Do all trains call at Darlington?

[Bayum]

When I had some hospital treatment in Newcastle, I had to go up for a few years beforehand for bone marrow harvesting, check ups and the like.

One journey involved us not stopping at Darlington, instead we sort of went around the outside of the station?

I think we were going south, and we went to the left, so the station was directly on the right of us. It gave us quite a jolt!


I've since been searching on realtimetrains and Youtube, but haven't been able to find anything that confirms this.


Anyone any idea?

 

[yorkie]

I don't think any services are currently booked to do this, but it was common in previous timetables. The station is to the west; the main lines just continue straight on.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/D...2!3m1!1s0x487c24202d751389:0x86c0f359dfda50ed

 

[yorksrob]

When I had some hospital treatment in Newcastle, I had to go up for a few years beforehand for bone marrow harvesting, check ups and the like.

One journey involved us not stopping at Darlington, instead we sort of went around the outside of the station?

I think we were going south, and we went to the left, so the station was directly on the right of us. It gave us quite a jolt!


I've since been searching on realtimetrains and Youtube, but haven't been able to find anything that confirms this.


Anyone any idea?

Yep, there's an avoider line outside of the trainshed (on the East of the shed). It's a disappointment to go past because Darlington's such an attractive station.

 

[Bayum]

Yep, there's an avoider line outside of the trainshed (on the East of the shed). It's a disappointment to go past because Darlington's such an attractive station.

It only happened once, but I can't for the life of me remember whether it was with GNER or what would have been Virgin at the time. I want to say it was the former, as my mum hated Leeds and we always traved via York - so it could have been either or.

yorkie I don't think any services are currently booked to do this, but it was common in previous timetables. The station is to the west; the main lines just continue straight on.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Da...c0f359dfda50ed

Thanks for that!

 

[causton]

Only train currently booked for it is the 0540 from Edinburgh to Kings Cross http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y83264/2014/03/27/advanced

 

[Bayum]

Only train currently booked for it is the 0540 from Edinburgh to Kings Cross http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y83264/2014/03/27/advanced

It definitely wasn't that early a train!!

As Yorkie says, if it was common practise in past times, then the train you've posted must be the only one to follow the route I took down the avoiding lines!

 

[transmanche]

As Yorkie says, if it was common practise in past times, then the train you've posted must be the only one to follow the route I took down the avoiding lines!

Yes, that morning Newcastle-London non-stop train is a fairly recent change.

In 2004, the 10:30 and 15:00 departures from Kings Cross skipped Darlington. I don't recall them lasting much longer after that.

Source

 

[Bayum]

Yes, that morning Newcastle-London non-stop train is a fairly recent change.

In 2004, the 10:30 and 15:00 departures from Kings Cross skipped Darlington. I don't recall them lasting much longer after that.

Source

Do you have any timetable information for services towards Kings Cross?

 

[najaB]

In 2004, the 10:30 and 15:00 departures from Kings Cross skipped Darlington. I don't recall them lasting much longer after that.

They must've lasted into the late 2000's as I remember missing Darlington - I'm pretty sure it was a GNER service, though it might have been East Coast.

 

[transmanche]

Do you have any timetable information for services towards Kings Cross?

Sadly no, the Wayback Machine link only shows the Mon-Fri northbound services.

Those two trains might have been named; the 10:30 was a service to Aberdeen so could have been the Northern Lights - and 15:00 might have been the Scottish Executive/Pullman? Perhaps their equivalently named southbound services also skipped Darlington?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

They must've lasted into the late 2000's as I remember missing Darlington - I'm pretty sure it was a GNER service, though it might have been East Coast.

You're right, they lasted at least until the end of GNER (December 2007). But the way the NXEC website worked seems to have made it hard for the Wayback Machine to archive - so I haven't seen any timetables after then.

 

[ffm]

Only train currently booked for it is the 0540 from Edinburgh to Kings Cross http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y83264/2014/03/27/advanced

Which is The Flying Scotsman, 07:03 off Newcastle.

 

[43167]

As long as I remember, Mon to Sat, some of the Aberdeens and the Inverness were non stop Newcastle-York, doing the 80miles in under the hour.

 

[Techniquest]

There were a fair number of GNER services that were RA York to Newcastle and vice-versa, I certainly did it once or twice. They didn't make it to the East Coast era though from what I can recall, apart from the 0540 Edinburgh to Kings Cross as already stated which is booked to be RA Newcastle to London.

