ryan125hst
Established Member
I spent some time last week looking at some old carriage working books from the 1970's and 80's that are available to view on a Yahoo group. It is really interesting to see the formations of the trains of the era as well as get an insight of the timetable of the time. The information goes well back into the steam era when compartment coaches prevailed, right up until the late 70's and into the 80's, by which time air conditioned Mark 2 open coaches were the usual coaching stock used, as well as older Mark 1 vehicles on relief trains.
The final year for the information that is available online is 1981, by which time most services were operated by HST's. Interestingly, comparing the information from 1981 to a GNER timetable from 2006, the service patterns were remarkably similar!* The only services that seem to have been removed were those from London to Cleethorpes, Scarborough and Skegness, as well as relief trains to York, Newcastle and Edinburgh. The sleeper trains have gone as well of course.
So that got me thinking, when did these loco hauled services end? Was it the introduction of the Intercity 225's that saw them removed from the timetable, or did they end prior to this?
*A departure on the hour to Edinburgh or beyond, at 30 minutes past the hour to Newcastle (xx35 in '81) and at 10 past the hour to Leeds (xx50 in '81). It appears that it was only with the Allington Chord that a second hourly service to Leeds was introduced, and further changes occurred with the Eureka timetable in 2011).
The final year for the information that is available online is 1981, by which time most services were operated by HST's. Interestingly, comparing the information from 1981 to a GNER timetable from 2006, the service patterns were remarkably similar!* The only services that seem to have been removed were those from London to Cleethorpes, Scarborough and Skegness, as well as relief trains to York, Newcastle and Edinburgh. The sleeper trains have gone as well of course.
So that got me thinking, when did these loco hauled services end? Was it the introduction of the Intercity 225's that saw them removed from the timetable, or did they end prior to this?
*A departure on the hour to Edinburgh or beyond, at 30 minutes past the hour to Newcastle (xx35 in '81) and at 10 past the hour to Leeds (xx50 in '81). It appears that it was only with the Allington Chord that a second hourly service to Leeds was introduced, and further changes occurred with the Eureka timetable in 2011).