Anywhere in the UK return for a tenner in 1980

[Chris217]

Not sure if anyone on here remembers this.
It was a promotion in 1980 that ran for one month for 2 years,so 1980 and 1981.
It was a Kelloggs/ Young person's railcard
promotion and all you had to do was collect tokens from packs of Kelloggs cereals.
Present them with an application for a new railcard and payments,then for that month,February only,you could buy a return ticket to any destination with a return valid up to one month.
After carefully reading the Ts n Cs,we saw a loop hole for abuse.
So it was basically used as an all line rover if you chosen the route you wanted your ticket for.
My first one was
Cardiff Central to Forres via London return!
Me and a good mate left Cardiff on the Friday afternoon,went to Reading then Basingstoke for a 73 push on an EMU to Waterloo.
Over to KX,for the overnight sleeper to Inverness.
We bashed 47s across the top Inverness to Aberdeen for 3 days lol As well as doing some push pulls.
Coming South,we did a 47 to York for the overnight York-Shrewsbury mails to Crewe.
Electric to Euston.
A 50 out of Waterloo to Salisbury.
Then 31 to Bristol TM and Cardiff.
We managed another similar trip a week or so later including a trip into Liverpool for my first ever visit.
A TTI tried to excess us and we refused stating we had already paid the maximum fare for our trip.
He called the BTP. When they arrived,I showed the our tickets and the promotional leaflet which stated the full terms of the offer.
The BTP told the TTI,that we have in fact actually paid a tenner for what could just be an all line rover for the month! But was perfectly valid.
Our tickets must have got gripped about 20 times!

In 1981,the same promotion came up again,but the terms were rewritten as...
Valid for one month return but outward travel was only valid on day of purchased.
It still got abused coming back though.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Yes, remember something like that, promo for the YP railcard. I did Kent to Thurso Inverness, but only as an out and back. Can't remember how I arranged the overnights, but I do remember that the ticket got clipped so many times it looked like a Christmas decoration. It was one of those about 5x2 inch tickets, the size of the one in this ebay listing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Circa-19...148385?hash=item44289cea61:g:lhsAAOSwXVNbWyKV

Edit: it was Inverness - see post 15 below

 

[Chris217]

Yep,that's the one.
On another trip doing a 50 again out of Waterloo, the TTI said we were taking the mickey but couldn't excess us as it was our return journey.
Think I did 5 or 6 trips over those 2 years on that promotion.
Weirdly,I was chasing Scottish 47s and got
47513 Severn,and
47510 Fair Rosamund whilst we were there!
Did manage plenty of Scottish beasts as well.
D200 worked an Overnight sleeper from Edinburgh to Inverness I think it was.
1 and a half day coaches,the rest sleepers.
Didn't do it though as it was wedged!
Did 47105 to York and a 31 to Manchester Victoria instead. Those were the days.
Would love to hear of similar trips on that promotion.

 

[xotGD]

There was something similar in the mid 80s for railcard holders with fares tiered at £4, £8 and £12, depending how far you travelled.

For four quid I went Birmingham - Ipswich - London - Ashford - Hastings - Brighton - Portsmouth - Bristol - Birmingham

 

[Chris217]

Sounded like fun.
Still plenty of loco haulage back then.

 

[Oscar46016]

Sure did - I will
Post my trips next week
But my favourite to confuse the guards was a return from Barry Docks to Barry Links

 

[xotGD]

Sure did - I will
Post my trips next week
But my favourite to confuse the guards was a return from Barry Docks to Barry Links

Must have resulted in the occasional Barry Chuckle

 

[Cowley]

Must have resulted in the occasional Barry Chuckle

Excellent, and in the words of David Maxey - Did it result in some arm waving at Glenwhilly, and some unspeakable behaviour at Glenarm..?

 

[tgrb]

Wasn’t there something around the start of Privatisation - might have been a paper token thing but it was £5 weekend return - it might have been just virgin at the time which was XC then so I think we did Bristol to Penzance one long weekend and Bristol Scotland another!

 

[Mag_seven]

There was something similar in the mid 80s for railcard holders with fares tiered at £4, £8 and £12, depending how far you travelled.

For four quid I went Birmingham - Ipswich - London - Ashford - Hastings - Brighton - Portsmouth - Bristol - Birmingham

Yes there was - during the month of March if I recall correctly. I think you could purchase what were then called "Supersaver" returns which had a one month validity on the return portion so if you were savvy you bought a return from A to B and when you got to B you then bought a return from B back to A. By using the outward portions only, the return portions could then be used up to a month later thus effectively extending the period of the offer!

 

[MDB1images]

Remember it well.
£10.00 weekend all line rover!

Started early hours of Saturday.....
Class 47/4 Stockport -Newport.(York mailtrain)
Class 33 Newport-Bristol TM.
Class 50 Bristol TM- Plymouth.
Class 50 Plymouth--Camborne
Class 47 Camborne- Plymouth(unbelievably it was a ED Class 47 vice a Class 50, 'Springburn' was the loco from memory).
Class 50 Plymouth- Bristol TM(remember nearly got bowled by 47444 as the 50's wiper packed up).
Class 50 Bristol TM- Paddington.
Class 47/6 (twin tank)Kings Cross- Aberdeen(overnight Sat-Sun).
Class 47/7 Aberdeen --Glasgow Queen Street.
Class 47 Glasgow Cen-Carlisle(diverted via Dumfries, ED loco).
Class 86 Carlisle-Preston.

