101 693 at Chester on a cold winter's morning, 6 January. (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: 06 January 2002

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

The National Rail website describes a promotion: 'From 01 January 2002 until 04 May 2002 First North Western are running a voucher based 2 for 1 promotion between stations along the Conwy Valley Line (Llandudno – Blaenau   Ffestiniog).... Vouchers will be distributed locally.  Customers who have a voucher can buy one adult Standard Day or Cheap Day Return and get another one for free.'

Has anyone seen these vouchers, or can anyone tell us how to obtain them? - 6 January

January 4: Quite quiet really

The Virgin services performed their usual self-destruction again on 4 January, 1D87 only making the Junction again and 1D89 pausing at Crewe for 17 minutes while 43 080 had a drink of coolant. It left Crewe for Holyhead 28 down with 43 178 helping it along. They do seem to be dropping reliability in the last few weeks, whether it's the cold that's to blame, who knows, but it needs sorting!

Units were in scarce supply at Chester  on 4 January, with the 07:27 to Manchester  Picc cancelled in the morning and 15:51 Crewe - Chester and 16:13 Chester- Man Picc via Altrincham in the afternoon.
The only cancellation on the Wales & Borders line today was the 09:19 Chester - Birmingham. Getting much better now!

Vandalism reared its ugly head again on the Wrexham to Bidston line again  with a 142 returning to Chester with a smashed toilet window, resulting in yet another train out of service whilst it is repaired. We don't suppose the "yobs" who did it will ever be caught and will continue to endanger themselves and passengers alike with their idiotic behaviour. - 6 January

Just in case anyone thinks Class 175s and their ilk are a new-fangled idea, here are a couple of National Railway Museum pictures of the diesel railcar set built by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1938. It was a three-car articulated train with just four bogies, making it in one way rather more advanced technologically than today's units. Each car was powered by two underfloor 125 BHP engines which drove through a hydraulic torque convertor, six of the eight axles being powered. Top speed was 75 MPH. Air-operated sliding doors controlled by the guard were fitted, and valences covered the underframe and mechanical parts, but despite including air scoops these caused overheating of equipment (sounds familiar) and were soon removed. Livery was bright 'post office' red and aluminium - a combination which has reappeared on the Virgin Voyager units.

The train had 138 second class and 24 First Class seats; the picture shows the second class saloon. Most of the seat backs could be swung over so that passengers could always travel forwards, a feature found in tramcars of the time and also used in the Budd Rail Diesel Cars on the other side of the Atlantic. In examples of the latter in which your compiler travelled on Vancouver Island, seat spacings were arranged so that tHe same seats could be used as either 'facing' or 'airline' style by changing the position of the backs. A similar arrangement was used in the first class compartments of the Derby-built D50000 series long-wheelbase DMUs, but has not found favour since with British designers.

The LMS unit, coach numbers 80000/1/2, operated between Oxford and Cambridge, and later (apparently after some pressure from the LMS publicity department) between London and Nottingham. As might be expected, some problems were encountered,  and although it put in some good work in service, World War 2 put an end to the project and the train was put in store. After the War it was rebuilt into a 2-car overhead wire maintenance unit for the Manchester - Altrincham line. It's interesting to contemplate whether the LMS would have continued production if given the chance, but Railway Nationalisation in 1948 and general post-war austerity put paid to an idea which was perhaps 50 years ahead of its time.

Further reading: British Railways Illustrated magazine, January 2002.  E.V. Richards, LMS Diesels. Railway Correspondence and Travel Society, 1996.  - 6 January

Following the recent passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2001, it appears that some of the information in our Website might be considered to be illegal under the category of disclosing information ''...reckless as to whether the disclosure might prejudice ... security... [of] nuclear material which is being transported to or from a nuclear site...' (Full text on the Parliament website) We have therefore, just to be on the safe side, removed the timetable information about nuclear flask services, following discussion with some other railfan website operators, but it is to be hoped that these new restrictive laws are not intended to remain in force permanently. Contributors are encouraged to carry on sending pictures of the trains, especially if Class 37s appear!

The 'Traffic and Timetables' area of the site has been re-organised for 2002, into two separate pages. The 'Travel Information' page is intended for all travellers, with links to on-line train information, things about fares, and so on. The 'Traffic Guide' is for railfans and anyone interested in the working of the line, with details of traction, information about freight trains and similar. Incidentally, the Route Guide pages now include a selection of Ordnance Survey map extracts. - 6 January

And now: the answers

For those who had a try at Concrete Bob's Christmas Quiz - the Answersare now available... - 6 January

Not so happy new year - by Ian Bowland

The 09.19 Holyhead-Euston arrives on time at Crewe on 4 January behind 47 747 Graham Farish  which detached and returned up the Chester line instead of taking its usual run up the WCML to Preston.

