The celebrity HST set on the Coast again on 23 December. 43 102 HST Silver Jubilee on the rear of the 1A61 13:43 Holyhead-London, Bangor, 43 197 The Railway Magazine was at the front. (Deiniol Williams)

Regular Contributors: Dave Sallery , Alan Crawshaw, Rowan Crawshaw, Dave & John Skipsey, John Lewis, Tony Flusk,  Tony Miles, Ian Bowland,  Alastair Graham, Mike Stone,  'Concrete Bob'  Larry Goddard, Selwyn Williams, Steve Vaughan, Dave Bramley and many others.

LAST UPDATE: 23 December 2001

To the North Wales Coast main page : To The previous Noticeboard

My bus was arrived at Bangor station late when the 12:22 to Holyhead was pulling out. So I got the 12:36 which was a 175 to Holyhead to catch the 13:35 Virgin back The trains were busy. Upper picture: 47 781 Isle of Iona (formerly Samson) awaiting departure to Holyhead with the 13:35 to London Euston. Lower picture: 158 758 stands in the sidings at Bangor before working the 14:15 to Llandudno Junction. The notice which says "This coach may be used by all customers with valid tickets for this train" was on on the window of 47 781. - 23 December

Saturday 22 December at Crewe, and 175 109 awaits departure time of 15:35 from Crewe, having arrived with the 14:23 Birmingham - Holyhead and coupled to 175 004 which was waiting here in Platform 12.

The winter sun catches 47 725 Bristol Barton Hill shunting mail vans on the adjacent line.

Arrival at Chester in Platform 3 at 15:50, with a tell-tale plume of steam in the background, made by Bulleid pacific 34027 about to shunt its train to platform 4 ready to form the return 'Christmas Chester Chuffer.'

The 'Chuffer' about to depart on time at 16:12. This loco, 34 027, whose real name is Taw Valley (West Country class) had a brief career with the Harry Potter bandwagon when it was painted maroon and named Hogwarts Castle to haul a promotional train around the country for Ms Rowling's last book. When it came to making a Harry Potter movie, though, the movie moguls (that's 2-6-0s) decided in their wisdom that 34027 looked 'too modern' and they wanted something more traditional. As a result a Great Western 'Hall' class  4-6-0 took over as official Potter loco, and 34027 currently rejoices in the name Santa's Castle.

Here's an .asf video (taken in the last of the daylight) of the loco playing to the crowd and making its spectacular departure towards Wrexham and Birmingham International where a diesel loco would take over for the run back to London.- 23 December

Seen on Penmaenmawr ballast trains: 66 508 on Monday 17 December, 66 519 on Tuesday 18 December.
66 527 Don Raider on Wednesday 19 December had been suffering with low Amps on Tuesday and arrived at Penmaenmawr with a technician on board. 66 545 on Thursday 20 December additional.

Friday 21 December saw 37 707 & 37 520 working 6Z50 Water cannon train to Blaenau Ffestiniog
which reportedly failed to clean the rails as the nozzles were blocked. Penmaenmawr ballast will start again on Wednesday 2 January 2002. - 23 December

Penultimate (although lowest-numbered) 'Hippo' 175 001 made its debut on 22 December, having completed its purchase on 20 December. It ran empty to Llandudno to work the 09:22 Llandudno - Llandudno Junction before attaching to 175 114 on 1G96 08:53 Holyhead - Birmingham, and staying with 114 for the remainder of the day. Of course I think it will be along time before we see the last one, 175 101 as stated already. The question is, what will happen first? A Class 220 Voyager on a service train on the coast or 175 101 working a passenger train? Place your bets now!

Meanwhile, vintage unit  101 678 is finished its "mini C4M+" overhaul at Glasgow Works but cannot move south back to Longsight depot until 3 January due to a complete lack of train crew. No EWS, Freightliner, or FNW staff available to make the move. Road haulage is not available until the 3 January either. - 23 December

With reference to Dave Sallery's archive picture of 47 522, Larry Goddard writes: '47 522, a Parcels sector locomotive, was outshopped by Doncaster BRML in green to mark the 'launch' of the former Works as a Level 5 Depot.  The livery was intended to be LNER Apple Green but in reality, the shade of green was somewhat darker. The loco in its new eye-catching livery was launched at the Open Day on 3 October 1987.  The livery was never intended as a new style for the Parcels Sector. As an aside, the models I painted in various liveries commemorating Derby, Crewe and Doncaster Works, some of which were published in 'Rail', had some influence on some of the locomotives 'decorated' in maroon, black or green in the late 1980s, although my several attempts to get BR to name a loco 'Penmaenmawr' in recognition of the quarry's supply of track ballast to the railways since circa 1882, never came off..!' - 22 December

