RMweb Premium Clive Mortimore Posted July 13, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 13, 2019 29 minutes ago, Bucoops said: Interesting that this thread has popped up. I'm reading a book about the GE mainline and one of the photos is of a Colchester - Edinburgh train. I thought it rather a strange service but should have thought of the Military link. @Clive Mortimore - a lot of the photos in the book are credited to a G Mortimore - any relation? Hi Rich None that I know of. Isn't the photographer a Mortimer not Mortimore? Keeping on a military theme and Colchester, when I was in the army my name was spelt Mortimer on the daily orders. When I politely pointed out to the sergeant-major my name had been spelt wrong . He told me that he hadn't spelt my name wrong, I was the one with the misspelt name. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Bucoops Posted July 13, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 13, 2019 22 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said: Hi Rich None that I know of. Isn't the photographer a Mortimer not Mortimore? Keeping on a military theme and Colchester, when I was in the army my name was spelt Mortimer on the daily orders. When I politely pointed out to the sergeant-major my name had been spelt wrong . He told me that he hadn't spelt my name wrong, I was the one with the misspelt name. Just been and had a look - indeed it is a Mortimer not a Mortimore. My bad! The train is 31 hauled, appears to be just carriages and the photo is taken north of Ipswich if that helps for routing? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caledonian Posted July 13, 2019 Share Posted July 13, 2019 Since this has popped up again it may be worth mentioning an odd train I found myself travelling on in the early 80s. For reasons which needn't detain us at very short notice I had to travel overnight from Newcastle to Kilmarnock. Suprisingly enough the timetable told me it could be done. The first bit was straightforward and simply meant running across to Carlisle. There I waited on the platform until about 2am when the train from Hell arrived. Once aboard it turned out to be a Harwich-Stranraer boat train and it it was populated by the living dead: families who had set off sometime the day before, or even earlier; travelled across Germany and Holland to get the boat across to Harwich and were heading for Stranraer [with the Port Road closed this involved heading north from Carlisle to just short of Glasgow, then turning south again via Kilmarnock]. I got off at Kilmarnock just after dawn, they still had an hour of more to Stranraer, then the boat to Larne, and then an eventual destination somewhere in NI. I've no idea what was hauling it but the Mark 1 corridor stock was fast approaching the end of its natural 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
caradoc Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 IIRC in the early 1980s there were two long distance services to Stranraer, an overnight and a day train, both from Euston. From Carlisle they ran via the G&SW route to Kilmarnock, then across to Barassie and forward to Ayr and Stranraer. There was also for a while a Harwich/Glasgow daytime through service, being an extension of the Harwich/Manchester train, however I do not recall there ever being a Harwich/Stranraer train, but I do stand to be corrected. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 The Harwich-Manchester boat train was extended to Glasgow in the 1980's - Initially via Manchester. It later ended up going up the GE main line, North London Line and WCML. Nothing has ever run Harwich-Stranraer that I am aware of. Made the mistake of doing the overnight Euston-Stranraer train once whilst on an all-line rover, which, shall we say, was an experience........ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 2 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said: The Harwich-Manchester boat train was extended to Glasgow in the 1980's - Initially via Manchester. It later ended up going up the GE main line, North London Line and WCML. Nothing has ever run Harwich-Stranraer that I am aware of. Made the mistake of doing the overnight Euston-Stranraer train once whilst on an all-line rover, which, shall we say, was an experience........ I did Manchester to London once on an overnight, it took 4 hours, there was no heating or light and it was draughty as hell. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamysandy Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 (edited) 5 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said: The Harwich-Manchester boat train was extended to Glasgow in the 1980's - Initially via Manchester. It later ended up going up the GE main line, North London Line and WCML. Nothing has ever run Harwich-Stranraer that I am aware of. Made the mistake of doing the overnight Euston-Stranraer train once whilst on an all-line rover, which, shall we say, was an experience........ For a time it was known as the European with a portion for Edinburgh.This stood in Waverley for a time before departing as an all stations stopper to Dunbar where it terminated and returned ECS to Craigentinny! Mental Pictures are of a 47 up front. Like Clive Mortimore,my grandfather joined the Army in WW1 as Tom Barber and left as Tom Barbour which he remained and passed to his family! Edited July 14, 2019 by Steamysandy Additional information 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scruff Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 (edited) That Glasgow QSt- Colchester train wouldn't have carried BFPO mail. All BFPO mail went via London stations, collected by Postal and Courier services Royal Engineers and taken to BFPO London in Mill Hill. This was known to the post office as Home postal Depot. Cheers Mark Edited July 17, 2019 by scruff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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