Don't miss ...
Struggling to do updates at the moment, as compiler has been struck down by an extremely nasty cold virus, or possbly just an ordinary one which seems worse due to being older than a Class 101, but we must mention interesting attraction on the weekend of 10-12 October in the form of a Diesel Gala at the Llangollen Railway. Diesel-hauled trains will run on Friday 10 October, on Saturday and Sunday will feature an extremely intensive timetable also including the railway's Class 108 and 104 DMUs. Here's a full timetable and diagram details for the weekend. We are told that the railway's latest loco, 37 901 will be on view although not yet operational. This is one of the locos which were experimentally re-engined by Mirrlees, a company not far from your compiler's house who even employed him for a very brief period!
The following weekend, we should mention the Modern Image Gauge 0 and 1 model railway exhibition which is happening on 18-19 October at Saltney Community Centre, a couple of miles outside Chester, as our contributor Mike Dunning (of Talacre fame) is heavily involved in the organising. Latest news is that Mark Found, presenter of some excellent railway programmes on Disovery Home and Leisure, has promised to be there at 10:00 on Saturday to meet people. Full details on the Migo website. - 9 October
Thanks to the efforts of Rowan Crawshaw we can now offer updated versions of our traditional loco-hauled/HST timetables for the Coast line: links can be found on our Railfan Guide page. Any corrections, suggestions and additions are very welcome. - 9 October
Four hours down - revisted
Our earlier version of this incident on 6 October was inaccurate in detail: in particular we should have said the train was stuck with all its passengers aboard well outside Chester station, not in the platform. We've reports from two of the passengers who were aboard the train, and an observer at Chester station; here's a compilation of their stories.
People boarding the aA77 13:20 Holyhead - London at Bangor noticed were signs of electrical trouble - intermittent intercom, lights flickering or going off in carriages. Between Rhyl and Prestatyn, near the site of the one-time Rhyl Sands signalbox, the train came to a stand for about 20 minutes with the rear loco shut down. The crew isolated the rear loco and set off again, but it had been decided to try to turn the train on the triangle at Chester as (we believe) the National Radio Network (NRN) equipment in the leading loco was not functioning.
The train took the route from Chester South Junction to Chester North Junction (to the pleasure of rare-track enthuiasts aboard the train) and came to a stand on the Northbound electrified line Merselrail , just short of Bache station. Whilst the driver changed ends a Merseyrail emu passed at approx 15:15 and went into Platform 7 at Chester, where it stayed as the HST was blocking its return route. No further emus went into Chester after that, and Merseyrail were complelled to insitute a bus replacement service.
The driver tried in vain to get the HST to move, but after two hours he gave up as we waited yet another hour for a class 47 to come from Crewe and rescue us. Eventually, about 18:00, the train set off, passing non-stop through Chester station via the north side through line opposite platform 7. Platform 7 was still occupied by the elecric train which could not be moved, and crossover line leading to the other platforms at Chester from the Liverpool line is out of use, so for many it was a case of 'I wanted to go to Chester but they've sent me on to Crewe.' In the meantime, some Virgin staff had been sent on a wild goose chase to Chester station to assist passengers!
It finally arrived in Crewe at 19:20 some 230 minutes late and not surprisingly was terminated in Platform 6, the weary passengers for London being transferred to a Liverpool - London train which had been held specially for them. Despite passengers being advised that taxis would be made available, Chester passengers were sent back on the 17:25 Euston to Holyhead, reaching Chester at 20:05 the best part of seven hours after leaving Holyhead - some just caught the W&B local.
Passenger Peter Tabord writes: 'I have to say the Virgin train crew deserve a mention - they came round with free sandwiches, dispensed free tea coffee etc. despite more intermittent problems with power in the buffet, kept us informed as soon as they knew anything, and did their utmost to secure people's onward connections. There were a remarkable number of people bound for distant parts on the train - Jamaica, Lagos, Boston (US) to name a few - I hope they all made it! It put our travels to Gidea Park (Essex) in perspective.'
Well, we have to ask: knowing that the rear loco was faulty, would it not have been wiser to run the train into Chester station first and detrain the passengers before trying to turn it? Yes, we know these decisions are difficult and is all right for us to sit back and tell them what they should have done... still, it least the dealy to other North Wales Coast trains was minimal.
