Night-time at Manchester Victoria in 1972

[Springs Branch]

I don't think it has been mentioned, and some of you may already be aware, but the national papers printed in central Manchester as well as London.

I don’t think all of the nationally-available newspapers were printed in Manchester. Some papers seem to have been printed in London and delivered to the Northern provinces by overnight News trains on the WCML & ECML.

I remember once in the mid-1970s (at a time when Wigan received many of its dailies from Manchester via the Southport News train), my irate Dad marching off to the local newsagency to complain that the idiot delivery lad had forgotten to leave his copy of The Sun that morning. The newsagent replied that there were no “Suns” available that day because of a train crash. This would have been the Nuneaton Sleeper accident in 1975 (presumably the Newspaper train was following behind the Glasgow Sleeper which crashed).

…… Hence, looking at the fascinating list in the OP, there were several departing news trains but no arrivals (they might have worked back as parcels or been returned empty to Red Bank during the day).

There were indeed many returning empty van trains which appeared in the Working Timetables. These invariably worked directly to Red Bank sidings in the daytime, as you say. I excluded these from the original list for clarity.

 

[deltic]

What are now the News International group of papers were never printed in Manchester ie Times and Sun and equivalent Sunday editions nor was the Financial Times. Don't think the Observar was either - there seemed to be more newspaper trains from London to Manchester on a Saturday night than during the week

 

[Taunton]

The newsagent replied that there were no “Suns” available that day because of a train crash. This would have been the Nuneaton Sleeper accident in 1975 (presumably the Newspaper train was following behind the Glasgow Sleeper which crashed).

Old girlfriend had lived near the line at Raynes Park as a child in 1967 when the down newspaper train Waterloo to Surrey, Hampshire, etc got into a huge overturning accident in the middle of the night. Some of the vans went up the platform ramp and the footbridge was demolished. Fortunately no injuries but the wreckage was considerable, and no newspapers for many that morning. Apparently a lot of the residents came out into the street in their nightclothes having been woken by the noise, and given the location close to Heathrow many immediately thought it was a plane crash.