THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE BOARD

Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd hysbyseb

47 805 Pride of Toton, substituting for the usual HST,  hauls the mid-morning Holyhead - London past Sandycroft, 10 March. Picture by Ian Richardson,

Edition of 11 March 2003

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Forty years ago in March 1963, the infamous Beeching report on the reshaping of British Railways was published; the second of Alan Whitehouse's interesting radio programmes commemorating this anniversary  is now online.  People think of Dr Beeching as the man who thought of closing branch lines, but the fact is that the closure of rural railways was already under way before the Doctor arrived on the scene.

Good examples of this historical fact can be found in the network of London and North Western Railway lines in north east Wales, which provided a service to the communities of the Vale of Clwyd and its region. Just after the westbound North Wales Coast train crosses the steel bridge over the Clwyd river lay Foryd Junction, where the twelve mile single-track branch to Denbigh headed up the wide valley to serve the ancient town of Rhuddlan with its ruined castle and the little city of St Asaph (home of the smallest cathedral in England and Wales). At Denbigh this line joined the more important line which offered a more direct route from Chester via Mold Junction (still marked by a signalbox on the main Coast line) via the town of Mold, and continued beyond Denbigh up the Vale of Clwyd through Ruthin and down into the Dee valley at Corwen where it joined the old Great Western Ruabon - Dolegellau line. All these lost their regular passenger services before Beeching, starting with passenger services between Ruthin - Corwen as early as 1953, followed by the Rhyl - Denbigh branch which closed in 1959, although surviving for freight until 1968. The passenger trains on the rest of the network were killed off in April 1962, although the legendary Land Cruise excursions were seen in the area for some years afterwards. Needless to say, little attempt had been made to run these lines more economically; they were considered relics of the past, while the bus was the rural transport of the future.

Freight traffic for the Synthite works, and for a while pipes for an Amlwch - Stanlow pipeline for which a length of route beyond Mold was reopened in 1974, still reached Mold via Hope Junction and the Wrexham-Bidston line until just 20 years ago, closing in March 1983. In Larry Goddard's picture above 25 291 passes Llong Station on the remaining single line with the Fisons weedkilling train on 26 July 1979.

To quote Rex Christiansen writing in Forgotten Railways: North and Mid-Wales (1976):

The Vale of Clwyd offers much else to those seeking its old railway - castles and a cathedral and several historic towns, not yet quite swamped yet by motorists, content to sweep through the lovely vale at the fastest possible speeds en route to either the North Wales seaside resorts or their homes.

As for the railways themselves, much is now lost but there are small  signs of life: a group of preservationists have established a centre, under the title of the Denbigh & Mold Junction Railway, near Bodfari, the first station out of Denbigh towards Mold, where it owns third of a mile of track and hopes to establish a replica of a 1950s country station. This group has been experiencing some difficulties, its site being branded and 'eyesore' by some people, and it has been reported in the press that they have been served notice to quit by the Council, although this is apparently not the case. The picture above, from their website, shows the story so far. We know they are very keen to recruit more helpers: contact the group through their Website.

Finally, we should mention that the Llangollen Railway is pressing forward along the GWR route from its current terminus at Carrog towards Corwen; a special page on the railway's website shows progress in this project. While on the subject of Llangollen, a plug for their diesel gala on 29-30 March which is declared to be a North Wales themed event.

If you have any pictures or memories of the Vale of Clwyd lines, we'd be pleased to hear from you. - 11 March

10 March locomotives - by Larry Goddard

47 805 Pride of Toton hauls the 09:25 Holyhead - London through Abergele, 10 March. (Larry Goddard)

Exactly 10 minutes later Freightliner 66 512 powers this eastbound gondola train along the same metals and will follow the preceding Virgin train as far as Crewe Basford Hall sidings. - 11 March

More Class 50 records

Further to our earlier item about Class 50s, Dave Stewart writes: 'Another regular turn was in around about 1968: Observations at Waverton on the Chester - Crewe line around this period suggested that there was a fairly regular test run from Crewe, and I observed over thirty members of the class which were presumably on test runs before entering service for the first time, usually with about seven coaches in tow. From memory, these were probably recorded on weekdays during school holidays.

