hiddeneurope
Member
I must confess to not being a regular here, but come by from time to time. I am interested in what you might all judge to be an absolutely arcane topic – timetable relics that have survived for decades often without any good reason (and sometimes with good reason).
I would be keen to get a few more examples for a piece of work I am doing, and wonder if folk here can help. Here are two examples:
Cast back fifty years (and even much more) and the first southbound Oxted Line train of the day always made a stop at South Croydon. It was one of the few trains on that route to make such a stop, and the only one that then sped south without stopping at minor stations on the Oxted Line (viz. Sanderstead, etc).
Looking at the 1961 Bradshaw, the train left Victoria at 5.20 am, stopped South Croydon at 5.56 and then went south via Oxted and Eridge to Eastbourne. Fifty years later, and the first Oxted Line train of the day from Victoria still calls at South Croydon (and amazingly, still at 5.56). Nowadays, its destination is East Grinstead. It is one of the few Oxted Line trains that pauses at South Croydon. In the 2011 timetable, the next Oxted southbound train to stop is not till mid afternoon. And the 5.56 train is still the only one of the day that then runs non-stop from South Croydon to Oxted.
The once daily local Chiltern Railways services from Paddington, which featured in another thread here recently, is an incredibly long standing timetable relic, although the precise timing has changed over the year. Sometimes it has been northbound, and sometimes southbound, but generally in the middle of the day. As other posters commented in that other thread, there have been years when it operated in both directions. The outer destination has varied, sometimes West Ruislip, sometimes Gerrards Cross, and this year High Wycombe. Cast back 50 years, and it was the 12.19 from Thame (on the long closed Oxford to Princes Risborough branch) to Paddington which reached London at 1.40 pm.
Its specific stopping pattern was unusual, being the only train in those days that ever stopped at Greenford Mainline station, a device that meant that BRB never officially closed that station until 1963. But the train survived even after the closure of Greenford ML and secured a new importance with the eventual demise of fast trains from Paddington via High Wycombe to Banbury and beyond. The last of the latter to be axed was a once-daily evening peak service (and a balancing inbound morning peak train).
So folk who travel on the sole remaining Chiltern service from Paddington today are taking part in a bit of timetable history.
I find it interesting that through all the vicissitudes of privatisation and franchise changes some specific oddball stops have survived for well over half a century. Any other good examples would be warmly received (especially of the South Croydon kind where the same service pattern has survived for over half a century).
NG
I would be keen to get a few more examples for a piece of work I am doing, and wonder if folk here can help. Here are two examples:
Cast back fifty years (and even much more) and the first southbound Oxted Line train of the day always made a stop at South Croydon. It was one of the few trains on that route to make such a stop, and the only one that then sped south without stopping at minor stations on the Oxted Line (viz. Sanderstead, etc).
Looking at the 1961 Bradshaw, the train left Victoria at 5.20 am, stopped South Croydon at 5.56 and then went south via Oxted and Eridge to Eastbourne. Fifty years later, and the first Oxted Line train of the day from Victoria still calls at South Croydon (and amazingly, still at 5.56). Nowadays, its destination is East Grinstead. It is one of the few Oxted Line trains that pauses at South Croydon. In the 2011 timetable, the next Oxted southbound train to stop is not till mid afternoon. And the 5.56 train is still the only one of the day that then runs non-stop from South Croydon to Oxted.
The once daily local Chiltern Railways services from Paddington, which featured in another thread here recently, is an incredibly long standing timetable relic, although the precise timing has changed over the year. Sometimes it has been northbound, and sometimes southbound, but generally in the middle of the day. As other posters commented in that other thread, there have been years when it operated in both directions. The outer destination has varied, sometimes West Ruislip, sometimes Gerrards Cross, and this year High Wycombe. Cast back 50 years, and it was the 12.19 from Thame (on the long closed Oxford to Princes Risborough branch) to Paddington which reached London at 1.40 pm.
Its specific stopping pattern was unusual, being the only train in those days that ever stopped at Greenford Mainline station, a device that meant that BRB never officially closed that station until 1963. But the train survived even after the closure of Greenford ML and secured a new importance with the eventual demise of fast trains from Paddington via High Wycombe to Banbury and beyond. The last of the latter to be axed was a once-daily evening peak service (and a balancing inbound morning peak train).
So folk who travel on the sole remaining Chiltern service from Paddington today are taking part in a bit of timetable history.
I find it interesting that through all the vicissitudes of privatisation and franchise changes some specific oddball stops have survived for well over half a century. Any other good examples would be warmly received (especially of the South Croydon kind where the same service pattern has survived for over half a century).
NG
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