On Dec 16, 3:55*pm, Chris Tolley (ukonline
really) wrote:

Moor Street was built when the North Warwickshire line opened, and
served as a terminus for those services, and also the local services on
the main line. Snow Hill was closed when there was no longer any through
traffic and no westbound local services (which went when the Stour
Valley line was electrified, as did the long-distance main line
serivces). At the time, it would have seemed eccentric and expensive to
keep Snow Hill going.
--http://gallery120232.fotopic.net/p10907024.html
(60 033 at Longsight, 9 Feb 2002)

But if capacity was available at New Street then surely it would be
likely that Moor Street would have closed as well. The fact that Moor
Street remained open suggests that New Street was already working at
close to capacity at that time.

Stephen Furley wrote:

On Dec 16, 3:55*pm, Chris Tolley (ukonline
really) wrote:

Moor Street was built when the North Warwickshire line opened, and
served as a terminus for those services, and also the local services on
the main line. Snow Hill was closed when there was no longer any through
traffic and no westbound local services (which went when the Stour
Valley line was electrified, as did the long-distance main line
serivces). At the time, it would have seemed eccentric and expensive to
keep Snow Hill going.

But if capacity was available at New Street then surely it would be
likely that Moor Street would have closed as well. The fact that Moor
Street remained open suggests that New Street was already working at
close to capacity at that time.

New Street handled the continuing Paddington trains (one most hours) and
had a handful of rush-hour and late evening locals. In those days there
may have been enough capacity in the station to handle more, but it's
likely that the approaches were congested. Plus the trip to New Street
added at least 5 minutes to the journey time compared with Moor Street,
which would have been enough to render the journeys from closer-in
stations unattractive to time-conscious travellers.


--
http://gallery120232.fotopic.net/p9683787.html
(150 224 at Cuddington, 28 Jun 2004)

"1506" wrote in message
...
On Dec 16, 2:10 pm, Stephen Furley wrote:

I suspect that Marylebone is probably handling more trains, in and
out, now than it ever has in the past; does anyone know if this is
indeed the case? It now has 50% more platforms, and of course DMUs,
and even push-pull sets can be turned around more quickly than
conventional steam houled trains can be. The trains are probably
shorter today then when the station opened, but there are a lot of
them. How does the number of passengers compare as well?

The numbers are not to hand. I am sure you are correct: Marylebone
Station almost certainly handles more passengers today than it ever
has. OTOH, it handles much less freight, parcels, and newspapers off
course, :-).

Marylebone was very busy for FAQ Cup Finals from 1923 until about 1967, and
for the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924-25. On these occasions
there were additional trains, sometimes as frequent as every 10 minutes,
from Marylebone to Wembley Stadium (the original station on the terminal
loop, not the current station which used to be Wembley Hill and later
Wembley Complex. These extras were run on top of Marylebone's normal
service. The signalling which was brought into use in time for the 1923 Cup
Final allowed 3 minute headways out to Wembley.

Peter

Moor Street was built when the North Warwickshire line opened, and
served as a terminus for those services, and also the local services on
the main line. Snow Hill was closed when there was no longer any through
traffic and no westbound local services (which went when the Stour
Valley line was electrified, as did the long-distance main line
serivces). At the time, it would have seemed eccentric and expensive to
keep Snow Hill going.


Moor Street mainly handled local services only, on the North
Warwickshire, long distant through services that way always used Snow
Hill.

There were some limited stop Stratford services, mainly in the peaks,
that used Snow Hill as well, although it’s likely they were routed
Hatton.

Local services on the Leamington line traditionally used Snow Hill
with just a small number of peak services using Moor St.

However, on busy summer Saturdays, Moor St did handle a handful of
long distance services to varying holiday destinations on the South
Coast or West of England.

For the first few years following closure of Snow Hill, Moor St
continued to handle only North Warwickshire services, Leamington line
trains having being diverted to New St.

Indeed surprisingly, for a year or so after the 1967 diversion away of
main line services, Snow Hill tunnel actually remained open just to
handle peak extras from the Leamington line, that presumably couldn’t
be accommodated at New St, rather than have them terminate at Moor St.

Eventually, in the late 1970s, Leamington line local services, for the
first time ever, were switched to arrive at Moor St arguably making
the station busier than it had ever been, albeit with only two
departures and arrivals an hour.

