47 776 Respected calls at Bangor at 21:06 with the 1D88 16:45 London Euston - Holyhead on Sunday 9 June (Rowan Crawshaw)

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LAST UPDATE: 10 June 2002

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Our loco-hauled timetable for Saturdays is now ready for anyone who wants to check it (please!) along with a revised version of Monday-Friday. - 10 June

Class 47 tribulations

Thanks to those who have written in about our Saturday 8 June chronicle. 47 758 certainly was involved in a fire which damaged its paintwork - the fire at Motherwell depot a few months ago. Here are some relevant Web links:  to Locowatch (thanks, Jim Nisbet) and to Rail37 (thanks, Ian Bowland.)

As for the windscreen damage to 47 776, which caused it to be taken off the FNW diagram, here's an eye-witness account from Friday 7 June by Steven Boulton:

'1G11 was running bang on time throughout to Crewe where it arrived a few minutess early. Between Stafford and Wolverhampton, some idiot [not the word I'd use - C.H.] managed to crack the driver's windscreen in the upper right corner. We were delayed at Wolverhampton and a British Transport Police chap arrived and talked to the driver. Finally after a lengthy wait we carried on, via Bescot and then joined the main again at Soho Depot. Arrived into Birmingham New Street in the platform behind the 17:37 Silverlink to Euston, and then 47 776 ran round once the 17:37 had departed. Apart from that a very enjoyable day out, even though we were delayed 2 hours going home to Teesside due to Virgin.' - 10 June

The Royal Train

"For enthusiasts looking to watch and photograph the train, North Wales Police have advised enthusiasts to stay away from any road or foot overbridges. Anybody stood on bridges is likely to be moved on. Also any chasing of the train will not be allowed and again, the local Police will take a dim view of this and are likely to act accordingly."

So sayeth www.locowatch.com about the Royal Train runs down the Coast on 11 June. We at the North Wales Coast website have heard nothing from North Wales Police, but obviously there is a security situation, although why there should be such a high risk when the Queen travels by train in particular is hard to say. It would be nice if the Queen's subjects could be afforded similar protection though - see the items above and below. What we can say is that the Royal Train is expected to arrive at Llanfair PG at 10:00, and will return east from Llandudno Junction at 16:25. It has been reported that steam loco 6233 ran light down the Coast on Monday morning 10 June, so it looks like only the return run will be steam hauled. It looks like the the train will run westbound during the night, so don't assume that you can get a picture along the line somewhere east of Bangor in the hour before 10:00.

Stop Press: Here are some more times for 11 June courtesy of the North West Gen List, but don't blame us if you get arrested ... Holyhead dep 09:36, Llanfair PG 10:00 / 10:10, Bangor 10:20 / 10:50, Holyhead 11:40 / 12:51, Bangor 13:41, Llandudno Jn 14:02 / 16:25, Holywell 17:05 / 17:17, Chester 17:42, Crewe 18:14. - 10 June

More attempted murder

Our contributor Deiniol Williams, who was aboard the train, reports that on 9 June the 13:35 Holyhead - London Euston was attacked by stone-throwers between Abergele and Rhyl, causing one of the windows of coach E 42132 (?) to be smashed. The Train was stopped at Rhyl for an extra 15 minutes for the window to be cleared of broken glass. The outer skin of the window was removed and masking tape was applied around the window surrounds. The Power Cars,  43 155 / 43 198 were not affected but there were some other small dents along the side of 42132. Thankfully no one was hurt, but some passengers in coach E were quite shocked, not surprisingly. - 9 June

47 776 Respected calls at Bangor on Sunday 9 June with the 09:30 London - Holyhead. (Alan Crawshaw)

The Saturday timetable now has three Class 47s working passenger trains along the Coast as well as two HSTs, although one of the 47s works eastbound only with the 09:19 Holyhead - London as far as Crewe. 8 June saw a celebrity on this turn in the form of XP64-liveried 47 853 Rail Express, now back in service after a main generator repair. This picture shows the train running late through Worleston (between Chester and Crewe) by Ian Bowland.

A Class 47/7 hired from EWS by Virgin works the 08:05 from London from Crewe to Holyhead and back as the 13:35 from Holyhead; this is 47 758 calling at Bangor with the westbound train on 8 June (Rowan Crawshaw).

Then there are the two First North Western return workings from Holyhead to Birmingham and back; this is the 10:07 Birmingham - Holyhead at Worleston (picture by Ian Bowland) headed by 47 757 Restitution, back on duty after 47 776 reportedly required a windscreen replacement....

... and the same train at Bangor, 20 minutes down on the schedule. Curious that two locos with consecutive numbers should be working two different companies' trains. (Rowan Crawshaw)

Later, at Crewe, 47 758 has been taken off the front of the 13:35 from Holyhead and is running off to its next duty (has this loco been on fire? the roof paintwork seems in a poor state)

The train continued to London  propelled from the rear by 87 024 Lord of the Isles which had been waiting in Platform 12.

... and the 14:02 from Holyhead arrives, a few minutes late, at 16:10, only to be further delayed by a family of latecomers trying to get a 4-foot cuddly duck aboard the already-full train! There seems to be a confusion about the departure time of this train from Crewe; the printed timetable and display screen has 16:00, but the Railtrack website has 16:05, which seems more feasible in view of the Stafford time of 16:31.

Departing from Stafford, with a fair number of railfans aboard; the people sitting behind your compiler were from the real trainspotting side of things, discussing how many Voyagers they had seen - and why not? - 9 June

175 005 on test

175 005 has been noted on test runs recently, such as in Ian Bowland's picture from 30 May (above) where it is running from the platform 12 avoiding line onto the Stoke line; it then returned to head for Manchester.  The train is heavily wired inside and outside and several internal panels and seats have been removed. The bogie close-up below shows that several components have been replaced.

005 is currently being used to trial a revised brake pad that is less onerous to the brake discs; the current arrangement gives a heavily worn brake disc in a short space of time (less than 100,000 miles)

This new pad has been proven on other applications and on the test bed but to satisfy regulations it must go through an exhaustive set of tests on each new application. This takes about 4-5 weeks of testing. Providing the data is OK then the fleet can use the new pad immediately. Unless this is implemented there would be a need to replace the brake discs annually which would mean pulling the wheels off as they are a one piece disc. - 9 June

We hear that at Wrexham General Station there's a new information poster on the platform headed "Welcome to Wrexham Central" ...

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