West of England line timetable and calling patterns before 2009

[SWRtrainfan]

What was the frequency of trains west of Salisbury on the West of England line like before 2009? I know that the current hourly Exeter service only became possible because of the installation of the Axminster loop then and that before that it was an irregular service, but what exactly was it?

Also I know that the services ran beyond Exeter to Paignton, Plymouth and Penzance. Was the calling pattern between Salisbury and Exeter different to what it is today?

Thanks

 

[Big Jumby 74]

I am one of several on here who was involved back in those years, and long before also, but to prevent any old fart memories getting things wrong, I would advise you look in on Timetableworld.com and purchase a down loadable GBTT pdf for any given year from that period. Did so myself the other day for a tenner, well worth it for research in to my own travels back then.

 

[hexagon789]

What was the frequency of trains west of Salisbury on the West of England line like before 2009? I know that the current hourly Exeter service only became possible because of the installation of the Axminster loop then and that before that it was an irregular service, but what exactly was it?

Also I know that the services ran beyond Exeter to Paignton, Plymouth and Penzance. Was the calling pattern between Salisbury and Exeter different to what it is today?

Thanks

Going by the 2008 timetable it was an hourly XX:20, which was either through to Exeter St Davids or in the case of the 1120, 1320 and 1520, terminated at Yeovil Jcn and an hourly XX:50 to Salisbury, some of which went to Gillingham or Yeovil. The 1920 terminated at Honiton instead of Exeter Mon-Thurs.

For extensions beyond Exeter:
The 0720 and 1420 went to Paignton.
The 1020 and 1220 went to Plymouth.

The 0920, 1220 and 1920 also had Bristol TM portions.

Stopping pattern on the XX:20s was Clapham Jcn, Woking, Basingstoke, Andover, Salisbury then all stations Tisbury to Exeter St Davids except the 0920, 1420 and 1720 which omitted all three of Feniton, Whimple and Pinhoe.

There were slightly more extensions on weekends, including one to Penzance on a Saturday.

 

[TheWalrus]

What was the frequency of trains west of Salisbury on the West of England line like before 2009? I know that the current hourly Exeter service only became possible because of the installation of the Axminster loop then and that before that it was an irregular service, but what exactly was it?

Also I know that the services ran beyond Exeter to Paignton, Plymouth and Penzance. Was the calling pattern between Salisbury and Exeter different to what it is today?

Thanks

From memory I believe it was hourly Waterloo-Yeovil Junction, with 2-hourly extensions to Exeter, Paignton or Plymouth. Penzance was once per week down on a Saturday back on the Sunday. There was also a 2-hourly Honiton/Axminster-Exeter shuttle which called at all stations except St James Park. Waterloo-Exeter services IIRC largely went non-stop Honiton-Exeter Central. Cranbrook hadnt opened then. Other than the above the calling pattern was largely the same as today, but no skip-stopping Feniton/Whimple. Hope this helps!

 

[Acathater]

What was the frequency of trains west of Salisbury on the West of England line like before 2009? I know that the current hourly Exeter service only became possible because of the installation of the Axminster loop then and that before that it was an irregular service, but what exactly was it?

Also I know that the services ran beyond Exeter to Paignton, Plymouth and Penzance. Was the calling pattern between Salisbury and Exeter different to what it is today?

Thanks

How far do you want to go back? It was rather different when the trains were locomotive-powered

 

[SWRtrainfan]

How far do you want to go back? It was rather different when the trains were locomotive-powered

Just the period immediately before the hourly Exeter service was introduced, not that long back.

Going by the 2008 timetable it was an hourly XX:20, which was either through to Exeter St Davids or in the case of the 1120, 1320 and 1520, terminated at Yeovil Jcn and an hourly XX:50 to Salisbury, some of which went to Gillingham or Yeovil. The 1920 terminated at Honiton instead of Exeter Mon-Thurs.

For extensions beyond Exeter:
The 0720 and 1420 went to Paignton.
The 1020 and 1220 went to Plymouth.

The 0920, 1220 and 1920 also had Bristol TM portions.

Stopping pattern on the XX:20s was Clapham Jcn, Woking, Basingstoke, Andover, Salisbury then all stations Tisbury to Exeter St Davids except the 0920, 1420 and 1720 which omitted all three of Feniton, Whimple and Pinhoe.

There were slightly more extensions on weekends, including one to Penzance on a Saturday.

