47 756 Royal Mail Tyneside arrives at Bangor with the 08:52 Holyhead - Birmingham on 12 May. This diagram will return to diesel railcar operation from 19 May.
Other changes of note are that the 12:30 Crewe Holyhead only
calls
at Chester, Rhyl, Llandudno Junction, Bangor and the 12:21 Birmingham
Holyhead calls additionally at Prestatyn, Conwy, Penmaenmawr,
Llanfairfechan
and stations on Anglesey. The 07:08 Llandudno Crewe will depart
from
Bangor at 06:53 instead and the 06:33 to Manchester departs at 06:38
with
first stop of
Llandudno Junction. The last Holyhead Crewe departs 30 minutes
earlier at 20:02. The first train on Sundays from Bangor departs at
08:10
and the next train from Holyhead at 08:51 both for Crewe which is a
earlier
start compared to the winter.
Loco-hauled trains will re-appear on Virgin services at weekends, as HST sets are needed for Newquay workings. Saturdays: London Euston 07:45, Stafford 09:59, Crewe 10:21 to 10:31 (loco change), Chester 11:02, Prestatyn 11:30, Rhyl 11:37, Colwyn Bay 11:51, Llandudno Junction 11:58, Bangor 12:17, Holyhead 12:55. Runs round and returns as: Holyhead 13:35, Bangor 14:05, Llandudno Junction 14:24, Colwyn Bay 14:31, Rhyl 14:44, Prestatyn 14:51, Chester 15:19, Crewe 15:43 to 15:58 (loco change), Stafford 16:21, non-stop to London Euston 18:32. Sundays: London Euston 10:05, Stafford 12:21, Crewe 12:49 to 13:01 (loco change), Chester 13:25, Prestatyn 13:50, Rhyl 13:58, Colwyn Bay 14:10, Llandudno Junction 14:18, Bangor 14:36, Holyhead 15:06. Runs round and returns as: Holyhead 16:13, Bangor 16:43, Llandudno Junction 17:02, Colwyn Bay 17:09, Rhyl 17:22, Chester 17:54, Crewe 18:16 to 18:38 (loco change) London Euston 21:29.
The only other Virgin news is that Sunday evening trains depart from Euston at 16:20 and 18:20 and the Sunday morning train that run on the last few summers is withdrawn.
Here is a link to the FNW North Wales summer timetable in PDF format.- 12 May
The outbound Aberystwyth charter of 10 May calls at Altrincham. (more like this in the last Notice Board) Tony Flusk who took the picture, writes 'If I could pose the question via your site, the outwards was booked to traverse (and it did) the Up goods loop at Wrexham Croes Newydd North Fork, (it was booked to be looped for other trains to pass); does anyone know what was the last loco-hauled passenger service to use this loop? Just to think, if it had been a Branch Line railtour,they would have charged about £75 to do it!) - 12 May
Not mentioned here before is that Prince Charles visited Altrincham on 28 April, travelling by the Royal Train, as seen in these pictures by Edgar Hardwick. Locmotive in view is 47 798 Prince William. Some of the glass was missing from the platform canopy here; this was tidied up for the Royal visit by removing the rest of the glass! In the words of the Sale and Altrincham Messenger: 'He spent time chatting to the crowds as well as officially opening Bowdon Synagogue and spending time at Altrincham Girls Grammar School.'. - 12 May
John Lewis's picture above is one of a series (see the last Notice Board for the others) depicting the final(?) Sunday afternoon gathering of four classic trains at Holyhead on 11 May. It looks as though First North Western have decided they can manage with just two Class 47 diagrams for the summer timetable, despite the Class 175s undergoing a rectification programme. The working Class 101 fleet has been brought back up to six by the fitting of TPWS to two more units including the famous green one, and the few FNW trains on the Manchester - Birmingham route (worked by 175s in recent years) are being cut back to run Manchester - Crewe. It is also rumoured that the Class 150/2 which has been on loan to Wessex Trains will be returning home.
