THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
31 602 arrived at Manchester Piccadilly, 3 February (Charlie
Hulme)
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Edition of 03 February 2004
'Rainy Day in February' Picture Special
All pictures taken on Tuesday 03 February 2004
Despite the poor weather and bad light, it's been a long time since
we've had so many picture contributions on a single day, with all
the interesting and unusual things that have been occurring. Thanks to
everyone who's take the time to take pictures and send them in, let's
hope nobody gets pneumonia ... as the saying goes, Enjoy!
Main event of the day was the first run of the new First North Western
loco-hauled diagram, with a loco at each end to every photographer two
chances... Your compiler was in attendance at Manchester
Piccadilly when the train arrived from St Annes, about 15 minutes late
at 08:32. 31 602 Chimaera was in the lead (heading
picture) with 31 468 Hydra on the rear as the picture
above shows. Note the absence of the old parcels bridge, which was
finally removed on Christmas Day 2003.
Arriving at Stockport; picture by Paul Harrison. Note that only
three of the available four coaches were in use.
At Altrincham ... (Tony Miles)
... and pulling out towards Hale (Tony Miles)
Chris Mills writes: 'As I only live a few hundred yards from
Greenbank Station I braved the weather and low lighting
conditions to photograph whatever may appear on the service ex-St
Annes. A very busy 30 minutes it proved to be! At 09:24 the DRS Caustic
train passed east, ultimately to Sandbach with 33 025 and
33 030 on a handful of tanks.
'Then at 0938, 31 602 + 31 468 turned up on a 'load three' (I was
expecting four), the train duly terminated and a couple of gentlemen I
spoke to said it had been standing room only until Northwich.
'Shortly after the 31s left empty towards Chester (above), and as I was
departing, 67 009 passed west light engine (The first time I have seen
such a class at Greenbank, but as was in the car by then I missed a
photo).'
Meanwhile, out on the Coast, John Wilkinson was also getting
wet: '37 174 turned up at Llandudno Junction about 10:40 on
theEWS driver training turn, I got some good footage of it arriving,
then going through Deganwy, when I got to Llandudnoat 11:00 it
left. I just got a couple of still shots battling against the wind and
rain.' (above)
'I presumed they had sent it early to Llanrwst, so went to North
Llanrwst station to find water up to the platform edge, so definitely
no Class 37, or any other trains come to that'
Back at Llandudno Junction, Peter Roberts was
photographing a Network Rail test train with two more Fragonset Class
31s, 31 601 Bletchley Park Station X in Railtrack
colours ...
... and 31 128 Charybdis in Fragonset's 'post-war LMS'
black.
At Crewe, Ian Bowland was observing a mysterious sequence of
events. 'The 08.40 London-Holyhead rolled in off the Stoke line running
some 44 minutes down due to a major power failure at Stafford. 43
068 was leading 43 097.
'47 776 Respected came into the platform 12 loop with
the morning Manchester-Crewe empty stock working and was shortly
followed by the 09.26 Holyhead-London in the form of 43 098
leading 43 065.
'The train was immediately announced as "not for public use" and
passengers were asked to transfer to platform 1 where 43 092
and 43 097 had been ticking over all morning. A "Not To
Be Moved" sign was attached to the cab of 43 098 (leading) but not to
43 065.
'About 20 minutes later 43 092 + 43 097 left for London via
Stoke-on-Trent.
'The first 5 coaches on the HST were taped off with window stickers
offering an apology for being out of use. All the tables were set
with plates and napkins. Any clues anyone?'
As evening fell, Charlie returned from his daily labours to Manchester
Oxford Road station to be greeted by a first view of the so-called
'livery' adopted by the new Trans Pennine company. Note how the top
half of the big gold letter N (which once stood for Northern Spirit)
can be seen on the unaltered upper panels of 158 804.
175 001 is seen here on a Manchester Airport to Windermere
(front portion) and Barrow (rear portion) train. This too is being
operated by Trans Pennine Express, despite not crossing the Pennines
and calling at various unstaffed halts on the way.
17:18, and here are the 31s again on their retiurn journey from Chester
to Blackpool, complete with obligatory arm-waver and a young
photographer on the platform who ought to learn that train drivers do
not take kindly to camera 'flashers.' 'There's pently of light here for
a decent digital camera anyway, as I hope these pictures show.
Five minutes later, same platform (yet again the passengers had to
retrieved from Platform 1 over the bridge), and the 17:19 Manchester
Piccadilly to Holyhead, with 47 776 Respected.
Finally, a lunchtime tailpiece from Bangor by Alan Crawshaw.
Passengers board 1K67 12:45 Holyhead - Crewe: 47 760 Ribblehead
Viaduct is out of sight at the front. 'Why shouldn't the rear coach
get the limelight for once?' asks Alan.
Thanks to everyone who helped with this special feature,
including of course the people driving and operating the trains and
stations.