8F 48151 makes a stirring sight at Crewe on 2 June with an empty stock train. (Ian Bowland)
Following on from our picture of an eight-coach First North Western train at Holyhead on Sunday, First North Western confirm that one Class 47 and eight coaches are now booked for the Sunday 1G79 18:29 Holyhead to Birmingham and the 1D99 22:57 return working. Pictures and travellers' tales especially welcome.
An interesting point about this working is that two of the hired First Great Western brake-end coaches have had their gangway connections removed from the brake van end to allow installation of a cycle rack; since every train which goes to Birmingham gets reversed by running round through Aston, there are surely going to be times when it is not possible to couple the two rakes at Holyhead and create a through gangway connection. - 4 June
Many of you will have become aware of the rather absurd stories in the press regarding 'trainspotters' being banned from stations because of the supposed risk of terrorism. This tale appears to have originated when the magazine Railways Illustrated contacted the BBC online news service with reports from some of their readers about their treatment by security staff on certain stations managed by the Network Rail Major Stations division. In my opinion from bitter experience, the magazine editor, who was no doubt keen to publicise his article in the next issue, should have know better that play into the hands of the national media who love any opportunity to ridicule people who are interested in railways.
The original BBC story was bad enough, but could a Network Rail spokesman called Jane Vincent really have said: 'We do have issues with people coming along to take photographs on our stations. We do allow people to do it if they phone us in advance so we can arrange for the station to be told that people will be turning up, they know they are there and who they are. It could be any sort of terrorist activity or whatever. Unless we know who these people are, and what they are doing, it's best to be on the safe side.' It does not seem to have occurred to Ms Vincent or the BBC that railfans with their cameras are friends of the railway and actually constitute a security surveillance team at no cost. My first reaction when I saw the so-called news story was to hasten to the end of Platform 9 at Manchester Piccadilly and be as conspicuous as possible in taking a few pictures such as the ones above of 101 692 making its way through the weeds into the station on a train from Marple, and 43 196 on the rear of a St Pancras train, but disappointingly I was not challenged; in fact I never have been challenged while taking pictures on any station anywhere.
I also took the picture above showing a local hooligan throwing things off the roof of Davenport station's waiting shelter; maybe I should pass it to the Transport Police ... but then again was I breaking the law myself by taking the picture? Better play safe... meanwhile the trashy paper press were having a field day with the story. Judge for yourself whether you prefer the effort of the 'upmarket' Daily Telegraph asking people what's in their sandwiches or the cheap and cheerful Sun. ('Retired Bob Carradine, 66, from Birmingham, was almost choking on his corned beef sandwich with anger.') Funnily enough, NR appears to be back-tracking (!) in the Sun story: 'Network Rail’s Jane Vincent told us: “Train spotters are welcome as long as they don’t obstruct passengers.”'
Of course we like a good giggle as much as anyone, but all this stuff does get tedious, doesn't it? We are trying to get some statement from Network Rail (Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham New Street are among their stations); in the meantime Virgin Trains has assured the press that railway enthusiasts are welcome at all the stations Virgin manages, provided they act in a responsible manner. Says Chief Executive Chris Green 'Today’s rail enthusiasts are tomorrow’s business travellers and we encourage railway enthusiasts and historians to take an interest in our operations. We are putting a new generation of trains into service and we are pleased that it is sparking a renewed interest in railways amongst a new younger generation. All we ask is that enthusiasts carry out their hobby in safe manner and do not interfere with the normal operation of the stations.' Amen to that, and I am pretty sure First North Western management would concur; I'm sure we will hear from them if they don't, but let's all remember the safe manner part. - 4 June
47 749 Atlantic College with a Serco test train at Holyhead on 2 June. Anyone know the number of the loco at the other end? (John Lewis)
Steamy idiots, and other stories from 2 June
On 2 June a holiday company called Travelsphere were running a train "Coronation Golden Jubilee" with 6201 Princess Elizabeth (looking immaculate as usual) 1Z62 08:00 Chester to London Victoria as part of a two-day holiday, which we imagine was not the sort of trip favoured by the corned-beef sandwich brigade (see story above). As soon as the train was pulled into Chester station by a EWS 47, the passengers waiting to board swarmed off the end of the platform and onto the track to get their photos... several were stood in the four-foot of the through road with the signal off for a train to pass through! No stewards were there from the train operator so it was left to the station staff to remove all the trespassers before a train came along and did it for them.
To much amazement (and some shock) all they got was a torrid stream of abuse for their trouble, with refusals to move. The British Transport Police arrived and got the track clear and spoke to several people about their trespass, but all this delayed the 1H44 06:33 Bangor-Manchester Club train by 10 minutes as it had to be cautioned through (not that it meant anything - see later...) These people are not helping themselves, the train operators, stations or signallers by this kind of behaviour and are certainly not going to endow themselves well with management, particularly in this present anti-enthusiast time we are in. On a plus point most attendees on the Saturday and Sunday steam specials were very well behaved and only a minority tried to trespass, so it is possible to "behave". The Travelsphere train appears to be booked to run again on 29 June for those with £199 to spare: let's home the organisers take the hint that some stewarding is needed.
