London Victoria Direct to Manchester

[markwo15]

Back when they still had the flip over train indicator boards at Victoria I was always intrigued that Manchester was shown as a destination.

Was there ever a regular direct (via Clapham Junction and West London Line?) service from Victoria to Manchester and if so why and when did it cease?

 

[northwichcat]

Up until a couple of years ago Manchester had a limited XC Gatwick Airport service via East Croydon, could that be related?

 

[philjo]

Victoria is often the boarding station for steam specials etc so perhaps the destinations were left in for those trains. I have seen the flaps at Victoria showing it when the Orient express services were boarding at Victoria heading for places such as Newbury or Cheltenham for the races. These destinations were on the departure boards

 

[30907]

I assume the indicators were installed in the 70s (replacing the lovely SR wooden ones which others may remember). Philjo's idea sounds convincing - I wonder though if someone anticipated a Manchester service to connect with continental traffic (similar to the short-lived Waterloo-Manchester HST)? If I remember right, there were discussions about a Channel Tunnel around then.

 

[185]

Wales and Borders Trains had a service briefly too at one point IIRC.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I remember a Manchester Piccadilly to Brighton service being run some many years ago.

 

[34D]

Wales and Borders Trains had a service briefly too at one point IIRC.

Into victoria?

To the op: great question, I can't add anything except to ask whether this was a solaris board?

 

[43167]

I remember a Manchester Piccadilly to Brighton service being run some many years ago.

So do I, And the Edinburgh-Brighton.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Into victoria?

To the op: great question, I can't add anything except to ask whether this was a solaris board?

I think the W&B service was to Waterloo, not Victoria.

 

[tsr]

So do I, And the Edinburgh-Brighton.

There was also a Brighton-Glasgow service in the days of BR Intercity. I believe there are sample items of on-train materials scanned in and posted somewhere online.

I think the W&B service was to Waterloo, not Victoria.

That sounds about right to me.

As an interesting aside, East Croydon station still has options such as (but not limited to) "Leamington Spa" on its "Next Fastest" display board (and, goodness me, what a big "Next Fastest" board that is!). Now, I can't for the life of me remember when that dot-matrix board was installed, but I have my doubts as to whether some of the destinations on there were served even back at that time.

 

[tony6499]

I remember a Manchester Piccadilly to Brighton service being run some many years ago.

Was a Manchester Piccadilly to Newhaven Harbour service back in the 80's, left Newhaven about 7am when the overnight boat from Dieppe docked. It ran via Willesden and then the WCML, quite a fast timing IIRC.
Also a Manchester Piccadilly to Eastbourne service as well at the same time.

 

[johnnychips]

About 1978-81 there was an overnight Manchester-Brighton service. I used to catch it to Reading West then carry on to university at Southampton.

Nearly, but not quite, to the OP's point: was there a dedicated HST from Manchester to Waterloo to connect with Eurostar in the 90s? There was certainly one from Donny: my mate caught it once and there were seven people on it!

 

[rf_ioliver]

Not sure about Victoria, but there have been many services from Brighton (and Eastbourne too IIRC) that skirt around London via Kensingon Olympia. Not sure if any of these run any more but I regularly used these to avoid London to get to Reading onto the GWML.

Sussex Scot to Edinburgh/Glasgow and then Brighton-Manchester services.

*Is it true that there used to be a service from Eastbourne too? Vague memory of something....maybe not, old age ....

Sorry, no idea about Victoria but possibly there for diversionary purposes or just an aspect of the manufacturing of these boards?

Ian

 

[bangor-toad]

Hi there,
Someone has built a rather comprehensive website of the South Coast - Manchester & the north services:

http://www.1s76.com/

There were services from Brighton, Eastbourne and Ramsgate at different times.
Enjoy!
Jason

 

[Lampshade]

...but I have my doubts as to whether some of the destinations on there were served even back at that time.

Manchester Piccadilly > Stockport > Macclesfield > Congleton > Stoke > Wolverhampton > Birmingham New Street > Leamington Spa > Banbury > Oxford > Reading > Kensington Olympia > East Croydon > Redhill > Gatwick Airport

 

[Eagle]

I remember a Manchester Piccadilly to Brighton service being run some many years ago.

2008 is hardly "many years ago" :P

Nearly, but not quite, to the OP's point: was there a dedicated HST from Manchester to Waterloo to connect with Eurostar in the 90s?

There were, operated by VT in its very early days—they'd be diversions via the Windsor lines of services that normally went to Paddington. (Don't think they stopped anywhere between Reading and Waterloo).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

2008 is hardly "many years ago" :P

I was thinking of the "Sussex Scot" service and may have overlooked any more recent residual parts of that journey that still ran.

 

[tsr]

Manchester Piccadilly > Stockport > Macclesfield > Congleton > Stoke > Wolverhampton > Birmingham New Street > Leamington Spa > Banbury > Oxford > Reading > Kensington Olympia > East Croydon > Redhill > Gatwick Airport

Yes, but my real question is whether or not the dot-matrix board would ever have had cause to mention this service. I suppose it is possible.

 

[Robinson]

When I first started at boarding school in Manchester, in Virgin XC days, I used to catch what was the 0956 from Manchester Piccadilly to Glasgow - at first this service ran through from Brighton IIRC before the timetables changed and all services from Manchester started there.

 

[markwo15]

So are we agreed, no Victoria - Manchester service? I thought it seemed unlikely

I like the idea that it was just 'standard' as part of the manufacture, perhaps the same spec was delivered around London to allow for the Waterloo and East Croydon services mentioned above.

Thanks for all the replies

 

[Eagle]

Yes, but my real question is whether or not the dot-matrix board would ever have had cause to mention this service. I suppose it is possible.

The picture on Wikipedia shows the LED board and it was uploaded in April 2004, nearly five years before the XC services stopped.

 

[D1009]

The XC services to and from Sussex in BR days never regularly went into Victoria. However one of these trains ran overnight and was sometimes diverted into Victoria because of engineering work on a Saturday night, but this was a southbound working.

I remember this was popular among those on Rovers as it was usually pretty empty and did some fairy rare track.