THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
Our only picture from 8 March that isn't a Class 67 ... The
Warrington - Dee Marsh trip was yet again hauled by railfreight grey
37676, making a fine site in the sun at Chester on its return. (Dave
Bramley)
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Edition of 08 March 2004
Class
67s to the fore on
8 March
Two interesting non-passenger trains passed through our area on 8
March, and both of them were hauled by EWS Class 67, as will no doubt
be the norm since all but five EWS Class 47s have been take out of
traffic, and there are no more mail trains for the 67s to haul.
67 004 Post Haste arrived with two 'translator vans' to
collect Merseyrail train 507 010 from Birkenhead depot for the
journey to Eastleigh for refurbishing. The outward working, 6P60 Arpley
to Birkenhead, is seen above at Chester (Dave Bramley)
Later, 67 004 pauses at Hawarden Bridge while working the 5X61 12:54
Birkenhead North - Eastleigh. (Dave Sallery)
Later in the day, 67 009 and 67 011 topped-n-tailed a
Derby Railway Technical Centre to Crewe via Holyhead test train using
test car 999508 and some former Gatwick Express vehicles as brake
runners. Alan Crawshaw's pictures show the eastbound train
running through Bangor with 67 009 on the front...
... and 67 011 on the rear.
Later, the train passed through Platform 4 at Chester station. (Dave
Bramley) - 8 March
Holyhead Sunday 8 March
Relaying work is under way in Platform 2 at Holyhead, as our picture
from 7 March shows. This platform will be out of use for approximately
two weeks.
The two 47s stabled as usual on a Sunday: 47 750 and 47 776 Respected.
The latter had a surprise run to Crewe and back, complete with its
four-coach rake, on Saturday 6 March, standing in for Virgin's HST.
43 092 heads the 14:00 to London on Sunday 7 February. - 8
February
New clocks, new track in the platform roads (£750,000
worth,
allegedly) and soon, new toilets. 47 776 Respected
unusually arrives in Platform
3 at Manchester Oxford Road with the 17:19 Manchester Piccadilly -
Holyhead on 3 March. (Charlie Hulme)
The other Class 31
operation
A distant shot by John Murray of 31 454 in the sidings
at
Westbury, taken on the afternoon of 4 March; the train for the Wessex
trains top and tail operation is stabled here between its Fridays-only
duties. - 7 March
'£10m facelift for
rail station'
From the Daily Post 4 March: 'Chester railway station is to
undergo a £10m facelift. Ambitious proposals have been unveiled
to smarten up the building and surrounding area. Consultants have drawn
up two options and the public will now be consulted on which they
prefer. The plans include a revamp of the entrance, new ticketing
facilities, toilets and a glass roof for the main bridge linking
platforms.
'The plan has been backed by the county and city councils as well as
the North West Development Agency and the Railway Heritage Trust. The
public and local organisations have until next month to comment on the
plans. Chris Koral, NWDA area manager for Cheshire said, "This is
a
significant gateway into the NorthWest and it is essential that it
projects a positive image to visitors."'
Tim Clarke, Network Rail regional director, interviewed by another
paper, (or more likely quoted from a press release!) welcomed the
proposals saying: 'Chester station is one of the main gateways to this
vibrant and strategically important city, which is stepped in history
and visited by thousands of tourists from throughout the world. Its
free bus service from the station to the main shopping area that
attracts people from near and far so it is only right that the area
should reflect this importance. Network Rail looks forward to working
with the partners to the scheme to deliver a station the city can be
justly proud of.'
Well, we can't argue with that, let's hope it happens, as the present
state of the station is shabby indeed, despite the refurbishments done
on the main building in Gyles Brandreth's day, and proposals of this
sort have been hanging in the air for a long time. The full
report with diagrams (in PDF format) can be found on the Cheshire County
Council website. If anyone studies this, and makes any comments as
requested, we'd be pleased to also publish their comments here. -
7
March
Arriva on the Cambrian -
by Trevor Roberts
Arriva is making its presece felt on the Cambrian Coast line, if only
in logo form. The following seven units (out of the total 'Cambrian'
fleet of eleven) have been in use in the week ending 6 March. Five of
the units have the new logos attached over the green Central Trains,
but 2 are still running around with Wales and Borders logo. Units with
W and B logos are 158 844 / 50. Arriva logos are on 158
847 / 48 / 49 / 51 / 54 . - 7
March
47 776 Respected departs from Bangor with the
1D65 10:30 Crewe - Holyhead on 4 March (Rowan Crawshaw)
Loco-hauled summer
As we have reported previously, it's an extraordinary fact hat the
whole fleet of Virgin High Speed Trains is to be taken out of service
from 23 May 2004, and replaced on Holyhead - London services until
September by loco-hauled workings, with an electric locomotive -
probably a Class 87 - in charge between London and Crewe and a Virgin
diesel loco between Crewe and Holyhead. The old 47s are, we
believe, to be used rather than the rebuilt 57s.In the railway press it
is stated that it would be too expensive to train the Arriva
Trains Wales drivers who currently take over at Crewe, and Virgin
drivers cannot be spared from the Pendolino training programme to lear
the route. And yet, we hear from other sources that Liverpool-based
Virgin West Coast drivers are in fact engaged on a route-learning
programme.