Here are a couple of pictures by Ian Bowland of the troublesome train at Crewe, with 6201 looking as immaculate as ever.
Here's the version with cylinder cocks open!
Meanwhile, back to 'club train' 1H44; its problems at Chester would matter little by Helsby as the loco 47 739 Resourceful (good name) failed with brake problems, the train being cancelled there and the passengers having to catch the next train along an hour later, which was a two-car 158 Needless to say it was rather full leaving Helsby. The loco and stock were recessed into platform 4 at Helsby for a fitter to attend before later running empty via Warrington and Manchester to Crewe. Yet another class 47 failure delays and disrupts to North Wales Coast; some might say it was never like this when we had 37s... - 4 June
Two photographs of the Pathfinder Tours special from Crewe to Hooton on 1 June. Above: 56 038 approaches Hooton on 1Z56 14:55 from Crewe, and below, 57 005 Freightliner Excellence accelerates through Capenhurst on 1Z57 16:01 Hooton to Crewe. - 4 June
Coast weekend - with Simon Pritchard
Away from the Crewe Open Days, loco-hauled trains were running down the Coast as usual on 31 May and 1 June. Here's 47 739 Resourceful at Abergele on the 11.31 from Crewe on the Saturday.
47 840 North Star at Llandudno Junction on the same day's morning train from "London" - the 09:58 from Stafford.
Sunday 1 June, and 47 828 Severn Valley Railway is in charge of the 10:05 from London, forty minutes down at Llandudno Junction.
A close-up of 47 828's interesting nameplate and crest. - 4 June
The Llangollen Railway will reverberate to the sound of class 37 37 240 and class 46 46 010 on three Saturdays in July .Each loco works three return trips of the line. The dates for people's diaries are as follows,
Saturday 5 July 37 240
Saturday 12 July 46 010
Saturday 19 July 37 240
This may well be the last chance to sample 37 240 in its current 'tatty' dutch livery, as the loco's bodywork will be receiving attention in the not too distant future, and could well be completed in time for the October Diesel Gala. As always, the above locos are all subject to availability on the days concerned. - 4 June
On Saturday 31 May, because some of the 8-car HST sets were in use on the Birmingham fasts to Newquay, Virgin's morning Holyhead train became loco-hauled... and from the very start it was guaranteed that with the number of enthusiasts on Crewe station for the Open Day it was going to get quite a large reception, and indeed it did. However, after 47 840 North Star had attached onto the front, and everyone was waiting on the end of platform 11 for what would be a beautiful shot... 37 517 and 37 695 pulled in on a slightly late Pathfinder charter from Salisbury, nearly decapitating several hundred enthusiasts on the platform ... and also completely blocking out the Holyhead train save for a couple of metres near the ramp.
Thus, everyone tried to squeeze into this small amount of space left, getting in each others' way, and this was made worse by the arrival of more people off the charter. Just at that time the police arrived on the end of Platform 12 and began yelling at everyone to keep off the ramps, to little avail from some! I have attached the picture I managed to get from where I was, without going on the ramps, and I wonder how many other people managed an unobstructed shot? - 4 June
Roger Smith writes: 'Whilst you comment on the storage of 37
402, it is of course an impostor. It's worth remembering the original
'Bont
Y Bermo' is still at large and currently unnamed. [and indeed worked
into
Crewe on 31 May - C.H.]
My picture shows 37 427 Bont Y Bermo exchanging tokens
at Talerddig on the Cambrian line on Sunday 31 August 1987 whilst
working
(I think) 1A33 15:20 Aberystwyth - London Euston. The 37 only worked as
far as Shrewsbury. on the Cambrian in 1987. I remember we stayed in the
area for a few days and although it seems funny now we had a diet of
427,
427 & err... 427 all the time we were there! '
And here's some more about the present-day Bont Y Bermo: John Dawson writes: '402 has just had a B-exam at Margam depot and will be returning to service very soon. It is also to receive a quick lick of paint too although rumours dictate that it will remain in the popular triple grey and not EWS red. 402 only has around 9000 engine hours on the clock, 415 was withdrawn with 10710 hours on the clock and 426 is currently around 10515 hours. I think the current EWS ceiling for 37s is now 10800 hours which should give 402 one to two years service before having to be theoretically withdrawn again! - 4 June
A lot more pictures of the Crewe open days have been sent in, and we'll have a another page full of them soon; in the meantime have a look at this one by Steve Morris taken soon after the unveiling on 31 May, showing newly repainted 87 002's 'other' side and some of the people associated with the project to commemorate the last days of these locos on Virgin expresses.
Ian Walmsley, the man responsible for the colour scheme (love it or hate it?) is kneeling down in the front row. He is also the person who painted the picture of Class 40 loco Aureol which readers many remember as the prize in our Children in Need draw last year. - 4 June