28 April 2001
Special edition of the North Wales Coast Railway Notice Board
Updated 29 April
This train was different from most of the steam charters which traverse the North Wales Coast, in that it originated from the north of England, Carnforth (headquarters of the West Coast Railway Company whose Website shows what 5972 looks like in its proper colour) on the West Coast Main Line, in fact. The advertised motive power was Class 8F 2-8-0 48151, but for a reason which I hope someone will tell us, a Great Western 'Hall' class 4-6-0 was substituted. Not just any old GWR green Hall, either, but No. 5972 Olton Hall which wears the red livery invented by author JK Rowling for the trains in the well-known Harry Potter stories. (Although to most older enthusiasts it looks more like a particularly silly flight of fancy perpetrated by Triang Railways many years ago.) Another loco was previously painted like this, but the Hall won the starring role in the Warner Brothers Film. Well, by the time your compiler was 10 years old, he knew that Halls were not red, and didn't operate from any platform at Kings Cross, however silly their number. Did anyone ask for their money back, we wonder?
Booked Coast line timings for the Rail Tours North West Anglesey Express, which was hauled throughout by 5972, diverging from the West Coast Main Line at Warrington, were: Chester d.11.09, Rhyl pass 10:49, Llandudno Junction a. 11:11 d. 12:42, Holyhead a. 13:42 d. 16:07, Llandudno Junction a. 17:16 d. 18:20, Rhyl pass 18:45, Chester a. 19:28. However, these turned out to be optimistic, as we will see, and led to some cold waits by our reporters...
The outward journey seems to have gone more or less OK, with some concern about the running of the loco: Rowan Crawshaw's pictures show the train during its water stop at Llandudno Junction (above) and at Bangor (below)
At Holyhead, John Lewis takes up the story:
First of all, entering Holyhead at 14:00 this afternoon (taken from an A55 slip road!)...
....on Holyhead station's platform 1.....
... at Valley station, about to turn on the triangle. I stood on Valley station for almost 2 hours just waiting for her to come to the triangle - I haven't a clue what went wrong there, just seemed to be bad planning ...
... arriving back at Holyhead to work the return train ...
...shunting the stock into platform 1 ...
... showing the new A55 on the left (nice and quiet at this time of day!)....
.... and finally, leaving Holyhead at approximately 17:20 or so, well adrift of it's official departure time of 16:07.
Waiting to photograph the return run was Ian Bowland, who writes:
I went to photo the Carnforth-Holyhead "Anglesey Express" at Conwy. The timings given indicated a pass at Conwy of around 17:00hrs - it finally arrived at 18:20. I left Conwy for home and as I accessed the A55 at Llandudno Junction I saw that the train was still in the station, so I decided to try to photograph it again at Abergele, something I had managed previously with the 37/4s. I stood in the biting wind for an age until I heard the loco in the distance slogging away but going slower and slower until it finally died!
A 175/1 was held briefly on the down approach to the station before being brought forward on the fast line by the signal lady with an orange jacket and huge red flag. After a brief discussion the Hippo moved forward very slowly and proceeded with much horn blowing as it approached the stricken steam locomotive.
In the distance a plume of smoke could be seen and a trip to the overbridge revealed the train about a mile away stopped and, presumably, brewing up - anyway it was clear that the blower was fully on. After about 30 minutes there was a blast of steam and the engine took off like a rocket, I just managed to get back onto the platform when it stormed through the station like the proverbial bat (below.)
It was booked at Rhyl around 18:15 but left Abergele at well turned 20:00hrs and there was me still believing that GWR excelled above all - ah well, back to reality.
Postscript from Larry Goddard:
5972 behaved strangely all day. On the down, it almost came to a halt at Conwy Morfa and I easily got another shot at Llanfairfechan. On the up (running hour late) it left Pen-Y-Clip tunnel at a good clip but again it slowed almost to a halt under Penmaenmawr station footbridge, but then opened up and sped through with characteristic GWR bark. After taking ages to get through Old Colwyn and Llysfaen, it stopped just east of Hen Wrych bridge for a blow-up and smokebox ash was cleared out. The Abergele signaller asked the driver of the 18.17 Manchester-Bangor to enquire what the trouble was and the Class 175 stopped beside 'Orton Hall'. The train finally got started at 20.07... an eventful day out for all concerned!
Comments on the day from passengers, organisers, people delayed on other trains, etc. are very welcome at charlie@dweb.u-net.com.
Part of the North Wales Coast Railway website
Compiled by Charlie Hulme with thanks to our wonderful team of contributors.