'Later, during the currency of the 1970-71 timetable, the 09.35 (?) Euston - Llandudno and return were often used for the running-in of ex-works locos, the loco being coupled in front of the train engine. This also regularly found class 50s being used : I recall being double-headed by a class 50 & 40 combination between Chester and Llandudno and back,  and also a class 50/47 combination between Crewe and Chester (numbers lost I'm afraid).

'For the record, I also recall (I think in the summer of 1969) seeing a class 50 on an eastbound tanker train on the CLC route through Chester, on the Northgate avoiding line.'

Larry Goddard adds: ' I remember seeing D400s (that is how they were numbered at the time) working trains into Rhyl circa 1972/3, and saw one from the Social Security offices on Brighton Road while enquiring about self-employed National Insurance Stamps.'

Does anyone have pictures?  - 10 March

Ian Bowland asked (last Notice Board) why the up Chester Independent line was blocked on Wednesday 5 March 2003 and 6K22 ballast train diverted through the station. Informed sources tell us that his was done under Rule Book T11 H to enable infrastructure contractor Jarvis to change sleepers. This type of block is non-disruptive to trains but the signaller at Crewe Signalling Centre would have consulted his colleague at Sorting Sidings North and diverted the train as to give the Permanent Way people the maximum time. - 10 March

47 805 Pride of Toton worked Sunday 9 March's 1D88 17:05 Euston to Holyhead, in place of the booked HST. A rare sight captured at Bangor by Alan Crawshaw.

Crewe, 7 March - with Ian Bowland

The morning Holyhead-London HST arrived at Crewe 30 minutes late on 7 March and was put into platform 12 where the leading locomotive, 43 099, had its coolant was topped up from the resident "Coolant Trolley".  It eventually left at 12.20hrs with 43 102 trailing. (Ian Bowland)
 

The reason why Wednesday's Penmaenmawr-Basford ballast train was diverted through the station can be seen as 175 003 departs with a Crewe-Chester service on 7 March.  The avoiding line, normally used by the ballast train, is closed off. Anyone know why? (Ian Bowland) - 9 March

Here's another selection of views from our 'authorised person.'

47 739 Resourceful at Manchester Oxford Road on arrival from Bangor, 6 March

47 776 Respected at Warrington Bank Quay on the morning of 7 March. This engine is of note due to the fact that it is one of the very few (6?) EWS class 47s that still sport working vacuum brake apparatus.

47 547  has been shunted out of the long term storage line at Crewe (bought by Fragonset, we are told); it is probably unique as it retains both Network South East livery, and boiler water tanks.

960 015 see in Crewe depot on 5 March, is a former class 122 DMBS, converted for sandite application and route learning duties; I believe it is a long term resident of Bletchley, and has been transferred to Crewe for route learning duties in connection with the Stoke,Sandbach and WCML blockades. It's not going anywhere, though, until Network Rail issue a certificate of acceptance, So EWS drivers are training on shed at Crewe for the moment.  That blockade has generated an awful lot of extra training journeys over the Crewe to Alsager route, there being various exotic locomotives being utilised, including 47 798, 47 709, and 47 635 with an EWS officer's saloon. - 9 March

Readers may be interested to know that at least two British Railways station totems ('double-sausage signs') were auctioned at Sheffield by Sheffield Railwayana Auctions on Saturday 8 March. The catalogue descriptions and prices paid were:

1.  "PENMAENMAWR". BR(M) maroon, fully-flanged. VGC. A scarce totem, with its unusual squashed up lettering, from the ex LNWR North Wales coast station between Conway and Llanfairfechan.  It opened as "Penmaenmaur" in 1849, and was re-spelt c. 1860.  It fetched £750.

