Main line services via Cumbernauld until 1990s

[snookertam]

Does anyone recall that up until the early 1990s, Sunday services out of Glasgow Queen Street all ran via Cumbernauld. At that time there was no Cowlairs Chord so all these trains had to reverse at the top of Cowlairs Incline.

If memory serves, it either only happened for part of the day on Sunday, or it happened at certain times of the year. It resulted in E&G services running via Falkirk Grahamston and taking about an hour 15 minutes. It wasn't a one off for engineering, because it repeatedly happened in each timetable.

Does anyone remember the reason why this move took place?

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Does anyone recall that up until the early 1990s, Sunday services out of Glasgow Queen Street all ran via Cumbernauld. At that time there was no Cowlairs Chord so all these trains had to reverse at the top of Cowlairs Incline.

If memory serves, it either only happened for part of the day on Sunday, or it happened at certain times of the year. It resulted in E&G services running via Falkirk Grahamston and taking about an hour 15 minutes. It wasn't a one off for engineering, because it repeatedly happened in each timetable.

Does anyone remember the reason why this move took place?

While it obviously wasn't a one-off that doesn't mean that it wasn't related to engineering work. A particularly poor "tradition" of BR was the near refusal to provide useful Sunday services before approx 1600 on many lines, the thinking being that demand was so low that there was no point in running trains. This gave the civil engineers free rein to more or less come and go as they pleased on Sundays. I suspect that this thinking simply took a while to be eradicated. For example until relatively recently there was no Sunday service on the Marches Line before roughly midday with buses being provided year after year. Obviously demand for Sunday travel has ballooned but the railway as a whole has been very slow to catch up with this; indeed most TOCs seem adamant that they do not want to include Sundays inside the working week even though the reliable provision of Sunday services is very problematic without it.

 

[Fleetwood Boy]

Very early 90s all Sunday E&G services ran via Grahamston rather than Falkirk High at least till the afternoon , which I used regularly, but I don’t recall reversing at Cowlairs or running via Cumbernauld. I think it was because there were no other services at Grahamston on a Sunday?

 

[hexagon789]

Does anyone recall that up until the early 1990s, Sunday services out of Glasgow Queen Street all ran via Cumbernauld. At that time there was no Cowlairs Chord so all these trains had to reverse at the top of Cowlairs Incline.

If memory serves, it either only happened for part of the day on Sunday, or it happened at certain times of the year. It resulted in E&G services running via Falkirk Grahamston and taking about an hour 15 minutes. It wasn't a one off for engineering, because it repeatedly happened in each timetable.

Does anyone remember the reason why this move took place?

Not sure why they did it but:

1988 Edinburgh-Glasgow hourly 0830-1530 running via Falkirk Grahamston and Cumbernauld in 1 hr 07 (0830-1430 also calling at Cumbernauld), 1630, 1730, 1800 via Cadder and Falkirk Grahamston and the mainline via Lenzie, taking 51-54 mins, from 1800 it becomes half-hourly to 2200, the XX:30 running via Falkirk High and the mainline in 45-48 mins, the XX:00 via Falkirk Grahamston and the mainline in 51 mins.

By 1995, this had become hourly 0830-1730 via Falkirk Grahamston in 58-65 mins (not sure if still then via Cumbernauld probably not at 58 mins, then 2tph XX:05 running fast (2 stops) 53 mins, XX:30 making 4 stops still in 58 mins until reverting to hourly at 2130.

 

[snookertam]

While it obviously wasn't a one-off that doesn't mean that it wasn't related to engineering work. A particularly poor "tradition" of BR was the near refusal to provide useful Sunday services before approx 1600 on many lines, the thinking being that demand was so low that there was no point in running trains. This gave the civil engineers free rein to more or less come and go as they pleased on Sundays. I suspect that this thinking simply took a while to be eradicated. For example until relatively recently there was no Sunday service on the Marches Line before roughly midday with buses being provided year after year. Obviously demand for Sunday travel has ballooned but the railway as a whole has been very slow to catch up with this; indeed most TOCs seem adamant that they do not want to include Sundays inside the working week even though the reliable provision of Sunday services is very problematic without it.

Thanks for the reply - this seems like a very likely explanation. On Sunday services generally I definitely see a lot of evidence of that on many routes in Scotland. I recall that the Glasgow Central - East Kilbride line only began Sunday services in the late 90s and even then it was curtailed at 7pm. Glasgow Central to Kilmarnock started even more recently and still does curtail around 7pm, similarly some other suburban branches in the Glasgow area. Even now, the first trains between Edinburgh & Glasgow Queen Street depart around 8am on a Sunday and are fully loaded due to the late start. So yes I agree that the railway is very slow on Sunday service provision - some routes should arguably see a similar service to that provided on Saturdays.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Subsequent to posting my reply to @snookertam I have realised that one Sunday in September 1989 I specifically made a day trip from Lancashire to ride one of these services, including reversal at Cowlairs, in order to travel loco-hauled over the Gartcosh-Garnqueen link.

My suspicion is that avoiding the Falkirk High route was to allow the engineers regular access to Falkirk Tunnel which lies in a relatively active area geologically speaking. I'm fairly sure that at that time the link between Greenhill Upper and Lower Junctions had single leads at each end so running the E&G fast trains via Cumbernauld simplified pathing arrangements. Or did I just make that up?!

 

[Highlandspring]

I’m 99.9% sure neither Greenhill Upper Jn nor Greenhill Lower Jn were ever single lead.