1S76 came up "on this day" - and a fond memory of one of Lisa's early visits to the UK in - gosh - it must have been summer 1997.   She flew into Gatwick and was taking the train to Hatton to join (son) Chris, and a group of half a dozen teenagers on a narrow boat at the top of the locks.   Trains caught had her going via Victoria and Marylebone (not directed to "1S76") and Royal Leamington Spa where she asked where the train for Hatton was ... rather sadly, the staff misheard / misunderstood and directed her to a long wait for the train .. to Brighton; from the southbound platform, she watched the Stratford / Birmingham train shuttle in and out for several hours before it twigged.   By this time, my teenage party - who had helped me up the flight that morning - had recovered from the exertions and were getting bored to the extend that they were making shadow patterns in spit on the dry tarmac as the station as we watched each incoming train arriving up the hill to see if Lisa was on it an to get steadily more concerned as to where the heck she was!

 
There's certainly a case for SW trains to Southfields during the Wimbledon fortnight - maybe the AELTC can stump up some of the funding required to maintain mainline services after future resignalling?  (I'm fairly certain they can afford it!)  At other times, it would just be a very useful link to Wandsworth/Clapham/Vauxhall/Waterloo, even if the service only started at Wimbledon Park, avoiding the crossing issue you cite.

 

There's a chap suggesting this route as a solution to some SWML capacity issues in the latest 'Rail' mag (on the letters page); he reckons that a few main line slows should be diverted via this route into the International platforms.  But there's a major gap in his proposal, namely how to get the down line across to the down main slow somewhere between Wimbledon Park and Wimbledon.  Of course it needs yet another new flyover - which is basically why the route never got used for that purpose in the first place, and up trains would end up with two conflicting crossings of the down LU service...

Paul

 
In the order of ^20M

 
Thanks for the background.  I suspect that any prospects of regular mainline services finally went with the removal of the bridge over Putney mainline for Wandsworth bound trains.  (On a positive note, there aren't houses on the trackbed yet.)

 

Interesting points - I'd seen that traction power segregation project in the CP4 enhancement plan & updates - presumably not doing it (for the two relevant sections of the District anyway) saves quite a few ^millions given the sort of costs for this type of kit...

Paul

 

NR also provide all the traction power equipment, there was going to be a power supply segregation project so that NR London area conrail volts could be raise to 750 volts from the current 660 volts, to allow regen breaking and increased capacity on NR lines.   LU D stock can not handle the higher volts produced with regen peak of about 950 volts.  Common sense prevailed and the ORR agreed to delay the NR regen until the new LU S stock enters service; leaving only the Waterloo & City line needing any new equipment to be installed in NR's W'loo substation

 

Thread drift alarm sounds...

Yes - the East Putney to Wimbledon section wasn't 'sold' (and it was only a token amount apparently) to LU until around '95 in the run up to privatisation, and up until then the stations appeared to be BR run, but as you say with no service.  However even today the line is 'operated' by NR on behalf of LU, as the signalling is still to NR standards and controlled by Wimbledon ASC.  Oddly, the platforms in Wimbledon station used by LU are still owned by NR.  I'd be very surprised if NR weren't the responsible signalling maintainers as well - it would be unusual if there was a split responsibility.  Another oddity is that there are LU train stops on the stop signals, but SWT don't have the train borne equipment - that goes against the popular belief that mainline stock cannot operate on LU without trip cocks being fitted.

Nowadays SWT still have a couple of passenger services that run over the route, (albeit at pretty unsocial times), mainly for route retention purposes, but at my last count there were also about 7 or 8 ECS moves during the interpeak period.  The main practical reason being that a train leaving Waterloo and heading down the main slow line through Earlsfield is on the wrong side of the tracks to get into Wimbledon Park depot, whereas a down train via Wandswoth Town, then East Putney and Southfields etc can be fitted into LU's offpeak timetable with little problem and obviously no crossing conflicts.

Once in a while during engineering work SWT have run a fairly frequent mainline service over the East Putney route - indeed a couple of years ago I did the route both ways - and LU ran a reduced service to make space for the diversions.  There is a major question mark over SWT's access though as the route is almost certainly going to be resignalled as part of the sub surface lines upgrade by 2018, and with an LU style ATO system it is likely that SWT will no longer be welcome.

