It is sad to read that Coast line favourite 37
429
Eisteddfod Genedlaethol has now been put back in storage
with
its engine removed, and seems unlikely to run again. Seen here in much
happier days pulling out of Deansgate station in 1993 with a Blackpool
train.
As of Friday afternoon there are still seats available on the 'Northwich Dodger' Branch Line Society railtour on Sunday 15 December (now definitely running after uncertainty caused by the strike) so readers who turn up armed with the requisite cash (£75) have a very good chance of getting aboard.
Here are some timings for the train, which will be formed of a Class 101 unit, a rare chance to travel on one away from the Marple line, indeed possibly a last chance.
Manchester Piccadilly (plat 14) depart 10.22; MUFC halt 10.50 -
11.00;
Piccadilly (plat 13) 11.13; Sandbach 12.00 - 12.05 (reverse)
Middlewich 12.18; Northwich S Jn 12.33; Oakleigh Sidings 12.43 - 12.55;
Mouldsworth 13.20; Chester (Personal needs/lunch break and reverse)
13.32
- 14.20; Mouldsworth 14.31; Northwich TC 14.47 - 15.07 (to Wade Works);
Northwich S Jn 15.12; Middlewich 15.26; Sandbach 15.40 - 15.45
(reverse);
Middlewich British Salt 15.55 - 16.02; Sandbach 16.12 - 16.17
(reverse);
Albion Chemicals 16.22 - 16.29; Sandbach 16.33 - 16.38 (reverse);
Manchester
Airport 17.20 - 17.32; Manchester Piccadilly 17.56.
Thanks to the organisers and to Andrew Macfarlane for the
information.
- 13 December
Colour of the North Wales Main Line, a new book by Larry Goddard, is to be published on Monday 16 December 2002. It is a casebound all colour - landscape format - publication by the celebrated railway photographer from Abergele, presenting over 90 of his favourite previously unpublished views of the North Wales Coast Line between Chester and Holyhead. Both freight and passenger trains are photographed against an array of familiar and scenic landscapes which make the region so popular to visitors and enthusiasts alike. Printed to a high quality on heavy duty gloss art paper, the photographer's artistry and love of his subject is portrayed vividly in this new work.
The book should be available locally from Wednesday onwards although distribution will take place almost immediately in outlets such as the Ian Allan bookshop in Manchester. The price is £14.95 for the 88 page publication (ISBN 1 870119 71 1) and £ 1.90 for postage should be added if ordered direct from the publisher at the address below. Telephone or Fax orders can be made on 0870 241 6324
Foxline (Publications) Ltd, P O Box 84, Bredbury, Stockport SK6 3YD
Larry writes: 'When the book was first discussed with the publisher, I felt that poeple who had visited the line in the 1990s might prefer to see what the railway looked like at an earlier date rather than buy an album of class 37 pictures similar to ones they may have taken themselves. This is why I went mainly for the corporate blue era of the 1970s and 1980s. Locations like Penmaenmawr, Llandudno Junction, Llandudno, Deganwy, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl and Prestatyn, Sandycroft etc have changed so much since then, and motive power even more so, so I was fortunate in being able to draw on the photo-files of three local enthusiasts. Most pictures in the book are of the scenic variety showing snatches of life outside of the railway fence and how the railway interacts with its beautiful surroundings. Overlaying this are changes in locos and rolling stock. To this end, a few modern pictures bring the story up to date.' - 13 December
Strike dates reinstated
"During their 12 December 2002 session, the ASLEF Executive Committee considered urgent correspondence including a resolution from Edge Hill Branch dated 11 December 2002, and a report from the General Secretary, in respect of Strike Dates on First North Western. The Executive Committee passed the following resolution; 969/418: ‘That the report be noted and the General Secretary be instructed to inform First North Western that our members will withdraw their labour on 21st December from 00.01 until 23.59 on the 22nd December 2002 in line with the request from Edge Hill Branch. All statutory regulations be applied.’
"Accordingly, the original strike date of Saturday 21 December to Sunday 22 December is reinstated. The complete list of new strike dates is announced as follows: - 00.01 Sat. 21 December '02 to 23.59 on Sun. 22 December '02. 00.01 Tues. 31 December '02 to 23.59 on Wed. 01 January '03. 00.01 Sun. 02 February '03 to 23.59 on Mon. 03 February '03. ... Yours fraternally, M.D. Rix, General Secretary."
