When the Kings looked West
In the early 1960’s the West Coast main line between Manchester and Liverpool (via the Trent valley and Wolverhampton ) and London Euston was at the vanguard of the greatest railway reconstruction project that the United Kingdom had ever seen.
The electrification of the west coast main line involved a great amount of civil engineering work such as the rebuilding of bridges and tunnels and the modernisation of stations. This was to benefit Wolverhampton High Level station in its new signal box and the rebuilding of the station.
Wolverhampton (High Level station) was in a prime position to ultimately benefit from this modernisation with its frequent and modern electrified service between Wolverhampton and Euston once the electric trains started running in 1966.
Wolverhampton Low Level station which was on the main line between Paddington and Birkenhead was in a position to take a great deal of the traffic between Wolverhampton and London Paddington whilst the rebuilding took place on the Midland line and high level station.
In September 1962 the King class steam locomotive having been in service since 1927 were all taken out of service. Many of this class of locomotive had migrated to the Wolverhampton Paddington service because of the extra traffic being generated by the Midland line modernisation.
The Kings were replaced in 1963 by the Western class diesel hydraulics which were true ambassadors to the modernisation movement of the time.
The crack express passenger service from Wolverhampton Low Level to London Paddington was called the Inter City and it now has at its head a diesel hydraulic locomotive as opposed to a steam locomotive as well as temporarily a great deal of extra passengers.
In 1967 Wolverhampton Low Level receded it’s position to the newly electrified High Level station. The Birkenhead service was soon discontinued in the railway downsizing of the time.
I have a few minor points to make:
To bring more prominence to some of these old industrial cities could we see more named trains.
Perhaps the Wulfrun express could serve Wolverhampton with a large bold coloured plate at the front of the train.
People would feel pride in having a named train going to the City that they are visiting or living in by a named train.
Some of the lessons of the past are worth looking at and restaurant cars should be reinstated for all classes where people may sit or have a meal whilst they are on the train.
This may well lead to more employment on the railways on the catering side as well as an uplift in skills.
The King class steam locomotive (all 39 of them) were built at Swindon.
Thirty Western Diesels were built at Swindon and forty four were built at Crewe.
It would be terrific if the U.K. could once again lead the world in the building of railway locomotives.