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Journey by Journey => London to the Cotswolds => Topic started by: SandTEngineer on April 11, 2020, 15:32:37



Title: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: SandTEngineer on April 11, 2020, 15:32:37
As we have been comparing old timetables in other topics.  Here is my offering for the 1972 Cotswold Line timetable.  Bet you can't squeeze it all on one page now...

(http://cbrailways.co.uk/PhotoAlbumsPro/1379866239/1972%20Worcester%20Timetable.jpg?cache=0.8197379002475034)


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: IndustryInsider on April 11, 2020, 16:47:14
What a terrible service - no wonder there was a threat of closure.  I bet it was standing room only on the 04:25 Worcester Shrub Hill to Moreton train!  Presumably it carried mail and goods as well?


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: stuving on April 11, 2020, 16:56:08
What a terrible service - no wonder there was a threat of closure.  I bet it was standing room only on the 04:25 Worcester Shrub Hill to Moreton train!  Presumably it carried mail and goods as well?

Which didn't come first - no commuters or no commuter trains?


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: IndustryInsider on April 11, 2020, 17:01:52
I didn’t realise Pershore had just the one train a day each way back then.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: SandTEngineer on April 11, 2020, 17:12:50
I used to enjoy travelling down on the 1205 off Paddington.  Hymek on the front with 8-10 coaches on (including buffet car).  Train divided at Worcester Shrub Hill, and Hymek and three coaches forward to Hereford.  It was a lovely thrash at 70mph plus on jointed track down the gradient (not hill) from Colwill to Ledbury and through the hop fields to Hereford, with the Hymek Diesel-Hydraulic engine making a lovely sound.  Oh such happy days ;D

One day I was determined to visit Ascott-under-Wychwood to photograph the signalbox and level crossing there.  I do remember having to walk the 4 miles from Charlbury and back, to do that.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: CyclingSid on April 11, 2020, 17:21:47
Couldn't you have stuck a bike in the guard's compartment?


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: SandTEngineer on April 11, 2020, 17:22:36
What a terrible service - no wonder there was a threat of closure.  I bet it was standing room only on the 04:25 Worcester Shrub Hill to Moreton train!  Presumably it carried mail and goods as well?

Yes, and look at the 3 hour mid-afternoon gap in both directions....


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: SandTEngineer on April 11, 2020, 18:44:24
I didn’t realise Pershore had just the one train a day each way back then.

Very useful service for commuters from Pershore to Worcester and back if you worked 9-5.  Hard luck if you didn't. ::)


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: JontyMort on April 11, 2020, 22:08:00
I didn’t realise Pershore had just the one train a day each way back then.

Very useful service for commuters from Pershore to Worcester and back if you worked 9-5.  Hard luck if you didn't. ::)

And hard luck if you worked anywhere else.

When did Handborough become Hanborough?


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: grahame on April 11, 2020, 22:17:00
When did Handborough become Hanborough?

"On 28 September 1992 the station was renamed Hanborough" according to WikiPedia, referencing  Bird, John H. (January 2005). "Operation Hope Not". Steam World (211): 16–22.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: JontyMort on April 11, 2020, 22:40:10
When did Handborough become Hanborough?

"On 28 September 1992 the station was renamed Hanborough" according to WikiPedia, referencing  Bird, John H. (January 2005). "Operation Hope Not". Steam World (211): 16–22.

Well, well. I suppose it’s better than “Woodstock and Witney Parkway”.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: didcotdean on April 11, 2020, 23:13:49
GWR had a habit of picking a lesser used variant of place name spelling and this one persisted a long time. Didcot was another example of this habit as Dudcote was the marginally preferred local.name for the village. The railway eventually won out that time although Dudcote was still in use at least into the 1910s.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: jdw.wor on April 12, 2020, 09:15:15
Does anyone have a timetable for when the original and now closed stations were still served?


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: grahame on April 12, 2020, 10:05:24
Does anyone have a timetable for when the original and now closed stations were still served?

