Correct, no new services since the complete timetable was added already, just with the 87s running everything. Now there will be more realistic allocations. I can't attest to the precise accuracy, but trains were less frequent in the 1980s, it is only nore recently that a change to clock face timetables had led to more frequent, but often shorter trains.
Yes there were often gaps of an hour or more and stations like Oxenholme and Penrith, where just about everything now calls, could have even bigger gaps at certain times of the day.
87s have taken up all the CrossCountry services in the timetable we have at the moment. The 86 and mk2fs will rectify that. The timetable in terms of business is there or thereabouts. I remember Preston being busy with lots of variety but not on the scale of a Clapham Junction.
IIRC the Euston to Glasgow service was slightly non clock face hourly but with a few two hour gaps. The “cross country” services were every two hours. The Euston to Carlisle stoppers ran every three hours (these alternated out of Euston with the Blackpool and Holyhead through services). North of Carnforth there were no “local” services except the early morning and late evening positioning moves for the Windermere Branch unit.
I remember in the late 1990s getting to Glasgow Central for a London train and after a 9.00 service, next wasn't until about 11.30 Now they are every 30 minutes.
It looks to me as if they’re hourly now. There are some additional slow Glasgow services via Birmingham, but they get overtaken so don’t really count. When I was in Cumbria I remember the London service from Carlisle as being almost-hourly, with a few 2 hour gaps to catch you out! I think that was the Glasgow expresses plus the Carlisle terminators which Vern mentioned. There were also reliefs, which, when demand required it, ran 5 mins behind the scheduled service with the same stopping pattern. I’m not sure whether such a concept exists anymore.
Nope, the bean counters got rid of those in the dying days of BR - along with "spare" coaching stock which could be tied on to the back of services to strengthen them
A fare few years ago I did a relief service from Birmingham to Derby on a Cross Country Voyager, so I think it does still happen but it's as rare as rocking horse poo.
I'm assuming that the 86 will come with a second timetable? Not that it will add any new services, rather the same as with Cargo Line Vol. 3, replacing most occurrences of the MK2as with the MK2fs, since I don't believe substitution within formations is enabled for anything other than the locomotives. The preview on YouTube showed trains being only made up of MK2fs.
I may have misunderstood the context of the discussion - but just to confirm - BHM to DBY XC services with voyagers are very common. Even today, just in that direction, there were 24 such services (if I counted right), many of which were double voyagers.
Oh they are, but on this occasion they ran a relief service about 10 minutes behind the timetabled service, I don't know why, it may have been to get a Voyager to Derby and instead of running it ECS they put it into passenger service. But I travelled on it because it was a relief service.
Although admittedly a few mark 1s swinging around on the back of a Voyager would look a bit odd Fixed formations are the name of the game these days of course. On the railway I work on we do some ‘strengthening’ of services by adding an additional multiple unit (increase from 4-car to 8-car, or whatever) but it’s done in a planned way when we know there’s something which will increase ridership on a given day/time - such as a football match, or another route being closed for engineering work. It’s also surprisingly difficult to do. The railway is so congested these days that most trains - somewhere in their diagram for the day - go somewhere where there is not the capacity for the train to be any longer. It might be a particular platform, loop or siding, or other operating restriction. How often have you heard the remark on a train - “why don’t they put more carriages on?” with the usual answer - “because they don’t have enough”. Actually in many cases it isn’t that we don’t have enough trains. It’s that we don’t have enough railway.
There is reasonably often a relief on the marches and in other places in the country, often for rugby or football but also to strengthen the service.
Usually with stock hired in from a charter company. Very few train companies keep spare resources for occasional use these days. Most fleets are very tightly diagrammed to the point where a failure in traffic probably means “stepping up” at turnaround locations to keep the service going with any further failures likely to result in cancellation. It’s going back a few years now, but the Western Provincial had 35 Class 155’s to cover 32 diagrams. So you could have (maybe) one away at Works, one stopped on a B Exam (usually 16 hours downtime) which did not leave much wiggle room if you then got a long term stopper waiting parts and a failure away from Canton waiting arrangements to move it back. That Provincial Desk was one of the toughest and most challenging roles in the old BR Control. I loved it!
Shame it was a few years ago, as otherwise I’d have a dig around and see what I could find on the various rail systems
Yeah I can't remember the exact date but it was easily a decade ago at least. I think it went via Lichfield as well which is why I did it.
