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OK, so I just got a 1985 BR Passenger Timetable........

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4SRKT

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Now I really need a time machine. Well before the sprinter 'revolution', this book contains a treasure trove of loco haulage. Particularly exciting is all the summer Saturday stuff, but even on normal days there's so much good stuff I'm getting very excited. I can actually remember some of these great trains from back in the day, for example the epic and regularly used 10:15 London Euston > Stranraer Harbour, 86 hauled to Carlisle then duffage, taking a quite staggering 8 hours 14 minutes! I really don't remember it being that arduous, but maybe people were just used to it taking all day to get to Northern Ireland in those days.

At the other end of the comfort scale, does anyone fancy sitting on a 2-car DMU (Cravens class 105 as often as not from memory) for 3 hours 35 minutes on the 15:15 all stations Birmingham New St > Cambridge? Not I, that's for sure! Or how about the 11:40 Crewe > Pwllheli DMU, arriving 16:33?
 
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gordonthemoron

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Does the 1985 tt have the 'European' from Glasgow/Edinburgh/Manchester or some such places to Harwich Parkeston Quay?

I used it in 1986
 

rail-britain

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regularly used 10:15 London Euston > Stranraer Harbour, 86 hauled to Carlisle then duffage, taking a quite staggering 8 hours 14 minutes!
I wouldn't have said it was regularly used, more like reasonably used, as most passengers wouldn't be regulars!
Equally, it wasn't heavily loaded on weekdays

In 1985, check the route; was it via Tamworth or Birmingham NS
Also, does that timetable include the Euston - Stirling motorail?
 

4SRKT

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Regularly used by me and my family.

It went via Tamworth, indeed was non-stop from Watford Jn to Crewe.

The timetable mentions the Motorail services, but doesn't provide any detail, instead giving a 'phone number to ring.
 

The Big Boo

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Now I really need a time machine. Well before the sprinter 'revolution', this book contains a treasure trove of loco haulage. Particularly exciting is all the summer Saturday stuff, but even on normal days there's so much good stuff I'm getting very excited. I can actually remember some of these great trains from back in the day, for example the epic and regularly used 10:15 London Euston > Stranraer Harbour, 86 hauled to Carlisle then duffage, taking a quite staggering 8 hours 14 minutes! I really don't remember it being that arduous, but maybe people were just used to it taking all day to get to Northern Ireland in those days.

At the other end of the comfort scale, does anyone fancy sitting on a 2-car DMU (Cravens class 105 as often as not from memory) for 3 hours 35 minutes on the 15:15 all stations Birmingham New St > Cambridge? Not I, that's for sure! Or how about the 11:40 Crewe > Pwllheli DMU, arriving 16:33?

You have forgotton the Shrewsbury v Swansea service which was rearranged by a group of Leeds Utd supporters on 29/08/81.

For the record they got beat 5-1.
 

9K43

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On summer Saturday afternoons I have done the shunters job at Neville Hill, where all the holiday trains came from in the morning.
Places were all over the country, if I can recall at least 7 loco hauled trains came in BT 1400 to 1900hrs.
A good job with 4 hours travelling to NH.
Now like my dinner, its all gone.
 

12CSVT

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1985 - that's before Stockport to Stalybridge became a parliamentary service. There was even a York to Shrewsbury overnight which ran via Stalybridge and Stockport. And there were oodles of overnight services on the WCML to oodles of destinations (such as Holyhead, Barrow, Stranraer, Glasgow via Dumfries). Not forgetting the Bristol to Glasgow / Edinburgh sleeper which was banked up the lickey by a pair of 37s.
 

The Big Boo

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1985 - that's before Stockport to Stalybridge became a parliamentary service. There was even a York to Shrewsbury overnight which ran via Stalybridge and Stockport. And there were oodles of overnight services on the WCML to oodles of destinations (such as Holyhead, Barrow, Stranraer, Glasgow via Dumfries). Not forgetting the Bristol to Glasgow / Edinburgh sleeper which was banked up the lickey by a pair of 37s.

