London to Bracknell 1970s/1980s Timetables

[Carps1000]

Hello all. Does any body remember the stopping pattern of the trains from London Waterloo to Bracknell in the 1970s and 80s?? Or has anyone got any idea if you can get a timetable from these times. My psrtner says 50 mins from London - Bracknell during this time. I cant beleive the trains were so much quicker then if this is true. Anyone help. Cheers

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I'm certain that at one point in the past, there was a general off-peak service patters of:
1tph Reading-Waterloo - broadly as per now;
1tph Ascot-Waterloo - broadly as per now (minus the Reading bit of course!)
1tph Reading-Waterloo - calling at Wokingham, Ascot, Staines and Richmond only.

I've got about 20 BR timetable (national) timetables from the early 1970s-mid 1990s, I'll dig them out later.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

53 minutes for Waterloo to Bracknell in 1981 on a stopper from Waterloo to Reading, on a weekday. Example service with all calling points to Bracknell:

09:58 London Waterloo
10:05 Clapham Junction
10:13 Twickenham
10:20 Feltham
10:26 Staines
10:30 Egham
10:34 Virginia Water
10:38 Longcross
10:41 Sunningdale
10:46 Ascot
10:51 Bracknell

Service was every 30 minutes in the day with the same journey times and calling pattern as above, so 2tph to Reading as is nowadays?

Sundays took 51 minutes as it skipped Longcross and Twickenham but called at Richmond.

 

[flymo]

The '74/'75 timetable shows two trains to Bracknell per hour from Waterloo Mon - Sat. Sunday shows one per hour with an additional from Ascot.

From Waterloo:

Mon - Sat: Typically a faster one at xx:36 taking 45 minutes calling at Feltham, Staines, and Ascot (carried on to Reading) and a slower one at xx:54 taking 57 minutes calling at Richmond, Feltham, Staines, Egham, Virginia Water, Longcross, Sunningdale and Ascot (carried on to Reading).

Sunday: Typically One train per hour from Waterloo at xx:54 taking 57 minutes calling at Richmond, Feltham, Staines, Egham, Virginia Water, Longcross, Sunningdale and Ascot (carried on to Reading). One train per hour from Ascot at xx:16 which connects from the xx:24 Guildford service ex Waterloo arr Ascot at xx:10.

From Bracknell:

Mon - Sat: Typically 'Slow' at xx:50 taking 57 minutes and 'Fast' at xx:20 and taking 47 minutes. Same calling points as above.

Sunday: Typically one train to Waterloo at xx:20 taking 57 minutes and calling at the 'slow' train pattern above. Also an xx:50 to Ascot connecting with the xx:00 departure to Waterloo which started from Guildford (same calling points as the 'slow' train above. (also 57 minutes).

 

[30907]

There was in the early 70s an off-peak fast calling only at Staines between Bracknell and London (I think all from Reading to Bracknell).
Bracknell xx17, Staines xx34, Waterloo xx02

As the motive power was 45-year-old 4-CORs, it was an experience - I have a log with times of 14 mins from Bracknell to Staines and 24 to just outside Waterloo (after a 2-min signal stop we were still in 1 early too!).

This became the service Flymo refers to - Feltham became significant after the Railair bus to Heathrow started.

 

[FenMan]

I'm certain that at one point in the past, there was a general off-peak service patters of:
1tph Reading-Waterloo - broadly as per now;
1tph Ascot-Waterloo - broadly as per now (minus the Reading bit of course!)
1tph Reading-Waterloo - calling at Wokingham, Ascot, Staines and Richmond only.

I've got about 20 BR timetable (national) timetables from the early 1970s-mid 1990s, I'll dig them out later.

The 1tph Ascot - Waterloo sounds like the service that carried on to Camberley, Aldershot and Guildford. I'm old enough (!) to remember when Frimley and Camberley had regular direct services via Ascot to Waterloo - the journey time from Camberley to Waterloo was 59m in those days and has been gradually extended to 1h16m today.

In the 90s there was a plan to switch Ascot - Aldershot to light rail, but it never came to anything.

 

[Carps1000]

Thanks to all who responded to my Qs about timetables on the Waterloo Reading line. Keep em coming as i am very interested in your replies

 

[Bevan Price]

Hello all. Does any body remember the stopping pattern of the trains from London Waterloo to Bracknell in the 1970s and 80s?? Or has anyone got any idea if you can get a timetable from these times.
Cheers

You can often buy old railway timetables from specialist book shops selling 2nd hand rail-related books, and sometimes at heritage railway sites (pwrticularly on special events days) or at some model railway exhibitions. Whether or not you want to pay some of the asking prices is another matter. And pot luck as to whether or not they have the region / years of most interest to you.

Examples:

http://britishrailwaybooks.co.uk/wtt/passenger/southern.php

http://www.billhudsontransportbooks.co.uk/lms-railway-books.php

http://www.bottbooks.com/onlinebookshop/page.asp?tmplt=sys&wbpg=home
(Timetables not listed on line, but they often have a small selection of assorted timetables at fairly reasonable prices.)

 

[Capybara]

By coincidence, I rescued a couple of old Southern Region timetables from my mother's loft over the holiday and the times to Bracknell in the 70-1 winter timetable are as follows:

10:28 London Waterloo
10:55 Staines
11:00 Egham
11:03 Virginia Water
11:08 Longcross
11:11 Sunningdale
11:17 Ascot
11:22 Bracknell

and half-hourly during the day.

The following summer, however, the xx:58 remained the same but the xx:28 was replaced by a fast train to Ascot only and there was an xx:37 as follows:

10:37 London Waterloo
11:03 Staines
11:22 Bracknell

45 minutes!

 

[30907]

By coincidence, I rescued a couple of old Southern Region timetables from my mother's loft over the holiday and the times to Bracknell in the 70-1 winter timetable are as follows:

10:28 London Waterloo
10:55 Staines
11:00 Egham
11:03 Virginia Water
11:08 Longcross
11:11 Sunningdale
11:17 Ascot
11:22 Bracknell

and half-hourly during the day.

The following summer, however, the xx:58 remained the same but the xx:28 was replaced by a fast train to Ascot only and there was an xx:37 as follows:

10:37 London Waterloo
11:03 Staines
11:22 Bracknell

45 minutes!

The first is the standard offpeak pattern that had existed since electrification (originally 24 and 54 off Waterloo - the change probably came in 1967).

The second is the one I referred to in my previous post