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What services did Central Trains operated NORTH and TO CREWE?


Swifty11

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Hi all,

 

Doing some research for a new layout idea,

What trains did Central Trains operate to and north of Crewe? Time period between 2000 and 2007/8

There was a Derby - Crewe, not sure if there was a Nottingham as well

Also was there a service to Liverpool lime street and if so where from?

Been a long time since I remember where they came from to :)

 

Thanks very much in advance for any help

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There was a Skegness-Crewe service which at one point was extended to Manchester Airport. It got cut back in the late 2000s to the separate Crewe-Stoke-Derby and Nottingham-Grantham-Skegness services we have today.

 

 

Thanks Pete, thought there was one from Skegness!

 

Did central every serve Liverpool?

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Did central every serve Liverpool?

 

Yes, from Birmingham with a mix of dmus and emus, and Norwich but not from Crewe (they ran via the current East Midlands Trains route via Sheffield and Nottingham).  However, I did once catch a 170 from Stafford to Birmingham which originated at Liverpool but was advertised as going to Stansted.

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Yes, from Birmingham with a mix of dmus and emus, and Norwich but not from Crewe (they ran via the current East Midlands Trains route via Sheffield and Nottingham). However, I did once catch a 170 from Stafford to Birmingham which originated at Liverpool but was advertised as going to Stansted.

Thanks very much :)

 

In that case I can string together services from lime street to Skegness, Nottingham and Derby etc

Just had a read if your Kings Oak thread as well, looks great!

 

Can I ask, always remember 158s and 170s, but did 150s regularly do the service to Lime Street?

By the looks of things all other DMUs in the central fleet turned up at Crewe so that's good!

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Class 156 units occasionally worked the Liverpool Birmingham and Liverpool Norwich services and I have seen Class 150s on rare occasions.  Also Class 323, 310, 312 and later Class 350 units worked the Liverpool-Birmingham route.  Have a look on Flickr, there's quite a few pictures on there of the variety of Central units which worked into Crewe.

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ive got a pic of a central 170 coming into crewe from the liverpool direction somewhere in my collection, if i can find it i'll scan it and get it up

 

170s used to do the crewe - derby run too, i remember going on my first one back in 2005 when i was road learning stoke - colwich with DRS and being shocked at how much noise the electrical contacters made in the cabinet for such a new unit compared to the likes of a 175

 

central 158s used to work to chester too from birmingham but via wrexham on a poor 2 hourly service which thankfully is now a thing of the past

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The Central services through or to Crewe consisted of the (variously) Derby, Nottingham, Skegness via Derby. Start point depended on period. It was also extended through to Manchester Airport, I think that started in RR days, but became so unreliable that it was often cut back to Crewe, officially so during CT's tenure, if I recall correctly.

I'm not sure if at the start of the franchise, there were some Derby-Llandudno services as well, again a continuation of RR services.

The other major service was the Stansted Airport-Liverpool service, via and later split at Birmingham, again largely due to reliability issues. 

Many of the reliabilty and time keeping problems were not of Central's making, it was originally a huge sprawling franchise, stretching from Norwich (Great Yarmouth on summer Saturdays) in the east to Aberystwth in the west. Grimsby/Cleeethorpes and Liverpool in the north to Stansted and Cardiff in the south.

The Liverpool-Birmingham service was rebranded as Citylink around 2003/4, along with Nottingham-Cardiff, Birmingham-Stansted and Liverpool-Norwich via Nottingham.

This was, in part due to Central being given 'lead operator' status on the Birmingham-Liverpool section following Virgin's 'Operation Princess' debacle, where they tried to replace 7 or so coach trains with 4 car 'Vomiters' and couldn't understand why everything was so crowded! The units Virgin had used on their Birmingham-Liverpools (I think) were taken for strengthening other services.

What the 'Citylink' branding meant was that the service should be guaranteed an air-con unit, either 158 or 170, along with at seat catering for the whole journey. More 170s had become available from MML after they received their Meridians.Much closer attention was also paid to timekeeping.

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Acton Bridge

03 August 2000

158844 on 16:49 Birmingham New Street - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-37790400-1413735860_thumb.jpg

 

Ditton (from the signal box window)

25 November 2000

170512 runs along the Down Fast on 1N32, 06:52 Grantham - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-65069900-1413736141_thumb.jpg

 

Edge Hill

20 January 2001

170522 works the 09:25 Liverpool Lime Street - Stanstead Airport

post-6662-0-45971400-1413736273_thumb.jpg

 

Crewe

01 July 2001

170514 departs on the 15:32 Birmingham New Street - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-56206600-1413736417_thumb.jpg

 

Acton Bridge

23 July 2001

170633 heads South on a late running 19:40 Liverpool Lime Street - Birmingham New Street

post-6662-0-89095100-1413736516_thumb.jpg

 

Runcorn

22 September 2001

170505  runs into the station on 1N33, 07:18, Derby - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-38491000-1413736704_thumb.jpg

 

Crewe

24 March 2002

170634 runs into platform 5 on the 13:27, SuO, Liverpool Lime Street - Norwich

post-6662-0-08212300-1413736954_thumb.jpg

 

170516 departs from platform 6 on the 09:36, Stansted Airport - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-08369400-1413736997_thumb.jpg

 

170630 departs from platform 11 on the 10:36, Stansted Airport - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-26287000-1413737050_thumb.jpg

 

170511 runs into platform 6 on the 14:27, SuO, Liverpool Lime Street - Norwich

post-6662-0-10769400-1413737080_thumb.jpg

 

 

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Acton Bridge

/

Thanks very much Dave :)

Do you have any more of any Central 150s/153s and 158s just so I can gauge their appearence when they turned up on north west services

Do remember seeing a 150 on the Liverpool once, looked very rough with half the logos peeling off!

