Trivia: Stops You Wouldn't Expect

[tiptoptaff]

The Rhubarb Curve (section of line Between North Som Jcn and Dr Days Jcn), to which you refer in reference to 2R98 isn't overly rare. It is used for South Wales HST diversions to avoid Temple Meads when they run fast SWI-BPW via Box Tunnel.

 

[nw1]

Both the locals stop at coseley. Presumably its to give the 3 busier stations at least 3tph with the Shrewsbury stopping at sandwell and 1 Liverpool stopping at smethwick gb and 1 at coseley in addition to the stoppers

Still maybe a bit odd for an inter-city (lower case I, lower case C) Birmingham to Liverpool service stopping at somewhere which is not a major town - but I can see the point about congestion on the line necessitating longer-distance services stopping there without the paths for more locals.

Maybe when the timetable is re-jigged with the new Birmingham-Stoke-Crewe service they could make one of the Liverpools a major-stops-only intercity style service? (e.g. Wolverhampton, Stafford, Crewe, Runcorn, Liverpool South Parkway and Lime St only?) and get the other Liverpool to take all the smaller stops?

 

[A0]

2245 Wolverhampton to Euston that calls at Northampton

Probably done to maintain route knowledge for Virgin's drivers as the Northampton loop is used when there are problems on the Weedon line.

Same reason EMT have a couple of trains which run beyond Corby and through Oakham to Syston.

 

[Statto]

Not all that long ago there was a late LM service that called at stations between Liverpool South Parkway and Lime Street and I think there still is an EMT service which effectively forms a Hope Valley stopping service between Stockport and Sheffield.

I remember the Central Trains era the first Liverpool-Birmingham service of the day calling at Mossley Hill, which i always thought was weird.

Nowadays Liverpool-Birmingham as already mentioned Coseley, then the other Liverpool-Birmingham service stops at Smethwick Galton Bridge instead

 

[Clansman]

Ladybank is ridiculously overserved. Has under 100k passengers a year, in a tiny village, yet is served by mainly a 2tph service to Edinburgh. Add that to regular links to Dundee, Perth, and services to Inverness and big cities in England.

The latter two cities would justify and benefit from being served by XC far greater than what Ladybank currently does.

 

[Jim Jehosofat]

When it was in use did any passenger services stop at Hoo jct staff halt? - or was it just ECS?

If my memory is correct, if you weren't booked to stop at Higham you stopped at the halt and v.v.

 

[LowLevel]

Liverpools and Shrewsburys all used to be fast. Shrewsbury picked up Coseley originally in about 2005/6 and one of the stoppers skipped it. This then moved to a Liverpool and Shrewsbury picked up Sandwell. Then Smethwick GB was introduced on the the second Liverpool, the Coseley stop also went back into the local and ATW also picked up Smethwick ostensibly to improve Jewellery line connections. LM then helpfully reduced Smethwick GB to an unmanned halt for half the day later on.

 

[infobleep]

I don't know if this would count but the 20:00, 21:00 and 22:00 Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour services stop at both Farncombe and Godalming. The first of those, departs Farncombe at 20:40, just 9 minutes after the 20:31 to Portsmouth and Southsea. It will be faster of course as it overtakes that service.

Each hour trains depart from Farncombe at roughly 00 and 30 minutes past the hour, in addition to the 40 mins.

Before 20:00 Waterloo departure you only get 2 trains an hour. You'd think they'd be more call to stop at those station during the evening peak than after 20:00.

The timetable is changing in December so these may well go.

 

[Right Away]

GWR run one train a day (Mondays to Fridays) from Southampton Central to Fareham via Eastleigh, with one in the opposite direction as well, for crew route knowledge retention purposes.
The 2M95 21:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Westbury service has booked calls at Eastleigh and Southampton Airport Parkway. The 1F99 19:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour service has booked calls at Southampton Airport Parkway, Eastleigh, Hedge End and Botley, plugging a gap in the SWR service pattern south of Eastleigh.

 

[Parallel]

I’m not sure if it’s still the same now but there was an afternoon train on the Hereford - Birmingham New Street route that stopped at Barnt Green.

 

[class303]

Probably done to maintain route knowledge for Virgin's drivers as the Northampton loop is used when there are problems on the Weedon line.

Same reason EMT have a couple of trains which run beyond Corby and through Oakham to Syston.

Aye, it's exactly the reason for the early morning and late evening Virgin via Northampton. Pick up/Set down only call as well iirc.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The Paddington to Weston-Super-Nightmare services which call(ed?) at Weston Milton always seemed odd to me.

 

[STKKK46]

I’m not sure if it’s still the same now but there was an afternoon train on the Hereford - Birmingham New Street route that stopped at Barnt Green.

Two I believe.. they’re designed for work/school traffic from Redditch/Alvechurch/Barnt Green to Bromsgrove and beyond. This of course may well change when Bromsgrove gets its proper service.

 

[DanTrain]

Not all that long ago there was a late LM service that called at stations between Liverpool South Parkway and Lime Street and I think there still is an EMT service which effectively forms a Hope Valley stopping service between Stockport and Sheffield.

Indeed there is, both the 1st and the last train down the Hope Valley is operated by EMT. I presume it’s an operational convenience that saves Northern a pacer, but is does clog up the EMT route map and seem a bit unnecessary.