The 1030 Kings Cross to Aberdeen, The Northern Lights does seem about right although that could have been the 1400 from Kings Cross, memory's not too clear on that one.

 

[ffm]

RA? Please avoid acronyms!

 

[Harpers Tate]

The Darlington "avoiding line" is listed in PSUL: http://www.psul4all.free-online.co.uk/intro.htm
There are pages going back years.....

 

[DarloRich]

There used to be quite a few in the past. I think one was the Aberdeen or Inverness service and there were others to and from Kings Cross.

I think the only one now is the early morning service from Newcastle.

All trains should stop at Darlo anyway

 

[#1 driver]

do all trains call at Darlington ?

no !
most freight trains don't !

 

[DarloRich]

do all trains call at Darlington ?

no !
most freight trains don't !

Very good!!!!!!!!

There are few enough freight trains in the area these days - the industrial decline in the north east is painful

 

[edwin_m]

In the days when there were non-stops, I recall going non-stop through the northbound platform of the station (at reduced speed). I imagine this was because there was a train using the southbound platform and to stay on the main line would have caused a conflict and delayed one train or the other.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Not 100% on this one, but I think there was also one CrossCountry non-stop each way per day pre-December 2008.

Was it the introduction of the Eureka timetable on East Coast that ended all of the non-stop trains through Darlington, or was it done gradually over a course of years? I can remember there were a few non-stoppers before Eureka, but I might be mistaken.

 

[Techniquest]

RA? Please avoid acronyms!

Apologies, I had assumed it was a commonly understood one.

In this instance, RA is used to mean non-stop. I believe it was first used for this meaning back in the 1980s, although someone else will need to confirm that.

Oh, and RA stands for Right Away.

 

[Ebore]

The SuO 12:20 Edinburgh - Kings Cross is also booked use the avoider.

 

[dannypye9999]

I think cross country should skip Darlington with one of their hourly trains. Doesn't really make sense having two trains each hour to/from Birmingham that run within 8 to 10 mins of each other.

 

[DarloRich]

I think cross country should skip Darlington with one of their hourly trains. Doesn't really make sense having two trains each hour to/from Birmingham that run within 8 to 10 mins of each other.

eh - you could say that about any station on the route between Scotland and York!

I doubt the wider timetable scan support such a move

 

[dannypye9999]

eh - you could say that about any station on the route between Scotland and York!

I doubt the wider timetable scan support such a move

But is it necessary to have both hourly XC services to call at Darlington? Travelling from Birmingham you've got a fair half hourly service, but both arrive nearly at the same time. XC recently cut services at Macclesfield in order to run a faster service from Manchester, York to Newcastle would fair better with a fast service hourly.

 

[transmanche]

But is it necessary to have both hourly XC services to call at Darlington? Travelling from Birmingham you've got a fair half hourly service, but both arrive nearly at the same time. XC recently cut services at Macclesfield in order to run a faster service from Manchester, York to Newcastle would fair better with a fast service hourly.

If we're going to have one service skip Darlington, I'd quite like it to be the hourly 'fast' EC service (making it King's Cross-York-Newcastle->). But I suspect that can't be justified.

 

[DarloRich]

But is it necessary to have both hourly XC services

Is the question i would ask - it does seme silly to have them run so close together

 

[cle]

I remember a few trains which skipping Darlington and yet stopped at Durham, way back when. Don't think it happens now - but agreed that not everything should stop there. Certainly 1 fast tph should be only York and Newcastle before Edinburgh. Berwick is also a bit over-served.

 

[Tomnick]

I sometimes wonder whether it'd be better to terminate one of the hourly XC trains at Leeds, leaving the other (usually via Doncaster and quicker as a result) to pick up the through traffic. That'd ease the pressure on XC between Leeds and Sheffield, and free up two or three units for strengthening elsewhere - and there's no shortage of trains going north from Leeds and especially York.

 

[najaB]

I sometimes wonder whether it'd be better to terminate one of the hourly XC trains at Leeds, leaving the other (usually via Doncaster and quicker as a result) to pick up the through traffic.

You'd have to see what effect that has on services to points north of Newcastle - for example, East Coast reduced through services to Glasgow based on the fact that they duplicated Cross Country's services.