1A46 passeing Bagillt, 12 March 2002, 47 829 at the head. (Tim J. Rogers)

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'  George Jones, Selwyn Williams, Steve Vaughan, Dave Bramley and many others.

LAST UPDATE: 13 March 2002

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

As part of Wrexham's Science Festival there is a day of assorted activities ("Scientriffic") at NEWI, (North East Wales Institute for Further Education) Wrexham on Saturday 23 March when the Wales and Borders Trains exhibition trailer will be on site promoting use of  the Shrewsbury - Chester line. The trailer is the former Valley Lines publicity unit and this will be its first appearance in North Wales. Wrexham's Rail Community Officer Sheila Dee will be supporting the occasion along with W&BT staff.  Visitors travelling by W&BT train to Wrexham with a current ticket will gain free access to the show. Otherwise £3 on the day adult. - 13 March

HST in the spring sunshine: 1D87 08:35 London - Holyhead on 11 March at Conwy (heading and above)  with 43 196 leading and 43 157, fresh off exam, trailing. (Steve Vaughan)

Further to John Bird's Midland Mainline notes: Midland Mainline currently have 2 HST Power Cars out of traffic: 43 075 is suffering from collision damage having struck gas cylinders placed on the line by contractors after a mix-up over taking an engineering possession. This collision also led to severe damage to a number of coaches in the set. 43 046 is out of traffic after suffering a major engine failure and subsequent fire. Expect both Power Cars to be out of traffic for some time. As a result on 8 March MML hired 43 080 from Virgin. Paired with 43 054 it worked: 06:13 Leeds - London St Pancras, 10:25 St Pancras - Sheffield,. 13:27 Sheffield - St Pancras. 17:15 St Pancras - Leeds. There has been no further hire of Power Cars but it is quite likely that other Virgin machines may get to see London St.Pancras before 43 046 and 075 are repaired.

Great British engineering from three eras at Conwy, 11 March. (Steve Vaughan)

Just by chance I happened to be on MML on Friday 8 March and arrived at Euston around 18:05 to travel home on 1D89 19:05 London - Holyhead. 1D88 17:25 London - Holyhead was still there at 18:05 and was still boarding, so it must have left shortly afterwards. Needless to say I did not travel on 1D88 waiting instead for the far superior 43 102/153 on 1D89 which ran early throughout! - 11 March

The 14:32 Preston - Plymouth, with 43 093 leading, prepares for its 15:17 departure from Manchester Piccadilly on 9 March, as 175 002 arrives in the other direction to form the 15:17 to Llandudno. (Charlie Hulme)

Apologies to the photographers for missing out the pictures from the Penmaenmawr freight item at the bottom of this page, due to an excess of organic Chardonnay; these have now been loaded. No excuse at all, on the other hand, for referring to the London and North Western Railway's carriage depot at Crewe as the 'Riviera Trains depot' on the Class 57 caption in the last Notice Board. Thanks to David Healey for bringing this to our attention. - 11 March

ICI hoppers down the Coast - by Paul Harrison

Readers may remember a query from Frank Buckley about the ICI limestone trains to the chemical works in the Northwich area operating from North Wales quarries for a period in the mid-1950s, rather than their normal source in the Peak District.

These trains ran once per day with an 8F and about 12 hoppers. I believe Warrington men took the train all the way as they had the required route knowledge.  The existing crushing plant at ICI Tunstead was on reduced output and as the Soda Ash process is 24 hour an alternative source was needed, hence the decision to obtain stone from ICIs Llysfaen quarry which was located just before Penmaenrhos tunnel.

The ICI sidings at Llysfaen were very compact hence the reduced number of wagons. After unloading the train returned back to Warrington - looking at the track layout at Llysfaen I would have thought that the train would have had to gone to either Colwyn Bay or Llandudno Junction to run-round and get the engine turned around.

The route from ICI Wallerscote would have been via the Gorstage line onto the West Coast Main Line then up to Warrington where the engine would turn etc. It would then take the direct line towards Chester and the North Wales coast. The alternative routes would have involved complex reversals which were probably not permitted.

That is all that is known at present and so far no photos have surfaced of the workings. If anyone can add more detail we'd be very pleased to hear from them.

Paul Harrison's new book on the ICI Hopper Wagons has just been published by Cheona Publications. It is priced at £13.95 for 112 pages with 230+ photos of which approx 35 are colour of diesel era hauled hoppers. There are also 5 maps and 3 line drawings of the hoppers and the new Brunner Mond wagons now used. It can be purchased directly from the publisher (address below) or from the Ian Allan Bookshop at Manchester Piccadilly or the SMTF Model Shop within the grounds of Brookside Garden Centre between Hazel Grove and Poynton.

