Ian Bowland's telephoto lens reveals 47 810 Porterbrook running into Crewe with the 09:21 Holyhead - London on 9 June, with a backdrop of various heritahe items in the 'Railway Age.'
Missing loco mystery solved
Thanks to everyone who passed on the solution to the missing loco at Holyhead problem (see picture below) from the morning of 9 June: what happened was that the loco for the 06:48 Holyhead - Birmingham was found to have a severe water leak, so it was hauled 'dead' behind the loco of the 06:02 empties to Bangor and 06:33 Bangor to Manchester to get it back to Crewe depot for attention, hence the use of a 158 on the Birmingham service. - 11 June
Monday morning blues - by Larry Goddard
158 754 near Abergele working the 06.48 Holyhead-Birmingham in place of the loco-hauled train on 9 June. A class 175 is passing with the 07.05 Crewe-Llandudno (Larry Goddard).
Gwrych Castle dominates the hillside as 47 810Porterbrook
speeds towards Abergele with the 09:21 Holyhead-Euston on Monday 9
June.
(Larry Goddard)
Ivor Bufton writes: 'Yes indeed, 47 786 Roy Castle OBE was on one end of 2 June's Serco Test Train down the Coast. It had been Craigentinny [Edunburgh] 'Thunderbird' for months, then got atttached to the Serco train, but needed an A-exam so was swopped at Crewe and promptly got onto the North Wales circuit via the 17:20 Manchester - Holyhead. - 9 June
Some views from a very interesting time spent at Crewe on the morning of 9 June. It started on arrival at 10:30 with 46 035 on the through lines at the north of the station with 87 035 Robert Burns in the headshunt (A loco hauled Holyhead-Euston today?). Above, these two with 90 002 Mission:Impossible departing on a Euston - Liverpool.
The 10:21 Birmingham-Holyhead transpired to be a class 158 today, 158 754 in fact. But I was more occupied at the time by the arrival of HNRC s 37 087 + 37 194 looking very smart, from the Sandbach direction.
Shortly afterwards 47 810 Porterbrook arrived from Holyhead, which 87 035 backed onto and took forward to Euston.
46 035 then moved off towards Chester, returning about an hour later with D8087, presumably returning home from the Works Open Day. An unexpectedly varied couple of hours. - 9 June
Regarding the comments in an earlier Notice Board from Ben Martill about people on the end of platform 11 being shouted at by the police on 31 May, I was on platform 6 and in fact it was not the police but two security men with an "Oi you" attitude. One was so intent on bawling across to platform 11 that he came very close to being hit by North Star as it left on 12. The security guard was so wound up he obviously didn't hear or see the locomotive approaching as he leaned over the platform edge. North Star's driver hooted as he got nearer and the guard almost took off! These particular two then went all round the station, which was packed, pushing their weight around - well it was one guard in particular.
There was much venturing onto the platform end ramps which we all
know
is wrong but the station management must have known what sort of a day
it was going to be and should have had these guys at the platform ends,
not parading around trying to boost the egos. You can see the
crowd
levels from the 37 photo - every one a terrorist no doubt. While I was
photographing the Princess on the Monday 2 June there was a
particularly
nasty piece of work shouting and bawling from the end of platform
6.
I received an "Oi
you in the white shirt" from him and I was all for going over to have
a half decent row, when another chap he was bawling at threatened to
come
over and sort him out at which point he backed off, but started again
later
on. He was not in any kind of uniform but wore an apparent
identity
card on a chain round his neck which he kept flashing at people and
looking
down at which obviously made him feel important. The card bore
his
photograph and the name Railtrack (?) with his name "David Rogers."
Editorial comment: it looks like our earlier reassurances about this matter may have been off-beam: perhaps as Railway Magazine suggests, 'Every jobsworth with now have a field-day' as a result of the recent publicity. As Ian comments, 'It's all getting rather heavy at the moment.' We'd be very interested to hear of any experiences. .- 9 June
The events of the morning of 4 June at a very sunny Flint station.
The
Royal train arrived on time, and although the best vantage points were
forbidden, I managed to do my best with the camera. The train
then
ran to Mostyn sidings to reverse, pity Her Majesty alighted at Flint,
as
she probably 'required' the sidings, as opposed to the main line which
she has traversed before! One thing is for sure though, she definately
did not 'require' the locos, which as usual were 47 798 Prince
William leading with 47 799 Prince Henry on
the
rear.
Whilst the Royal party were alighting, the 09:19 Holyhead - Euston passed through and is seen with the HST reflecting of the shiny paintwork of 47 798.
The Queen is seen leaving the station in her car, obviously very appreciative of the motive power!
The train is seen powering away from Flint with 47 799 attached on the rear. Having witnessed the events of this morning, I can only hope Her Majesty visits Abergele & Pensarn soon, so that we can have a nicely repainted and cleaned up station, along with fresh flower baskets etc, let alone all the railway officials present ... we can dream, although at least we do get a Class 47 every day, and it has been known to be a Royal! - 9 June