Our suggestion to FNW: get rid of brake coach 9480 - which features the rust holes shown above - and form the other vehicles into three 5-coach sets for the summer, allowing two for service and one for maintenance. The 4-coach sets just don't have enough seats, and the 47s will surely be able to keep time. - 12 May
Two fine pictures from 8 May by John Eyres: the first is 47 746 The Bobby crossing Frodsham viaduct on the 17.19 Manchester Piccadilly-Holyhead running 20 mins late. The second is 56 059 working 4J33 19:02 Arpley-Chirk logs. - 12 May
Work is underway to provide extra parking spaces at Crewe and the press release said that there would be direct access to platform 12 thus avoiding the need to cross the road. It would appear that a walkway is being constructed to connect from the old Horse Landing to platform 12 thus precluding the use of the line connecting the Diesel Depot to the Chester line. At the moment there is merely a flashing light and a red "stop" sign in the centre of the track - one assumes that something more substantial will be incorporated into the scheme otherwise ... can snyone tell us what the final planned layout is? - 12 May
John Young writes: Can anyone tell me the number of the leading power car on the 1341 ex-Holyhead on 6 May?
And from Alan Crawshaw: 'Bangor station is the only one to sport Chester and Holyhead Railway crests. Was this always the case, or were they robbed from other stations? Someone out there must know.' - 12 May
The latest station in North Wales is seen here under construction on 9 May. This will be the new terminus of the Llanberis Lake Railway. The half-mile extension will take the line closer to the town centre and the new station will be across the road from the Snowdon Mountain Railway. Not much prospect of through running though!
Opera singer Bryn Terfelwill be "reaching new heights" when he officially opens the Snowdon Mountain Railway's service to the summit.The bass-baritone, originally from Pant Glas and who now lives near Caernarfon, has been invited to travel in the unique railway for the event. Once there, organisers hope he will officiate over an exchange ceremony, using the RAF helicopter, more often seen on the mountainside carrying out rescue missions. A company spokeswoman said: "With his links to Wales and his passion for Snowdonia, Bryn is well-placed for the task of opening this unique railway, which travels to just 20 metres below the summit of Snowdon - the highest peak in Wales and England at 1,085 metres."
Bryn Terfel hosts the annual Faenol Festival, which this year is held from August 23-25 near Bangor and features headline acts such as international opera singer Jose Carreras. He will officially open the railway and launch its 2003 service on Friday May 16 at 11am.
Thanks to Dave Sallery, George Jones and the Daily Post for reports. - 12 May
A notabe even on 6 May was the use of 37 609 and 37 218 (a recent addition to thr DRS fleet) the flask train. Photo above by Alan Crawshaw shows them backing out of the Valley triangle, taken on full zoom and cropped. Below, by Rowan Crawshaw the train passes under the A55 at Valley.
I made a visit to the North Wales area on Sunday 4 May, travelling
to
the Llandudno Transport Festival from Crewe, complete with diversion
via
Northwich. The interesting thing, apart from 08 436 in the
sidings
near Middlewich, was that we travelled through Sandbach on the main
line
then reversed into the loop platform before continuing forward via
Northwich.
I must say that I was slightly disappointed with a couple of things
I encountered on the way. The first thing was the current North Wales
Coast
Timetable which has a map on the centre page, which seems to have
mutated
slightly. i.e. one half of the map doesn't match up with the other half
and some stations have disappeared or have been renamed. e.g. Pth
(Penrith).
Is this a common problem to all timetables or do I now have a
collectors
item? In any case it doesn't give a very good first impression. But
this
wasn't as bad as the condition of Units 153 316 & 153
330
which worked the first train of the day from Llandudno Junction to
Llandudno.
They were smart and tidy on the outside but certainly not on the
inside.
It looked as though someone had been through emptying the rubbish sacks
from the night before! I'm sure it was just that the train set hadn't
been
cleaned with being stationed here for the night, but a large number of
people commented on the state of the train as they got on. Again I
don't
think this will have done First North Western's image any good. I would
have thought that they might have made an effort, particularly
for
this weekend. Mind you if we were able to persuade people to be tidy in
the first place we wouldn't have this problem.
Anyway that's enough moaning for now. I must say that I did enjoy the
rally, if not perhaps the conditions underfoot. The commercial vehicle
turnout at the rally seemed slightly on the low side compared to
previous
years, but I believe this may have been caused by the organisers
contacting
attendees for the Sunday advising them not to come due to the condition
of the field. To say the field resembled a swamp would not be too far
from
the truth! Several vehicles even parked on the hardcore roads through
the
middle of the site rather than risk getting stuck in the mud. I was
also
told that the Express Motor's Open Top VR, lettered for route 1 Blaenau
Ffestiniog - Caernarfon, had to be dragged out sideways to enable it to
be moved ... still it made for a more interesting day. - 12 May
