The classic poster image of 101 685, from Regional Railways 1994 publicity. See Class 101s in the News, below.
As the last few Class 101 diesel railcars enter their last few days of operation with First North Western, here's a round up of what's happening, with some nostalgic illustrations. In 1994, two Class 101 units were reformed into 3-car sets to work the Conwy Valley line. One unit, 101 685 was painted in green livery, became a celebrity, and remains in service in two-car format, to the end. (It was planned to officially name it Daisy after the Rev. Awdry's creation on 15 December.) The other unit,. 101 683, remained in Regional Railways colours. In Dave Sallery's picture above, Daisy's sister, 101 683, crosses the River Conwy near Llanrwst on its way to Blaenau Ffestiniog on 15 July 1994.
31 December is the deadline for the final withdrawal of the 101s: however, the lines serving Longsight depot, where they are based, are blocked for engineering works from 25 to 30 December, so their last day of normal operation will probably be 24 December. We have a full listing of the three diagrams for these units for this remaining period: note, there are no booked workings on Saturdays and Sundays. In addition, there is a plan to add a couple of additional trains on Wednesday 17 December, the 47th birthday of car 53160. This is not confirmed at present, but we think that on this day a 101 will additionally work the 10:43 Manchester Piccadilly - Sheffield, returning on the 12:14 Sheffield - Manchester.
Some of the Regional Railways-liveried 101s were allocated to East Anglia after repainting: this picture was taken by Charlie Hulme at Hoveton and Wroxham station on the Sheringham branch as one of the Bure Valley Railway's locos takes water and your compiler's bicycle takes a breather.
On Sunday 21 December, First North Western are running a special 'relief train' to say a farewell to the Class 101s: tickets for this train were allocated by ballot and there will be none sold on the day, but for any readers who might wish to photograph the train, we have uploaded a file of the running times for this train.
The 1994 poster was not the only one featuring a 101: the above view is one of three Yorkshire scenes featured on an Eastern Region poster from the 1960s. We'd suggest people take a ride on a 101 before the final departure of these old warriors which were very familiar to North Wales passengers. Indeed these are very nearly the last of the huge fleet of 'Modernisation Plan' units still in service: the only other example in normal traffic is a much-modernised Class 121 single-unit on Chiltern Railways.
Another Class 101 development is that most of the withdrawn and stored Class 101 cars which have been languishing in sidings at Longsight depot have been taken away, some we believe having gone to a scrapyard in South Wales. - 15 December
Nocturne
47 732 Restormel calls at Chester with the 18:22 Holyhead - Crewe on 11 December. The First North Western class 158 in the background is the connecting Arriva Trains Wales (despite being an all-England service) 20:00 service to Manchester Piccadilly. (Laurence Wheeler)
The other loco-hauled train
Our claim that Arriva now operate all the remaining daytime loco-hauled services prompted Simon Pritchard to head out with his camera on 12 December to prove us wrong.
Simon writes: 'Here are a couple of pictures of the only daytime diesel locomotive hauled train not operated by Arriva. The train is the (Fridays) 12:52 Bristol Temple Meads to Brighton, which returns at 17:00 from Sussex - it used to run to and from Cardiff Central leaving at 12:00. On 12 December it was hauled by 31 454 in it's pseudo - Intercity livery similar to the Mainline livery seen on a few of the type when they ruled along the Coast.
The train is seen (31 420 at the front) at Keynsham, the first stop from Bristol, and leaving with 31 459 the rear locomotive. Four HSBC coaches are the consist, and it's an ideal way to spend a lunch hour on a Friday!' - 12 December
Mark Lloyd Davies writes: Further to Ian Bowland's enquiry about 47 732, the yellow squares on the cabsides may just be the weathered remains of small 'Highland Rail' logos.
The pictures taken during summer 2002 at Holyhead show 47 773Reservist on a FNW service with similarly positioned yellow squares but with the logo clearly visible. The loco may have at some time been been allocated to the dedicated Scotrail Caledonian Sleepers which would have worked to Inverness hence the depot logo and also the miniature snow ploughs.'
Here's Ian's pictures again - any comments? - 12 December
Recent pictures of the Arriva 158 inspired Larry Goddard to create one of his artistic impressions (above) of what a 153 in Arriva colours might look like at Tal-Y-Cafn on the Conwy Valley branch. No doubt we'll be seeing this in reality soon: at least one of the W & B silver liveried 158s has now gained Arriva logos, although so far nobody has managed to teach 'Digital Doris' the announcing computer at Manchester Piccadilly to stop saying Wales and Borders. Fore of habit, perhaps. The new-liveried 158 818 worked the early Holyhead-Cardiff again on 12 December, in pouring rain which put of our photographers...
On a more serious note, Arriva have decided to contract out the management of their Welsh fleet to Bombardier, who will presumably take over what is left of Cardiff Canton depot. Or, in company-speak: 'Bombardier and Arriva Trains have entered an agreement for Bombardier to provide operational management resource and leadership in the Arriva Trains Wales / Trenau Arriva Cymru Fleet function.'
Mark Burgess, who has been leading the project for Bombardier, is appointed Fleet Director, Arriva Trains Wales /Trenau Arriva Cymru, and starts work on 12 December. Mark Brand, ATW fleet director for the short life of the company so far, will be leaving the company 'by mutual consent.' - 12 December