GWR (and other TOC) Named Trains

[43055]

East Midlands trains have some mainline named services on weekdays which I have seen before on the CIS screens at the stations and in the timetable. Those services being:
The Sheffield Continental - 0649 Sheffield - St Pancras
The Robin Hood - 0755 Nottingham - St Pancras - 1615 St Pancras - Nottingham
The Master Cutler - 0729 Sheffield - St Pancras - 1657 St Pancras - Sheffield
The South Yorkshireman - 0746 Sheffield - St Pancras - 1757 St Pancras - Sheffield

My own unofficial name I made up for my local service 'Crewe Flyer' for the Derby - Crewe service

I do like how these operators keep running with named trains but GWR does stand out where they announces the name as well and promote the named services in the timetables as well not like other operators with a note on the back page for example.

 

[hexagon789]

I heard reference a while back of The Flying Dutchman given to a service to Harwich for the boat train to the Hook of Holland. Can't recall if it originated at London Liverpool Street or came Cross Country from elsewhere though.

I think you are thinking of the Hook Continental or Day Continental which in 1987 became the Admiraal de Ruitjer and Benjamin Brutten respectively. There was also a Manchester-Harwich biat-train but I can't recall it's name. The Flying Dutchman was I believe an original GWR Paddington-Exeter service.

 

[hexagon789]

Wasn't there a named Virgin XC service called The Devon-Scot which was HST operated until XC ceased using HST's in 2002-ish?.

Yes Aberdeen-Plymouth unnamed in 2002. There were also the Cornish Scot, Dorset Scot, Sussex Scot and Wessex Scot.

 

[ag51ruk]

3. Nearly all of the GW names are steam-era except the Golden Hind (1965) and Armada, Devon Express, St David, Night Riviera which are modern.

In the 90s, the 'Armada' was a Cross Country Leeds - Plymouth HST. Used to be my daily train between Derby and Birmingham, 07.40 from Derby and 16.55 return (always the same set, with a 40 minute turn round in Plymouth)

West Coast had at least one named train that made it to the Pendolino era - the 'Welsh Dragon' Holyhead to Euston, which had a special menu for the First complimentary service

 

[dk1]

I think you are thinking of the Hook Continental or Day Continental which in 1987 became the Admiraal de Ruitjer and Benjamin Brutten respectively. There was also a Manchester-Harwich biat-train but I can't recall it's name. The Flying Dutchman was I believe an original GWR Paddington-Exeter service.

Various names on the Cross Country routes to Parkeston Quay. The Rhinelander, The European (also operated via North London/WCML) & following introduction of the Express Sprinter network in 1988, The Loreley.

 

[hexagon789]

Various names on the Cross Country routes to Parkeston Quay. The Rhinelander, The European (also operated via North London/WCML) & following introduction of the Express Sprinter network in 1988, The Loreley.

The only one of those I've heard of is the European, where did Loreley come from, named after someone?

 

[30907]

The only one of those I've heard of is the European, where did Loreley come from, named after someone?

The legendary Lorelei maiden sat on her rock in the Rhine gorge, via the Amsterdam-Basel day train which carried a portion connecting with the Harwich-Hook night boat. So an appropriate name, if people could pronounce it.

 

[hexagon789]

The legendary Lorelei maiden sat on her rock in the Rhine gorge, via the Amsterdam-Basel day train which carried a portion connecting with the Harwich-Hook night boat. So an appropriate name, if people could pronounce it.

Oh that makes more sense now, I was actually trying to think of somewhere/someone named that in Britain!

 

[dk1]

The Loreley was formed of two 156s & later 158s as they came off production. Used to leave Parkeston Quay around 07:40 splitting at Peterborough with a portion for Birmingham & another for the North West. The return working only attached at Peterborough for one timetable. Following chaos caused whenever either portion ran late (Peterborough only had platforms 4/5 available for East Anglia bound traffic then) attatchment later took place at Ely. An evening service departed Harwich for Manchester around 18:30 & was named The Britannia but was very lightly loaded & discontinued.

 

[backontrack]

I think that a few East Coast named services have lost their individual identities, like the Northern Lights and the Hull Executive.

 

[hexagon789]

The Loreley was formed of two 156s & later 158s as they came off production. Used to leave Parkeston Quay around 07:40 splitting at Peterborough with a portion for Birmingham & another for the North West. The return working only attached at Peterborough for one timetable. Following chaos caused whenever either portion ran late (Peterborough only had platforms 4/5 available for East Anglia bound traffic then) attatchment later took place at Ely. An evening service departed Harwich for Manchester around 18:30 & was named The Britannia but was very lightly loaded & discontinued.

Similar happened when the 156s abd 158s were introduced in Scotland new named services such as the Borderer, the Ayrshire Trader, the Clydesider and the Lord of the Isles were introduced and the Granite City was re-introduced.

 

[dk1]

Similar happened when the 156s abd 158s were introduced in Scotland new named services such as the Borderer, the Ayrshire Trader, the Clydesider and the Lord of the Isles were introduced and the Granite City was re-introduced.

Provincial went a little OTT with things to start with. Eventually settled down but the first few years where a tad on the optimistic side.

 

[hexagon789]

Provincial went a little OTT with things to start with. Eventually settled down but the first few years where a tad on the optimistic side.

They did seem to introduce a lot of named services up here, not sure when they were abolished though - still listed in my 1995 timetable.

