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Why do people have rose tinted views of British Rail?

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6Gman

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In (say) 1962 the last KIng's Cross-Edinburgh service of the day was the 1600 'Talisman'. So if that was oversubscribed a relief might well be necessary.

In 2020 (pre-COVID) there were later trains at 1630, 1700, 1730, 1800, 1830, 1900 and 1930 (FO). Not quite the same need for reliefs even before things like far more readily available seat reservations.

In my time with BR I only recall one relief, back in the 1970s on the way to Glasgow. For some reason it was booked via Kilmarnock rather than following the parent train down the WCML from Carlisle. We then spent half an hour in Lugton loop awaiting a path forward (which the driver and secondman put to good use as they picked blackberries).

There were certainly plenty of relief trains in the late 70s - my first job involved monitoring them!

Possibly at very small depots like Stranraer. Long before 1988 larger depots tended to have links and various other devices to divide work into more discrete chunks. It wasn't very sensible to have a guard turn up in grubby overalls from yesterday's job at a colliery and then use him to cover a turn on the South Wales Pullman for example. On the Southern there were 'EMU' (only) depots as distinct from Mixed Traction/MT depots for many years.

True, but most depots (even, perhaps especially, the big ones) also had "spare" or "block" links with crews who had wide route and traction knowledge. Very useful during disruption. My father spent his entire Crewe career "on the block" and - yes - it could be oil to Rowley Regis on Monday and Class 1 to Euston on Tuesday.
 
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70014IronDuke

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Always? Relief services went long before BR did. They were an endangered species after Beeching worked out how much rolling stock spent about 90% of its time sitting in depots. ...

Well, I don't know when relief services finally 'went' - but I remember getting on a relief Newcastle - KX service in the summer of either 1970 or 71 to York (I think), behind either a Cl 40 or 46. No RBK in ths consist, of course.
 

Merle Haggard

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Always? Relief services went long before BR did. They were an endangered species after Beeching worked out how much rolling stock spent about 90% of its time sitting in depots.

As well as d-hoc reliefs there were timetabled 'dated' trains, with start and end dates narrowing down to some that only ran for 2 or 3 Saturdays in the high summer.
However, this wasn't as inefficient as it sounds; the high summer for traffic demands coincided with B.R. Works annual shuts-down, and the plan was to have the fewest possible locos and coaches trapped inside the Works for two weeks by out shopping as many as possible, and having no intake, in the weeks immediately before the holiday. This meant that the highest number of locos and coaches available coincided with the highest demand.
It's also the case that having stock only used in peaks is not necessarily inefficient, if the stock is fully depreciated leaving the only costs as mileage related.

On B.R., the joke about consultants was that 'they borrowed your watch and then told you the time'...
 

peteb

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Ah yes, 7 year old me (plus my brother) were invited into the cab of a Class 305 from Manchester Piccadilly to Manchester Airport. The driver even let us have a go at the controls as the train was moving! (I'm not joking).

Unbelievable now (just like kids being invited to see cockpits mid-flight pre-9/11).
Agreed. My kids aged 3 and 5 were, many years ago, invited into the rear cab of a class 150 dmu between Worcester Shrub Hill and Foregate Street by the conductor who let them sound the horn several times!! I can still hear their laughter! Hardly a sacking offence but it probably would not go down well these days.

When things went wrong in BR days you got the impression someone did care enough to try to put things right. I was stuck on a diverted Birmingham New St to Euston near Nuneaton for several hours, in a train of Mk1 stock with no buffet. We finally arrived at Euston about 2am, some 4 hours late. At Euston they took our names and addresses and put everyone in taxis to take us home (front door not local station). A few days later I received a letter from Cyril Bleasdale no less, apologising and enclosing travel vouchers. Pretty good for a nationalised service. That would have been in 1986.
 
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Meerkat

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Agreed. My kids aged 3 and 5 were, many years ago, invited into the rear cab of a class 150 dmu between Worcester Shrub Hill and Foregate Street by the conductor who let them sound the horn several times!! I can still hear their laughter! Hardly a sacking offence but it probably would not go down well these days.

When things went wrong in BR days you got the impression someone did care enough to try to put things right. I was stuck on a diverted Birmingham New St to Euston near Nuneaton for several hours, in a train of Mk1 stock with no buffet. We finally arrived at Euston about 2am, some 4 hours late. At Euston they took our names and addresses and put everyone in taxis to take us home (front door not local station). A few days later I received a letter from Cyril Bleasdale no less, apologising and enclosing travel vouchers. Pretty good for a nationalised service. That would have been in 1986.
Virgin got bog roll to that unwiped tweeter on one of their trains - they cared!
 

lordbusiness

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I did a fair amount of travel in the early 80s on BR, mainly off the core routes and I suppose for the time it was ok- let's face it we didn't know any different. I do remember that trains were often quite run down and dirty, the Sunday service- especially cross country was laughable (first train from Peterborough to Brum was something like about 1430 and there were only about 4 all day), connections were patchy- would often spend hours waiting (thank you Travellers Fare) and customer service was indifferent at times.
One thing that hasn't changed is the determination and commitment of the majority of rail workers to get the job done, regardless of customers, broken trains, weather and infrastructure faults. Something that's often overlooked and for which the industry should be proud.
 
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