And a Happy Christmas to you too, Brother. - 12 December
Front end contrast between two trains built 45 years apart, Manchester Piccadilly, 11 December. (Charlie Hulme)
Challenger has landed
Dave Bramley writes: 'Sunday 8 December's 1D89 20:58 Stafford to Holyhead has at last produced the first 'Challenger' HST ... I'm sure I'm right this time! (Yes you are, writes Steve Vaughan.) The set was taken off a Cross Country Poole - Manchester service at Stafford to work 1D89. For the record was formed of power cars 43 161 + 43 197 and trailers 44069,42085,42084,40430 & 41161.'
The next day the set formed 1A23 05:46 Holyhead - Euston, a very busy train, on Monday morning to Crewe where it was thankfully swapped for a proper full length West Coast HST. Power Cars were 43 161/197.Steve Vaughan tells us that 43 161 therefore becomes the second Genus-maintained power car to work on The Coast as 43 197 spent a period on loan working to Holyhead at the beginning of the timetable in September and October. Genus, in case you didn't know (like your compiler!) is the name of the Maintrain/Alstom consortium now responsible for the 'Challenger' sets, which should be distinguished from the full-length Virgin sets which are maintained by Bombardier. - 11 December
We've been asked to clarify a point in Alec Fuller's article below regarding 175 108. This unit was indeed taken out at Chester but, contrary to the information given to Alec, this was a planned move as the set was due an 'A examination.' A replacement was provided and the service booked a 3 minute delay at Chester in total. No faults found with the bogies.
We hear that a 175 is ready to be released from Wolverton very soon but there is no driver available to bring it back so a loco will have to drag it back. More when known. Several Newton Heath allocated 156's and 158's reportedly don't appear to have been near a (working) wash plant for a while and several are turning a shade of brown, one in particular 156 426 has its logos unreadable! - 11 December
HST power car 43 070 waits for its next working to Birmingham at Manchester Piccadilly, 11 December. (Charlie Hulme)
The new issue of entrain magazine, readable as ever, goes public with the suggestion, which has been floating around our in-tray for some time, that the Holyhead - London services are to be transferred from Virgin to First Great Western operation; according to the magazine this will involve running to London Paddington via Oxford, adding an hour to the present journey time. It is stressed that this is far from definite; it seems odd that the possibility doesn't seem to have arisen in the recent discussions between the Railway Passengers' Committee, their MPs and Virgin Trains.
Our HST correspondent Steve Vaughan writes: 'All non-Challenger Virgin Power Cars are supposed to be going to Midland Mainline in May 2003for use on the new hourly Manchester Piccadilly - London St. Pancras service. This leaves VT with a bit of a problem, namely, Holyhead. The SRA/VT/FGW proposal was that FGW would get 2 ex-VT HST sets and 4 or 5 power cars and would then provide sets for the London - Holyhead service out of the general FGW fleet. This came to light some months ago but had been kept very low-key. I believe VT were dragging their heels a bit but with VT having nothing to operate the Holyheads as the SRA have demanded the HST sets go to MML it will probably happen. Any enquiries about this are currently being met with a stoney silence from VT although I understand FGW management have indicated it will be happening. I think its just a case of watch this space.'
How all this relates to all the demands and assurances regarding the use of Voyagers on our line is anyone's guess. - 11 December
A tailpiece to our recent coverage of the Class 40 railtour on November 30 (see our special page): special thanks to Dave Booth who digs into his box of old pictures and writes: 'The "Class 40 Brotherhood" headboard brought back dim and distant memory - apologies for the terrible quality of the attached picture - taken on my Kodak instamatic on 11 February 1979 it shows 40 035 arriving at Stockport, complete with that headboard, or something very like it (the picture's too blurred to confirm it, but I'm pretty sure I remember it reading the Class 40 Brotherhood).'
Our 30 November 2002 picture is shown as an inset: certainly looks similar. Does nobody admit to membership of this shadowy clan? - 11 December
Delay and cancellation (of strikes, that is!)
The proposed strike action by First North Western drivers, which had been due to take place on 14/15 and 21/22 December has been deferred until 31 December / 1 January and 2 / 3 February 2003. The strikes on Wales and Borders trains, also due for 14 / 15 and 21 / 22 December, will also not now take place as agreement has been reached between ASLEF and that company. More details are on the ASLEF website.