Son of Concrete Bob (update)

Our question about track machine Robert McAlpine generated some very interesting answers: thanks to everyone who replied. Alan Sherratt passes on the official version, taken from First Engineering's press release at the time. (Alan attended the naming on behalf of Railway World, Railway Magazine and Modern Railways):

On Monday 18 December 2000 First Engineering and Railtrack launched the first of three new on track machines, First Engineering's on-going investment into enhanced delivery of cost effective track maintenance and renewals. Railtrack North West's zonal director, Mike Cowman unveiled the name in a ceremony at Stockport Station.  With the launch of this machine, the first of the latest order of two tampers dedicated to the North West marks a significant step forward in First Engineering's commitment to long term contract operations in the area.  First Engineering was the first company to introduce the new generation of Plasser and Theurer tampers to the UK three years ago.  These machines will be named after eminent Scottish engineers.

'Daisy' (101 685) was on the 17:56 Manchester Piccadilly to Chester on Monday 17 December. Not sure quite what the overhaul that 101 685 has had involves but it is running very very well. It left Stockport like the proverbial ----  off a shovel and was absolutely 'flying' along the single line section. We were at all stations early and had to 'wait time' before leaving. An excellent run, it is in fine condition (and the heating is 'summery' too.)

Monday 17 December: 6Z83 Coal to Penyffordd is running from Liverpool Docks and was through Chester at 07:30 rather than early evening hauled by 66 113.  6E39, empty tanks and steel carriers, hauled by 66 097 from Mostyn to Healey Mills left at 08:30 as usual. 66 508 was on the Penmaenmawr ballast passing straight through the up/down main at Chester at 11:30 6F59 with 3 ferry wagons in tow was in the hands of 56 115 at 11:05 it was still awaiting a path towards Wrexham at 11:35 despite being due at Wrexham at 10:25

Tuesday 18 December: 6E39 was again a 66 in the shape of 66 203. It followed the 08:16 to Man Pic via Delamere being heard quite clearly as it trundled through the forest in the still morning murk. The ballast was worked by 66 519 which this time had to wait at Chester at 11:30 (so was in the up/down goods) for the 11:35 to Crewe (presumably it was running late on Monday.) 56 115 was on the trip from Chirk to Warrington with the empty OTA's. This  passed Frodsham at 10:50 so not sure if it was 6S63 running 2hrs 30 late or 6F71 running 4 hrs early! Take your pick...

Again the 'Top line' is suffering disruption. This time FNW cannot blame 'rail head conditions' as it was another unit failure, this time the 18:32 off Bidston which was cancelled. Their 'Retail Control' helpline number, when I eventually got a reply, told me that a taxi had been sent from Bidston at 18:32 instead. What good is one taxi? It had not reached Shotton by 19:30 (train due 18:57) and anyway "They would cannot take bikes so you will just have to wait for the next train which is running - at 2047!" Never mind that is only another hour and 15 mins and it is cold and raining. The 12:32 off Wrexham was also cancelled two weeks ago due to one engine not working on the 142 which then dumped the passengers at Wrexham General and took off towards Chester leaving a large group of passengers with no information and no alternative but to sit and fester at the station for an hour.

We were told that by the guard that  alternative transport would be laid on (just a ploy I suspect to get us off the train without too much fuss?) and he left on the train.  There was no alternative, just wait but I only found out by ringing up the 'Retail Control number.' Maybe we don't get it as bad as in some places but that is two cancellations that I personally have experienced in only six journeys on the Wrexham - Bidston in less than two weeks. Am I just unlucky or is this the way FNW is going? [I'd say the latter is more like the truth.- Charlie] - 22 December

153 310 works the Chester - Crewe shuttle, 18 December (Ian Bowland)

Son of Concrete Bob

Caught during a brief pause at Stockport on 19 December, First Engineering track maintenance machine DR 73914 Robert McAlpine, which carries a very convincing replica of a 37/4 nameplate, although as far as we know it's not Concrete Bob on the other side ... can someone tell us more about this machine and how it got its name? - 19 December

Clarifications (well all right, corrections)

Firstly, that pesky purple Deltic! We've been asked to make it clear that Riviera Trains is definitely not taking on 9016. There were discussions but the owners of 9016 wanted some unusual clauses in
the contract [sanity clause perhaps?] and RT pulled out at a pretty early stage. Riviera will be concentrating on just one class of loco in its fleet now, with two further 37s due to arrive in the next few months. With access to the Ian Riley fleet as well they will have a class 37 based operation at Crewe. Sounds good to us.

