Strangest long distance through trains

[70014IronDuke]

They probably did - returning from a family holiday in Dunoon in the late 50s my father, always keen to experience new routes, took us that way. The start then was at St Enoch. It did take an age; my chief memory is of dawdling all the way, including reversing in Leeds, but then an exciting and very fast charge down the MML from Leicester to St Pancras as it started to get dark. The motive power long forgotten, but probably a Jubilee.

If late 50s, at least from 1959, it was probably a Scot, as the TC was diagrammed for a 7P. Or even a Brit. I'm not sure when, but Holbeck got at Moray and Dornoch Firth around 59-60, and they would appear on the up TC at times before Cl 45s took over. Of course, Jubilees still worked it sometimes, and even Black 5s I suspect, though I never witnessed the latter.

 

[Bonemaster]

A few spring to mind around 1990 in the early days of the Anglia - North West trains there was a Cambridge to Barrow in Furness operated throughout by a 156.

In the mid 2000s there was a Northampton to Grimsby operated by Central Trains via Birmingham New Street and Leicester.

In the cross country loco hauled days there was a Glasgow to Derby class 47 hauled train via New Street arriving into Derby in the evening so would have had the odd destination to avoid an ECS, was at the time unusual in being the only NW to NE line service

There was also an Anglia 170 service from Liverpool Street to Peterborough via Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds that was rather odd through working.

 

[sjm77]

There was; the 1638 Carlisle to Hull via Leeds. Usually 2 x class 31 and mk1s

Thanks, I stand corrected!
I remember the North (West) bound service left Hull at around 07:50. On the S&C it only called at Settle and Appleby, then an hour later was the 'Dales Rail' stopper which was promoted as a way to increased ridership whilst the line was threatened by closure. This was circa 1986.

There was also an Anglia 170 service from Liverpool Street to Peterborough via Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds that was rather odd through working.

During one of Anglia Franchises this service actually ran every 2 hours throughout the day, I am not sure how long it lasted.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

I am sure that was called the Thames Forth Express

I think historically, yes, but in it's latter years the timetable lists it as The Waverley.

there were also overnight trains from St Pancras on the same routes with sleepers although latterly for Glasgow the sleepers were attached to the train from St Pancras at Nottingham, the Edinburgh train having ceased with closure of the Waverley route, the actual last train on the route being the Edinburgh to St Pancras overnight.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

In the early days of Table 49, there used to be a glorious Barrow to Colchester through working.

 

[AJG3]

Another Table 49 gem: Blackpool North (?) to Cambridge. At least I think it originated there as I boarded at Preston, back in September 1989. Could it have alternatively originated from Barrow in Furness?

Other gems:

Whitehaven to Manchester Airport

Leeds to St Pancras via Nottingham (reversed there) (SuO?)

 

[PHILIPE]

Another Table 49 gem: Blackpool North (?) to Cambridge. At least I think it originated there as I boarded at Preston, back in September 1989. Could it have alternatively originated from Barrow in Furness?

Other gems:

Whitehaven to Manchester Airport

Leeds to St Pancras via Nottingham (reversed there) (SuO?)

Leeds to St Pancras via Nottingham was part of the route of the Thames Clyde Express which ran between St Pancras and Glasgow St Enoch (Central after closure of St Enoch) and via the S&C which ran for decades

 

[RailWonderer]

Peterborough, Great Yarmouth and Sheringham services ran to Liverpool Street once or twice per day as well as Norwich to Basingstoke via Stratford, Highbury & Islington, Feltham and Woking. They also alternated with Kings Cross to Hull services when not on Crosslink from 2000-2002. NX reduced it to just Lowestoft and P'boro - Liverpool Street from 2006?-December 2010. All with just 12 3 car 170s and sometimes one of the 4 2 car units.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Don't think it went via Nottingham....... the 'Waverley' / Thames-Forth Express did though.

It would have called at Trent Junction (as per post 28)

Leeds to St Pancras via Nottingham was part of the route of the Thames Clyde Express which ran between St Pancras and Glasgow St Enoch (Central after closure of St Enoch) and via the S&C which ran for decades

Previously referenced in Posts 21 and 28

 

[Halish Railway]

During engineering works on the Northern ECML you can get a train from Glasgow Central to Newcastle & then on to London Kings Cross via Edinburgh & Carlisle.

