5D45 15:31 Crewe Carriage Sidings - Manchester Piccadilly empty coaching stock train waits in the through road at Crewe station while the 15:38 Crewe - Deansgate local train clears the section, 30 December. This runs to Manchester Piccadilly via Styal, and forms the 17:19 Manchester - Holyhead. Locomotive is 47 746 The Bobby. (Picture by Charlie Hulme.)
Welcome to the final Notice Board update of 2002, with apologies for the lack of news during the Christmas period while other things were occupying our attention; more contributions from this period will be added very soon. The origins of this site are slightly lost in the mists of time, somewhere in 1995 / 1996 when I got my first digital camera; I doubt whether at the time I envisaged that I'd still be doing this, with the help of dozens of contributors, and getting 2600 visits to the notice board in a week! By a fluke, the Notice Board page from summer 1996 has survived in a dusty corner of the Net, you might like to take a look. Don't expect any of the links or email addresses to work, though!
I don't suppose anyone thought back then that by the year 2003 the railway system of Britain would have been wrecked quite so comprehensively as it has been, or that the news we would be reporting would be quite so depressing. Ah well, better times ahead, as they say (or maybe not.) Thanks as always to all our contributors, and of course to the railway staff of North Wales, and best wishes for 2003 to all. - 30 December
Don't try to travel by train along the Coast on 31 December or 1 January, as with the exception of perhaps the odd Wales and Borders train, there will be nothing moving thanks to yet another strike by First North Western drivers. Some replacement buses will be running, but information about them on the Web seems to be sadly lacking, as though the FNW management have just given up trying. However, thanks to the Mid-Cheshire Rail Users' Association we can at least tell you that buses will operate between Altrincham and Chester during the two-day strike on First North Western trains on Tuesday 31 December and Wednesday 1 January. On Tuesday the buses will operate every two hours with departures from Altrincham (platform 4 side) at 07.15 and then every two hours until 19.15. On Wednesday there will be three buses in each direction and departures from Altrincham will be at 13.15, 15.15 and 17.15. Wednesday departures from Chester will be at 13.00, 15.00 and 17.00. The buses will call at Altrincham, Hale, Knutsford (Adams Hill), Northwich, Greenbank (Chester Road), Cuddington (Norley Road) and Chester only. - 30 December
A Winter's Tale - pictures by Charlie Hulme
An afternoon's ride around Cheshire on 30 December, looking for something intereresting to photograph; all I could think of was to go in search of the empty stock working from Crewe to Manchester to form the 17:19 to Holyhead ...
Stockport station, 30 December 2002, a dull and dirty afternoon, and dull and dirty 87 006 George Reynolds waits to depart Platform 1 at Stockport at the rear of the 13:26 Manchester - London Euston. Progress on the new platform and ticket office building can be seen to the left.
175 007 tries to look interesting in platform 9 at Crewe while waiting to work the 14:26 Crewe - Holyhead.
Soon after 15:00 I observed Res loco 47 746 The Bobby coming off Crewe Diesel and moving across to the carriage depot south of the station to collect its coaches, then about 15:30 the train appeared from the carriage sheds and waited in one of the station through roads; just as well, as if it hadn't stopped at the signal a picture would have been impossible in the prevailing gloom. Shortly afterwards 66 068 appeared to wait time on the adjacent road; both these through lines, line the platform lines at Crewe, are signalled for running in either direction. The 47 followed the 17:38 stopping service to Deansgate out on to the Manchester line. (The empty stock is booked to wait in Wilmslow down goods loop from 16:02 until 16:41.)
A short trip on the shuttle to Chester, where the 15:17 Manchester - Llandudno waits in the gathering gloom, composed of 150 139, while somewhere in the distance three Class 175 units languish in the station sidings awaiting happier times.
Back at Crewe, as so often is the case, Virgin's trains were running
erratically, but one rain that was more or less on time was this one,
the
16:32 Liverpool - London Euston which departs Crewe at 17:17 and runs
via
Birmingham, not arriving in London until 20:37, an hour later than
normal
due to yet more engineering works. The loco is 90 006 Roger
Ford.
Who said "It's better to travel hopefully than to arrive" ? - 30
December
47 773 The Queen Mother leaving Abergele on Friday 27 December with the 1719 1D45 Manchester Piccadilly-Holyhead; quite a test for Simon Pritchard's new digital camera! (The same loco worked the morning train to Manchester on Monday 30.)
Penmaenmawr Puzzle solved
Dave Hardy's picture from Penmaenmawr, repeated above, shows a "weighbridge" for ensuring wagons loaded with ballast aren't overloaded prior to leaving the sidings and is connected to a portable computer when in use. John Lancaster writes: A similar one was fitted to the loading siding in the Midland Bottom End Yard at Carnforth during 1999 when the yard was in use as a "Virtual Quarry", a satellite ballast store served by block trains from Penmaenmawr and Shap, just like Crewe Basford Hall is now. The maximum speed over the weighbridge was 3mph - I assume this also applies to the one at Penmaenmawr.'
Thanks also to Paul Howell for help with this. - 30 December