Thanks (and our sympathies) to John Bird, Dave Bramley, John Murray and Peter Tabord for assistance with this item. - 8 October
Readers may be interested in times for the Hooton/Mid-Cheshire charter train next Saturday, 11 October. Hooton 06.51/23.18, Bache 07.03/22.55, Chester 07.17/22.27, then most stations to Altrincham, 08.40/20.55, to Lincoln. Motive power class 66 with 13 coaches from set CP02. Due to Network Rail 'difficulties' with running round at Hooton, the train is likely to be top-and-tailed from Chester to Hooton and v.v. Just a handful of seats left (from Laurence Wheeler on 01244 678070 or laurence.wheeler@tesco.net ) - 8 October
Here's another view by Ian Bowland of the Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen version of the Platform 12 stairs at Crewe ...
... and by way of a complete contrast, Tony Flusk found
ex-East
Anglian regular 37 054 on 7 October at Sandbach scrap metal
merchants.
Tony writes: '054 never managed to put in a performance on a North
Wales
passenger turn (but may have
worked a ballast - does anyone know?). Perhaps that gentleman who had
a cab of 47 555 in his garden at Prestatyn would like to
upgrade?'
- 7 October
47 635 The Lass O'Ballochmyle arrives at Crewe with the 12.45 Holyhead-Crewe, 6 October.
47 635 is not the only loco to carry the head of Scots bard Robert Burns: 87 035 Robert Burns is also adorned above its namaplate. - 6 October
Fame ... and pictures - thoughts from the compiler's chair
Nice of The Railway Magazine to give us a mention in the 'Search Engine' column of their latest issue, but here at Page 27 we feel rather disappointed by their choice of winner for their £1000 photographic competition, which features a rather indistinct steam loco against a hackneyed Cuban sunset. Another prize winner relied on the use of flash lighting from the platform of a main line station at night, which is not guaranteed to impress our train driver friends, and yet another was a picture of a spider's web. Patronisingly, they also decided that they had to include one 'chocolate-box' scenic picture in the top four.
Well, we don't have £1000 to give away, but here's our suggestion of a decent railway picture, taken by Concrete Bob at the crack of dawn on 2 October. Indeed, every week here we get pictures just as good in our eyes as the ones chosen by the so-called experts, but then what do we know? - 6 October
Alec Fuller writes: 'I have just tried to arrange to attend a meeting in London on Monday 27 October. I find the 14:00 from Holyhead on the Sunday is a bus to Bangor to connect with the HST, and the 16.12 is a bus to Bangor, W&B to Crewe, Central to Stoke, and VT from Stoke arrive Euston 22.29, as opposed to 21.16 on the normal 16.12 through. The Monday morning 5.20 does not appear to be running at all from anywhere as the first connection is on the 5.38 Cardiff to Chester, another W&B to Crewe, and the VT to Euston arrive 10.38. Not much use for a 10.00am meeting. Perhaps I will not go!'
From Ray Barber: 'On Thursday 2 October I boarded the 09:18 Manchester - Llandudno at Frodsham and was talking to the guard. His workings for the day were: empty to Wigan with 2 class 175, leave one unit there, then Wigan to Manchester Airport and back to Manchester Piccadilly before working the 09.18 and the 11.18 back as far as Chester. A catering trolley on the train was provded by Wales & Borders, also the paint brush was out at Frodsham, Flint, and Rhyl stations. The first train from Manchester to Chester is worked by a First North Western unit on hire to Wales & Borders.'
Dave Sallery writes to tell us that the Associated Octel (now actually Great Lakes Fine Chemicals) plant in Amlwch is to close with loss of about 100 jobs. It seems that Bromine can be extracted from sea water a lot cheaper in the Red Sea. Of no consequence to the railway, since their hazardous chemical traffic deserted rail in the early 1990s, but at least it will remove a lot of hazardous loads from the A55.
Thanks to Tony Miles for updating us on some senior management information: Apparently Mark Willcox, now Wales and Borders man in charge of 'developing effective customer communication and marketing strategies' was previously Marketing Manager of First North Western - some might be surprised to hear that FNW did any marketing, but we'll pass on ... Vernon Barker, lately Managing Director of First North Western is to become MD of the new TransPennine Express company, jointly owned by FirstGroup and French company Keolis, on 10 October. His place at FNW is taken by Richard Peck, currently engineering director.
We persuaded a driver to model the new staff uniform for us; apparently the Mysterons have been reported somewhere in the Cardiff area. It seems there was much activity on the last evening of FNW, with piles of spare uniforms, and even PCs, being dispatched from the Coast line stations. - 6 October
The 'Big Blue Beastie' did a trip to Dee Marsh on 2 October; shot taken by Warren Desmond at Hawarden on the working back to Warrington. - 6 October