Tinsley, Brightside, Sheffield Victoria/Spital Hill (rail walk)

[SteveHB]

 

[johnm]

Wonderful post SteveHB , Thanks a lot. Its brought back memories of when I spent many hours trainspotting on the wall adjacent to Brightside Station. Always on the lookout for Thames Clyde Express which as a yhoung lad was the highlight of a day.  Here are some details of named trains back in the 50's/60's,

SHEFFIELD NAMED TRAINS

 Times are Sheffield departures from the winter 1959/60 timetable unless otherwise stated. The Waverley, Thames Clyde & Devonian served Sheffield Midland, the Master Cutler and North Country Continental Victoria.

THe Master Cutler was inaugurated in Sept 1947 on the GCR route between Sheffield Vic & Marylebone. In 1958 it transferred to Kings Cross, stopping only at Retford in each direction, and became a Pullman train. It departed Sheffield at 7.20, arriving Kings Cross at 10.05. Return from London was at 19.20 with the same 2h 45m timing. It was hauled by an English Electric Type 4 from the start and the loco and stock undertook a mid-day working to Sheffield and back (somewhat reminiscent of the short-lived 'Sheffield Pullman' introduced by the LNER in 1927). This diagram was operated by the Brush Falcon prototype in 1962, and the Sheffield Pullman name was applied to the mid-day return journey at some stage, but have not checked this. This left Kings Cross at 11.20 and Sheffield at 15.20 so it was a noteworthy bit of diagramming at the time. There were additional stops at Grantham and Peterborough on this 'filling-in' working, extending the journey time by 10 minutes.

The origins of the North Country Continental can be traced back to the 1890s. The train has always run from Harwich Parkeston Quay. In 1907 it had portions for Manchester and Liverpool, via both Sheffield Victoria and Doncaster/Wakefield, and Birmingham. I am pretty sure it also served York (and probably Newcastle!) at some stage, but have not checked this out. In 1959 departure from Harwich was at 8.00 and the journey time to Liverpool was 7h 10m, the return (departure time unknown) took 7h 44m. 

The North Country Continental did serve York at some stage with a Glasgow thro' carriage in the southbound direction only. I discover now that the Liverpool departure time in 1959/60 wa 13.15, so the trains crossed en route.

The only  info on the 'South Yorkshireman' is that it ran via the GC until 1960 and was then discontinued.

The times  for Sheffield Midland are : Waverley 12.33 northbound, 16.44 southbound; Thames-Clyde Express 13.30 northbound, 15.42 southbound, Devonian 12.00 southbound, 16.54 northbound.