly Reading > Guildford all stations.
Hourly Reigate > Tonbridge all stations (overtaken at Redhill by the Reading > Gatwick).

A couple of off-peak Reading > Guildford trains went on to Redhill serving all stations between Guildford and Reigate.

There were occasional through trains from Tonbridge to Reading, but not many. The whole thing was worked with WR DMUs, mainly 119s IIRR.

 

[gg1]

A few from the late 80s / early 90s:

The Walsall - New Street - Wolverhampton services used to run to Stafford and Stoke (iirc frequency was half hourly to Wolves, hourly to Stafford, 2 hourly to Stoke). One train a day ran a completely bonkers all stations Walsall to Manchester Piccadilly Service.

Euston - Wolves services used to be extended to Shrewsbury every two hours with a once per day extension to Aberystwyth.

Bromsgrove was served by only a small handful of trains each day.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

The Liverpool-Norwich service has never run via Leicester. It did however run via Loughborough for a while during the early 1990's.

I am pretty sure there was at least one a day in the late 1990s, I caught several times from New Street. Left about 15:00, and split at Ely. Half terminated at Cambridge, the other half terminated at Norwich. It may have started in Birmingham rather than Liverpool though, its been so long I cant remember.

 

[Harlesden]

The Liverpool-Norwich service has never run via Leicester. It did however run via Loughborough for a while during the early 1990's.

When sprinters took over from loco hauled trains in 1988 the service on table 49 was basically every 2 hours Norwich-Liverpool, every 2 hours Norwich-Birmingham, every 2 hours Birmingham-Cambridge/Ipswich, every 2 hours Blackpool-Cambridge/Ipswich and a 2 hourly Manchester -Liverpool.

The following year it the Ipswich/Cambridge-Blackpool ran to Liverpool instead with a 2 hourly Blackpool-Nottingham service added.

Colchester and Barrow were 2 destinations added and withdrawn over the years.

During the 1990's the service became the hourly Liverpool-Norwich and Birmingham-Stansted.

Central Trains combined the Liverpool-Birmingham and Birmingham-Stansted services around 1999 if my memory is correct but the SRA split the route again in 2004(?).

The extra summer Saturday trains to/from Gt Yarmouth were also run down to zero over the years.

Hope this helps.

I cannot help thinking that someone high up in British Rail management had a very strong bias against east coast seaside resorts as one or two resorts were effectively destroyed by a gradual running down of train services and the cutting of direct links to London.

 

[Bald Rick]

I cannot help thinking that someone high up in British Rail management had a very strong bias against east coast seaside resorts as one or two resorts were effectively destroyed by a gradual running down of train services and the cutting of direct links to London.

If they didn't back then, then they should have now. They're awful!
(puts on tin hat)

 

[A0wen]

Rugby to Gatwick Airport via Northampton springs to mind - for those who don't remember this was a Connex service. When the WCML modernisation started it was curtailed to Watford Junc and then more recently under Southern's operation extended to Milton Keynes Central but curtailed to East Croydon at the other end.

Kentish Town - Barking, diverted at the western end to Gospel Oak in the early 80s.

Manchester Airport - London via Crewe. Using EMUs - cl322?

 

[tbtc]

Rugby to Gatwick Airport via Northampton springs to mind - for those who don't remember this was a Connex service. When the WCML modernisation started it was curtailed to Watford Junc and then more recently under Southern's operation extended to Milton Keynes Central but curtailed to East Croydon at the other end

If they ran Birmingham - Shepherd's Bush - Brighton this way then you wouldn't need to worry about XC running to Brighton...

(even if only a few trains a day, more at weekends)

 

[RichmondCommu]

I cannot help thinking that someone high up in British Rail management had a very strong bias against east coast seaside resorts as one or two resorts were effectively destroyed by a gradual running down of train services and the cutting of direct links to London.

I'm sorry but this is absolute nonsense. Those resorts suffered because of poor standards and because a holiday in Greece or Spain was more affordable and the weather was better, not because of BR!

 

[bicbasher]

Others that spring to mind.

1990s. Connex South Eastern or NSE Kent Coast ran a Victoria to Tunbridge Wells hourly via Redhill, this is now the Southern London Bridge to Tonbridge service.

There was also a Gatwick to Paddock Wood or was it Maidstone West service too?

More recently:

London Bridge to Smitham (now Coulsdon Town) via Tulse Hill.

 

[mtmikethom]

I used to use a through loco hauled service from Manchester Piccadilly to Lincoln (it ran through to Cleethorpes) during the 80's, left Manchester about 0130. I think it was mainly for newspaper traffic.
Seem to also think there was a through train from Crewe to York (via Stalybridge) during the night then as well.
Or am I drifting form the subject ?

 

[Ivo]

Kentish Town - Barking, diverted at the western end to Gospel Oak in the early 80s.

I read some time ago that apparently Southend used to have services to Luton, which I always found a bit odd; the source suggested that Beeching and friends did away with it. Considering the above, is anyone able to confirm as much, and if yes, would it mean that the LOROL service over the GOBLIN is the modern equivalent of this route?

N.B.: I don't suppose I would have used it any time soon. Why would I want to go to Luton...?

 

[Jimini]

I'm sure there used to be a Paddington - West Wales Class 158 Alphaline service in the late 90s, this was then diverted to start at Waterloo in the early 00s then abandoned altogether a year or so later.

Yep, I remember this one. Caught it once early doors (maybe about 0600?) from Waterloo non-stop to Reading. Final destination was Maesteg. That was in 2000.

 

[Buttsy]

Basingstoke - Norwich via NLL

 

[Schnellzug]

I'm sure there used to be a Paddington - West Wales Class 158 Alphaline service in the late 90s, this was then diverted to start at Waterloo in the early 00s then abandoned altogether a year or so later.

I seem to remember that there was one late evening service from Paddington to cardiff or Swansea that was booked for a 158; the one that ran from Waterloo still does as far as bristol, run by SWT.

I read some time ago that apparently Southend used to have services to Luton, which I always found a bit odd; the source suggested that Beeching and friends did away with it. Considering the above, is anyone able to confirm as much, and if yes, would it mean that the LOROL service over the GOBLIN is the modern equivalent of this route?

N.B.: I don't suppose I would have used it any time soon. Why would I want to go to Luton...?

Am i the only one who, whenever they see someone refer to LOROL, always think it's an Internet Acronym like LOLOL or ROFLMAO?
Either of which might be a good name for a train company.
:-/

 

[tbtc]

Am i the only one who, whenever they see someone refer to LOROL, always think it's an Internet Acronym like LOLOL or ROFLMAO?
Either of which might be a good name for a train company.
:-/

I think of it in terms of "LOROL & Hardy"

 

[quarella]

From the recesses of my mind from Rail enquiries days as privatisation was occurring.
Wales and West had Pontypridd to Birmingham with the return working going to Barry Island.
The Waterloo services as already mentioned. Did anyone ever go all the way from Manchester.
Portsmouth Harbour to Penzance and Liverpool with detaching a set at Westbury.
When the MOD place at Filton Abbey Wood opened in order to try and spread loadings for a time there was a service about 0720 starting at Highbridge and Burnham, took the main line non stop to Worle then all stations to Bristol Parkway.
There was a daily Great Western service to and from Waterloo but I cannot recall the other end of it's journey. More recently
there was the loco hauled Rhymney to Fishguard Harbour.
Virgin Cross Country services reversing at Gloucester.

 

[Ivo]

Cross Country services reversing at Gloucester

Although not a very large number, some - such as the 15:00 ex Glasgow - still do. I've been on that one enough :?