Basil Jet wrote:
On 2015\11\09 19:05, Robin9 wrote:
An old friend who has lived in New York for twenty years
wants to recapture his youth by making a train journey
he made regularly in the early 1960s while still at school.
I have advised him that Dr. Beeching's rationalisation of
the trunk routes coupled with privatisation more recently
means that many routes no longer offer a through journey.

The required journey is from London to Sheffield via Kettering,
Corby, Oakham, Melton Mowbray and Old Dalby. Quite clearly
this route bypasses Leicester. Does it still exist? If so, is it still
a major route to Nottingham and Sheffield? If not, can this
route be travelled by breaking the journey into sections?

Any ideas or suggestions will be very welcome.

He can get from St Pancras to Corby easily, but from there to Melton
Mowbray the trains are few and far between and require careful planning.
The Old Dalby route has no passenger service now, so he'd have to go
from Melton Mowbray to Nottingham via Loughborough.

It's ironic that what remains of the Old Dalby route has plenty of
passenger trains, but no passenger service. Pity he can't cadge a ride on a
new District line S7 train!