The First North Western strike has been postponed to allow time for further meetings. We believe that the 'sticking point' is related to FNW's proposal that drivers should be required to give six months' notice of resignation or transfer to another company, an idea intended to deter people from benefiting from FNW's driver training course and then transferring to a better-paying company. The rest-day working agreement also remains un-signed at present, although its effect on passengers has been considerbly diluted since 30 new drivers have taken the controls from 9 December. The threatened strike by Stagecoach Manchester bus drivers has also been settled, but this won't help anyone on 1 January as Stagecoach don't usually run any services on New Year's Day, although this year there will be just one - the 43A Manchester to the Airport, subsidised by the Airport authority.
First North Western drivers drive Virgin Trains between Crewe and Holyhead, so as the engineering work between Milton Keynes and Hemel Hempstead has now finished, Saturday trains will run through between Holyhead and London should anyone fancy am HST-powered Christmas shopping trip, now's your chance! A further benefit of the change is that the Branch Line Society railtour from Manchester to various freight lines on Sunday 15 December using a Class 101 unit will be able to run as planned: Anybody interested in going on the train should contact Mr. Hill on 0114 2752303 - the cost is £75.
Thanks to Tony Miles, Andrew Macfarlane, David White and Steve Vaughan for essential help with this item. - 10 December
Manchester Oxford Road, 16:35 Friday 6 December: The 16:17 Manchester Piccadilly to Llandudno should have departed, but time is taken up coupling the 156 to a 158 in the platform. A gloomy picture to suit the gloomy future of Britain's regional rail services. (Charlie Hulme)
20 per cent too far - a personal view by Charlie Hulme
Putting aside whether you agree with the idea of rail privatisation, what went wrong with the sell-off of the Regional Railways companies back in 1996-97? I'd imagine most readers would agree that for reasons unclear, the people in charge of the franchising process accepted bids featuring a reducing subsidy profile over the seven-year term; it was believed that the private firms would be so 'efficient' that they would be able to run the same (or even a better) train service for millions of pounds per year less in subsidies, and continue increasing the saving each year. Few informed observers have been surprised at the resulting financial collapse of all the franchises, and the deterioration in the standard of service and abysmal staff-management relations. For example, I have caught, or attempted to catch, 40 First North Western trains in the two weeks prior to writing this: of these, just 12 have run on time. (These figures ignore the fact that the trains I would normally catch to and from work have not run at all during this period because of the staff shortage and I have had to alter by routine to avoid them.)
So, along comes Mr Bowker and his new, improved Strategic Rail Authority to make a new start, with a new geographical division of the companies, new bidders from abroad to challenge the existing bus groups, and encouragement to engage in 'blue-sky' thinking such as networks of road coaches connecting with the trains, hourly trains to Blaenau Ffestiniog, and all the rest. But what does it all come down to in the end? We are told that the SRA will ask bidders for the Wales and Borders franchise to suggest how they can operate at various options of subsidy level, including a subsidy 20% less than at present. No doubt the same thing applies to the proposed 'Northern' franchise. How can such savings be achieved, when it is clear that there are too few trains and staff to operate the current services? Who cares - if someone says they can do it for 20% less their bid will be accepted and passengers can all buy cars.
The only possibility must surely be more cuts in services, more de-staffing of services, even tighter turnrounds at termini leading to late running, and other depressing scenarios you can invent for yourself. And why is all this necessary? Because the railways are perceived by politicians as having squandered billions of pounds on high-speed upgrades with escalating costs. And yet even if all this spending had achieved its object, the local passenger freezing on the platform at Mobberley, Shotton or Davenport would have seen little or no benefit at all; quite the opposite in some cases, as local trains and freights would be seen as getting in the way of the new super services.
The Government claims to committed to 'social inclusion' and regional rail services are surely a vital part of such a policy, yet it looks like they are to be sold down the river. Some will say that these trains are a luxury this country cannot afford (although of course we can always afford to intervene in wars around the world) and we are told - by people who never go by bus - that buses are a great way to travel, but if we are going to have trains, at least let's run them properly. If present policies are followed, many people's lives will be that much poorer. - 8 December
47 840 North Star dragged a Preston-London service to Crewe via Manchester Piccadilly to form the 14.25 to Euston on Sunday 8 December. 87 024 Lord of the Isles was dead on the rear but took over from Crewe. 47 840 later worked the 15.52 return service with what sounded like fairly severe wheel flats.
