To make a little change while I'm away for a few days, I thought I'd dig some old prints from 1993 out of the drawer to remember the first summer of the now-legendary Class 37/4 period on North Wales Coast passenger trains.
Frodsham on the Manchester - Chester section was a favourite destination of mine: at the time the local post office sold model railway equipment. This is (I think) 37 407 Loch Long, still in the 'Mainline' livery it gained while in Scotland.
In the early 1990s, North West Regional Railways fleet also included some Class 31/4s, which did a turn along the Coast from time to time. This is Chester: the lawn between the tracks was neater in those days...
Some of the 37/4s had previously been used on Shell petroleum trains, and initially still carried their 'shell' nameplates, although these were soon removed.
37 414 Cathays C & W Works was the last loco to be repainted at that site before it closed. See here at Chester, its large cabside numbers were conspicuous.
Colwyn Bay with its smart new 'Croeso' sign: in 2003 this sign remains, although rather faded, but the signalbox, which was already out of use in 1993, has vanished. The box and the whole area behind the platform here were part of an ambitious development including a pub, craft workshops and various museum railway items, but this all eventually faded away.
Llandudno Junction, 1993. There was at the time a loco-hauled train to Llandudno, which returned to the junction for stabling. This is 37 422 Robert F. Fairlie. In the background stands a 47 with the weekly chemical train from Amlwch, a working which was a substitute for the previous daily delivery by Speedlink until the Health and Safety people banned the Associated Octel company from storing so much material in their sidings and soon after this the working ceased.
The same train, another day: 37 421 Strombidae stands in the sidings at Llandudno Junction, showing off its wavy 'Railfreight Chemicals' logo. Note how the coach has had the red stripe of the NSE livery overpainted in blue to create a version of Regional Railways colours.
37 429 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, a very early Regional Railways repaint and the loco which worked the first 37/4 hauled train in May 1993, and the last one in 2000, pulls out of Llandudno Junction.
37 408 Loch Rannoch again, this time in the classic pose at Llandudno Junction, with a Mk1 coach still in InterCity livery heading the train. How many times have we jumped off the train and run over the footbridge to get a picture like this?
Finally, Bangor, with 37 414 again. I rarely went to Holyhead during this era, as it was more fun to catch a different locomotive back from Bangor or Llandudno Junction.
I hope this little page awakened a few memories: at least it makes a change from the madnesses of franchising!