10.05 Glasgow - Birmingham in steam days

[geoffk]

Do any readers recall this train in the late 50s/early 60s, usually Duchess-hauled with a pilot loco from Carlisle, and conveying a portion for Plymouth?

According to my 1959 Bradshaw's the 10.05 left Carlisle at 12.24 pm and was non-stop to Crewe. There was also a portion from Edinburgh so a heavy train. Did the pilot loco go through to Crewe or was there an operational stop at Preston to detach it? The WR timetable says "TC Glasgow Central and Liverpool Lime St. to Plymouth (arr. 12.40 am)."

The Plymouth portion came off at Crewe and worked south via the North & West route and Severn Tunnel, attached to the Liverpool train, while the main train went to Birmingham.

Looking at Bradshaw's again, it seems there was also a Manchester portion picked up AND a Cardiff portion dropped off! So that's Glasgow/Edinburgh/Manchester/Liverpool to Birmingham/Plymouth/ Cardiff. Can anyone confirm that this train had so many through carrage workings?

 

[30907]

Cant answer about the loco working, sorry.
My summer 58 LM timetable has the Glasgow and Edinburgh portions separate north of Crewe, but that may have been summer only.
The Liverpool-Cardiff/Manchester-Plymouth was a separate train, combined between Crewe and Pontypool Road (except on Fridays, when they ran separately).
The only common factor betwen the Scotland-Birmingham and N and W trains was the Glasgow-Plymouth through coach.

 

[geoffk]

Thank you! I must have seen the through Glasgow coach in Bristol in my spotting days. The loco workings would be interesting.

 

[Bevan Price]

I saw the Glasgow - Birmingham quite often at Wigan North Western in the 1950s. It was normally a Pacific - Duchess or Princess Royal - without a pilot. An LNER Class A1 (60152) was seen once, when Polmadie had a few allocated for a short time (must have been about 1952 or 1953).

In the LMR Winter 1957/1958 timetable, it was run as a combined Glasgow & Edinburgh service. It stopped at Crewe for 8 minutes (15:25 to 15:33) to detach the Plymouth coaches, then called at Wolverhampton (High Level), Dudley Port & Birmingham New St.

The Glasgow - Plymouth portion had a long wait at Crewe, departing from there at 16:09, on the combined 14:55 Manchester / 15:00 Liverpool to Cardiff, plus a Liverpool to Plymouth portion. The Cardiff & Plymouth portions were separated at Pontypool Road.

In the summer 1955 timetable, the Plymouth portion was attached to the 10:15 Glasgow Central to London Euston service as far as Crewe (but not on summer saturdays).