1S19- DONE MANY A TIME.

1V62 The other way
 

flymo

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Not forgetting the Bristol to Glasgow / Edinburgh sleeper which was banked up the lickey by a pair of 37s.
The only timetable I have from that era is the May 84 - May 85 timetable - best ever buy on eBay....:D. Anyway in the 84/85 timetable the seats on the southbound Bristol overnighter started from Aberdeen at 2030 with the sleeping cars being attached at Edinburgh before joining the Glasgow portion at Carstairs. The northbound service was only shown as to Edinburgh / Glasgow. Is this the same in the '85 timetable?

I have to say that I think my most amazing journey in the whole 84/85 timetable was the Saturdays Only HST that ran overnight from Newcastle - Kings X at 2300, ( called Chester-le-St, Durham, Darlington, York, Doncaster, Retford, Newark, Grantham, Peterborough) arriving KX just after 0400 Sunday morning. :D It was summer so already starting to get light. Very eerie seeing the London nightlife in the daylight. :shock:
I don't remember what I did in London at that time of the morning but certainly didn't hang around KX - think I went to Victoria on the night bus and headed down to Brighton then along the coast to Portsmouth.

I'll see if I can piece together the bashes I did in '84/85, I can remember some of them by heart but I might need a bit of refreshing on the others. Time to get my timetable head on, it's staring to come back to me now.

Happy times indeed :D yet :cry: .
 

4SRKT

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The only timetable I have from that era is the May 84 - May 85 timetable - best ever buy on eBay....:D. Anyway in the 84/85 timetable the seats on the southbound Bristol overnighter started from Aberdeen at 2030 with the sleeping cars being attached at Edinburgh before joining the Glasgow portion at Carstairs. The northbound service was only shown as to Edinburgh / Glasgow. Is this the same in the '85 timetable?

More or less. Leaves Aberdeen at 20:20, Edinburgh 23:10. Sleeping cars attached (and presumably some conventional stock removed or the rake would be very long south of Carstairs?). Off Edinburgh at 23:40 and Bristol arrive 08:49. On summer Fridays it went through to the Zance arriving 13:36, with the sleeping cars being removed at Temple Meads.
 

flymo

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More or less. Leaves Aberdeen at 20:20, Edinburgh 23:10. Sleeping cars attached (and presumably some conventional stock removed or the rake would be very long south of Carstairs?). Off Edinburgh at 23:40 and Bristol arrive 08:49. On summer Fridays it went through to the Zance arriving 13:36, with the sleeping cars being removed at Temple Meads.
So 8:20 pm to 1:36 pm.. 17 and a bit hours !..now that is my sort of journey. Cracking stuff. Thanks :lol:
 

4SRKT

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The rebirth of this thread has prompted me to look at the 1985 book again. There are actually some services that were surprisingly better than they are now, and I'm not talking about things like Tunbridge Wells > Eridge!

Take Darlington > Middlesbrough for example. There is an hourly all stations DMU from Bishop Auckland to Saltburn (BA now a really rubbish service compared to this). On top of this there is an hourly Darlington > Saltburn, all stations except South Bank and Cargo Fleet. This makes a service every 25/35 minutes from Darlington to Middlesbrough. Additionally an hourly service from Darlington to Nunthorpe, going forward every 2 hours to Whitby. This train is semi-fast to Middlesbrough. There's also a 2 hourly Darlington > Hartlepool working, linking Hartlepool and Stockton into the ECML at Darlo. The only service unchanged is Middlesbrough > Newcastle, otherwise all services on all lines except Saltburn are now significantly worse than 26 years ago.
 

sprinterguy

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The rebirth of this thread has prompted me to look at the 1985 book again. There are actually some services that were surprisingly better than they are now, and I'm not talking about things like Tunbridge Wells > Eridge!

