Birmingham New Street to Paddington

[work-traveller]

Can anyone shed any light on the service that Great Western used to operate from Birmingham New Street to London Paddington? As I recall it was was in the days when Grreat Western were in their former green and gold livery and there were only a few services a day, maybe even just a single service.

I'm absolutely certain I saw the service at Birmingham New Street a few times, but can't find any reference to it. The reason I remember it was that it was such an unusual thing to see and I remember thinking I should someday take the service if only for the novelty - albeit slower than the Virgin service to Euston.

 

[Zoe]

Virgin Cross Country used to run services between Paddington and Birmingham New Street so it's possible that the set you saw was on hire to Virgin at the time although I can't confirm this was the case.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The Western Region ran a 2-hourly limited-stop service New Street-Solihull-Oxford-Paddington after the main London services were concentrated on the WCML in 1967.
When (BR) Cross Country started running Birmingham-Reading-South Coast this made an hourly service Birmingham-Reading.
A couple of these actually terminated at Paddington (originating north of Birmingham).

At this time the Chiltern line was single and didn't run services past Banbury.
When this route was modernised and class 16x trains came in, they gradually extended to Stratford/Birmingham.
After privatisation (when Voyagers came in) Cross Country stopped running to Paddington and Chiltern offered a direct service to Marylebone via High Wycombe instead.

 

[D1009]

Can anyone shed any light on the service that Great Western used to operate from Birmingham New Street to London Paddington? As I recall it was was in the days when Grreat Western were in their former green and gold livery and there were only a few services a day, maybe even just a single service.

I'm absolutely certain I saw the service at Birmingham New Street a few times, but can't find any reference to it. The reason I remember it was that it was such an unusual thing to see and I remember thinking I should someday take the service if only for the novelty - albeit slower than the Virgin service to Euston.

As I remember the Great Western franchise has never run regular trains to Birmingham.

 

[Greenback]

I don't recall any FGW services from Paddington to Brum. But there were definitely Western Region services before privatisation.

 

[50010 Monarch]

The former Great Western green & gold coaches were used for a time by one of the TOC's (probably First North Western) on services from Birmingham New Street to Holyhead.

There were three or four return trips per day using the rather clapped out former Rail Express Systems Class 47/7's as motive power. The trains were usually formed of four coaches.

As far as I can recall these were the only services at New Street which have ever used the green & gold coaches.

 

[Southern Dvr]

VXC used to run Paddington - Birmingham NS with cl.47s & mark 2s.

Around 2000-2002 FGW ran some Paddington - West Country services with cl.47s & mark 2s. I suspect they've been confused for each other.

 

[Buttsy]

The Western Region ran a 2-hourly limited-stop service New Street-Solihull-Oxford-Paddington after the main London services were concentrated on the WCML in 1967.
When (BR) Cross Country started running Birmingham-Reading-South Coast this made an hourly service Birmingham-Reading.
A couple of these actually terminated at Paddington (originating north of Birmingham).

At this time the Chiltern line was single and didn't run services past Banbury.
When this route was modernised and class 16x trains came in, they gradually extended to Stratford/Birmingham.
After privatisation (when Voyagers came in) Cross Country stopped running to Paddington and Chiltern offered a direct service to Marylebone via High Wycombe instead.

There was for many years after the closure of Snow Hill a daily loco-hauled service from Wolvehampton to Paddington via High Wycombe in the morning, with a return in the evening peak. I think this ceased in 1992 or 1994.

 

[Welshman]

I don't recall any FGW services from Paddington to Brum. But there were definitely Western Region services before privatisation.

And, going back even further to before the 1948 nationalisation, there were Great Western services from Paddington to Brum, but they went to Snow Hill.

 

[Essexman]

Extra London - Birmingham trains ran from Paddington during the WCML elecrification in the mid 1960s - but they might have gone to Snow Hill?

 

[50010 Monarch]

VXC used to run Paddington - Birmingham NS with cl.47s & mark 2s.

Around 2000-2002 FGW ran some Paddington - West Country services with cl.47s & mark 2s. I suspect they've been confused for each other.

Quite possibly confused with each other as you say. Maybe a set of the Great Western coaches was borrowed by VXC for one of their services to Birmingham New Steet from Paddington but I would have thought this very unlikely.

I've done some further digging regarding the Brum - Holyhead services that I mentioned. These were running in early 2003 with the EWS (former RES) 47/7's as motive power. The TOC was First North Western but the loco hauled services were only a short term measure so the coaches were never painted in FNW livery.

 

[Zoe]

And, going back even further to before the 1948 nationalisation, there were Great Western services from Paddington to Brum, but they went to Snow Hill.

With some continuing as far as Birkenhead.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

In the early 80's there was an early train from Paddington through to Manchester via New Street. I used to catch it to work from Paddington to Ealing Broadway - think it was 05:55 off Padd.

