Talk:1860 Boden Professor of Sanskrit election

Trains - unlikely route from Birkenhead
An express train that ran from Birkenhead to London via Liverpool and Manchester called additionally at Bletchley to allow onward connections to Oxford.

Please could somebody with a subscription verify this. At the time, there was no tunnel under the Mersey, and no means for a train to reach Liverpool from Birkenhead, other than by taking a long detour via Chester, Warrington and Earlestown. Trains from Liverpool to London did not run via Manchester until 1899 (and when they did, they did not run via Bletchley), and trains from Birkenhead to London have never run via Manchester. At the time, they ran Birkenhead - Chester - Crewe - Rugby - Bletchley - London Euston. -- Red rose64 (talk) 08:18, 7 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Ah, I think I understand better now. The paper says "the express train which leaves Birkenhead at 8.20am, Liverpool at 9am and Manchester at 9.20am will, on Friday, Dec 7, stop at Bletchley, to enable passengers from the north to reach Oxford at 3.10pm".  It then gives times for Birkenhead, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester and Stockport in one column, and Warrington, Crewe, Stafford, Rugby and Bletchley in the other. So it's probably one train formed by various trains joining together en route.  I'll reword this. Good spot! BencherliteTalk 08:44, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Great, thanks. I would think that the three portions would combine at Crewe. Another pointer to there being separate portions is "Liverpool at 9am and Manchester at 9.20am" - even in this day and age, 20 minutes for the 32 miles from Liverpool to Manchester (average speed 96 mph) is highly optimistic. -- Red rose64 (talk) 16:59, 7 August 2013 (UTC)