- Sussex Scot
The
Sussex Scot was one of a number ofNamed Trains introduced by theBritish Rail InterCity (British Rail) sector during the 1980's. The train ran betweenBrighton andGlasgow Central /Edinburgh Waverley viaKensington Olympia ,Reading ,Birmingham New Street and major stations on theWest Coast Main Line toCarstairs where the train divided into portions forGlasgow Central andEdinburgh Waverley .There had been a direct train service betweenBrighton andManchester Piccadilly since the 14th of May 1979. The first departure of the Sussex Scot was the 16th May 1988. The northbound train departedBrighton at 1315 and arrived atGlasgow Central 2248 andEdinburgh Waverley 2252. Southbound the train departedGlasgow Central 1050 andEdinburgh Waverley 1044 and arrived at Brighton 2020. The train was normally formed of 10 coaches. Aclass 47 locomotive hauled the train betweenBrighton andBirmingham New Street and vice versa with usually aclass 86 orclass 87 electric locomotive betweenBirmingham New Street andScotland .From the 15th May 1989 the departure time from Brighton was moved to the more convenient time of 0845 arriving inGlasgow Central at 1732 andEdinburgh Waverley at 1747. This is when the train acquired it's 1S76headcode .From the 14th May 1990 the departure time from
Brighton was moved again to 0918 with an arrival time inGlasgow Central at 1810. The Edinburgh portion was portion no longer ran. Southbound departure fromGlasgow Central was 1133 with an arrival inBrighton at 2021. Over the following years the destination swopped betweenGlasgow Central andEdinburgh Waverley but the times remained largely unaltered.The next major change was for the summer 1994 timetable. From the 18th May 1994 both north and southbound trains also served
Manchester Piccadilly Departure fromBrighton was at 0920 arriving atManchester Piccadilly at 1522 and atGlasgow Central 1912. Southbound theSussex Scot departedGlasgow Central at 1040,Manchester Piccadilly at 1417 and arrived atBrighton 2028. Thelocomotive change fromdiesel toelectric was now done atPreston . By this date the formation of the train had been reduced to 7 coaches. There was little change over the following years even whenVirgin Trains won the franchise for theCrossCountry rail network in 1997. NewVoyager trains were introduced on the service from 2001. The introduction ofVirgin Trains Operation Princess saw the last run of the Sussex Scot on the 28th September 2002, after that date services fromBrighton whilst increased in number went no further thanManchester Piccadilly .References
1. British Rail Great Britain Timetables 1988 to 2002.
2. [http://www.virgintrainsmediaroom.com/ Virgin Trains Media Room] .
3. [http://www.1s76.com/ The History of Cross Country Train Services from Brighton] .
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