Sunday timetable between Hitchin & Peterborough in 1970

[Mickey]

During three separate Sundays during 1970 i travelled on the main line north of Hitchin from Welwyn Garden City first to Sandy and then Biggleswade and finally to Huntingdon in that order on a rare diesel hauled service formed of B.R.Mk1 stock and hauled by a Brush type 2 (class 31) although I never did go to St Neots anyway i noticed in the 1970 public timetable that apart from an early Sunday morning Up local passenger train originating from Huntingdon and running to Hitchin in the form of a x2 car Cravens unit and stopping at St Neots, Sandy and Biggleswade no other Up local passenger train came Up road until about 18:00hrs in the evening in the form of another x2 car Cravens unit originating again from Huntingdon and again running to Hitchin and stopping at St Neots, Sandy and Biggleswade although I believe there may have been another all stations stopper either originating from Peterborough or Huntingdon to Hitchin about 20:00hrs?.

On the Down line apart from the train that i travelled on from Welwyn Garden City which i believe must have departed Kings Cross sometime around 08:20hrs because i picked it up from Welwyn Garden City at about 08:45hrs there didn't appear to be any more stopping trains north of Hitchin for Huntingdon (or Peterborough) that stopped at Biggleswade, Sandy, St Neots and Huntingdon until after 18:00hrs on a Sunday evening?. The only traffic that I remember seeing from the station platforms and lineside during those Sundays at Biggleswade, Sandy and Huntingdon was the odd Up or Down expresses hauled by either the Deltics (class 55) or the Brush type 4s (class 47s) and that was it with long periods of time with nothing happening with sometimes over an hour going by before another express would appear and rush through.

When I was at Huntingdon station on one of those Sunday afternoons the signalman in Huntingdon North No.1 box came out of the box and down the box staircase to the bottom where he had his car parked up carrying a bucket where he proceeded to 'wash his car' and only running back up the box staircase when a block bell had been rung inside the box and then I would see the 'boards being pulled off quickly' before 4 or 5 minutes later an express would appear and rush through the station and that would be it for another hour or more.

Below a x4car Cravens unit approaching Sandy station along the Up fast line in 1970, note the oil tail lamp above the right buffer.

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/upload ... 9-1200.jpg

[giner]

A timetable might prove otherwise, but Sundays always seemed very quiet in Stevenage, to the extent that we didn't much bother going over to Norton Green Lane bridge. This was ten, fifteen years previous to your timespan, though, Micky.