47 848 Newton Abbot Festival of Transport worked the 13.40 Liverpool-London via Manchester Piccadilly with 90 004 dead in tow. - 8 December
A Traveller's tale - by Alec Fuller
On 5 December I travelled on the 06:48 from Holyhead to Birmingham, unit 175 108. More or less to time all the until we got held up near Witton on the way into New Street. Arrived at 10:10. Returned on the 17:21, same unit left at 17:35, crawled to Wolverhampton, I think behind a stopper. Better afterwards. Strange noise from the rear bogie of the middle coach. On time in Crewe, I think the timetable has a built in recovery time. On time at Chester. After we had stood for about two minutes we were told by a railperson that the unit was being taken out of service as it was defective. We walked up the platform to find 175 003 waiting which left about 6 down, was on time in Bangor and 5 late in Holyhead. According to the man with the trolley who had been on the 06.48 and worked to Holyhead and back, they had been late into Holyhead with the 10:21 from Birmingham because the two trains in front were late. Passengers missed their ferry connections. Joining the 06.48 I asked the guard if it was the Birmingham train, he said he did not know as he was only standing in for a Holyhead man! The on-board automatic announcements promised [incorrectly] that the train stopped at Flint and Shotton, I mentioned this to the guard who said he would mention it to the driver if it happened again ... It did and he did! On the return the on-board system worked. According to the rail man at Chester the PA system was out of order. I think I would have preferred a real voice to "Antiseptic Annie".
Incidentally I hope we never have Voyagers: I spent about 90 minutes
on the platform at New Street, while awaiting the 17:21. All the
Voyagers were heaving. I used to travel from Birmingham New Street to
Cheltenham
for several years in class 45 or 47-hauled 8 or 10 coach trains. They
were
packed. You cannot get that sort of load in a Voyager. A Voyager left
for
Liverpool just after 17:00, not only
did it have the usual full load, it also had part of the heavy traffic
to Wolverhampton. Whoever designed them was not a regular railway
user!
The HST to Blackpool in comparison looked OK. - 8 December
The ASLEF union executive meets on Monday 9 December to consider the latest offers made by First North Western and Wales and Borders management.W&B have tabled a 5 year deal to bring parity for drivers who migrated to W&B from Central Trains with their colleagues who stayed at Central, whilst FNW report a very much improved atmosphere between them and ASLEF and are hopeful of progress.
For press stories on the strike, see the BBC News site and Manchester Online. - 8 December
A seasonal view of 47 454 departing Abergele with the 08.04 Holyhead-Crewe on a wintery 10 April 1978. Tennis Court Lane footbridge was not so popular with photographers in those days because the old bracket signals east of the station (there were two at one time) made photography rather difficult. - 8 December
Thanks again to everyone for all the contributions and kind comments about our Class 40 coverage. Connecting the events of 30 November with our previous coverage of the A55 road web-cameras, Jason Cross managed to capture two views of the westbound 'Christmas Cracker' without leaving his computer.
Here's the 'Puffin roundabout' webcam shot...
... and here's one from camera 48 at Llanfairfaechan roundabout. Any sign of that guy sticking out of the sunroof of the Renault? It you want to try this at home, go to the North Wales Traffic Cameras.
Earlier in the day, Jason had risen early to take this view in RL of the train ready to depart from Crewe in the morning. For more work by Jason, see the East Midlands Railway Photographic Society site.
A last comment, by Stuart Broome: 'May I just add to the comments about "Christmas Cracker 1V". I was up at 05:00 (nothing unusual as I work on the railway) and arrived home at 01:20 next day. It was a long but very enjoyable day behind D345 and I got some good video at the various stops we had and also the arrival at Holyhead with the bit of a rainbow on it. The rainbow was also out for 47 786 Roy Castle OBE when it left on the 14:00 to Birmingham on what seems to be the last loco hauled for a while for FNW. I just managed to get the departure of D345 from the train when we left at 16:03 and at Llanfair PG before darkness fell. Also I took video through the window of stations when passing through but the best is last at Crewe when the 40 ran round the stock in the misty and very atmospheric station. Many congratulations to the CFPS for doing a superb job and making it a class 40 return to remember.' - 8 December