WELCOME to 1S76.com the rise and fall of cross country train
services to and from Brighton.
INTRODUCTION:
May 1979 saw the re-introduction
of through services from the Midlands to the Sussex Coast and brought daily
locomotive haulage back to Brighton to break up the solid diet of EMU’s. The services have
served various destinations over the years before the DfT and Arriva killed
them off in December 2008.
I
retired from the rail industry a few years ago, so hopefully I'll have enough spare time to get the
site up to date and make a start on the long promised pages for the West
Country services...........still waiting!
I hope this will be more than just a potted history of
those workings from the twice daily start back in 1979 through the optimism
of four trains a day in 1986, the often forgotten six trains a day in 2002
and Virgin Trains proposal for an hourly service, ending with the rather
half – hearted service that remained at the end.
As they were closely related the Cross Country services
to Dover, Folkestone and Ramsgate from 1986 are also included.
If you are able to fill in any gaps or correct any
errors supply photos or anything else please don’t hesitate to let me know,
email address at the bottom of the page.
All
the pictures are Copyright Andy Gibbs unless otherwise stated. Copies of all
my photos are available for sale through my Zenfolio photo
gallery.
I
have published several railway picture albums through Amberley Publishing.
These are available from the publishers, Amazon and all good bookshops. The
latest two are Intercity
Cross-country....GBTT
table 51...and 50 in all its grubby glory!......and
Kensington
Olympia and the West London Line....both out now.
https://www.amberley-books.com/community-main-page/g/community-andy-gibbs-74.html
As
a glutton for punishment I'm also building an n gauge layout of Kensington
Olympia, you can see progress HERE
on RMWeb.....there's over 70 pages.
YES....even more updates.........
Latest additions made.......31/07/2023.
New
photos added to 1985, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996,1998, and 1999.
73128 drags a failed 47439 into
Brighton with the late 0727 from Manchester Piccadilly. Photo taken 20th
June 1981.
There are well over a 300 photos of the cross country
services, I am also still looking for more suitable photos, train
formations, stock workings, carriage labels, leaflets and any other
information for the website, anything used with be fully acknowledged.
The many photos that have been kindly supplied show the
variety of traction that appeared on the trains, currently we have classes
20, 31, 33, 37, 40, 45, 47, 50, 55 ( yes a Deltic
on the Sussex Scot ), 58, 59, 73, 81, 85, 86 and 87. I know of class 56 and
08 haulage so do you have any photos?
Why call the site 1S76? Well 1S76 was the running number
of the most well known of the trains from
Brighton, the northbound Sussex Scot which ran from 1988 to 2002.
47519 arrives at
Reading with a very short rake of coaches on 1M31 the 1718 Folkestone
Central to Liverpool Lime Street.
Photo
taken 28th July 1988.
Click
on the year box to the left for details of timings, routing, traction,
stock details and of course pictures. Click on any picture for a larger
image. All pictures are copyright the original photographer.
Each page is the timetable year i.e
May 1979 to May 1980 up until 2004. The Timetable change was then moved to
December to bring it in line with the rest of Europe so 2004 is May to
December 2004, 2005 is December 2004 to 2005 and so on.
This is a big project so please be patient, I will
update and add to the years as soon as I can.
I Hope you enjoy it.
45110
passes through Clapham Junction on 1M41 the 1848 Brighton to Derby service,
once again the London Midland managed a week or more of supplying
"Peaks" on the 0958 from Manchester, south of New Street and the
return service. Saltley crew need I say more! There
was just time after work to ride this train to Gatwick, leg it upstairs
into the airport for a pint and then back down to the platform for the 1620
Manchester to Brighton service. Bliss!
Photo
taken 13th June 1985.
Photographer
Paul Winter. Used with permission.
This
'spare' unfitted nameplate from 220022 has been added to the
collection!
1979 also saw the restart of a Saturday service to
Bristol to add to the existing Saturday service to Exeter and details of
these workings will also be added to this website at a later date. How much
better are double headed Cromptons than a class
159!
The
Exeter services have now gone again due to the DfT and the rumour mill has it that
the Bristol services are also on borrowed time. I hope to get additional
pages for the West Country workings added at a later date when time permits.
CONTACT
ME:-
If you have any comments, corrections, pictures, stock
details, reservation labels or any contribution, you can email me at acg5324ATbtinternet.com.............just
substitute @ for AT!
I am especially looking for photos to use of the
services north of Birmingham, anything with unusual traction of course and
stock workings, pocket timetables carriage labels etc. If you can help the
email address is above. Full credit will be given for anything used.
Search
1S76:-
Acknowledgements:-
All photos are copyright
the author unless otherwise marked.
Many thanks to the
following for supplying photos and information:-
John (JKA) Atkinson
Alan
( Pondy) Lake
Pete ( Muppet ) Beyer
Richard Howe
Neil Harvey
Mark Shipman
Richard Boyd
Paul Wesley
Michael J Collins
Pogo
Ben Haslam
Graham Walker
Tony Buckton
Derek Riley
Mike Hodge
John Elliott
BE
Anon
Warren Desmond
John Turner / 53A Models
Jason
Shergold
Bob Foster
Jon Bradley
Colin.
P. Brooks.
Mark Jamieson
Brian Daniels
Craig Stretten
Neil Bays
Paul Winter
JandJCottrell
Tim Easter
Chris Perkins
Ceri Kiff
Steve Buckley
Andre
Paul Weston
Nick Ross
Shaun C
Kevin Law
Carl Watson
Chris Eaton
Mike Hollick
Barrie Watkins
John Irving
Dennis Taylor
The Transport
Photo Interchange
David
Ford
Richard
Allen
Andy
Prime
Jon
Piesing
Drew
Jarman
Colin
(the) Price ( is right )
Ade
Paul
Jonathan
Pallant - for updating and correcting some train numbers
Please check out their
websites for more great photos, many of these links may no longer work due
to the demise of Fotopic. I am trying to track
down their new photo galleries and update the links.
Many thanks also to Keith
Carter for use of 30 years of public timetable information and other items.
Many thanks to Steve
Carter for most of the carriage labels that aren't mine and many that are!
Many thanks to Andre for
1983 loco diagrams and other info.
Many thanks to Alan Lake
for the 1979 pocket timetable and other paperwork.
Many thanks to Colin Parkington for the use of the Conductors train lists.
Many
thanks to Capt Birdseye for some of the paperwork.
Many
thanks to Stuart Smith for some carriage labels.
Other sources of
invaluable information include:
The Chesterfield
Observer
The
RailGenArchive........ formally1980's Timewarp
Class 37 Group
The 47's
and my head...........ouch!
© Andy Gibbs 2022
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