Why is Leeds so much wealthier than Sheffield ?

[JS2021]

On 07/08/2022 at 19:38, History dude said:

But you are forgetting that at the time of the closure engines needed to go to the other end of coaching stock to restart going in the right direction. That added a great deal of time to through expresses. Later on the double ended trains mealy require the driver to walk around to the other end of the service. All of which can be achieved in the stopping time of the service.  But these trains were not available on express services, apart from the Midland Pullmans and by 1970 these had fallen out of favour.

At the time of the route to Huddersfield's closure most of the services were already DMUs, which were all double ended.

[Lysanderix]

The 1955 Rail modernisation plan required the ordering of 4,600 DMU’s.By the time of Woodhead closure the units were in widespread use throughout the system sometimes forming trains of 8 or more carriages.

Apart from the Blue Pullmans….which in our part of the world only ever ran on the Midland line from Manchester to London. whilst the WCML was electrified….one method used to combat the need for an engine change was the use of a diesel electric loco at each end of the train.This was successfully used on, in particular, the Glasgow- Edinburgh service. 

[History dude]

4 hours ago, Lysanderix said:

The 1955 Rail modernisation plan required the ordering of 4,600 DMU’s.By the time of Woodhead closure the units were in widespread use throughout the system sometimes forming trains of 8 or more carriages.

Apart from the Blue Pullmans….which in our part of the world only ever ran on the Midland line from Manchester to London. whilst the WCML was electrified….one method used to combat the need for an engine change was the use of a diesel electric loco at each end of the train.This was successfully used on, in particular, the Glasgow- Edinburgh service. 

Diesel Multiple Units (DMU) were never Express trains, they were used on local stopping services. The top speed was 70 miles per hour and they were not very comfortable at that speed. Even when stationary the engines running under the body of the coaches would vibrate the seats back and forth.  There were some 1500 volt DC Electrical Multiple Units, which ran the Manchester Glossop Hadfield services, but these could not run past there as they burnt out trying to get one over the hills of the rest of the Woodhead route.   

[Lysanderix]

I agree…..they were not very comfortable although some X country units were produced which were better…..a few of which (class 123/4)we saw for a time in Sheffield on the Hull to Manchester and Liverpool. service. Their introduction being heralded ,by our local press ,as a great improvement…almost tantamount to the coming of High Speed 125’s.🙂