The wires were down North of Crewe and the timetables were in chaos with many trains cancelled, some terminated at Crewe and some were 47 "dragged" via the Manchester line. The picture above shows the 08:35 Euston-Holyhead, due out of Crewe at 10:45, which actually arrived at Crewe at 12:05, the reason for the delay was quoted as "a train fault".  43 080 was leading with 43 178 trailing. - 4 January

47 750 Atlas passes Holywell Junction on 3 January with the 09:19 Holyhead - London (Tim Rogers)

Chester Notes - by Dave Bramley

Wales and Borders news first and another ex-Wales and West 158, number 158 821,  worked the Shrewsbury - Chester line on 3 January. It started off on the 06:30 Shrewsbury - Chester which was turned back at Wrexham due to late running. It made it up to Chester on the next try working back out of Chester on the 11:30 Chester - Birmingham as far as as Shrewsbury. The 07:32 to Shrewsbury was the only cancellation on the line all day.

Evening freight action on 3 January was provided by 66 231 working through Chester with the 21:18 6Z99 Gresty Lane to Bangor Long Welded Rail train with 12 loaded wagons it certainly was long! - 4 January

Red sky in the morning as the 08:18 Manchester - Llandudno pulls out of Manchester Oxford Road, 3 January. Picture dedicated to the railman who came to see why I was wandering lost down the platform. (Charlie Hulme)

Winter at Chester - by Alan Crawshaw

The wintry scene at Chester on 3 January as 47 750 Atlas takes 1A46 09:19 Holyhead - London down the tracks. We returned on the 14:23 Birmingham to Holyhead service which comprised five cars of 175. The refreshment trolley was marooned in the rear set so I missed out on my coffee. Both trains were very busy, and on neither were our tickets inspected. - 3 January

Concerned about the very restricted leg-room in most of the seats of the new Virgin 'Voyager' trains, I filled in the feedback form on the Virgin website asking if it will be possible for a tall passenger to reserve in advance one of the few 'priority' seats with more space. The picture here was taken (in a non-priority seat) looking down at my knees while sitting as upright in the seat as I possibly could. As can be see, there is less than 2 cm clearance in this position; I am about 1.91 metres tall.

Here's the discouraging reply

Dear Mr Hulme,

Thank you very much for your correspondence received on 13 December 2001. I was sorry to learn that you have found your journeys uncomfortable due to the lack of sufficient legroom on our new Voyager services.

The Priority seats are primarily for those who require assistance when travelling. If there are few passengers requiring assistance then you should be able to book seats to your requirements. However, Coach F (which is the unreservable carriage on Voyagers) has four priority seats for those who may wish to travel at short notice. I hope that is enough information for you.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us. We always find customer feedback useful and welcome the chance it gives us to hear what passengers think of our service.

Yours sincerely, Dawn Henry, Customer Relations.
 

Those locospotting days... by Chris Reynolds

A trip  from Llandudno Junction to Birmingham at Christmas 1964 (I think!). The Llandudno Junction platform photo (above)  is looking towards Colwyn Bay.

Birmingham New Street, with 'Peak'  D12 ....

The reconstruction of New Street can be seen behind this Redditch-bound Park Royal DMU.

Finally, there is a picture of the Young Enthusiast at Snow Hill seeing an unexpected Blue Pullman just like in the Tri-ang catalogue. All the photos are by Avis Reynolds. - 3 January

43 122 at Bangor station with 43 153 at the back on 1D87, 09:05 London - Holyhead of 2 January which was over 65 minutes late. The train was terminated at Bangor and all the passengers for Holyhead (around 70+) were put on a two car 175 ... see HST notes below. (Deiniol Williams)

HSTs and the Christmas shambles - by Steve Vaughan

Below are the HST notes for Christmas and New Year. I have compiled the list for the sets that actually made it down The Coast but do to a huge amount of disruption (not due once to Power Cars failing!) over the period I have not included how far the sets got in either direction! [for details of train numbers and times see our Virgin winter timetable]

