VXC Ramsgate Routing

[Eagle]

In the first couple of years of Virgin Trains there was a summer Saturday service to Ramsgate from varying northern destinations. The calling pattern was, I believe:

[as today from Birmingham]
Reading
Kensington Olympia
Bromley South
Chatham
Faversham
Margate
Ramsgate

I can't work out how to get a train from the West London Line to the Chatham Mainline like that, without reversals at Clapham Junction etc. How was it routed?

 

[matt]

The route is in this topic http://railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=48419&highlight=deltic+ramsgate

 

[atomicdanny]

In the first couple of years of Virgin Trains there was a summer Saturday service to Ramsgate from varying northern destinations. The calling pattern was, I believe:

[as today from Birmingham]
Reading
Kensington Olympia
Bromley South
Chatham
Faversham
Margate
Ramsgate

I can't work out how to get a train from the West London Line to the Chatham Mainline like that, without reversals at Clapham Junction etc. How was it routed?

There is a line that connects from the West London Line to the Chatham Main Line , it goes underneath the SWML, it is used by freight I believe at the moment?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Actually this service began as a daily (SuX) cross-country service in about 1985, running from Liverpool to Dover via Birmingham, Reading, Kensington O and Factory Jn to the Chatham main line.
In Kent it initially ran via Bromley South, Chatham and Canterbury East to Dover Marine.
Later it ran to Dover Priory and Folkestone Central, then ECS to Ashford for servicing.
On summer Saturdays it sometimes carried on from Ashford via Tonbridge and Orpington to Bromley South, forming a big loop through Kent.
Eventually the Saturday runs were diverted to Ramsgate.
Then the weekday runs turned round at Reading, leaving just the summer Saturday runs to Ramsgate (from Birmingham, via the WCML).

For several years I used it occasionally from Reading to Folkestone as a "grand tour" of Kent (without the trouble of negotiating London termini) in order to view progress on the Channel Tunnel.
A much missed train.
Southbound it ran close to the morning Manchester-Brighton train, now also no more.
Using these trains you could buy a Travelcard at Reading and decant an hour later at Bromley South or East Croydon with no bother at all, unlike today.

 

[43106]

I'm doing this off the top of my head, but IIRC, circa 1992, there was a Mon-Fri service to Dover, calling at Canterbury East and Faversham, but on Sat OR Sun, it ran to Eastbourne.

 

[NSEFAN]

The 1S76 website details the history of the Southern Region XC services.

 

[swt_passenger]

There is a line that connects from the West London Line to the Chatham Main Line , it goes underneath the SWML, it is used by freight I believe at the moment?

...and there's always the daily Wandsworth Rd to Kenny O and return parliamentary service, operated by SN to avoid DfT's embarrassment about their treatment of the former XC routes...

 

[junglejames]

Without looking at the other threads linked, during VXC days it wasnt routed via Reading Southbound. Its came south down the WCML, then the West London Line.
Northbound it went via Reading and Oxford. When it was hauled by D9000, the Deltic would detach at Birmingham, with the train continuing to Edinburgh. Was only a Summer Saturday turn as far back as I can remember.