A bargain!

 

[Cowley]

Remember it well.
£10.00 weekend all line rover!

Started early hours of Saturday.....
Class 47/4 Stockport -Newport.(York mailtrain)
Class 33 Newport-Bristol TM.
Class 50 Bristol TM- Plymouth.
Class 50 Plymouth--Camborne
Class 47 Camborne- Plymouth(unbelievably it was a ED Class 47 vice a Class 50, 'Springburn' was the loco from memory).
Class 50 Plymouth- Bristol TM(remember nearly got bowled by 47444 as the 50's wiper packed up).
Class 50 Bristol TM- Paddington.
Class 47/6 (twin tank)Kings Cross- Aberdeen(overnight Sat-Sun).
Class 47/7 Aberdeen --Glasgow Queen Street.
Class 47 Glasgow Cen-Carlisle(diverted via Dumfries, ED loco).
Class 86 Carlisle-Preston.

A bargain!

Interesting. Was this 1987/88 by any chance?
47637 Springburn made itself at home in the South West (in all its Intercity Scotrail regalia glory) around then.
I travelled behind it (and was rescued on Dainton Bank by it once) plenty of times during that time.

 

[MDB1images]

Interesting. Was this 1987/88 by any chance?
47637 Springburn made itself at home in the South West (in all its Intercity Scotrail regalia glory) around then.
I travelled behind it (and was rescued on Dainton Bank by it once) plenty of times during that time.

Could have been 87.
Certainly was in that livery(got a shot of it off the footbridge which is buried away somewhere!)

 

[Chris217]

Great trip report.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Finally found it.

Friday 26 March 1982, £10 Strood to Inverness (not Thurso as I put earlier - confused it with another trip).

In 4-EPB 5241 at 0630 Strood to London Bridge arr 0724
Tube (72 stock I think?) 3418 dep London Bridge at 0730 to Euston arr 0741
Behind 87028 in a Mk3 at 0807 to Crewe arr 1006
...spotting and photting at Crewe including my 10th-to-last class 47.
Behind 85025 in a Mk1 at 1615 to Preston arr 1710.
...spotting and photting at Preston including clearing my class 85s, and seeing a Haymarket push-pull 47/7 hauling coal in MDV wagons.
At 2330, met up with a couple of friends who'd been working Friday so they had to come north later.

Watched some night-time freights and sleepers into Saturday.
Behind 85004 in a Mk1 compartment (a train of Mk1 day and sleeper coaches) at 0220 to Glasgow arr 0537
Walked to Queen St.
Behind 47578 in an early Mk2 at 0740 to Inverness, possibly banked by 37262.
Inverness arrive 1159, on depot 7x 26s, 2x 27s 6x 47s
Mooched around taking photos etc.
Behind 47578 again in an early Mk2 at 1505 to Perth arr 1751
In DMU 50172 at 2005 to Glasgow arr 2131
Saw 55002 at Glasgow Queen St (no, the DMU single car, not the Deltic)

We'd carefully arranged the trip so that we'd "accidentally" missed the last London train (no sleepers on Sat night), so my friends who worked on the railway persuaded the staff at Glasgow Central to let us doss down in a stabled EMU (303071) for the night.

Sunday morning bright and early... for the 0830 to Euston:
Behind 47542 (an Immingham loco) in a Mk3 dep 0948 (the stock arrived late, then we initially departed 0852 but the brake coach was defective, so they had to shunt it out and get a replacement).
Via Kilmarnock & Dumfries to Carlisle arr 1206, and change loco to Gateshead's 47421 dep 1217 via Settle ...
arrive Preston 1453 (this was the 0830 from Glasgow remember!), change loco to 86253, depart Preston 1504 calling only at Crewe and Rugby to...
Euston arr 1824 (practically 10 hours from Glasgow-London).
Underground 3414 to Charing Cross
In 4-EPB 5197 at 1907 to Strood 2004, with 11 perforations in the ticket.

 

[Chris217]

Loving this.
That overnight kip on a class 303 at
Glasgow Central...done that a few times lol.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

There was something similar in the mid 80s for railcard holders with fares tiered at £4, £8 and £12, depending how far you travelled.

For four quid I went Birmingham - Ipswich - London - Ashford - Hastings - Brighton - Portsmouth - Bristol - Birmingham

I remember this promotion well. February 1986.
Friday tea-time Birmingham - Glasgow, overnight (seated) Glasgow to Inverness, day trip to Thurso and back, Saturday evening Inverness to Aberdeen, overnight (seated) Aberdeen to Kings Cross, with engineering diversions via Carlisle and Sleaford, Sunday lunch-time Euston to Birmingham.
A weekend well spent for £12. Two overnights in seated accommodation. Several 37/4 haulages and dozens of people bagging Georgemas Junction while they split the train and attached the Thurso loco.

 

[D841 Roebuck]

Did one of these in (I think) 1988. Went Manchester - Oxford - Reading - Barnstaple - Ilfracombe - Taunton - Reading - Manchester as I remember. Only haulage I recall is 50026 from Oxford to Reading, did 47xxx from Reading to Exeter on the sleeper, then a 1st gen DMU out to Barnstaple - I recall an extremely clear night, with the Milky Way visible over Eggesford, and much of South Wales visible from the first bus over the moors to Ilfracombe.

Was a weekday in March/April - I wonder if historic weather reports can help me identify the date, and possibly the 47 on the sleeper (hopefully 555, which I never had!)