From 1949; these may not have scanned too well (black on ageing yellow original) ... if you view each image in a separate window, you may find them more readable as I have uploaded higher resolution to give you best chance, then ask the browser to resize for initial display.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/nc49_1.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/nc49_2.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/nc49_3.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/nc49_4.jpg)


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: Robin Summerhill on April 12, 2020, 11:43:05
Couldn't you have stuck a bike in the guard's compartment?

Didn't you still have to pay a fare for bikes in 1972? You certainly did in the 60s because I paid to take mine on a few occasions.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: PhilWakely on April 12, 2020, 12:26:53
Couldn't you have stuck a bike in the guard's compartment?

Didn't you still have to pay a fare for bikes in 1972? You certainly did in the 60s because I paid to take mine on a few occasions.

I took a little Puch Maxi moped with me from Exeter to Bath, when I was at University in 1976. I didn't have to pay for it and the guard didn't bat an eyelid when loading into the guard's compartment (it had a full tank of 2-stroke as well)!.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: Oxonhutch on April 12, 2020, 15:32:50
When I was at Uni my bicycle travelled for free in the guard's van - and on a packed end-of-term train, it would often be my seat home - it beat standing up! Change at Birmingham New Street where I got to know the cavernous ramp and subway system linking the various platforms - I'm quite sure I wasn't supposed to actually cycle it but I did. Snow and ice on a journey back to Uni in 1980 forced me and my 125cc motorbike on to a train at Crewe for the rest of the journey south and I recall the fare was half the adult price, further reduced for having a Student Rail Card.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: jdw.wor on April 12, 2020, 17:27:15
Many thanks Grahame. Timetables very interesting. A Sunday shift at Shrub Hill was not too demanding!!


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: grahame on April 12, 2020, 20:19:46
As far as I can tell, cycles were charged for in 1971-2 and free of charge in 1976.   Kinda hard thing to research / find online.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: stuving on April 12, 2020, 20:43:16
As far as I can tell, cycles were charged for in 1971-2 and free of charge in 1976.   Kinda hard thing to research / find online.

There was a trial offer of free carriage, using tickets you had to write in for, from 1 June 1977. Then the ticketing was dropped ("after applications for more than 40,000 tickets had been handled") for the rest of the trial period. In October it was announced that free carriage would resume "on the same basis as during this summer's offer".

Correction: the offer was due to finish on 30th September, and the continuation was announced on that day. This was of course for carriage in guard's vans.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: Oxonhutch on April 12, 2020, 20:56:05
My first such free carriage was in October 1978. One suitcase (no wheels) on each handlebar. Couldn't ride the bike, but it was better than carrying the lot. No parental taxi in those days  ;D

 


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: Richard Fairhurst on April 16, 2020, 10:49:18
Here's a poster I have up on my wall from 1966. It christens Charlbury as "the new rail centre for north west Oxfordshire". Maybe I should post a copy to the North Cotswold Line Task Force...  ;D


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: IndustryInsider on April 16, 2020, 11:03:56
A much improved service for Combe, Finstock and Ascott back then.   :D


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: brompton rail on April 16, 2020, 15:01:10
I didn’t realise Pershore had just the one train a day each way back then.

Very useful service for commuters from Pershore to Worcester and back if you worked 9-5.  Hard luck if you didn't. ::)

I do recall travelling, probably in the mid sixties, overnight on the Postal from Sheffield to Worcester Shrub Hill. Changed there onto the 04.20 to Pershore. From there we(myself and wife) intended to walk the two and a half miles to Wick, beyond Pershore. However the Post Van stopped and offered us a lift to Pershore PO which was gratefully accepted. He had, of course, seen us alight from the train, the only passengers, at the station. And, yes, it did carry the post!

None of that could happen today of course - no overnight trains, no postal trains, no likelihood of a lift in Post Office van ....... ah! Well, the good old days😁


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: Witham Bobby on April 17, 2020, 13:09:44
A much improved service for Combe, Finstock and Ascott back then.   :D

There was a spell during 1973/4/5/6 when the BR(WR) London Division tried to put on a much better service extending out from Oxford to just over the Divisional Boundary at Moreton-in-Marsh.  A single car DMU would make, I think, five round trips per day shuttling between the two stations, calling everywhere.