 

[RH Liner]

Leeds to St Pancras via Nottingham was part of the route of the Thames Clyde Express which ran between St Pancras and Glasgow St Enoch (Central after closure of St Enoch) and via the S&C which ran for decades

The Thames-Clyde Express ran direct from Leicester to Chesterfield up the Erewash Valley Line. The three named expresses serving Nottingham Midland were the Waverley to Edinburgh, the Robin Hood terminating at Nottingham, and the Palatine to Manchester, which took the Kettering-Nottingham line, and, I believe (though I could be wrong) it then ran via Trent to Derby and finally via Matlock to Manchester Central - certainly a roundabout route for a crack named express.

 

[Gloster]

Trent Junction was one of those places which came up as a question as to which stations you could catch trains to London from that departed in opposite directions to each other. Other stations could fit the bill (Exeter St David’s, Chester General, etc.), but at Trent they were supposed to use opposite sides of the same platform and, so it was said, at one time two trains doing this were in the station at the same time.

 

[Glenn1969]

Pretty sure I remember a Summer Saturday XC service from Bradford to Weymouth that served Halifax and didn't go via Leeds ?

 

[Matlock Man]

Pretty sure I remember a Summer Saturday XC service from Bradford to Weymouth that served Halifax and didn't go via Leeds ?

Yes: if I recall correctly departure from Bradford at 5.30am: travelled via Halifax, then reversed at Huddersfield and reached Sheffield via Barnsley. At the time, early 1980s, it was the only passenger service on a number of West Yorkshire lines/curves.

 

[PHILIPE]

The Thames-Clyde Express ran direct from Leicester to Chesterfield up the Erewash Valley Line. The three named expresses serving Nottingham Midland were the Waverley to Edinburgh, the Robin Hood terminating at Nottingham, and the Palatine to Manchester, which took the Kettering-Nottingham line, and, I believe (though I could be wrong) it then ran via Trent to Derby and finally via Matlock to Manchester Central - certainly a roundabout route for a crack named express.

Obviously I was mixing up the various named trains that were involved with the various Anglo-Scots routes via the East Midlands.

 

[Alfie1014]

That would be "The European" service. I used it regularly between Ely and Peterborough in the early 80's

Once the Harwich branch and the North London Line were electrified (1985?) Intercity ran it via London and the WCML. Reggie rail continued to run a service from HPQ to Manchester cross country instead. Though the IC service didn’t last long (one timetable year?). A mate and I caught it on the first Sunday of operation from Shenfield to Watford Jn, unfortunately someone had forgotten it was electrically hauled and there was an isolation of the OLE in the Willesden area and we sat there for some time. I can’t remember whether the isolation was taken off eventually or a Diesel was sent to rescue us!

There used to be a Lancaster - York via Preston, Manchester, Calder Valley, Bradford and Leeds. (Or did it go via Copy Pit) 1980's I think. And of course there was the Rose Grove - Paignton summer Saturdays train.

Going back to the 70's and early 80's, there was the St Pancras - Nottingham - Leeds - Settle - Carlisle - Dumfries - Kilmarnock - Glasgow, the Thames-Clyde Express. Doubt anyone went all the way on it.

I did the Thames Clyde northbound between St Pancras and Carlisle as part of round robin Merrymaker trip in the late 1970s. Epic day out 45/1 from Pancras to Notts, another on the back on to Leeds, a 45/0 over the S&C to Carlisle. Back to Euston up the WCML behind a class 87 for the first time, happy days!

 

[dk1]

Peterborough, Great Yarmouth and Sheringham services ran to Liverpool Street once or twice per day as well as Norwich to Basingstoke via Stratford, Highbury & Islington, Feltham and Woking. They also alternated with Kings Cross to Hull services when not on Crosslink from 2000-2002. NX reduced it to just Lowestoft and P'boro - Liverpool Street from 2006?-December 2010. All with just 12 3 car 170s and sometimes one of the 4 2 car units.

Think it was December 2004 that the 170 route changes came about. NX had taken over Anglia Railways in the April & this was the first opportunity they had to stamp their mark on the timetable.

There was also an Anglia 170 service from Liverpool Street to Peterborough via Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds that was rather odd through working.

The bi-hourly Liverpool Street to Peterborough workings where not as odd as people often think. They not only offered Bury St Edmunds with direct services to London but also offered towns through Essex direct connections to Yorkshire, The North East & Scotland without travelling through London. It was the waste of the then sparce DMU fleet under the wires south of Ipswich & capacity issues on this section that eventually lead to its downfall.

 

[Gathursty]

1) Was The Jellicoe Express (Thurso - London) ever run as a passenger service outside of wartime?
2) Have any Thurso/Wick services gone beyond Inverness?
3) Has Southport (Northern rail side) had any more exotic destinations than Blackburn/Leeds/Calder Valley stations?