2.  "HOLYWELL JUNCTION". BR(M) maroon, fully-flanged.  One face chip and minor flange chipping otherwise good.  From the ex LNWR North Wales coast line station, junction for Holywell, opened as "Holywell" in 1848: renamed in 1912: and closed in 1966.  It fetched £620. Lot 424 was also of interest, a carriage print of Britannia tubular bridge by Kenneth Steel from the Railway Architecture series.  - 9 March

Bill Rear asked: 'Apart from special workings, did Class 50 locomotives have any diagrams to work regular services on the North Wales coast?' An intriguing quetsion, and thanks to everyone who rose to the challenge. All reports point to some regular usage in 1975-76 before the class was transferred to the Western Region. Most of the workings were in the dark, it seems, so photographs are thin on the ground; we do, include two very interesting pictures by Tim E. Rogers showing the 'Conwy Crusader' railtour on 10 March 1984 with 50 018 at Llandudno and later at Bleanau Ffestiniog.

Steve Morris, who lived in Holyhead at the time, writes: 'in the mid 70's class 50's had several regular jobs down the coast. I think the period spanned 1975/76 only. Passenger-wise the best bet was the down 'Emerald Isle Express' which arrived about midnight from memory and the up 'Irish Mail' leaving about 01:30. Sometimes, due to a problem with the loco (?) it was swapped out and worked the morning (06:30 I think) London service in place of the more usual 40 or 47.

'Pat Webb records 50 010 as derailing on 15 February 1976 whilst backing onto the 00:55 to Euston at Holyhead.The train was cancelled and it later worked out with emory coaching stock  at 15.00 on the same day. Also, 50 022 failing in Colwyn Bay on 16 January 1976 whilst working the 19:15 from Euston. Also, on 28 October 1975, an unidentified 50 (possibly 022) worked the 10:00 from Euston into Holyhead  ...

'Occasional workings included a light engine run into Holyhead to work the afternoon London service leaving about 13:10. I remember 50 021/022 doing this on a couple of weekends.  I also remember 50 012 working an ECS train in one afternoon going back light. Freight-wise they were regular on Freightliner trains. I'm not sure which one in particular but seem to remember the Trafford Park working was favourite. From memory, and not sure how accurate this is, I recall the following members of the class visiting Holyhead at one time or another : 008/ 010/ 012/ 017/ 019/ 020/ 021/ 022/ 029/ 035/ 036/ 037/ 040/ 046.  Most frequent was 017 I think. I would be interested to know if anybody else can confirm the above and a few photos would be great too - I have nothing...'

And here's some entries from Alan Roberts's trainspotting notebook:

Saturday 16/08/1975 - 50 034  1D73 Euston - Holyhead  (Emerald Isle Express)
Friday 22/08/1975 - 50 035  1D73 Euston - Holyhead (Emerald Isle Express)
Monday 01/09/1975 - 50 036  1D73 Euston - Holyhead (Emerald Isle Express)
Friday 05/09/1975 - 50 017  1D43 Euston - Bangor & return
Saturday 06/09/1975 - 50 035  1D73 Euston - Holyhead (Emerald Isle Express)
Monday 08/09/1975 - 50 010  1D73 Euston - Holyhead (Emerald IsleExpress)
Tuesday 16/09/1975 - 50 006  1D43 Euston - Bangor & return

Alan comments: 'All the above together with Class 24, 25, 40 & 47 made trainspotting very interesting at the time (not even a Class 37 in sight apart from an odd special!)'  - 9 March

Thanks to everyone who's written about the recent appearances of Class 37s on the Cambrian Coast line with engineers' trains. The picture above by James Poole shows 37 410 Aluminium 100 and 37 042 departing Shrewbury on 17 February, with ballast hoppers for Porthmadog.

The two locos stayed on the Cambrian coast for several days while normal passenger trains were suspended: these two views from Pwllhel are by Paul Japheth.

No reason why a 37-hauled passenger charter should not run, then? -9 March

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