Secondly, 175 102's two 'first nights' which at least got us some emails to brighten up the spam! On further investigation, it first worked on the 8 December, working the 06:25 Llandudno Junction to Llandudno, and indeed got its picture here later in the day.  It continued in diagrams for a few days before going onto Chester depot for fault rectification which needed a test run afterwards. It completed its test run OK, but didn't work until the day after, hence the gap in working passenger trains. - 19 December

With all the excitement over Class 47 liveries, here's one that got away. 47 522 Doncaster Enterprise stands at Prestatyn on a westbound service on 6 August 1988.  Am I right in thinking that this was a new livery for parcels services? - 19 December

An oddly-named new magazine on the subject of current British railways, entrain, now has its first issue on sale. It is published by Platform 5 of Sheffield, publishers of the excellent Today's Railways. One should not judge a magazine by its first issue, but it does look rather promising, with all the new items anyone might want, and a very interesting in-depth article about Direct Rail Services, although Colin Boocock's theory about articulated trains has surely been aired some time ago in another magazine (not the same text, I hasten to add before the annoyed emails flow in!) They have promised to avoid those free 'advertorial' supplement things which make one wonder about the impartiality of some other mags, and to take a more out-of-London view of events.

Several of the magazine team are well-known members of the internet railfan community, including coast line fans Andy Flowers and Mike Stone as well as editor Peter Fox.. They did ask if they could keep an eye on our page for news snippets, which I said was great so long as we got an occasional mention. We wish them well and hope people's pockets are deep enough for another magazine at £3.10 a month. - 19 December

 Dave and John Skipsey's website has some very interesting pictures of the shunting of withdrawn locos at Crewe mentioned by Paul Richman, included in a great selection of pictures taken on a trip round the North West on Sunday 16 December. Well worth a visit.

By coincidence, John and Dave were hauled (or 'dragged') by 47 635 (John's picture above) when on our  scanner was the picture below taken about 1991 just before the scandalous demise of the Speedlink service showing the afternoon Trafford Park - Warrington trip in the loop at Stockport awaiting a road on to the Chester line.

This was meant to illustrate the 'correct' typeface for the number on a large logo 47, for a further feature on retro 47s which never got written, so have a look at it anyway. Of course the fact that Toton have used a different font for the retro version will give Lima and Heljan another variation to sell models of ...  - 19 December

Want to run a railway?

From a Strategic Rail Authority press release, 19 December:

 The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) today gave the green light to re-starting the refranchising programme  for passenger rail services, and at the same time invited expressions of interest for three new franchises.

 SRA Chairman Richard Bowker said:

 "Today's announcement breaks the logjam and will help to stabilise and restore confidence within the rail  industry. This 'horses for courses' approach means we can move forward quickly and secure some early  benefits for passengers, while also putting in place plans for the medium to long term. The new policy has  been extensively discussed with the industry and with Government, and is both practical and deliverable".

...  The SRA is ...  restarting the new Wales & Borders franchise as a matter of priority, following  discussions with the Welsh Assembly Government. Expressions of interest are being invited today. The  Authority hopes to announce a preferred bidder by Autumn 2002, and to have a new franchise in place by early 2003.... Interested parties should write to Nick Newton, SRA, 55 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0EU, by 11 January 2002.

175 109 was running around "not in service" on 18 December and paused at Crewe alongside 87 033 Thane of Fife before running off up the Chester line.  87 033 took over the 9.19 Holyhead-London from XP64 - 47 853/D1733. (Ian Bowland)

18 December saw all the 175s that were in service behave themselves well, with just the continuing brake disk problem keeping availability low. Chester suffered from a 142 failure in the late evening when the 22:08 to Manchester lost air outside on the junction. A repair was made by fitters before the train formed of pioneer 142, 142 001 returned into the platform at about 23:30. The final two departures to Manchester were blocked in so both left 35 late.

Wales and Borders didn't cancel the 22:39 again on 18 December, the third time in December it has run. From 13 January  a re-cast timetable will be in force on the Shrewsbury - Chester line with many alterations to times of trains, particularly in the late evening with the 19:39, 20:35 and 22:39 all retimed to run later from Chester. Let us hope that W&B have finally turned the corner with this line and are on the up at last.  Now is the time for special ticket offers.

