The diagram in question post-1965 was never on a regular basis graced by what is termed 'glamour' motive power as that much loved commodity on the London Midland Region, except for the 'Britannias', was on its last legs. Except for 1P33 (diesel from 17th October 1966) schedules were an easy enough prospect for Class 5s and Class 5s were still plentiful. Eyebrows were now instead accustomed to being raised at such as Stoke's No.45050 oddly 'kicking off' the new Aintree regime on its first day, 17th October. No 'Black 5' more remarkable than that was subsequently seen on 1J42 during this period. Two instances of Kingmoor 'Black 5s' finding involvement were Nos.45135 on 10th December 1966 – an odd steam-worked Saturday – and 44795 on 11th January 1967. The only other contributing depot of note was Crewe South when No.45297 officiated on 5th January 1967.
Punctuality of the southbound portions was very largely affected by what had happened to the main trains 1M27 and 1M40 north of that point and in the former case it had not improved from what we have seen so far. From the Aintree takeover from 17th October up to the next retiming of the 08.25 ex-Glasgow (6th March 1967) the average lateness at Bolton was 28.3 minutes from 53 sightings with a time known, a statistic not alleviated by one instance each of 64 minutes (24th January 1967) and no less than 115 minutes (2nd March 1967). Otherwise the vast majority was seen just before or just after 13.00 on the 12.40/42 booking.
In mid-January I beganenormously. On early turn (6.00am to 2.00pm) 1J42 was almost guaranteed to appear, but on Saturdays with the changeover an hour earlier this was often not the case, but with diesels now very largely involved on that day this was no big loss. The again revised time from 6th March 1967 was only slight for 1M27, seeing the Glasgow start unchanged at 08.25, but Edinburgh now also at that hour. An extra minute at Lancaster and slower time on to Preston meant it was due in at 12.05½. 1J42 finally became the '12.17' ex-Preston and Bolton was now 12.45/47 with running times unaltered. That portion and its morning counterpart from Liverpool had just over three months to run with Aintree motive power and the near domination of its 'Black 5s' continued with not a single noted exception in 32 sightings from the end of January 1967 to 4th April.