Take Darlington > Middlesbrough for example. There is an hourly all stations DMU from Bishop Auckland to Saltburn (BA now a really rubbish service compared to this). On top of this there is an hourly Darlington > Saltburn, all stations except South Bank and Cargo Fleet. This makes a service every 25/35 minutes from Darlington to Middlesbrough. Additionally an hourly service from Darlington to Nunthorpe, going forward every 2 hours to Whitby. This train is semi-fast to Middlesbrough. There's also a 2 hourly Darlington > Hartlepool working, linking Hartlepool and Stockton into the ECML at Darlo. The only service unchanged is Middlesbrough > Newcastle, otherwise all services on all lines except Saltburn are now significantly worse than 26 years ago.
I take it that it was probably “Sprinterisation”; that great “revolution” that I was born into this world in the midst of; that put paid to such a comprehensive service. I can’t get my head around the idea of a bi-hourly Darlington to Whitby service when I think of how much it has been reduced now. It sounds like the North East local rail services had a much fairer deal in the days when first gen DMUs ruled the rails, compared to the brand new “Pacer” era that I grew up alongside.
 

Statto

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I do enjoy gretting old timetables especially one published before the Beaching cuts, & looking at the journeys i could have made if i was around then, even though the trains are slower than today. One thing that's interesting is the amount of overnight & sleeper services not just to London. I'd loved to have got the overnight Train from Birkenhead Woodside direct to London.

Also some old timetables on this site[including LMS/LNER/Scottish Western & Southern regions], http://www.timetableworld.com/index.php with some timetables before nationalisation of the Railways.

Another site were you can purchase old BR timetables http://britishrailwaybooks.co.uk/wtt/publicwtt/regional.html
 

4SRKT

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I've picked up a few at second hand shops, and have a lovely WR book from 1969. Otherwise I'm mainly interested in acquiring (or finding in my parents' attic!) ones that are from periods of some significance in my life. The 1985 book was when I was 14 and was properly let loose on the system for the first time. I have the 1987 book which was the year of my first multi-day trip (Freedom of Scotland), and the start of the Sprinter Revolution whose tragic consequences can be seen everywhere now :(. Also a couple of NIR timetables from significant years (last year of Belfast York Road, first year of Great Victoria Street).
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I take it that it was probably “Sprinterisation”; that great “revolution” that I was born into this world in the midst of; that put paid to such a comprehensive service. I can’t get my head around the idea of a bi-hourly Darlington to Whitby service when I think of how much it has been reduced now. It sounds like the North East local rail services had a much fairer deal in the days when first gen DMUs ruled the rails, compared to the brand new “Pacer” era that I grew up alongside.


I can remember a 2-hourly pacer service on the Whitby line, but it succumbed to the present 4 trains a day not long after pacers were introduced. At this time the trains stopped going through to Darlington, adding in more hassle, as Whitby > Darlo is much better for connecting passengers than Whitby > Middlsbro'. This put paid to the third train per hour between Middlesbro' and Darlo. I'm unsure exactly when Bishop Auckland's service became so bad tho.

Before we get too critical, cases of services having got worse in this way are pretty rare. In the same part of the world, here's a summary of northbound departures from Northallerton, a station now with 2 TPH each way on FTP, 4 TPD with GC and several EC expresses.

07:45 DMU to Newcastle (07:10 off York)
09:31 to Newcastle (06:12 off Liverpool)
11:00 to Newcastle (08:05 off Liverpool)
14:00 to Newcastle (09:21 off Bangor)
16:01 to Newcastle (11:14 off Bangor)
17:03 DMU to Darlington (16:36 off York)
17:59 DMU to Darlington (17:23 off York)
19:00 to Newcastle (16:05 off Liverpool)
19:09 HST to Newcastle via Middlesbrough (16:30 off the Cross 'The Cleveland Executive')
21:00 to Newcastle (18:05 off Liverpool)
22:41 HST to Newcastle (20:00 off the Cross)

And that, my friends, is it! The DMUs off York were the only trains to use platform 12 there (the now lifted bay next to the Harrogate bay platform 8 (was 13)).
 
