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?
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?