Express trains

 

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE TRAVELLING PUBLIC

 They say comparisons are odious. Well, I’ll let you be the one to decide, but in my humble opinion the coast line has not been a winner in the rail traffic stakes. There are currently (January 2014) five weekday trains direct from Hartlepool to London and the same number in the reverse direction. However, almost 20 years ago (1963/4 winter timetable), West Hartlepool had long-distance weekday trains to Liverpool, London (three, including an overnighter with limited sleeping accommodation) and York, and two from Leeds and one London. In the late Fifties and earlier Sixties additional services ran to Colchester, Liverpool at teatime and from Liverpool and Bristol.

This is not going to be the familiar slanted railways-bashing tract which is staple fare for the media. Train services were lost because the philosophy of planners changed, largely towards shorter but more frequent dieselised services instead of irregular loco-hauled stock. There was also the harsh economic capitalist protocol of ‘use it or lose it’ rather than having a social railway run to suit passengers’ needs and not chauffeur-driven railway board members or staff seeking more social hours. The Mr Bean counters had taken over the asylum.

The comparison is being made for West Hartlepool as expresses did not stop at Seaton Carew. Data is taken from the winter timetable for 9 September to 14 June 1964. On weekdays there were 50 through trains and 21 on Sundays. There was a smattering of terminating trains on days other than Sunday. The full list for 1963/4:

PASSENGER TRAINS AT WEST HARTLEPOOL

Winter timetable: 9 September 1963  – 14 June 1964

WEEKDAYS

06.09 Middlesbrough to Newcastle (Mbro to Ncle)
06.56 Newcastle to Guisborough
07.10 West Hartlepool to Eaglescliffe
07.22 Mbro to Ncle
07.54 Ncle to Mbro
08.00 Mbro to Ncle
08.12 Newcastle to London (King’s Cross) (RC)
08.15 Mbro to Ncle
08.40 West Hartlepool to Darlington
09.03 Ncle to Mbro (then at hourly intervals until 17.03 then 19.3 to 22.03)
0909 Mbro to Ncle (then at hourly intervals until 21.09)
10.38 Newcastle to Liverpool (Exchange) (RC)
10.42 West Hartlepool to York
12.40 West Hartlepool to Sunderland
12.42 Newcastle to King’s Cross
14.01 (SE) Leeds to Newcastle
14.20 (SO) Leeds to Newcastle
16.25 (SE) West Hartlepool to Sunderland
16.36 Sunderland to Darlington
17.03 Ncle to Guisborough
17.51 Ncle to Mbro
18.06 Ncle to Mbro
18.48 West Hartlepool to Northallerton (SO to York)
19.17 Leeds to Newcastle
22.11 (SE) London (King’s Cross) to Newcastle (RC)
22.21 Mbro to Ncle
23.25 Newcastle to London (King’s Cross) (LSA)

[Abbreviations used: SE, Saturday excepted; SO, Saturdays only; RC, restaurant car, BC, buffet car; LSA, limited sleeping accommodation; trains in bold type, locomotive hauled stock]

In addition, arrivals terminating their journeys were:

08.30 from Stockton
10.18 from Leeds (City)
16.14 from Darlington
17.12 (SE) from Greatham for Cerebos Ltd., employees
20.25 from York
20.41 from Leeds (SE)

From Sunderland at 07.28, 08.41 and 15.18 (SE)

SUNDAYS

05.56 York to Newcastle
08.35 Ncle to Mbro
10.04 Newcastle to York

10.09 Mbro to Ncle (and 12.09, 15.09, 17.09, 19.09 and 21.09)

12.03 Ncle to Mbro (and at 15.03, 17.03, 19.03 and 21.03)

4.10 Newcastle to London (King’s Cross)
17.58 Newcastle to Liverpool (Lime Street) (BC)
19.18 Newcastle to Birmingham
20.30 London (King’s Cross) to Newcastle
23.25 Newcastle to London (King’s Cross) (LSA)

No trains terminated at West Hartlepool on Sundays

As for the 21^st Century, local services have a basically similar structure but only between Newcastle and Middlesbrough (some extended to Hexham and/or Nunthorpe). Express services have been vastly improved by the intervention of open-access operator Grand Central but the policy change to switch cross-country services via Darlington has meant coast line travellers have had to change at Thornaby for either Darlington or York (a hugely retrograde step, only sweetened by the recent facilities at Thornaby and the reasonable TransPennine trains). At least the diesel-multiple units of the Fifties were a vast improvement on the filthy carriages of steam-hauled suburban services, but we now have the ghastly ‘Pacer’ two-car units, derisively nicknamed ‘Nodding Donkeys’ for their abysmal ride quality. And, yes, the occasional Sprinter is a quantum leap in agreeability. However in the 1950s/60s era local services were formed of four or eight-car DMUs incorporating a miniature buffet car, with large windows, well upholstered seating and toilet compartments.

When I began spotting in June 1956, the earliest Derby lightweight units had begun service on the coast line and were ousting loco-hauled trains hauled by steam tank engines of classes ‘A8’, ‘L1’, ‘V1’ and ‘V3’. In fact, the interval service had been hauled since its inauguration on 1 July 1911 by ‘G5’ 0-4-4T locos. Squadron service for the DMUs came on stream in November 1955. Back in 1964 all but 11 trains (five on weekdays and six on Sundays) were operated by DMUs, based at Gosforth (Newcastle), Middlesbrough, Sunderland and West Hartlepool. Then the loco-hauled stock was hauled by main-line diesel locomotives or occasionally steam power. The summer timetable operated from the third week in June to the second week in September and included several extra services, some to holiday destinations, most of which related to Saturdays only, but Fridays also had extras in those bygone days. Talk about serving the public’s wishes and needs!

Unable to find a summer timetable from West Hartlepool at this juncture, luckily I have a copy of Norton’s Iron Road, by Carol Fox, published by Norton Heritage Group, 1982. These are the times of non-DMU passenger trains from the Summer 1963 timetable.

SOUTHBOUND

08.35 Sunderland – Birmingham
10.15 Sunderland – London
10.16 Hartlepool – Scarborough
10.35 Hartlepool – Blackpool
10.42 Newcastle – Bristol
10.51 Sunderland – Manchester
10.57 Newcastle – Liverpool
11.43 South Shields – London
1.53 Newcastle – Filey
13.14 Newcastle – Colchester
23.58 Newcastle – London

NORTHBOUND

11.51 Filey – Newcastle
12.29 Manchester – Newcastle
12/55 Scarborough – Newcastle
14.43 Colchester – Newcastle
15.30 Bristol – Newcastle
17.39 Blackpool – Newcastle
21.48 London – Newcastle

In 1964 the density of passenger traffic throughout on the line between Newcastle and Middlesbrough and Darlington was around 50,000 passengers per week. However, patronage on the West Hartlepool to Sunderland ‘locals’ was deemed insufficient and under the Beeching Plan it was envisaged these would be withdrawn. Passenger and parcels receipts for 1962 at West Hartlepool amounted to £181,000 in 1962 and £171,000 in 1963.

West Hartlepool handled a breathtaking 225 passenger trains per day in 1939, but only 125 in 1946. By 1964 it was down to 50 on weekdays. In 2014, Hartlepool [Check This]