The ghost trains of Old England

[Flamingo]

Did anyone else hear this programme on BBC Radio 4 at 11.00 this morning? If not it might be worth seeing if it is available via the Listen Again facility.

The programme was about services (they are not all actual trains) which are operated on a minimum frequency basis such as once a week and one way only, so as to allow someone to say the lines are still open. In one case would-be passengers have to phone an official at the Department of Transport if they wish to travel. Apparently it is cheaper to run such services even though no-one knows about them because it avoids avoid having to go through the formal line closure procedures.

[Mickey]

Indirectly related to your topic Flamingo was the NOT advertised 'staff only trains' that use to be run by B.R. although 'late night or early morning' non-railway staff that had been stranded at a station would sometimes travel on these trains usually with a dozen or so driver's, secondmen & guards either on there way up to Kings Cross to sign on duty or travelling home back to usually Hatfield or Welwyn Garden City. Several 'staff trains' that i can remember from the early 1970s was the 02:10 & 04:00 ex Welwyn Garden City to Kings Cross calling at all stations and i think that there was a 02:00 & 03:10 ex Kings Cross to Welwyn Garden City but from a distance of 40 years i may be wrong about the times from Kings Cross?. Also i believe that there was a couple of staff trains that ran between Kings Cross & Hertford north as well and return.

[PinzaC55]

Up till I left Kings Cross in 1989 there was an 05.00 "empty" HST which ran to Peterborough to form the 07.20 to KX. It was commonly used by postmen , drivers and guards to get home.
The classic example of "Skeleton services" has to be the train from Newcastle empty to Chathill and return in the morning and laden to Chathill in the afternoon empty back. When Chathill had a proper train service under BR there were usually a number of passengers there especially in the summer as Seahouses is a short taxi ride away.
Then you have Dunston and Blaydon stations which are RHINO's (Really Here In Name Only).

[Autocar Publicity]

which are RHINO's (Really Here In Name Only).

When doing a piece of writing recently, I dubbed this sort of service RECS - (wrecks?) - "Revenue-earning ECS", to get stock elsewhere and allow the public to travel on it in the hope of at least covering the bill for the heating and lighting.

There's a few stations on the Airedale line like that, Gargrave only has a couple of trains stop at it each day and about another dozen pass through.