Class 37's on Manchester Victoria - Southport passenger duties in the early '90's

[Dawg]

When I was a student at Leeds Uni '90 - '93 I used to get the train back to Wigan during holidays and odd weekends. I used to travel to Manchester Victoria where a DMU or similar would take me on to Wigan Wallgate.

A couple of times I remember being gobsmacked at the sight of a class 37 heading a rake of 8-10 carriages on the same service. The carriages were refurbished old stock but were quite plush compared to what I was used to.

Does anyone know about this service?; what was it and why? (Why not!)

 

[Ash Bridge]

When I was a student at Leeds Uni '90 - '93 I used to get the train back to Wigan during holidays and odd weekends. I used to travel to Manchester Victoria where a DMU or similar would take me on to Wigan Wallgate.

A couple of times I remember being gobsmacked at the sight of a class 37 heading a rake of 8-10 carriages on the same service. The carriages were refurbished old stock but were quite plush compared to what I was used to.

Does anyone know about this service?; what was it and why? (Why not!)

I think it was referred to as the club train, introduced by BR Regional Railways Northwest and was a throwback to what the former L&Y Railway co. used to operate many years previously.
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Just to add to the above, it seems this service was worked by Class 31s also.

 

[Darren R]

There were several loco-hauled diagrams out of Victoria (and elsewhere) in the very early 90s, and not just to Southport: I seem to recall there was a problem with lack of availability of the new generation of DMUs.

There were regular loco-hauled services to Blackpool North, Southport, Barrow-in-Furness and Blackburn (before the Clitheroe line reopened.) Savvy travellers knew which ones they were! At this time many of the services departed eastwards from Victoria and ran via the Oldham Loop and Rochdale before calling at Vic again heading west.

Class 37s were used, but I recall them as being mostly 31s. Rolling stock generally consisted of whatever Red Bank could cobble together! Frequently a 31 in Regional Railways livery could be seen hauling Mk II rakes in various livery combinations of Network South East, Regional Railways/Provincial, Scotrail, TransPennine, BR blue/grey and even InterCity on occasion.

And then, after just a few short years, they disappeared to be replaced by Pacers and Sprinters. Oh well - it was comfy while it lasted!

I think there was a departure from Victoria at around 1730 to Southport which was LHCS during the period in question, by the way.

 

[sprinterguy]

We had a thread on this very subject, not so long ago:
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=95293

If you read through the posts, there's some useful lists of the complete diagrams that were worked by loco-hauled rakes in the late eighties and early nineties.

 

[StripeyNick]

Some shots from Southport. This was when I first really started taking note of railways on my own. As usual, just wish I'd taken more pics.....

37419 & 58009 at Southport. 25/4/92 by Nick Wilcock, on Flickr

37418 at Southport. xx/6/93 by Nick Wilcock, on Flickr

37419 at Southport. 25/4/92 by Nick Wilcock, on Flickr

31408 at Southport by Nick Wilcock, on Flickr

37421 at Southport by Nick Wilcock, on Flickr

37418 at Southport by Nick Wilcock, on Flickr

 

[Dawg]

Great - not as many carriages as I remember but time can alter things...


Real shame there aren't any loco hauled trains anymore - I remember being a small child going to Blackpool a few times from Wigan North Western in old mk1 corridor stock hauled by a 'big D' as my spotter older brother called them - later knew them as class 40's... Loooong time ago...