As more diesels were progressively accepted and crew training established sufficient footplate crews in the various links, the locomotives were placed into a succession of workings, the most regular of which were as shown in Table 1.
The Liverpool duty actually replaced one that the prototype Deltic had performed so consistently well. Having no future on the LM Region the locomotive was transferred to a very willing management team for the East Coast main line who quickly built a case for 22 of the type to replace 55 ‘Pacifics’.
By September all the Liverpool-Euston and return workings except the 4.0pm Up and 2.20pm Down were diesel diagrams.
For the – delayed by a strike in the printing industry – from November 2 the Type 4 diesels were allocated to work, within the regional boundary, most of the 17 titled train services, of which eight were class 8 steam duties and the balance class 7. The three that remained steam were ‘The Comet, ‘The Emerald Isle Express’ and ‘The Ulster Express’. By that time the civil engineering works for modernisation south of Liverpool/Weaver Junction/Manchester and Crewe had necessitated the inclusion in the of allowances of up to 38min but generally around 20min. For some of the titled trains the public timetable included an additional 10 or 12min. The working of the routes thus became more difficult. For footplate crews it was a case of dressing for steam, but with some expectation
