Manoeuvres at Worcester c1970

[nw1]

Fair enough. As I said I cannot recall the workings at Shrub Hill, but don't remember it being particularly busy, given that nearly all trains on the Birmingham/Bristol route bypassed Worcester, and the Paddington service was sparse (especially compared to today) - 2 hour intervals! We need either the loco diagrams or a time machine....

That was good compared to what existed later in the 80s: three through trains per day, the Cathedrals Express, the out-and-back midday HST Cotswold and Malvern Express, and a second peak train.

To be honest I still think of 2-hourly as the norm, as most of my travel in this area was probably in the 90s and 00s. It was 2-hourly when the Turbos were introduced IIRC and mostly 2-hourly with peak extras as recently as 2008 (I have that timetable).

 

[Rescars]

Pre WW1 the best train each way was the daily Paddington - Shrub Hill non-stop express. A Churchward County class working I believe.

 

[Harpo]

Worcester.....the Paddington service was sparse (especially compared to today) - 2 hour intervals!

The 1971 route rationalisation (singling) baked-in the route's poor service for another four decades.

 

[Falcon1200]

That was good compared to what existed later in the 80s: three through trains per day, the Cathedrals Express, the out-and-back midday HST Cotswold and Malvern Express, and a second peak train.

Not only frequency but the hours of operation of the North Cotswold line have improved since the bad old days; I sometimes take the 0652 (0553 from Paddington) from Oxford to Worcester en route to the Severn Valley Railway, in my 1971-72 timetable the first train was 0810 from Paddington, 0925 from Oxford and didn't get to Shrub Hill until 1040!

 

[Rescars]

Pre WW1 the best train each way was the daily Paddington - Shrub Hill non-stop express. A Churchward County class working I believe.

A bit more digging on this has revealed further details. In 1901 there were the two non-stops hauled by Atbara 4-4-0s, supplemented by "a really good service of trains" making limited stops. The down non-stop ex Paddington at 1.40 pm completed the journey in 2hrs 16mins (compared with 2hrs 8mins today). The normal load was 170 tons.

 

[Taunton]

A bit more digging on this has revealed further details. In 1901 there were the two non-stops hauled by Atbara 4-4-0s, supplemented by "a really good service of trains" making limited stops.

These trains were a common working for the three French-built 4-4-2s that Churchward had obtained, for about 20 years 1905-25. All three were based at Oxford so presumably locos were changed there - getting back to the original topic additional vehicles for Paddington were commonly added to these trains there.