21st April 1906

Various Operators
(Football Specials) - Many!

Route :

Notes :
(1) Copied verbatim from the May 1906 issue (no. 165) of Locomotive Magazine;
The 'Final Cup Tie' at the Crystal Palace on Saturday, 21 April 1906 between the Everton and Newcastle teams brought a record number of excursions from the North of England to the Metropolis. Euston headed the list with 43 return specials, and they were despatched homewards at 5 min. intervals up to about 4.00 a.m. on Sunday. Paddington with 20 specials was not so busy. Marylebone had 16 specials to send on their return journey at about 10 minutes' intervals from 10.10 p.m. to 1.15 a.m. These all went via Quainton Road, and were non-stop as far as Leicester. To make up these trains, saloons belonging to the L.B. & S.C., S.E. & C: and L. & S.W. Rys were requisitioned. The bulk of the St. Pancras special traffic, came from the Birmingham dlstrict, and 22 special trains were booked, saloon parties being conveyed in Pullman drawing-room cars, Somerset & Dorset, Midland & Great Northern Joint, and G. & S. W. Ry. coaches., There were 27 specials booked into King's Cross, of which six ran in duplicate, making 33 in all, mostly from Newcastle and that district and the trains consisted generally of the new excursion stock of up-to-date bogie coaches, and E.C.J.S. coaches, with a few trains also of North British, Lancashire & Yorkshire, and North Staffordshire Rys. saloons. As on the same occasion last year, the No.2 road from Finsbury Park to Wood Green was reserved for working empty trains close together to Bounds Green, block working being temporarily suspended. The Great Eastern Ry. for once seemed to appreciate the possibilities of the situation, and this year ran three specials, as against two in previous years. All came via. Cambridge from Doncaster, Norwich and the district served by the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Ry.

Source : Locomotive Magazine, May 1906 issue (no. 165)

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