Cathedrals Express

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Down Cathedrals Express at Maidenhead in July 1959, hauled by Castle class 5071 Spitfire

The Cathedrals Express was a named passenger express which ran on the Western Region of British Railways. It connected the cathedral cities of Hereford and Worcester to London Paddington.

The service was introduced on 16 September 1957 and was operated six days a week until the 12 June 1965. It departed Hereford at 7.45 with the return service leaving Paddington at 16.45. Coaching stock was in the GWR chocolate and cream livery, not the BR standard maroon of this period.

The service also stopped at Oxford, another cathedral city, although this was already well-served by other London services. Although a named train, the Cathedrals Express was by no means a fast service throughout. Between Hereford and Worcester it was at most a semi-fast.

In later years the number of stops increased. The timetable in summer 1963 was: Hereford (d. 8.00), Ledbury, Colwall, Great Malvern, Malvern Link, Worcester Foregate Street, Worcester Shrub Hill (d. 9.10), Evesham, Moreton-in-Marsh, Oxford, Reading and Paddington (a. 11.55; 12.09 on Saturdays) – returning from Paddington at 17.15 and reaching Hereford at 20.59 (21.18 on Saturdays).

There was a restaurant car service east of Worcester. Through carriages from Kidderminster to London and v.v. were also attached/detached at Worcester.

Headboard

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Modern reproduction of the original headboard

This was the last named express with a headboard to be introduced on British Railways in the steam era.

The headboard design was unusual and somewhat ecclesiastical in design. It did not have the usual border around it and its distinctive feature was the use of a blackletter font, not otherwise used for headboards. The headboard was surmounted by a bishop's mitre as a crest in relief. Three dimensional crests were relatively uncommon on British headboards, although used more on the Western Region than elsewhere.

Railtours

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A garter blue A4 arrives at Cardiff on a Steam Dreams Cathedrals Express

After the withdrawal of mainline steam services, the name Cathedrals Express was used for a number of steam-hauled railtours in the area of the Welsh Marches. As the area is scenic, rural, with attractive destination cities and running over lightly trafficked lines, it was a popular venue.

In recent years, the name Cathedrals Express has been used by Steam Dreams for regular railtours in a variety of locations. One of these, operated by the West Coast Railway Company (WCRC), was the scene of the 2015 Wootton Bassett SPAD incident which led to the suspension of WCRC's operating licence.

First Great Western have also used the name for scheduled diesel services from Hereford. At present, the Great Western Railway franchise run a named Cathedrals Express service Mondays to Fridays between Hereford and London Paddington via Worcester and Oxford. The train departs Hereford at 06:42, returning from London Paddington at 18:22 and is currently timetabled as an InterCity 125 high speed train.