The B.B.C express train.

[WindowsDosGuy]

I recently purchased a second-hand copy of a Black Country dialect book, and it references what was known in BCD as the B.B.C. It is described as the '2:10am express train from London to Wolverhampton which passed through Basingstoke, Birmingham and Crewe.' Apart from the fact I can't see how you'd pass through Crewe from London to Wolverhampton, does anyone have any more information about this service?

 

[Western Sunset]

There wasn't a 2.10am passenger express. Could it be an overnight express fitted freight?

There was a 2.10pm from Paddington to Birkenhead which called at Banbury, Birmingham and Chester.

 

[Trainguy34]

There wasn't a 2.10am passenger express. Could it be an overnight express fitted freight?

Probably that, maybe a late night from London - Southampton and then a freight from the docks to Birmingham or Manchester?

 

[hexagon789]

I recently purchased a second-hand copy of a Black Country dialect book, and it references what was known in BCD as the B.B.C. It is described as the '2:10am express train from London to Wolverhampton which passed through Basingstoke, Birmingham and Crewe.' Apart from the fact I can't see how you'd pass through Crewe from London to Wolverhampton, does anyone have any more information about this service?

The GWR ran an overnight fitted freight, colloquially known as the B. B. C. which ran from Basingstoke to Wolverhampton but not from London.

 

[Magdalia]

The GWR ran an overnight fitted freight, colloquially known as the B. B. C. which ran from Basingstoke to Wolverhampton but not from London.

I don't know about the colloquial name but I can confirm that the 1963 working timetable has 4V06 2.8am Basingstoke to Oxley.

 

[WindowsDosGuy]

The book never specifies the type of traffic, freight definitely seems to make the most sense, its hardly as if the Black Country was lacking in it in the 1950s/1960s. I also found the 4V06 Basingstoke to Oxley service, which it most likely is. Still doesn't explain about going via Crewe. I'm going to keep looking via the colloqiual name though.

 

[Belperpete]

I also found the 4V06 Basingstoke to Oxley service, which it most likely is. Still doesn't explain about going via Crewe. I'm going to keep looking via the colloqiual name though.

The C may not originally have been referring to Crewe at all. The problem with colloquial terms is that the people who use them are copying someone else, and the explanation of its meaning can get twisted with each telling.

 

[Gloster]

According to GWR Goods Wagons (Atkins et al., OPC, 2013) the 9.35 p.m. Basingstoke-Wolverhampton was called The BBC (Basingstoke, Birmingham, Crewe). I am not sure what date this was, but possibly the early 1930s.

It may have been called that because it carried traffic to or via Crewe or because at one time it continued to Crewe. Pre-nationalisation companies tried to keep traffic on their own metals as much as possible. The GWR could extend the train via Wellington and Market Drayton to Nantwich to Crewe: only at Nantwich would the traffic leave GWR metals for foreign ones. Pre-nationalisation habits with such things as routing continued long into BR days.