Another 'autoballaster' train ran through Chester in the evening of 18 December from Crewe to Bangor with 66 603 on. The Virgin 19:05 Euston-Holyhead was delayed by 65 minutes with overhead line problems at Polesworth in the Trent Valley. It was further delayed by another 10 minutes at Crewe removing a drunken passenger. Tis the season to be silly you know! - 19 December

HST Celebrity in the limelight - by Alan Crawshaw

1D87, the 08:35 Euston to Holyhead, arrives (above) at the still frosty east end of Bangor station. Spotting that the leading power car is the newly named 43 102 HST Silver Jubilee, I sprint the length of  platform 1 to record the nameplate and the explanatory plaque.

43 102 awaiting departure...

The name is elaborated by a specially-made plaque, shown in detail below.

43 197 The Railway Magazine is at the rear. Not a coincidence: Colin J. Marsden of that publication was involved in the naming ceremony, in conjunction with his newly-published book on the subject. - 17 December

Reference the mention of 175 112 at Hither Green: The Class 175 production contract calls for the ride quality of the unit produced by Alstom to be comparable to a Class 465 electric train (don't ask). Thus, for the second time  this year 175 112 (the comparable unit and reliability test train) has been down south being instrumented and ride tested with modifications designed to make the ride acceptable to the purchaser and operator. A Class 465 was rented from Connex for the duration. More ride tests are planned for this unit in January and February 2002. - 17 December

This interesting picture by Tim Rogers shows 1A46 09:19 Holyhead - London passing Holywell Junction signalbox on 17 December, with 47 722 The Queen Mother at the head. In the background is one of the Coast landmarks, the beached ferry boat Duke of Lancaster.

Andrew Macfarlane asked about the purple 'Deltic' D9016 at Crewe. It is stored awaiting return of the rebuilt power unit. Due to ongoing class 66 modification/warranty programme its usual resting place outside number seven road at the north end of the shed is required for access into the shed to allow the GM service agent to work on the 66s.

It was shunted over the weekend of 15/16 December (allowing photographers a shot or two in the process as we brought it right down to the road crossing!) on to road four. It should remain there for a while now. Due to prolonged outside storage and it not working to provide heat internally it is beginning to suffer externally. The extensive use of body filler is showing due to a lot of it cracking and lifting. Indeed a sizeable area on the independent lines side has fallen off revealing green paintwork! Elsewhere streaks of rust are staining the purple paint.

In anticipation of forthcoming engineers work over the Christmas period some Crewe drivers are getting instruction/refresher courses on working vacuum-braked trains. This has been taking place most weekdays with a 37 and "clam" wagons from the south yard. Booked off at 07:50 as 7P67 to Carnforth and 7P68 return. However it leaves later in practice - usually between 8:15 and 8:45. On 17 December it went with full compliment of 20 wagons with loads of ballast/spoil.

Over the weekend we also took the opportunity to fully shunt the lines of withdrawn/stored locos on the holding sidings. The result is a more interesting "display" for the mainline viewers and a tidier yard for us! Also the south yard got a shunt around from Friday to Sunday. Roads 3/4/5 have been vacated to provide access  to PWay crews to rehabilitate them. Some new traffic on the way I think. These sidings were until recently disconnected. Changes afoot at Basford Hall may be the source of the new traffic/extra capacity required.

Extracted from the yard were 37 087/141/2 and 47 481/714. These in turn were put into Crewe Diesel Depot for examination for onward rail transport to new owners. - 17 December

Freightliner locomotive 90 146, on hire to Virgin Trains, prepares to run round its train in Platform 5 at Manchester Piccadilly to form the 16:26 to London on Saturday 15 December. Platform 5 is the only one with a release crossover allowing (seen among the rubbish in the foreground) allowing such a movement. The loco draws forward to the buffers, and then backs over the crossover into platform 6 (.asf video, 200 kB.)

At 15:58, the Branch Line Society's railtour of freight lines in the Crewe area (see this website, passim.) arrived ten minutes early in Platform 6 formed of 101 676. Passengers told me they'd had a successful time; although their hopes for Chelford Loop had been dashed, the down main line past Stockport station had been thrown in as a bonus! Such are the pressures on the First North Western fleet that 676 was put into normal service for the rest of the afternoon, including a pleasant ride for your compiler on the 17:21 to Hazel Grove.