 

[MichaelAMW]

The Western Region ran a 2-hourly limited-stop service New Street-Solihull-Oxford-Paddington after the main London services were concentrated on the WCML in 1967.
When (BR) Cross Country started running Birmingham-Reading-South Coast this made an hourly service Birmingham-Reading.
A couple of these actually terminated at Paddington (originating north of Birmingham).

At this time the Chiltern line was single and didn't run services past Banbury.
When this route was modernised and class 16x trains came in, they gradually extended to Stratford/Birmingham.
After privatisation (when Voyagers came in) Cross Country stopped running to Paddington and Chiltern offered a direct service to Marylebone via High Wycombe instead.

From 1967 to 74 there was a two-hourly semi-fast service from Paddington via High Wycombe to Birmingham; just before they ended, a couple terminated at Banbury, generally operated by DMU, and there were some services via Oxford. After that, they went to the Oxford route and there were two-hourly DMUs from Marylebone to Banbury. As Buttsy says, one morning up/evening down working to/from Paddington managed to cling on until the early 90s. In the early 80s the down one started going to Manchester, later it became Wolverhampton both ways and prior to its demise it was Leamington up and Banbury down.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

In the early 80's there was an early train from Paddington through to Manchester via New Street. I used to catch it to work from Paddington to Ealing Broadway - think it was 05:55 off Padd.

Through the 80s and 90s there were various destinations beyond Birmingham, including Manchester, Liverpool, Wolverhampton, Derby, York, Leeds & Hull, Edinburgh via Manchester. One oddish working was a morning Paddington to Paddington, which ran via Oxford, Worcester, Birmingham, Banbury.

 

[30907]

From 1967 to 74 there was a two-hourly semi-fast service from Paddington via High Wycombe to Birmingham; just before they ended, a couple terminated at Banbury, generally operated by DMU, and there were some services via Oxford. .

One oddish working was a morning Paddington to Paddington, which ran via Oxford, Worcester, Birmingham, Banbury.

In the early 70s the service via Oxford to B'ham was minimal. It started with just 3 cross-country services to/from the Southern - one the Poole-Newcastle/Leeds - plus a couple of DMUs - but gradually improved at the expense of the direct line, as MichaelAMW describes. It took a very long time for the service to become hourly.

I'm pretty sure there was a Padd-Padd in each direction.

 

[Masbroughlad]

Leeds and Hull sections used to join at Sheffield and go to Paddington via Brum. In the early eighties I think.

 

[PHILIPE]

I don't think this happened. Paddington trains via Biirmingham always came from the West Midlands or the North West.

 

[Mugby]

Leeds and Hull sections used to join at Sheffield and go to Paddington via Brum. In the early eighties I think.

I remember the Paddington to Hull service very well, didn't know a Leeds portion divided at Sheffield though.

It was in the early 1980's, it seemed to have a regular guard with a very distinctive way of speaking, Brough became Brrrrrrough when he announced it!

I used to wonder what people at Paddington thought when they saw places like Goole on the departure board!

 

[Buttsy]

I remember the Paddington to Hull service very well, didn't know a Leeds portion divided at Sheffield though.

It was in the early 1980's, it seemed to have a regular guard with a very distinctive way of speaking, Brough became Brrrrrrough when he announced it!

I used to wonder what people at Paddington thought when they saw places like Goole on the departure board!

I remember catching this one Saturday from Oxford to Doncaster open day in about 1985 or 1986 and it did split as only 4-5 coaches went on to Hull.

 

[MichaelAMW]

I remember the Paddington to Hull service very well, didn't know a Leeds portion divided at Sheffield though.

It was in the early 1980's, it seemed to have a regular guard with a very distinctive way of speaking, Brough became Brrrrrrough when he announced it!

I used to wonder what people at Paddington thought when they saw places like Goole on the departure board!

FYI, I am currently looking at the May 85 to May 86 all-lines TT.

Padd 0650
Birm N St 0932/0941
Sheff 1118

then

Sheff 1123
Hull 1243

or

Sheff 1135
Leeds 1225

Mon-Sat.

A propos of nothing, it is fun looking up things like this as you notice all sorts of things that don't really fit in with today's railway, e.g odd workings such as described by the footnote: 26 May to 1 September, from Chesterfield to Bridlington.

Re: the Paddington departure board, which was still a Solari then, I think they solved the problem by adding the final destinations, e.g. Hull, and the generic "and principal stations to". That was certainly how the Padd-Manchester via H Wycombe, which I mentioned above, was described at Paddington beyond Birmingham.

 

[didcot]

Living at Banbury (& being old enough!) I can remember the days of the Blue Pullman

Also I seem to remember that the XP64 stock saw its last days on Paddington _ Birmingham services

 

[Masbroughlad]

I remember seeing 31s 45s and 47s on the portion workings from Hull and Leeds.

The railways were much more interesting then!!!