Yeah, those A3s sure shook up us young trainspotters at Skipton when they suddenly appeared on the few expresses
That was 1960 or possibly late 1959, according to my spotters notes. Prior to that the six Royal Scots and three Britannias from Leeds Holbeck mpd (55A) dominated the expresses, except for an occasional Jubilee or, horror of horrors, a Black 5 or two on them!
The MSTS Skipton to Carlisle 1920 route, with the signalling modernisation adddition, is perfect for re-creating that era as so little had changed from the 1920's in terms of infrastructure, branch lines, large freight yards etc.
To answer USRailFan's questions:
1) The A3's operated on all the expresses and semi-fasts. Those were 'The Thames-Clyde Express' (St.Pancras-Glasgow St.Enoch, non-stop Leeds-Carlisle), 'The Waverley' express (St.Pancras-Carlisle-Edinburgh) and a Leeds-Glasgow semi-fast; all with return legs, of course. Busy days would see relief trains for some of these, with anything on the head from a Black 5 to an A3. A3s would occasionally work fast freights or parcels trains as well, as balancing workings to or from Holbeck, where they were based.
2) The carriages were all maroon by then; always modern Mk 1's I believe, except for older restaurant cars probably from LMS days, and invariably very clean and tidy. This contrasted with the usually filthy A3s themselves.
3) From a look at some of Eric Treacy great photos, the "Temmi", as we called it, was 10 or 11 carriages, including an RC and a brake second, with the Waverley similar but 2 carriages less.
As for schedules, I remember a couple of firemen commenting on them being very easy, especially with the A3s upgraded power thanks to double chimneys. Unlike these days, trains that were delayed en-route could make up time by driving hard, while normally there were huge savings in fuel and maintenance costs by operating the engines at less than maximum output. I have a couple of timing logs from 'Trains Illustrated' mag March 1961 which show schedules and actual timings and speeds of A3s at each station and junction along the S&C: The "Temmi" was allowed 100 minutes non-stop Skipton to Carlisle; The Waverley stopped at Skipton, Hellifield and Appleby and was alllowed 45 minutes Hellifield to Appleby and 30 minutes onwards to Carlisle;maximum speeds for the two A3 runs were 85 and 91 mph, both recorded at Long Meg Sidings. Interestingly, both runs show before-time arrivals at Carlisle. If anyone is interested in these timing logs, just pm me with your Email address and I'll send you a scan of the pages.
As mentioned in an earlier post, the S&C A3s had been displaced from the North-East (Heaton mpd) by diesels (D200's ?), and were displaced again in 1963 when the 'Peak' diesels moved in and the A3s headed for the scrap heap. Luckily, thanks to Microsoft and the MSTS community we can virtually relive those great years.
Cliff