As a signalman at Moreton in Marsh it made the job a bit more interesting.  The bubble car would have to be crossed from arriving at the Down platform, ready to depart on the return run from the Up.  The 0550 from Oxford ran ECS to Moreton in Marsh (although it did carry news), arrived in the Down platform, crossed over to the Up Main, then reversed into the sidings that had been the Shipston Bay.  It departed after a lesiurely filling of the tea can from the signalbox kettle, at 0702 back to Oxford.  I used to put it in the Up platform to depart, but both the other regulars at Moreton couldn't be arsed to do it properly and let it go from the Shipston platform towards Oxford.  Dodgy move, tbh, with unlocked trap point leading out onto the Up Main.

I always used the crossover to cross the unit.  Both the other signalmen tended to block-back to Evesham, draw a token, and use the single to double line connection at the country end of the layout to cross the DMU

Once, when the 0555 (or something) from Hereford was hauled by Class 31 "power", and had to be assisted Evesham - Moreton in Marsh by a loco pinched off the daily Long Marston trip, I had this express (horribly late), it's assisting loco, the 0700 Oxford to Worcester DMU, the bubble car, and a down engineers' train in the Down Refuge Siding all at once.  Five separate trains.  I think that was the record for the post-singling layout at Moreton in Marsh.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: Witham Bobby on April 17, 2020, 13:14:27
Many thanks Grahame. Timetables very interesting. A Sunday shift at Shrub Hill was not too demanding!!

Up until the time of the works on the Badminton route for HSTs in 1974, the 'boxes between Evesham and Ascott-under-Wychwood did a split-shift on the Sunday, worked by the late-turn Saturday man.

There'd be one train in each direction in the morning (the up one was 1015 off Worcester Shrub Hill, I recall) and then you'd go home and return in time for something like the 1615 off Worcester Shrub Hill

BR was a bit careful with spending the double-time wages


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: Witham Bobby on April 17, 2020, 13:19:03
I didn’t realise Pershore had just the one train a day each way back then.

Very useful service for commuters from Pershore to Worcester and back if you worked 9-5.  Hard luck if you didn't. ::)

I do recall travelling, probably in the mid sixties, overnight on the Postal from Sheffield to Worcester Shrub Hill. Changed there onto the 04.20 to Pershore. From there we(myself and wife) intended to walk the two and a half miles to Wick, beyond Pershore. However the Post Van stopped and offered us a lift to Pershore PO which was gratefully accepted. He had, of course, seen us alight from the train, the only passengers, at the station. And, yes, it did carry the post!

None of that could happen today of course - no overnight trains, no postal trains, no likelihood of a lift in Post Office van ....... ah! Well, the good old days😁

That 0425 was a 3-car Swindon DMU, with mail bags loaded in the passenger compartments.  The postmen would descend on Evesham to unload their bags at ungodly o'clock.  I think this also stopped at Pershore to drop off mail, and also brought a much smaller volume of mail to Moreton in Marsh.

The DMU would sit in the Up platform at Moreton-in-Marsh for just about an hour, whilst the driver and guard would come up in the signalbox for a cup of tea and a setting-to-rights of the entire world, before forming the 0602 to Oxford, and back to Worcester as the 0700 from Oxford to Foregate Street.


Title: Re: 1972 Cotswold Line Timetable
Post by: Witham Bobby on July 01, 2020, 16:11:56
Here's a poster I have up on my wall from 1966. It christens Charlbury as "the new rail centre for north west Oxfordshire". Maybe I should post a copy to the North Cotswold Line Task Force...  ;D

This timetable is obviously a product of the silo mentality that existed between the divisions of BR(WR).  It doesn't actually show the full (what we nowadays call) Cotswold Line service,  It omits the Worcester to Stratford upon Avon (and beyond) trains that still ran via Evesham and Honeybourne until 1969  Charlbury fell into the London Division, whereas Worcester, Evesham and Honeybourne were run from Bristol, in what had become, by then, I think, the West of England Division.  There were such petty and stupid rivalries between divisions, I always felt.



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