 

[Iskra]

Manchester Airport-London Euston was an odd one under FNW. I think there was a Rochdale- London Euston too? Under the same franchise Wakefield Westgate to Manchester also seemed a strange one since Wakefield didn’t fit the North Western description very well and I don’t remember any other FNW trains straying so far into Yorkshire.

 

[flixtonman]

Manchester to Brighton, via Birmingham, Reading, Kensington Olympia, East Croydon and Gatwick, in the late 1970s/early 1980s.

 

[urpert]

I have fond memories of the 158-operated oddities in the early days of CrossCountry. I once did the Portsmouth-Liverpool route in its entirety.

 

[Gloster]

1) Was The Jellicoe Express (Thurso - London) ever run as a passenger service outside of wartime?
2) Have any Thurso/Wick services gone beyond Inverness?
3) Has Southport (Northern rail side) had any more exotic destinations than Blackburn/Leeds/Calder Valley stations?

1) As far as I am aware the Jellicoes ceased with the end of the war. They may have continued for a short period afterwards while the fleet was still fully manned, but as soon as numbers of ships on active service in the north of Scotland and so the numbers of service personal requiring to travel both fell, they would have ceased.

2) Didn’t one continue to Elgin or Keith shortly after the introduction of DMUs?

 

[Cheshire Scot]

The Thames-Clyde Express ran direct from Leicester to Chesterfield up the Erewash Valley Line. The three named expresses serving Nottingham Midland were the Waverley to Edinburgh, the Robin Hood terminating at Nottingham, and the Palatine to Manchester, which took the Kettering-Nottingham line, and, I believe (though I could be wrong) it then ran via Trent to Derby and finally via Matlock to Manchester Central - certainly a roundabout route for a crack named express.

Obviously I was mixing up the various named trains that were involved with the various Anglo-Scots routes via the East Midlands.

By the 1970s The Thames Clyde was running via Nottingham, presumably due to Trent having closed in the late 60's

 

[mailbyrail]

There were always a few gems when it came to newspaper trains which of course were class 1 and shown in the WTT as through services.
I remember Saturday night through workings in the 1970s with Sunday papers included Euston - Lairg and Kings Cross - Kiveton Park
there must have been others

 

[PHILIPE]

Back in the days before Foreign Holidays took over and industries were still thriving, there used to be Wakes trains in July from the Lancashire Cotton Mill towns to the West of England which usually set off on a Friday night and returned on the following Saturday. These events produced trains such as from Accrington to Paignton or from another place in the same area the following week. In fact, the whole town went away on holiday together.

 

[Killingworth]

Regular boat trains from Kings Cross to Tyne Commission Quay for Norway.

Summer services to Whitley Bay from Glasgow, see this 1970s video; https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/a-fair-fortnight/zmg7cqt

And from Newcastle to Scarborough trundling via Gilling (closed 1964) in musty old coaches to avoid York.

 

[30907]

2) Have any Thurso/Wick services gone beyond Inverness?

Not sure, but Aberdeen-Kyle or vv rings a bell, sometime in the Sprinter era.

3) Has Southport (Northern rail side) had any more exotic destinations than Blackburn/Leeds/Calder Valley stations?

Summer Saturdays, 1958: 9.10am to Glasgow C and 7.30pm to Stockport TD - I leave you to decide which is the more exotic

 

[CaptainHaddock]

My Dad remembers a Sheffield to Tumby Woodside terminating service running as late as 1970. Now Sheffield to Skegness through trains were pretty common in the 1970s but one that terminated at Tumby Woodside seems particularly bizarre. I've cycled around there a couple of times and Tumby Woodside isn't even a village, just a few scattered farms and a railway station!

 

[Killingworth]

My Dad remembers a Sheffield to Tumby Woodside terminating service running as late as 1970. Now Sheffield to Skegness through trains were pretty common in the 1970s but one that terminated at Tumby Woodside seems particularly bizarre. I've cycled around there a couple of times and Tumby Woodside isn't even a village, just a few scattered farms and a railway station!

Slow Train (Flanders and Swann song) includes Tumby Woodside;

​

 

[Halish Railway]

3) Has Southport (Northern rail side) had any more exotic destinations than Blackburn/Leeds/Calder Valley stations?

I may be getting confused with Blackpool South, but didn’t it have a service that went through the Castlefield corridor and then onto Chester via Northwich?