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The Big Boo

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The only timetable I have from that era is the May 84 - May 85 timetable - best ever buy on eBay....:D. Anyway in the 84/85 timetable the seats on the southbound Bristol overnighter started from Aberdeen at 2030 with the sleeping cars being attached at Edinburgh before joining the Glasgow portion at Carstairs. The northbound service was only shown as to Edinburgh / Glasgow. Is this the same in the '85 timetable?

I have to say that I think my most amazing journey in the whole 84/85 timetable was the Saturdays Only HST that ran overnight from Newcastle - Kings X at 2300, ( called Chester-le-St, Durham, Darlington, York, Doncaster, Retford, Newark, Grantham, Peterborough) arriving KX just after 0400 Sunday morning. :D It was summer so already starting to get light. Very eerie seeing the London nightlife in the daylight. :shock:
I don't remember what I did in London at that time of the morning but certainly didn't hang around KX - think I went to Victoria on the night bus and headed down to Brighton then along the coast to Portsmouth.

I'll see if I can piece together the bashes I did in '84/85, I can remember some of them by heart but I might need a bit of refreshing on the others. Time to get my timetable head on, it's staring to come back to me now.

Happy times indeed :D yet :cry: .

I have some old timetables in the loft- well preserved.

Let me know if interested and I will dig them out.
 

4SRKT

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Summer 87 was in that really massive format. Very easy to read, but very hard to carry! I lugged it all around Scotland for a week FFS! After which we went straight to Northern Ireland for a week (thumpers :); Portrush Flyer :):)), so I then had to lug it all the way back to York a week later as well.
 

LE Greys

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I was one year old in the summer of '85, but already interested in trains, loved preserved lines and vaguely remember the 101s from Royston to Cambridge. I also vaguely remember going from Skipton to Appleby and back in a Mk.I, almost certainly in 1987. Any idea what might have been on the front? There must have been so much out there I just missed out on. Like the 309s passing my grandparents' house at Thorrington. Often seen, never travelled on.

I dug up my old "Piccolo Spotters'" book from back then (first read to me in 1986) including entries on 40s, Peaks, 50s and APT, along with notes my parents made of the numbers. First cop is 7/9/86 (I was two) of 43019 and 43009 at King's Cross. I also found 26031 copped at Carlisle on 13/4/89. Is that unusual?
 
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4SRKT

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I was one year old in the summer of '85, but already interested in trains, loved preserved lines and vaguely remember the 101s from Royston to Cambridge. I also vaguely remember going from Skipton to Appleby and back in a Mk.I, almost certainly in 1987. Any idea what might have been on the front? There must have been so much out there I just missed out on. Like the 309s passing my grandparents' house at Thorrington. Often seen, never travelled on.

I dug up my old "Piccolo Spotters'" book from back then (first read to me in 1986) including entries on 40s, Peaks, 50s and APT, along with notes my parents made of the numbers. First cop is 7/9/86 (I was two) of 43019 and 43009 at King's Cross. I also found 26031 copped at Carlisle on 13/4/89. Is that unusual?

Settle & Carlisle at that time mostly 31/4s. If it was a summer Saturday it might have been double headed as the morning train from Leeds and the afternoon return from Carlisle loaded to 10 bogies on those days. The Carlisle based set was much more unpredictable and could drop a duff sometimes instead.
 

LE Greys

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Settle & Carlisle at that time mostly 31/4s. If it was a summer Saturday it might have been double headed as the morning train from Leeds and the afternoon return from Carlisle loaded to 10 bogies on those days. The Carlisle based set was much more unpredictable and could drop a duff sometimes instead.

That sounds very likely, I certainly remember it being very long and we were on a summer holiday in Bell Busk right next to the line. Apparently, Mallard went past at one point, but I don't remember that (being two or three years old). When we went to Appleby, it was pouring with rain, but I still remember there was something big and blue on the front and loads of coaches. Two 31/4s and 10 is quite possible.
 
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