Publisher's address is - Cheona Publications,The Railway Study Centre, Tal Eithin Isaf, Llanllyfni, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, LL54 6RT.  Please add £1 for P+P and make cheques payable to P F Midwinter.
Or orders can be placed by phone or fax during office hours on phone 01286 882332 and fax 01286 882062.- 11 March

A close-up by Alan Crawshaw of the plates fitted to 47 812Pride of Eastleigh, seen at Crewe on 8 March, having finally entered service .... the Spitfire aircraft was chosen back in nationalised Railfreight days as the Eastleigh days, as these famous 'Battle of Britain' machines were built nearby. - 11 March

Our Bangor reporters Rowan and Alan Crawshaw have been roving far and wide recently: This picture by Rowan shows Carlisle on 9 March, with our favourite engine  47 847 Brian Morrison waiting to take over the 15:25 to Birmingham, diverted over the Settle and Carlisle route due to engineering works. Alan's picture report on their day out is very highly recommended, and comes complete with snow scenes! There's also a Leisurely Day at Crewe to visit, with Class 37s and a Pendolino... - 11 March

Sunday relaying on Anglesey - by Deiniol Williams

This picture shows 66 068 at Rhosneigr on 10 March with a loaded ballast train facing the Holyhead direction,  7C63. I was only able to photograph one of the two locos at Valley, these being 37 203 on a ballast train (above) and 56 071 with many loaded 'Salmon' track-carrying wagons; the problem being that RAF Valley dont like people around their air base. - 10 March

Saturday 9 March promised some interesting events along the coast: highlight being the Northern Belle dining train which ran as promised from Manchester to Holyhead and back, hauled by 'royal' loco 47 799 Prince Henry. The train is pictured by Tim J. Rogers arriving at Chester from Manchester past the famous water tower ...

 and by John Humphries at Talacre.

47 814 Totnes Castle hauled 1A46 09:19 Holyhead - London as far as Crewe, photographed by Tim J. Rogers at Chester.

The 07:20 London - Holyhead was brought in to Crewe (picture  Rowan Crawshaw) by Freightliner locomotive 90 046 ...

... and 47 757 Restitution was waiting (picture Alan Crawshaw) to take over for the run to Holyhead and back.

In the afternoon there were severe power supply problems on the main line into London, resulting in many Virgin trains being cancelled or terminated short of London. The 18:05 London - Holyhead was among those cancelled, so our promised 'two HSTs in Bangor station' on Sunday probably did not happen. - 10 March

More views of the EWS Penmaenmawr - Tytherington train.Tuesday 5 March had 66 017, pictured by Deiniol Williams as it prepared to leave the quarry sidings.

66 034 Carnedd Llewelyn was the refreshing sight on Thursday 5 March, seen in Eryl Crump's picture.

Here's Sel Williams' freight notes for the week:

Penmaenmawr - Basford Hall trains this week 66 550 on Monday 4 March; 66 515 on Tuesday 5; 66 511 on Wednesday 6. Penmaenmawr - Tytherington (Headcode 6P50 - is this correct?), 66 017 on Tuesday 5 March, 60 034 on Thursday 7. 20 303 + 37 608 worked the Valley flasks on Tuesday, with 47756 T&T with 47 744 on 1Z16 Serco track recorder on Tuesday. (See pictures in last notice board)

The Ballast will run Monday 11 March - Wednesday 13  - no news on the Tytherington running next week. - 10 March

The following appeal by Frank Armstrong is from his excellent Times Past North Wales Photo Archive:

'Sadly I am having to finish working on this site due to the problem of ill health within the family. I wonder, is there anyone out there who feels that they could take the site over? The person would need basic HTML skills and experience with a Photoshop program - I use Corel PhotoPaint 10 but anything similar would be ok. Possession of and experience with a reasonable digital camera would help. It would also be a good idea if they were a little less pre-historic than my 72 years.'

Please visit the site and consider whether you can help. - 10 March

47 289 is about to run round at 390 001Virgin Pioneer at Crewe on its way to Longsight for washing on 8 March. Some 'wag' had written 'BIG SPRINTER' in the dirt on one of the coaches!(Rowan Crawshaw)

I travelled to Leicester on 8 March, and Midland Main Line is also having problems - makes a change from the 175s! In addition to one 'temporary' loco-hauled circuit in place of a damaged  HST, one "green" HST had a red Virgin Trains HST power car at the London end heading south at 14:35 - enquiries suggest on loan following a fire on a MML unit.

Rejoined Virgin at Tamworth - 18:53 to Holyhead was 40 minutes late leaving (apparently change of set at Euston due to fault on one of the vehicles) but only 10 minutes late back at Colwyn Bay.

43 102 + 43 153 on 1D87 Euston-Holyhead on 8 March lost power between Crewe station and the Steel Works box, blocking up the down line to Chester. It was eventually restarted and ran on one power car to Chester where the following Birmingham-Holyhead train passed it. That was 50 minutes late and the Virgin 78 late, which then terminated at Llanduno Junction. It was a very rare sight to see a FNW train get priority over a Virgin train .... - 10 March
 

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