THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
47 757 Capability Brown calls
at Bangor with the 1D65 10:30 Crewe - Holyhead on 7 January. Picture by
Rowan Crawshaw.
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Edition of 08 January 2004
Manchester
moments - by Charlie Hulme
After a false start on Monday 5 January when borrowed First North
Western railcar 156 461 worked the 17:19 Manchester Piccadilly
- Holyhead, the loco-hauled Manchester 'club train' continues. In the
picture, 47 757 Capability Brown waits at Manchester
Oxford Road with the evening service on Tuesday 6 January.
The direct line to Crewe being closed for engineering work on Mondays -
Fridays, the Arriva Trains Wales Manchester - South Wales trains are
starting from Manchester Oxford Road heading west, and running non-stop
to Crewe via Warrington Bank Quay and the West Coast Main Line. The
picture shows 158 830 waiting in Platform 5 at Oxford Road with the
17:58 to Barry Island via Cardiff on 6 January. - 8 January
Class 101s head south
The last five serviceable Class 101s were towed south from Longsight
depot by 37 682 as train 5Z50 on 6 January, heading for
storage in the Ministry of Defence depot at Shoeburyness in
Essex. Roger Carvell's evocative picture shows the train north of
Tring, approaching Ledburn Junction at 12:15. The train reached Temple
Mills Yard in Eeast London where it was stabled for the night.
The Caledonian Blue unit, 101 692, which suffered a mechanical failure
a in the last weeks of 101 operation, is travelling by road: car 53253
was reported passing through Manchester on a low-loader on 7 January.
Reports on the Class 101 Yahoo GRoup suggest it maybe headed to a South
Wales scrapyard.
For more Class 101 stuff, Dave Bramley has
a great
photopic page about
their last days, with pictuyres of the run to Sheffield on 24 December
and the very last run to Rose Hill. - 8 January
Livery novelties -
by Dave Bramley
An ex Valley Lines 150/2, 150 278
worked the Chester to Crewe shuttles on New Years Day. The photos show
both colours of each
vehicle (pick your fave colour!) and the Arriva logo plastered over the
top of the Valley Lines logo on the cab ends.
Speaking of logos,a majority of ATW
units now have Arriva logos on them including the advertising liveried
153 s and 158 820 also now in green livery to match 158 818. -
8 January
47 789 Lindisfarne on time at Bangor with
the 15:29 Crewe to Holyhead, 2 January. (Alan Crawshaw.)
Holyhead pictorial, and some observations - by Shaun Courtnage
47 773 The Queen Mother is seen above at
Holyhead,
unusually on platform 1 ( platform 3 is more normal for these trains)
on 31 December 2003 waiting to haul 1K67 12:45 Holyhead-Crewe.
The current loco- hauled sets are: 5632 + 5631 + 5740 + 9481; 5737 +
5710 + 5636 + 9494; and the spare set: 6213 + 6200 + 6221 + 9501.
Unfortunately maintenance of these vehicles seems to be slipping as
well as the cleanliness internally. The stock is now filthy, especially
the vestibules which are covered in diesel fumes. The toilet walls and
vestibule walls appear to have never been cleaned since arrival in the
north, the edges of tables and the area around the windows are also
covered in dirt.
While other ATW stock gets cleaned at its home depot, the loco hauled
stock seems to only get cleaned at Holyhead, and although they do a
good and regular job - merely applying bleach to toilets and cleaning
tables isn't enough if they get no attention inside at their home depot
of Crewe LNWR.
For the first time, toilets have been begun to be locked out of use
upon failure. Currently 5632 has one locked out toilet, which only
needs a screw to be screwed back in to place in the flush mechanism!
The heaters in one half of 5632 appear to have failed as it is freezing
in one end only. 5737 at the front of the other set also has a toilet
locked out of use. 5740 has been running around for several days with
no heat after one of its batteries failed, 9494 was even locked out of
use for several days when its electrical supply failed. The rubber on
coaches with automatic doors is falling off or loose, and
understandable wear and tear on the arms of seats has been caused by
the catering trolleys. Humorously, 9481 has clean windows on one side
and is filthy on the other!
On the DMU front, anything now appears to work Chester - Crewe
shuttles! A green ex Central 158 was seen this week, as well as an
ex-FNW 153 (still in FNW purple but with Arriva branding!) The usual
stock to work these are the orange 153s.
47 757 Capability Brown is seen at
Holyhead waiting to leave with 1K67 on 3 January. - 4 January
A
unique occasion - by Terry Eyres
Whilst going through some old 'trannies' I came across this curiosity
from 1 July 1989. It is an 'awayday' public charter from
Wareham Dorset to Bangor for reasons that escapes me. The image shows
2 4-TC non-powered units being propelled by 33 109
taken from the city walls at
Chester Roodee at about 20:30. ( 19.20 Bangor - Wareham ) I was driving
home through Llandudno Jnc after doing a bit of 'photting' in the
Llandudno area when I thought I glimpsed NSE coaches out of the corner
of my eye, so I got home ( Warrington ) and made some enquiries then my
jaw hit the floor when I realised what I had missed. OK, so we had 33s
on the coast a year or two earlier but a 33 and push-pull set
throughout from the SR beggared belief. Could you imagine a railtour
operator asking to take this train in this fashion to North
Wales, I think I know what the answer would be don't you....
[For another view of this train, see Dave Sallery's pages.
So far as we know, this is only diesel-worked push-pull train ever seen
on the Coast, although with the 67s and ex-Virgin Mk3 DVTs looking for
work, we may see some in the future.] - 4 January
47 789 Lindisfarne entering Bangor
station
with the 12.45 Holyhead-Crewe, 2 January. (Ian Bowland)
Winter
ride to Holyhead - with Rowan
Crawshaw
I took a ride on 1D65 from Bangor to Holyhead and back on 1K67 behind 47
733 Eastern Star on 30 December. 20 309 + 20
311
were on the nuclear
flasks which passed Bangor at 15:55
47 733 has arrived at Holyhead on the 1D65 10:30 from Crewe
Awaiting departure at Holyhead on the 1K67 12:45 back to Crewe.
The Rail Elite
website is recently updated with a new
set of photos from Crewe. - 4 January