Recent content by Downlander

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Connex and then South Central Trains operated a 2 t.p.h. stopper from Victoria to Leatherhead. Curiously these services were diagramed to return to Ashtead empty and restart in passenger service to Victoria from there. Does anyone know why? Was the crossover...

I soon found that after, apologies all! ??????

Just seen a picture on twitter of the Marine station building half-demolished :( Kicking myself as I'd been meaning to take the tape-measure down there for an afternoon ahead of a modelling/scratchbuilding project...sighs!

Thumpers? Never knew that. Off topic, but in 2004/5 certainly, the former run-round loop at NVM held a 12 rake at a time of withdrawn '63 stock EMUs, but I think the platform road itself was left clear so it could still be used for the parliamentary train or turning back any late running...

And furthermore I think i'm correct in saying the TS coaches were robbed from 17XX phase one units on the scrap line, meaning they stood out when walking through the 4COPs due to their far superior seat cushions and side headrests. When the 4COPs were withdrawn however, ISTR they had to be...

With all of Govia's woes making the headlines, it got me thinking back to the late nineties when the local press was equally filled week after week with bad press about Connex South Central/Eastern. I only started travelling by train in a big way in the mid-2000s so I don't remember Connex...

And the occasional (one-off?) crompton! https://www.flickr.com/photos/38339202@N00/6090624238/ Just had a look on google earth for the now overgrown run-round loop - it looks like the headshunt for the loop is down round the corner, half way to the old Tide Mills beach sidings! I wonder if...

There were some real curiosities at Marine! I'm modelling Lewes in 1987 condition, and the 86-87 timetable includes amongst others... 0514 Littlehampton-Newhaven Marine (arr 0631) 0805 Portsmouth & Southsea-Newhaven Marine (arr 0937) 1735 Newhaven Marine-Portsmouth Harbour (arr 1935) 2105...

One extra point regarding the CIGs in Connex livery is that some units retained the "south central" bit of the "connex south central" branding on the driving trailer composites. This is also true of the 319s in 2005 (some still with Brighton Express door stickers) and some of the thumpers on the...

So the 'Hampshire' units were the standard Restriction 4, the 'Hastings' fleet were the flat sided Restriction 0, and the 'Oxted' units were the slightly wider Restriction 1. But despite these varying widths, did they (apart from the 57ft short 6S Hastings units) share the same standard BR Mk...

That's brilliant :D what years would that have been? Do you know which year the boat trains to/from Newhaven stopped being a working in its own right and became merely a 4CIG portion on/off a domestic train?

Thanks for those timings :) it would be good to find out which services the Newhaven portion detached/attached off/onto....the mystery continues!

Hello all, Does anyone have the departure/arrival times for Newhaven-Victoria boat trains in the late 80s? I've got the 1986 timetable here (the year of the short-lived InterCity Newhaven-Manchester trains), and there's no mention of any Victoria services. Instead, there are a couple of...