The second Steamy Affairs charter to Holyhead seems to have run more or less according to plan, except that it appeared at Crewe hauled by 47 747 Florence Nightingale, instead of the promised purple Deltic which failed to show for the second time. Steve Morris's picture shows this loco coming off the train at Crewe. The train seemed to be very well loaded, and produced a good show for the onlookers despite the rather drab weather.
6201 and support coach back on to the train...notice people 'down the ramp' yet again. Will they never learn? (Steve Morris)
... and stands by while green celebrity 47 851 departs for Holyhead with the Virgin train from London. 86 259 Les Ross and 47 828 Severn Valley Railway are stabled in the siding. The man in yellow coat and ehite hat has now arrived on the scene... (Steve Morris)
John Murray's view above shows the train passing the canal locks on the way out of Chester.
The loco was steaming well and making a stupendous noise as it charged up the 1-in-100 through Llandulas following a standing start from a signal check at Abergele. (Larry Goddard)
Surrounded by admirers at the Llandudno Junction water stop. Look carefully and you can see the man attending to the air brake compressor, just as we predicted! This is the best of several 'hold the camera up in the air' views, which cost nothing with a digital camera, so you can afford a few failures ...
View from the bridge as 'Lizzie' starts the long and heavy train out of The Junction towards Bangor. (Charlie Hulme) This picture should not have been: for the second week running we failed to get to Conwy to photograph the train from there. After travelling on the 10:21 Birmingham - Holyhead, booked arrival 12:33, the plan had been to catch the connecting 12:41 local to Bangor to get to Conwy, but 175 101 suffered 'mechanical problems' on its way from Bangor and was about half an hour late when it eventually arrived in bay platform 2, seen in the background. Presumably the return stopping train was cancelled, as 175 101 was noted running into Chester depot as the return loco-hauled train passed later in the afternoon, having been delayed at Holywell Junction waiting for 101 to clear the section. (On 14 June, conversely, the train from Birmingham was 15 minutes late, and the stopping train did not wait, which seems an odd decision - any comment from our rail staff readers?)
Alec Fuller reports from Holyhead that the steam train left on time, but was held up at Valley awaiting the 'road.' Alec adds: 'About three of us were waiting at a lay-by on the A55, all lined up for our shots. And then a convoy of train followers suddenly arrive, having seen her depart, and leap out of their cars grab the best viewpoints, without thought for anyone else. When she passed they all charged off again presumably train chasing down North Wales. Some of them noticed that she was held up in Valley so parked on the verge of A55 by the bridge over the line to get more shots. This latter action gives ammunition to those who want to control our hobby.'
Finally (for now!) a scenic telephoto view from Conwy quayside of 47 851 making its way back towards London with the 13:35 from Holyhead. - 21 June
47 761 at Flint with the 06:48 Holyhead - Birmingham, 20 June (Tim J. Rogers)
Prince Charles and his son William visited North Wales on 19 June, using the Royal Train to get to Bangor. Bill Rear's pictures show the train approaching Llandudno Junction...
... and running through the station, with 47 798 Prince William in the lead.
Alan Crawshaw was on hand at Bangor station, and reports: 'Security gets tighter each royal visit, there was a heavy presence of Securicor, police and BTP so I thought it wise to check none of them would take offence at my camera. After four "I think it's OK but you'd better check with him over there" replies, I was on platform 1. Parties of schoolchildren were in the field beyond platform 2 (picture above) ...
' and on platform 2 itself, which was barred to everyone unconnected with the visit.
' 47 798 arrived punctually at 10:15 and soon after, we heard the schoolchildren singing Happy Birthday/Penblwydd Hapus on the platform and later a brass band as the royal party left the station.'
'The other Prince William ran round its stock of seven royal coaches and propelled it into Belmont tunnel.
The weather was grey and miserable. 'I was expecting the train to either storm off along the up centre road or stable in the siding, so was surprised to see it stop on platform 1. I could not stay to see what happened next ... anyone help?'
It seems unusual for the Royal Train to be hauled by a single locomotive and run round rather than 'topped and tailed' as appears to be normal - its it that only the Queen gets both locos? -21 June
Away from the glamour of Royalty on 19 June, two pictures of 47 786Roy Castle OBE on the 13:56 departure to Birmingham - one (above) in platform 3 of Holyhead station ...
... the other taken speeding through Valley. This picture emphasises the extremely low platform at this station, which still has its original Chester and Holyhead Railway building. - 21 June
The first Northern Belle of the season ran to Chester to Blaenau Ffestiniog on 10 June. In Larry Goddard's pictures (above) 66 177 passes Llysfaen while (below) 47 798 Prince William brings up the rear.
Prince William Arthur Philip Louis was born on 21 June, 1982 at St Mary's Hospital in London, thus is celebrating his 21st birthday on the day this page is uploaded. 47 798 Prince William, on the other hand, is a sprightly 38, having entered service on 1 February 1965 at Landore depot, Swansea, as D1656. In 1974 it became 47 072, and in 1984 47 609. It was named Fire Fly in 1985 in a ceremony at Windsor and Eton Central station as part of the GWR 150 celebrations. It is said that the naming was originally planned to take place at Swindon Works, but when the closure of this works was announced and cast a huge shadow over the whole anniversary, the naming was transformed into one of Jimmy 'This is the age of the train' Savile's 'Fix it' events, and 8-year old Nicholas Emsley did the honours. Could Nicholas, now in his mid-20s, possibly be reading this? It was renumbered 47 834 in August 1989, at the same time becoming the first loco to carry the INTERCITY 'swallow' livery, and became associated with Royal Train workings.
On becoming a full-time Royal loco in 1995, it gained the name Prince William and the Royal Train livery, originally as a variant of the EWS scheme with a cast version of the weird Res logo, before passing on privatisation to EWS who kept the colour but added their own embellishments to create the loco as we see it today. Is it classified as a 47/7 or (as Platform 5 would have it) a 47/4?
Acknowledgements to abc Class 47s by Gavin Morrison and
Marsden
and Ford's Encyclopaedia of Modern Traction Names. For pictures
of the loco in some of its guises, we suggest www.brush4.co.uk,
an amazing website containing nearly 5000 class 47 pictures. - 21
June