The times for the summer are now appearing on the National Rail
website, and from this Rowan Crawshaw has kindly
extracted the relevant times for North Wales - London trains, which can
be found on his Rail
Elite website.
Virgin Cross-Country drivers have been 'reviewing' the Rugby to London
section in preparation for Voyager introduction on London - Holyhead
workings from September. - 7 March
HST troubles
The current HST service, which relies on stock allocated to Plymouth
Laira depot, has been having its problems lately. 43 094 came
on to Longsight depot on Monday 1 March with the AWS fault, as we
reported previously. On 2 March.
43 080, the north end power car on the 17:25 London -
Holyhead was throwing oil to some tune, dripping down the body and the
three coaches behind, and, we believe, was sent empty to Longsight
depot (or '9A' as it is still known to many from the steam-age code
system), replaced by either the incoming 14:27 ex-Manchester, or the
set which failed on Monday which had come empty from Longsight.
On 4 March, 43 122 / 153 should have been provided
from Longight depot for the 17:25 ex-Euston. 153 failed with
coolant problems, despite having recently arrived from Laira off
maintenance. Staff were unable to rectify the problems for any evening
service.
A couple of weeks earlier, one of the power cars on the 19:10
Euston Manchester via the West Midlands 'went up in a sheet of flame'
at Wembley, and on 25 Februarya set was seen to be stood in between the
up sidings and the south end of the yard with fitters attending to a
silent 43 080, shown as suffering coolant loss, while revving 43
122 at the other end, presumably to overcome some air pressure
related problem. The set stood in this position for over an hour before
moving on...
The West Coast has a additional HST set at the moment to enable 390s
to be modified without disruption (?) to services. It makes appearances
on any of the Manchester diagrams throught the day, seemingly to no set
pattern. From time to time it even gets borrowed for a Cross-Country
turn which is intended for a Voyager: on Saturday 6 March, for
instance, an HST was noticed working the 14:17 Manchester - Birmingham.
And yet, the 1A39 09:25 Holyhead-London on the same day was reported as
a loco-hauled set, hauled to Crewe, and back again to Holyhead in
the evening by Arriva loco 47 776 Respected and its
set of four ex-Virgin coaches - 7 March
The good old days
Christopher Rowe sends the above collage of pictures from the
1990s to publicise his new site Ginger Fly's Crackers at www.gingerfly.fotopic.net
which includes many more of the same and also 37s on the West Highland.
Well worth a look.
Here's another of Chris's pictures, the classic view of 37 422 Robert
F. Fairlie at Colwyn Bay in the summer of 1997, complete with the
chocolate and cream 5th coach hired from Rivera Trains which was common
at the time, these vehicles being hored for the summer only.
Today 37 422 left the Coast line's regular fleet in 1999, and
worked trains in South Wales and elsewhere for a few months before
being placed in store. Leter, it was decided to overhaul it at Cardiff
Canton depot for further service, and it eventually re-entered traffic
on Cardiff area services in early 2003 re-named Cardiff Canton.
Sadly, it is currently out of traffic again having suffered a severe
problem in January 2004 with the engine having failed crankshaft
'big-end' bearings. It has been moved to Toton depot where it
awaits repair, provided this is not cancelled by EWS's ruthless new
Canadian boss. - 7 March
Atlantic College drops
out
47 749 Atlantic College failed in Rhyl at 09.00 on 3
March and was put in the Permanent Way sidings. The loco was
partially revived (?) at 13:00 and was reversed into platform 2 where
it failed again, thus causing chaos for two hours. It was removed
again to the sidings after EWS fitter attention. A man from LNWR Crewe
depot turned up at 18:00 and claimed to have fixed it, what
happened next? We understand the diagram was covered by a 153: it
seems these single-cars which are spare because of the Conwy Valley
closure are proving useful!
This is not the first time recently that 47 749 has failed: one does
wonder why it was chosen by EWS as one of the 'five to survive' -
indeed it has failed the day before the announcement was made. Latest
news is that is has been withdrawn from service and is expected to be
heaging for the Component Recovery Centre at Wigan. 47 732 Restormel
is rumoured to be planned for re-instatement as a replacement. - 7
March
Consultation anyone?
As you may know, the Government is considering changes to the
complex structure (shown above) by which the railways are currently
managed. If you want to have a say in these changes, you have a week
left to fill in the questionnaire thoughfull ptovided by the Rail
Passengers committe in the form of a Word
document on their website.
Question One reads: 'From what you know about the rail industry and
its current structure, who do you think is in charge?' which causes
your Compiler to fall at the first hurdle .... - 7 March
More Luxury - by Dave
Bramley
The 'Northern Belle' had a trip down the Coast again on 29 February,
working two return trips to Llandudno Junction from Manchester
Victoria. Surprisingly the loco was the same Class 67 that worked the
previous Northern Belle and the Arriva Trains Wales service to Cardiff
the other week, 67 012. - 7 March