A historic picture out on the station approach: from 04:00 on Sunday 16 December cars and taxis are no longer permitted in this area, being required to use the new area under the station alongside the Altrincham platform Metrolink station, in what was once part of the station goods yard. Part of the new station buildings opened at the same time, but in avery incomplete state; the old booking hall has been demolished. The free town centre bus, seen in the background, is now the only vehicle allowed on the approach road. The temporary entrance for foot passengers and people walking from the car park is on the extreme left of this picture. - 17 December

The January 2002 issue of Traction magazine, now on sale, includes a very interesting article by Andrew Donnelly recalling the days of Class 37/4 haulage in the Scottish Highlands in the 1980s, amusingly titled 'Mary, Murray and Bob too.'  These were truly golden years: nearly every train to Fort William, Mallaig, Thurso and Kyle hauled by a 37/4, including the three-coach trains between Fort William and Mallaig, some with tankers of trawler fuel tacked on the back, plus all the freight services too. We will never see there like again, although it is said that some 37/4s are to be overhauled so they can continue working the London sleeping cars to and from 'The Fort.'

All of which reminds me: some time ago we suggested that 47 705Guy Fawkes might be the only loco to have been named after someone executed for treason. How could we have forgotten 37 401 Mary Queen of Scots? - 18 December
 

Penmaenmawr yard ballast workings:
66 602 on Monday 10/12 with 20 autoballasters
66 507 on Tuesday 11/12
66 520 on Wednesday 12/12
66 507 on Thursday 13/12 additional
20 901+20 904 worked the Valley flasks on Tuesday 11 December
66 603 Top & Tail with 66 519 was seen passing Penmaenmawr at 07:55 on Wednesday 12 December with 20 autoballaster wagons returning to Crewe Basford Hall Yard.
The next ballast workings will be Monday 17 - Thursday 20 December. - 18 December

47 826 Springburn departs Bangor with the 09:19 Holyhead - London Euston on 15 December. Someone's cleaned it! (Rowan Crawshaw)

Strathclyde 101 at Chester, 15 December. Picture by Gareth Jackson.

175s - almost there ...

Next up will be 175 001 presently on test between Crewe and Wilmslow being based at Crewe carriage shed there, and is expected to be 'purchased' by Angel Trains for First North Western before the Christmas holiday. This is not the first prototype unit, 175 101 as previously suggested here: this is at Eastleigh works, and has no bogies or wheelsets. Nor will it have until May / June 2002 at the earliest. It's going nowhere.

The  penultimate 3 car 175, 175 102 is now in service. We wrote here on good authority made its debut on Friday 14 December, on the 1G81 06:24 Chester to Birmingham and continuing in diagram all day working the full length of the coast to Holyhead and back, but several people have written (thanks!) to tell us that it was in traffic some days earlier, its purchase having been completed on 7 December and indeed we had a picture of it on 8 December ...  A wandering 'Hippo' returned to Chester, 175 112 ran from Hither Green to Chester. Does anyone know why it was there? - 16 December

Wales and Borders has slightly improved performance over the last few days but the Green Lane level crossing problem still continues. Apparently now it won't be fixed until February, but Railtrack didn't quote which year! Of note the latest poor performer has been the 22:39 Chester to Wolverhampton which has not run on a weekday since 4 December.

15 December saw Wales and Borders cancel the 09:19 and 22:39 from Chester, a spare 158 (158 848) being used to run the 15:35 right time from Chester. - 16 December

Heart stopping stuff when an EWS liveried class 37 with a 4 in its number, pulls through platform 11 on a weekday, 14 December,  with passenger stock in tow - are they back?  Wishful thinking, it was 37 704 with two Northern Belle carriages in transit from the IEMD to the LNWR carriage sheds.  Impressive though. - 16 December

Voyager Milestone - report by Tony Miles

The final Voyager, 220 034 was handed over to Virgin on 13 December, just 30 weeks after the first entered service. It was named Yorkshire Voyager in recognition of the hard work done by the staff at Bombardier's Wakefield works to build the trains on time. (Will it dare work to Lancashire I wonder?)

Also the first Super Voyager, the tilt series, 221 110 was handed over to Virgin and named James Cook. All of the Super Voyagers will be named after famous international explorers and voyagers.  Both pictures were taken during the naming event on 14 December, by permission of Virgin and Bombardier.

The first two units (221 109 and 221 110) will start non tilt testing on the East Coast Main Line on December 14th. Virgin Trains have revealed that the eight HST sets to be retained will be formed as 2+5 sets and refurbished to look like a new fleet. Designated class 255 they will be the "Challenger" series. - 14 December

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