 

[xotGD]

'The Principality' used to operate Cardiff - Edinburgh. Worked by a pair of 50s to New St on a Saturday morning.

 

[berwicksfinest]

There was also the Vincent Van Gogh from Liverpool Lime Street to Harwich Parkeston Quay after the Britannia

 

[DarloRich]

East Coast has to withdraw the Teesside Executive and then the Hull Executive as thanks to economic failure there were no executives left to travel on those trains.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

There used to be a couple of a Regional Railways named services in North Wales;

Emerald Isle Express - late night Holyhead-Brum and overnight return (double-headed 37s and 10 coaches to boot!)

The Irish Mancunian - Stockport/Manchester to Holyhead and return

There was also a Blackpool-Holyhead working which I believe might have been named but I can’t recall?

 

[FenMan]

The Fenman - King's Lynn to Liverpool Street.

Allegedly it's the 06:17 up and 18:07 down services these days, according to the Wikipedia entry.

For obvious reasons (!) I think it's a fine name and remember it well from my time in West Norfolk. I think it used to depart from Lynn at around 07:20 back then - this was in the days when the service was 1tp2h and used some of the oldest locos and carriages that BR could cobble together!

 

[dk1]

The Fenman - King's Lynn to Liverpool Street.

Allegedly it's the 06:17 up and 18:07 down services these days, according to the Wikipedia entry.

For obvious reasons (!) I think it's a fine name and remember it well from my time in West Norfolk. I think it used to depart from Lynn at around 07:20 back then - this was in the days when the service was 1tp2h and used some of the oldest locos and carriages that BR could cobble together!

Although not named, an anomaly of the Lynn route in the late 80s was that the 10:35 off Liv.St was formed of the air/con IC set used on the 'Anglian' from Norwich. Returned around 13:05 then went to Thornton Fields before forming an early evening Norwich again. Catering crew who remained with it throughout christened the job The Mary Celeste

 

[nat67]

To expand on this VTEC have 4 but only carry named labels for West Riding Limited, Flying Scotsman, and Highland Chieftain see below.

Chiltern did start to have labels, but around the time Silver sets went over to 68 operation they stopped. but as previously said no named trains.

View attachment 44703 View attachment 44704 View attachment 44705

How did you get them as on the HST its in the toilet window.

 

[nat67]

I have got some of the GWR named train window labels, such as the Royal Duchy, Cornishman, Cornish Riviera, Cathedrals Express, Torbay Express, and Golden Hind.

 

[pdeaves]

By coincidence, someone contacted me today to say 'do they give names to trains?', having (thought he) heard the announcement say 'Merchant Venturer'.

 

[Darandio]

Some were named until the Virgin XC-era

They even went as far as putting a sticker on 43068. Not my photo.

43068 by R~P~M, on Flickr

 

[dk1]

They even went as far as putting a sticker on 43068. Not my photo.

43068 by R~P~M, on Flickr

Have you ever known a more ridiculous place to put it on an HST? Always an area that looks filthy. GNER got it right by painting it in a dark colour but Midland Mainline who where never much good at keeping trains particularly clean externally decided yellow was appropriate here too!

 

[berwicksfinest]

How did I get these?

Without incriminating myself, these were taken of a certain well known auction site

 

[hexagon789]

They even went as far as putting a sticker on 43068. Not my photo.

43068 by R~P~M, on Flickr

Nice! Bit filthy with the exhaust staining mind you...

 

[Condor7]

To my mind named trains are a bit of an anacronism, still (somewhat) maintained by the industry as a nod to tradition. There may have been a time many decades ago when the travelling public was aware of them but IMHO the travelling public is now largely oblivious to them.

I wouldn’t disagree with you normally, but interestingly some friends who know my love of railways told me they got on the West Riding Ltd at Leeds but we’re then disappointed it appeared just the same as any other express, but it showed they were aware it was named.

 

[Condor7]

I don't see the point of them myself. The GWR ones are, generally, non-standard pattern trains, and/or have Pullman dining, so there is a little bit of difference that a passenger may notice, but I see no need at all to make announcements any longer by inserting a train name into it! What name a service? I just don't get the point.

Firstly read my post above, as that does back up your point. That being said like the original poster of this thread I have always liked the idea and the romance of named trains, but some namings do seem pointless. To me the tradition of naming a train was because that particular train stood out from the others in some way. Pullman dining as you mention or like The Flying Scotsman a very limited stop train.

I would prefer it if there were fewer named trains but the ones that were named where more pronounced in their difference and then advertised more obviously by the toc’s.

 

[Condor7]

This is a list of the current named trains still operating which I produced a couple of years ago with some help from this forum. As far as I am aware it is still up to date. The numbers on the right are the table numbers in the National Railway timetable where they can be found. The letters on the right are the toc’s where as you will see it is very obvious that the Great Western Railway are the most prolific namers.

 

[hexagon789]

This is a list of the current named trains still operating which I produced a couple of years ago with some help from this forum. As far as I am aware it is still up to date. The numbers on the right are the table numbers in the National Railway timetable where they can be found. The letters on the right are the toc’s where as you will see it is very obvious that the Great Western Railway are the most prolific namers.

GWR and their predecessors have been the most prolific regarding named trains for years. Going wayback to the BR Western Region they easily had equal numbers of named trains to all the other regions combined in the 1960s. It seems that old traditions die hard!