 

[DasLunatic]

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/L21252/2018/01/22/advanced

This train runs express from Stratford to Hatfield Peverel, of all places...

 

[Westcombe]

I used to commute from Bexhill to Victoria for a short while. In the evening, one could change at Hampden Park and catch an eastbound train, getting to Bexhill 20 minutes before the train that I had got off on its way to Eastbourne.

 

[backontrack]

The first southbound VTEC from north of Newcastle has a 'normal' stopping pattern to York, then only calls at Retford between York and London - I don't think there's any other services that are fast from Retford to London (or from York to Retford for that matter).

What's more:

a) that service starts at Berwick
b) it's the only VTEC service to serve Retford but not Doncaster

 

[fowler9]

Not all that long ago there was a late LM service that called at stations between Liverpool South Parkway and Lime Street

I'm not sure that is right. I live right by West Allerton Station and it never stopped there.

 

[northwichcat]

I'm not sure that is right. I live right by West Allerton Station and it never stopped there.

The last northbound train of the day stopped there between something like the 2008 timetable change and the 2013 timetable change.

 

[fowler9]

The last northbound train of the day stopped there between something like the 2008 timetable change and the 2013 timetable change.

Fair play mate, I honestly don't recall it.

 

[nw1]

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/L21252/2018/01/22/advanced

This train runs express from Stratford to Hatfield Peverel, of all places...

I guess that's only like peak trains that run non-stop to Brookwood, presumably because a Woking stop would either cause overcrowding, pathing issues or both.

 

[A Challenge]

Times depature from Waterloo

As well as the three that do that (17:41, 18:12 and 18:41) there is also two stop West Byfleet trains (17:53 and 18:46) that continues all stations to Portsmouth Harbour and three semi-fast trains that skip Brookwood (17:25, the 18:32 that stops all stations except Brookwood on Surbiton to Basingstoke, for 'stops you'd expect to be there' and the 17:53 (which is also first stop West Byfleet)

 

[LowLevel]

Indeed there is, both the 1st and the last train down the Hope Valley is operated by EMT. I presume it’s an operational convenience that saves Northern a pacer, but is does clog up the EMT route map and seem a bit unnecessary.

It's all to do with the messy splitting of Regional Railways as ever.

Basically Manchester to Sheffield is a North Western route crewed by Manchester Piccadilly based ex Regional Railways North West/First North Western etc crews. Sheffield Northern depot is ex Regional Railways North East/Arriva Trains Northern and they were never harmonised and so don't cover each other's routes and services. There's one through train from Adwick to Manchester that runs in the afternoon to move units from East to West but that has a crew change at Sheffield.

Therefore to avoid crews having to be taxied about Central Trains/East Midlands Trains have in one way or another operated the first local train to and last train from Manchester for many years.

Fair play mate, I honestly don't recall it.

There used to be stops at Mossley Hill but I don't recall any calling at West Allerton.

 

[fowler9]

There used to be stops at Mossley Hill but I don't recall any calling at West Allerton.

I remember Central Trains stopping at Mossley Hill but not West Allerton. That was like peak hour leaving Liverpool.

 

[Julia]

I recall an early morning (0400-ish) PBO-KGX used to put in a stop at Hadley Wood. The current 2P99 misses out Sandy but stops at most shacks on the Hertford loop, plus Hornsey.

 

[Confused147]

You know its summer and its a Saturday when you see a XC stopped at Dawlish Warren

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

In the last days of Intercity an evening Manchester Piccadilly to London Paddington (via Oxford) called at Bramhall. Presumably an evening peak buster, although I don’t recall seeing many pax use it!

Similarly on summer SO the 0605 Newquay-Manchester called at Quintrell Downs but none of the other local stops on the branch. This represented the only local journey possible on a summer SO as all the stoppers were cancelled and no other IC services called between Par and Newquay. No idea why that one called - something to do with Butlins staff perhaps?

The 0600 Portsmouth Hbr-Cardiff Central used to call all stations to Fareham (or was it Southampton?) until a few years ago.

 

[gg1]

For a while in the late 80s, one Brum-Poole service per day used to call at Marston Green which struck me as rather odd at the time.

 

[frodshamfella]

The Liverpool - Birmingham services which stop at Coseley

I actually used that today, I went Acton Bridge to Coseley . I was going for a work meeting nearby as was another fella I spoke to, but I think we were the only ones that got off ! Smethick Gorton Bridge is another station I wonder why Liverpool - Birmingham stops at.

 

[tsr]

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/L21252/2018/01/22/advanced

This train runs express from Stratford to Hatfield Peverel, of all places...

It's sometimes annoyed me that I haven't ever managed to time my journey to catch that service, as I occasionally have reasons to travel from Stratford direct to Hatfield Peverel!

Similarly on summer SO the 0605 Newquay-Manchester called at Quintrell Downs but none of the other local stops on the branch. This represented the only local journey possible on a summer SO as all the stoppers were cancelled and no other IC services called between Par and Newquay. No idea why that one called - something to do with Butlins staff perhaps?

Aren't there one or two quirks of signalling on that route which require trains to stop within the station limits of one station or another? I seem to recall it may be something to do with exchanging tokens or otherwise awaiting access to / exit from the line.

Could be that Quintrell Downs is the location I'm thinking of...

EDIT: No, I don't think it is. But then again it is one of the few branches I've never needed to use in that area. Oh well.