Sun 23 Dec: 43 197/102 1A61/D89. 43 153/158 1D87/A75.
Mon 24 Dec: 43 197/102 1A23. 43 153/158 1D87/A70. (Note 1D89 was not booked to run on Christmas Eve)
Thur 27 Dec: 1D87/A70/D89 43 122/153 (1A23 not booked to run)
Fri 28 Dec: 1A23 43 122/153. 1D87/A70/D89 43 154/197. 1D90 43 102/063.
Sat 29 Dec: 1A01 43 154/197. 1A13/D88. 43 122/153.
Sun 30 Dec: 43 102/063 1A61/D89. 43 122/153 1D87/A75.
Mon 31 Dec: 43 102/063 1A23/D88. 43 153/122 1D87/A70/D89.
Tue 1 Jan: 43 153/122 1A23. 43 063/122 1A46/D89. 1D87/A70 Loco-hauled as a result of 1D88/A46 being HST.
Wed 2 Jan: 43 063/102 1A23. 43 153/122 1D87/A70/D89.

A good start to the New Year then - 1D87 has for the first 2 days of the year failed to make Holyhead although it is getting closer. Terminating Llandudno Junction on the 1st and Bangor on the 2nd! Never mind, Virgin did promise that it will be OK from 2003 and asked that we bear with them until the new trains are in service then. So if your Virgin train is delayed or cancelled this year, give a little smile and think to yourself what a marvellous service Virgin will be providing next year ... In 2003, of course, overhead wires will not fall down, points will not freeze, freight trains, track circuits, signals etc. will not fail and snow will not fall and Virgin will have a shiny new fleet of trains with half as many seats as the old ones. - 3 January

The ballast train from Penmaenmawr rolls through Chester, 2 January (Dave Skipsey)

1D87 Euston - Holyhead passes Mold Junction with 47 732 Restormel at the head, 1 January 2002. (Tim Rogers)

New Year dawns at Chester

John and Dave Skipsey visited snowy Chester station on 1 January with digital cameras at the ready: see http://www.merseyjcn.freeuk.com for a great selection of the resulting pictures, including some views of how the Wales & Borders logo looks on a Central Trains green train ... - 1 January

Colour contrast at Nantwich on 31 December as 153 353 in 'Heart of Wales' livery departs into the snowy landscape with the 12:47 Crewe - Shrewsbury local. (Charlie Hulme)

175 008 leaves Platform 10 at Crewe on time (above) with the 12:22 to Holyhead on 31 December, leaving behind several passengers who had hurried over from a late running Virgin service, some of which were running over two hours late, due to overhead wire problems we believe. Not to worry, though, the 08:35 Virgin service from London to Holyhead , which normally departs Crewe 10:45, hasn't arrived yet! It finally pulled out of Crewe at 12:45 (below, with 43 153 The English Riviera on the rear.) One wonders if anyone caught any ferry connections to Ireland. Will 2002 be any better? - 1 January

From the Stena website:  Dun Laoghaire - Holyhead route. Please be advised that the annual refit of the HSS Stena Explorer is scheduled from 6 Jan to 11 Feb 02. During this time the following sailings will not operate : Ex Holyhead 08.55, 13.45, 18.30 - Ex Dun Laoghaire 11.10, 16.05, 22.15. At least it's better than its better than 2001 when the Jonathan Swift was having a refit at the same time.  The JS had its refit
in December. - 1 January

Saturday 29 December was the last day in 2001 to see two different class 47-hauled trains on the coast.
86 261 The Rail Charter Partnership arrived from London with the 07:20(!) London-Holyhead and handed over to 47 732 Restormel which arrived 10 minutes late from the depot. Photo shows the 9.19 Holyhead-London arriving on time behind 47 805. Lots of pictures from December on Ian's Rail37 website. - 1 January

Welsh Assembly leaders have been accused of complacency after a claim that transport in North Wales has improved thanks to recent investment.  AM and Plaid Cymru president Ieuan Wyn Jones said the rail service between North Wales and the Assembly's Cardiff home is abysmal.  He centred his attack on Welsh Transport Minister Sue Essex, saying he was astonished by her improvement claim.  "It is clear we have a long way to go to improve the awful service that currently exists between Holyhead and Cardiff" he said.  "Some passengers have to stand for long periods when the train is full and often trains from Cardiff arrive too late for connections from Crewe to North Wales stations.  It is a scandal that needs to be dealt with."

Ieuan Wyn Jones is calling on the Assembly to make sure that when the new franchise for Wales is established more through trains to Cardiff are included in the bid. He concluded "Sue Essex must be catching the Hogwarts Express if she believes the journey from the North to the South has been improved." - 1 January

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Created by Charlie Hulme, Comments welcome to charlie@dweb.u-net.com