 

Sorry to ask, but any other photos from acton bridge?

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I've got a photo of a 153 on a Liverpool - Stansted service somewhere, but not to hand.

 

Coppenhall - a few miles North of Crewe

 

13 August 2002

156414 on 08:41, Liverpool Lime Street - Stansted Airport

post-6662-0-14484200-1413742606_thumb.jpg

 

158786 on the 08:41, Nuneaton - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-62710400-1413742662_thumb.jpg

 

158786 on the 10:49, Liverpool Lime Street - Stansted Airport

post-6662-0-93238400-1413742712_thumb.jpg

 

156403 on the 09:36, Stansted Airport - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-57629700-1413742819_thumb.jpg

 

156403 on the 14:49, Liverpool Lime Street - Stansted Airport, 20 late

post-6662-0-74746400-1413742915_thumb.jpg

 

158794 on the 13:36, Stansted Airport - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-22945900-1413742988_thumb.jpg

 

323222 on the 17:34, Four Oaks - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-64092900-1413743091_thumb.jpg

 

14 August 2002

156412 heads North along the Down Fast on the 08:41, Nuneaton - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-32566200-1413743200_thumb.jpg

 

158792 on the 10:12, Nottingham - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-08746100-1413743319_thumb.jpg

 

 

Crewe

17 February 2003

158785 runs into platform 5 on 1N32, 05:59, Nottingham - Liverpool Lime Street

post-6662-0-70949600-1413743683_thumb.jpg

 

153325 arrives in platform 2 on 2A63, 09:00, Nottingham - Crewe

post-6662-0-12885500-1413743830_thumb.jpg

 

170399 departs from platform 6 on 1N37, 08:19, Norwich - Liverpool Lime Street

Capital of Culture promotional livery

post-6662-0-89610800-1413743961_thumb.jpg

post-6662-0-88680700-1413743973_thumb.jpg

 

158783  on 1L20, 12:41, Liverpool Lime Street - Stansted Airport

post-6662-0-43039500-1413744075_thumb.jpg

 

22 February 2003

170398 departs from platform 5 on 1N33, 07:18, Derby - Liverpool Lime Street - unit subsequently failed at Liverpool

post-6662-0-27179800-1413744214_thumb.jpg

 

158794 departs from platform 4 on 2E19, 11:03, Crewe - Skegness

post-6662-0-08935900-1413744273_thumb.jpg

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150s would have only been used if something went wrong. There was nothing diagrammed for them on the BHM/NOT - LIV routes. When they did come out, it was only if there was absolutely nothing else available.

 

Cheers

 

Tom

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  • 3 weeks later...

Pretty sure I saw pairs of 153s on the Liverpool - Nottingham/Norwich services at least twice I think. Notes and photos not to hand but certainly remember being surprised seeing them come up from Hazel Grove and head towards Disley Tunnel en-route to Sheffield.

 

Cheers Paul

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Here's an oddball livery for you Tom, 170 513 was done for the Robin Hood line back in 2003. Here it is on an ECS from Burton to Tyseley 24/5/2003.

attachicon.gifedit 170 513 Washwood Heath 5T03 13.35 Burton on trent Tyseley 24.5.2003 sml 2.jpg

HTH

 

Funnily enough I was about to ask if anyone had that photo! Thanks :)

 

Tom

  

Pretty sure I saw pairs of 153s on the Liverpool - Nottingham/Norwich services at least twice I think. Notes and photos not to hand but certainly remember being surprised seeing them come up from Hazel Grove and head towards Disley Tunnel en-route to Sheffield.

 

Cheers Paul

I'm sure I've seen them too, but have little memory of 156s

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Pretty sure I saw pairs of 153s on the Liverpool - Nottingham/Norwich services at least twice I think. Notes and photos not to hand but certainly remember being surprised seeing them come up from Hazel Grove and head towards Disley Tunnel en-route to Sheffield.

 

Cheers Paul

 

That's only like a 155, these turn up occasionally at Nottingham on Leeds services. 75mph top speed same as a 156.

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Some notes from one of my pads from 2000/2001 all from Hazel Grove (Midland) where I used to do a lot of lineside observations. These are just the 156s from that pad all other services were either 158s or 170/5s or 170/6s

22/10/2000 11.39 156418 DN LIV
25/10/2000 15.23 156419 DN LIV
30/12/2000 11.27 156402 DN LIV
01/01/2001 10.04 156403 UP NOR
12/04/2001 10.21 156407 DN LIV
23/05/2001 15.01 156416 UP NOR
23/05/2001 16.32 156417 DN LIV
29/05/2001 10.32 156414 DN LIV
 

More to follow once I gone through my pads

Cheers Paul

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