Paul

 

 

That brings back some memories from the early 90s.  When travelling home from school at weekends, from Oxford to Southfields (Underground, near Wimbledon), I once found a cross country train direct to Clapham Junction, so took it.  Going by the timetables in the above link, it must have been running late because I would have been leaving about Saturday lunchtime.  That would also explain why I never managed to catch it again.

Interestingly, back in those days, Southfields was also a BR station (I think it even had the BR logo outside) but it had no mainline services.  I presume this was because BR empties would use the East Putney-Wimbledon section.  So you could actually buy a ticket from e.g. Oxford direct to Southfields, to the surprise of many ticket staff!  This worked well until, one day, I found myself with a ticket to Southfields station that was not valid for use on the Underground!  (You can't make it up...)  Next time I bought the ticket, I simply asked the ticket office to append a '+' symbol after the destination.  Problem solved! 

 
I'd missed that post.

 

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=2016

 
Even better than XC services to from Places no longer served,

Who can recall a day out on BR's wonderful

MERRYMAKER

Services

 
Those rambling XC trains to all sorts of different S.E. destinations were one of the contributory factors to the poor punctuality of a a few years ago of trains in the the Thames Valley area. The trains had to cross so many other paths that one delay caused numerous knock on delays as used to be evidenced at Oxford Station with northbound trains being frequently late at Oxford.
Cutting out all these different routes to just Reading and Bournemouth has significantly reduced that problem but at the cost of reducing the number of direct train options for rail users.

 
The South Coast Cross Countrys were great favourites on Chris Green's  Network South East days. We used to catch the first Dover to Bromley South from Slough around 08:30 to start our day.

I've also done Lewes to Milton Keynes on the Eastbourne.

Of course in later years it was the 50's to Salisbury with a CC return from Basingstoke via Oxford.

Not on a Network day anyone remember the Deltic on the Ramsgate on summer Saturdays in Virgin days?. Did Bromley South Reading just for cost of Slough Reading add on to my season ticket. Clocked 106 at West Drayton.
 

 
Picked up a XC at Cheltenham in 1977 to discover one of the last turns of a Gresley buffet in the set. (they were withdrawn that year). I assume it was a Bristol to Newcastle...peak hauled.

Seem to recall a brief chat with the 'cheery' attendent, whilst buying a can of beer...'wow, how old is this coach then?' 'forty two mate'...'how much is the beer?' 'I just told you, forty two'.

Seems that was the answer to both questions. I got the feeling he was rather fed-up with the 'age of the train' question.

Grand run to York though!

 
No sign of Earl Grey tea ....

 
Sugar? No no no!

 

Are you not providing milk and sugar then? Remind me not to buy a cup of tea off you

 
Plus the overheads involved in getting it to the customer and serving it, of course.

 
Cup of tea 38p. That price would be appropriate for today! It's hot water and a tea bag.

 

Coach B on the HSTs if i remember correctly. I was only a small child when it was banned, but whenever i traveled with my nan i recall her always wanting coach B so she could have a Fag on the longer journeys!

 

I like the reference to "Cigarettes available at normal retail prices" - that really dates it.  Although a non smoker if you were really stuck for a seat you could usually find one in the smoking compartments/coaches.

 
Unfortunately I'm not quite old enough to have done any of the InterCity Cross Country services to the south coast. Never even experienced the services operated by Virgin.

However, I did get to Brighton from Reading with Arriva CrossCountry (not really the same though is it? On a Vomiter....) in that brief period after they won the franchise between Nov 07-Dec 08 when they were still running the token services to/from the south coast.

 
I travelled on the CrossCountry service to/from Brighton quite a few times - but also did a few trips on the one to Dover. In those days (1989) I had a customer in Chatham. I lived in Redditch and could park the car at Leamington Spa and get the southbound train at 08:43, into Chatham at 11:25. Do a day's work and catch the return train at 18:24, due into Leamington at 21:07.

 
I've just discovered this website:

http://www.1s76.com/

A fascinating history of the InterCity Cross Country services that used to run between the south-east and the north. Some surprising locations that used to get at least 1 InterCity train a day. Eastbourne, Lewes, Dumfries, Annan.....

Oh and take a look at this buffet menu from 1986:

http://andygibbs.zenfolio.com/p853553453/e21cc9d92#h21cc9d92

Sausage, Mash and Beans. 155p. Yes please!