From memory I believe it was hourly Waterloo-Yeovil Junction, with 2-hourly extensions to Exeter, Paignton or Plymouth. Penzance was once per week down on a Saturday back on the Sunday. There was also a 2-hourly Honiton/Axminster-Exeter shuttle which called at all stations except St James Park. Waterloo-Exeter services IIRC largely went non-stop Honiton-Exeter Central. Cranbrook hadnt opened then. Other than the above the calling pattern was largely the same as today, but no skip-stopping Feniton/Whimple. Hope this helps!

Thanks a lot, much appreciated.

 

[louis97]

What was the frequency of trains west of Salisbury on the West of England line like before 2009? I know that the current hourly Exeter service only became possible because of the installation of the Axminster loop then and that before that it was an irregular service, but what exactly was it?

Also I know that the services ran beyond Exeter to Paignton, Plymouth and Penzance. Was the calling pattern between Salisbury and Exeter different to what it is today?

Thanks

I have attached a timetable from December 2008. I'll let you look at the detail, but typically hourly between Yeovil and Waterloo (with extras in the peak and the odd one during the day), West of Yeovil there was a bit more variation with a small number of shuttles between Exeter and Axminster/Honiton in the morning and afternoon.

 

[Route115?]

In the 70s I believe that there was a two hourly service loco hauled (Class 33 before 50s took over) between Waterloo & Exeter, reasonably clock face in the down direction, less so Up. In addition there was a two hourly DEMU service betwen Salisbury & Reading with a connection to Waterloo at Basingstoke. There were additional peak services to and from Waterloo - there was a hybrod traction 33/1 + 4TC + 8 Vep (or Cig, I forget) that left Waterloo around 18:05 and possibiy extra trains west of Salisbury.

As a matter of interest the 33/1 +4 TC worked a couple of Waterloo - Olympia shuttles before their Salisbury working (no Overground in those days).

My memories is rather hazy though - it was 50 years ago.

 

[nw1]

In the 70s I believe that there was a two hourly service loco hauled (Class 33 before 50s took over) between Waterloo & Exeter, reasonably clock face in the down direction, less so Up. In addition there was a two hourly DEMU service betwen Salisbury & Reading with a connection to Waterloo at Basingstoke. There were additional peak services to and from Waterloo - there was a hybrod traction 33/1 + 4TC + 8 Vep (or Cig, I forget) that left Waterloo around 18:05 and possibiy extra trains west of Salisbury.

As a matter of interest the 33/1 +4 TC worked a couple of Waterloo - Olympia shuttles before their Salisbury working (no Overground in those days).

My memories is rather hazy though - it was 50 years ago.

The typical 80s timetable was xx10 out of Waterloo, alternating between Exeter and Salisbury. The Exeters were 50-hauled + earlier Mk-II and departed on the odd-hours, retaining the steam-era pattern of odd-hour services on the hour.

The Salisburys used 33s and many were push-pull with 4TC or 8TC and left on the even hours. In addition, one or two workings used the Southampton boat train sets (there's a discussion on this from around, IIRC, October 2024 on here somewhere).

Up services were much less clockface, constrained by the single-line working and presumably conflicts at Exeter.

In the 70s the 33-hauled services left on the hour odd hours (the classic steam-era pattern), I believe the move to 50s occurred in 1980 and led to an acceleration hence the move to xx10.

1991 had an erratic service mostly less than hourly but with a significant peak ramp-up; from my understanding there were some reliability problems in this period. Between 0900 and 1900 there was: 1000 Salisbury; 1100, 1315 and 1515 Exeter; 1615 Yeovil; 1655 Exeter; 1730 Yeovil and 1815 Exeter.

When 159s came in (May 1993) the pattern moved to xx35 but still with the alternating-hour service. Even hours went to Exeter or occasionally beyond, odd hours terminated variously at Tisbury, Gillingham or Yeovil.

At some point between 1999 and 2004 an additional xx03 service to Salisbury was added every hour. Some of these were single 2-car 170s. By the Dec 2003 timetable, the xx35 left at xx33 and mostly remained 1tp2h to Exeter in the even hours and Gillingham/Yeovil terminators in the odd hours, though the 1133 extended to Plymouth.

The recent (1994 onwards) timetables can be found via Network Rail working timetables (section WG) downloadable from Network Rail. 1982 is available from Timetable World as a free download of the GBPTT as are 1965 (?) and 1973 within Western Region timetables.