Great Western Coffee Shop

Pardon me if I have missed something that happened a while ago, but looking in detail and current timetables I noticed that all the named trains ( Cornish Riviera, Golden Hind, etc) with the exception of the Night Riviera seem to have vanished. When did this happen?

The only named train shown in the December 2019 D timetbale is the Night Riviera.

Exactly, when did all the others get scrapped?

They are still shown in the May 2017 timetable and although I do not have a 2018 timetable in front of me, the change was almost certainly in December 2019 when the timetable was recast to give a regular stopping pattern for most services to Plymouth/Penzance.  I believe Virgin did the same with their named trains on both XC and West Coast back in the 2000s.

Wouldn’t surprise me if Great British Railways bring named trains back. Useful for marketing purposes IMHO.

There are others in the NRTT. For instance in table 125, you'll see that the 1048 from Paddington has a note reading "The Saint David. (dining symbol) to Cardiff Central (trolley symbol) from Cardiff Central".

Another step towards mediocrity. Train length, comfort and facilities are in my view of greater importance than names, but this is still a small backward step.

Still, the occasion seems to have passed un noticed for a long time, even by an informed community such as ours...........

Are we ready for...
"The World-beating Cheltenham Flyer"
"The Amazing Cornish Riviera"
"The Fantastic Golden Hind"
"The Great Welshman" and
"The Incredible Cornishman"?


....

"The Marvellous Missing Morning Melksham Marauder"

Now there's an idea. How about naming each train service on a line ... I could add the surname, but I guess I should check first - notable people who have been significant in bringing the services forward (folks I have worked alongside) might include Lee, Phil, Duncan, Gordon, Peter, David, Stephen and Paul ...

Which timetables are you looking at? As jamestheredengine has pointed out, there are still names in the footnotes to the electronic National Rail Timetable. Specifically:

Table 125: The Saint David, The Cheltenham Spa Express, Y Cymro/The Welshman, The Red Dragon, The Bristolian, "The Capitals United"*.

Table 126: The Cathedrals Express, Cotswolds and Malvern Express (wot no "The"?)

Table 135: The Night Riviera, The Devon Express, The Torbay Express, The Cornish Riviera, The Mayflower, The Royal Duchy, The Golden Hind, The Armada, The Cornishman

What more do you want? Twenty years ago, there was no Y Cymro/The Welshman, but there was The Pembroke Coast Express. We have now lost The Atlantic Coast Express, The Devon Scot, the Cornish Scot, and The Devonian, gaining the Devon Express and Cotswolds and Malvern Express. Of course some of those are rather cheeky - The Devon Express takes 2h 27m to Exeter St Davids, so is far from the fastest train: the 6:37 takes only 2h 7m!

Or if, you want the names to be more visible, how long is it since any of the named trains was named anywhere other than in footnotes in the National Rail Timetable (any medium)?

*Sic. Since all these names have capitals, shouldn't this be "The Quotation Marks United"?

'Drekley Limited' anyone?

"The Flying Scotsman" - from Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen airports to Heathrow!  ;)

That's the current Saturday and Sunday service from Paddington to the Far West service!

Of course some trains have names of their own - you may have seen Patrick at the 40th anniversary do last week. Though oddly, when Patrick retired in February last year it was after 41 years of service ...

With "The Jethro", we'd know the calling pattern... ;)