Finding loco haulage on our national network is something of a challenge, and is currently confined to the sleeper services from London to Cornwall and Scotland, LNER Class 91 workings between London, Leeds and York, TfW services between Cardiff and Manchester and a handful of Chiltern Railways workings between London Marylebone, Birmingham and Stourbridge Junction.
In a year that will mark 15 years since loco-haulage returned to the Chiltern Railways route in December 2010, I was keen to once again sample the delights of Mk3 coaches and Class 68 haulage, so decided to see how cheaply it was possible to travel in style on the Chiltern route to our second city via High Wycombe and Banbury.
Advance fares always offer real bargains if you are prepared to book well ahead and take a punt that your travel plans won’t change, but I doubt many people would realise that in 2025 it is possible to make a 222 mile round trip in Mk3 comfort from London to Birmingham for a return (railcard) fare of just £8.50.
That was the fare I paid (booking on 15 January 2025) for a delightful loco-hauled round trip on Friday, 28 February, aboard the 09.02 London Marylebone – Birmingham Moor Street (£4.25 single) then returning on another loco-worked service, departing Birmingham Moor Street at 12.45 (also £4.25 single).
Of course competition between three operators on the two routes from London to Birmingham is the principal reason why Chiltern’s lead-in advance fares are cheap as chips, and always makes me wonder how fares on HS2 might be set, if and when it finally opens.
On the day I booked my Chiltern tickets I compared the alternatives and was able to find a return journey with West Midlands Trains for £15.15 (departing Euston 08.56 for £10.65 and returning at 13.06 for £4.50) while on Avanti West Coast I could have journeyed to the second city and back for a total of £26.60 by departing Euston at 09.10 and returning at 13.21.
Avanti services are obviously a good deal faster, with the 09.10 train covering the 110 miles in a mere one hour 17 minutes, but my Chiltern services were faster than those offered by West Midlands Trains, whose 08.56 from Euston takes two hours 18 minutes to reach Birmingham, while my 09.02 Class 68-powered train covered the distance in two hours 3 minutes and the fastest Chiltern services take just one hour 57 minutes.
The Chiltern Silver services comprise six Mk3 coaches, with a Class 68 loco at the Birmingham (north) end and a Mk3 DVT at the London end. When first launched these services boasted a buffet car and a Business Zone, for which a premium was payable. But catering was sadly discontinued in 2017 and the Business Zone declassified in January 2022.
That means anyone who gets to Marylebone or Moor Street in good time can travel in spacious first class comfort, with 2+1 seating, in the single coach at the London end of each set that is still branded the Business Zone, but only requires a standard class ticket.
Under the current timetable there are three weekday diagrams for Silver services, each of which is normally powered by one of the six Silver-liveried Class 68 locos in the XHCE pool (68010-15).
There are two Stourbridge Junction starters at 06.14 and at 06.40, with the latter forming an 07.15 departure from Birmingham Moor Street. These two sets then form the only off-peak services from Marylebone to Birmingham (09.02 and 10.02), returning from Moor Street at 11.45 and 12.45.
The first of these two then returns to the Chiltern depot at Wembley, while the second forms a 17.07 departure for Birmingham and Stourbridge and the set that has worked diagram 1 then emerges from Wembley depot to form a 18.07 service to Birmingham and Stourbridge, where it also stays overnight.
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