This was probably the first sign that New St was beginning to fill up
and that maybe Snow Hill shouldn’t have been closed, after all.

New Street handled the continuing Paddington trains (one most hours) and
had a handful of rush-hour and late evening locals.

Marketed as Railairlink (or something like that) services, those
trains were no longer limited stop (i.e. fast to Paddington from
either Leamington or Banbury) but semi fast, stopping more often, and
at High Wycombe for the coach connection to Heathrow.

They were the bane of us New St trainspotters as without fail a
Paddington service would be booked for a succession of Bescot class
47s.

Then one day magic happened and the odd Western started to reappear on
the route, not seen since the days of Snow Hill, eventually most
services became Western worked and when they disappeared compensation
arrived in the form of the class 50s – deep joy.

In article
,
(1506) wrote:

I cannot fault the reconstruction of Liverpool
Street Station. Would that our architects had taken the same care
with our other termini.

It was a stroke of genius to remove the step-free direct access from the
street to the platforms which made it easy to get bicycles on and off
trains and replace it with steps up and escalators or steps down!

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article
,
(Stephen Furley) wrote:

On Dec 16, 3:55*pm, Chris Tolley (ukonline
really) wrote:

Moor Street was built when the North Warwickshire line opened, and
served as a terminus for those services, and also the local services
on the main line. Snow Hill was closed when there was no longer any
through traffic and no westbound local services (which went when the
Stour Valley line was electrified, as did the long-distance main line
serivces). At the time, it would have seemed eccentric and expensive
to keep Snow Hill going.
--http://gallery120232.fotopic.net/p10907024.html
(60 033 at Longsight, 9 Feb 2002)

But if capacity was available at New Street then surely it would be
likely that Moor Street would have closed as well. The fact that
Moor
Street remained open suggests that New Street was already working at
close to capacity at that time.

New St must have had spare capacity for local trains then. There was no
cross-city service for example.

Meanwhile there was a time when the Wolverhampton service was all that was
left when Snow Hill was the largest unstaffed halt in the world!

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Dec 16, 5:35*pm, "Peter Masson" wrote:
"1506" wrote in message

...
On Dec 16, 2:10 pm, Stephen Furley wrote:



I suspect that Marylebone is probably handling more trains, in and
out, now than it ever has in the past; does anyone know if this is
indeed the case? It now has 50% more platforms, and of course DMUs,
and even push-pull sets can be turned around more quickly than
conventional steam houled trains can be. The trains are probably
shorter today then when the station opened, but there are a lot of
them. How does the number of passengers compare as well?

The numbers are not to hand. *I am sure you are correct: Marylebone
Station almost certainly handles more passengers today than it ever
has. *OTOH, it handles much less freight, parcels, and newspapers off
course, :-).

Marylebone was very busy for FAQ Cup Finals from 1923 until about 1967, and
for the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924-25. On these occasions
there were additional trains, sometimes as frequent as every 10 minutes,
from Marylebone to Wembley Stadium (the original station on the terminal
loop, not the current station which used to be Wembley Hill and later
Wembley Complex. These extras were run on top of Marylebone's normal
service. The signalling which was brought into use in time for the 1923 Cup
Final allowed 3 minute headways out to Wembley.

Thank you Peter. I had forgotten the soccer trafic. It was not only
Marylebone that was busy. When a northen team were in the final,
specials would run to Wembly.

On Dec 17, 8:29*am, 1506 wrote:

Thank you Peter. *I had forgotten the soccer trafic. *It was not only
Marylebone that was busy. *When a northen team were in the final,
specials would run to Wembly.

At one time, I think it was after Wembly Hill was re-named Wembly
Complex the station actually used to be closed whenever there was a
major event on at the stadium, on the grounds that the station
wouldn't be able to cope.

In article ,
says...

In article
,
(1506) wrote:

I cannot fault the reconstruction of Liverpool
Street Station. Would that our architects had taken the same care
with our other termini.

It was a stroke of genius to remove the step-free direct access from the
street to the platforms which made it easy to get bicycles on and off
trains and replace it with steps up and escalators or steps down!

Surely there still is step-free access from platforms to street level
[Eldon Street]?