THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
1A61 13:45 Holyhead - Crewe passing Mostyn hauled by 47 816,
Sunday 23 May (Tim J. Rogers)
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Edition of 06 June 2004
Class 47s Galore - picture special
OK, the time has come to look at the Class 47s which have taken over
the Virgin Trains workings along the North Wales Coast for Summer 2004.
(or until sometime in the Summer when Class 57s take over, depending on
which source you believe.) Very special thanks are due to all our
contributors, and to our friends at Railhead, Rail
Elite, Sulzerpower,
and The Junction
for reference data and background information. We'd especially
recommend you to read Deiniol Williams' views on all the current
changes, to be found in the Railhead
News Archive.
The Virgin trains trains are provided to connect Holyhead, the North
Wales towns, and Chester with London, although the current plethora of
engineering works south of Crewe mean that they don't always get that
far. In particular, work between London Euston and and Lichfield Trent
Valley continuously 29 May to 06 June has seen Holyhead trains working
only between Holyhead and Crewe, diesel-hauled throughout. In normal
circumstances, however, locomotive changes will take place at Crewe
with electric traction south of that point.
The workings are shown in compact form in our updated loco-hauled timetable.
The new timetable began on Sunday 23 May, but in order to have the
'new' trains in place at Holyhead, the first one actually ran on
Saturday afternoon. Ian Bowland was on hand to witness the
arrival at Crewe of the 16:55 London-Holyhead with 90 013 The
Law Society in charge. This picture shows it being detached from
the front of the train in platform 11...
... and here we see the diesel loco, 47 816, about to be attached for
the run to Holyhead. The colour of this loco is First Great Western
green minus decorations, as it was once part of the FGW fleet.
The same train photographed by Peter Roberts from the classic
position at Llandudno Junction: the Virgin Trains are longer than the
Arriva ones were, so you'll have to run just that bot faster if you
want to get off the train and take this view.
The next day, Sunday 23 May, the same train worked back as 1A61, 13:45
Holyhead to Euston, pictured here at the closed station of Bagillt by John
Eyres. This diagram returns to Holyhead on Sundays as the 16:10
from London. The other trains on 23 May were entrusted to hired
EWS loco 47 750, no stranger to North Wales Coast passenger work
as it ran many turns for Arriva before the end of their loco workings
on 31 March.
The next day, Monday 24 May, the 08:35 London - Holyhead headed west
from Crewe with 47 830 'dead in tow' behind 47 816. It had been
decided to station a 'standby' locomotive at Holyhead in case of any
problems, and 830 was on its way to take up this duty.
Fast forward to Thursday 27 May, by which time appearances on the Coast
had been made by Virgin liveried 47 828 Severn Valley
Railway, and heritage-liveried 47 826 Springburn,
the latter pictured by Peter Roberts at Llandudno Junction with
the late-running 1D87 08:35 London - Holyhead.
The next day, Friday 28 May, and 47 826 continued with 1A23 05:27
Holyhead - London, pictured calling at Rhyl by John Myers.
This first week can hardly be said to be a triumph for the successors
of the HSTs, with a considerable amount of late running reported,
despite some temporary re-timings of the trains, notably the (not
particularly well publicised) advancement of the departure time of 1D88
London - Holyhead to 17:11 from Euston instead of 17:25. On Friday 28
May things rather came to a head when the booked electric loco was
declared a failure before departure from London Euston
station. BR blue 47 840 North Star was 'dead in tow' in
the train as a plan to get it out of London before the engineering
blockade commenced. 87 032 Richard Fearn was put on the
train in place of the original 87, and headed north with the dead
47 and the train, only to face further delays due to two
of those tragic 'fatalities on the line' which seem to be increasingly
common. Unfortunately, at Colwich, 87 032 was also declared a
failure and Stafford stand-by loco 47 830 was despatched
to rescue the train.On arrival at Crewe at approximately 23:20, all
three locos were removed and replaced by 47 826 Springburn
for the run to Holyhead. The train lost more time along the
Coast, and eventual arrival in Holyhead was at the ungodly hour
of 01:53, some 3 hours and 56 minutes late! The train behind,
the 19:05 London -
Holyhead was 'only' three hours late reaching Holyhead. (Thanks
for the detail of this story to Richard Boyd, who was
unfortunate enough to be a passenger on the train.)
Monday 31 May, and Crewe - Holyhead service was in force as our
contributor Ian Bowland took a ride from Crewe to Holyhead and back to
sample the 47 haulage. Red and green "foliage" and red and green trains
as 47 816 approaches Conwy tubular bridge with the 10:49
Crewe-Holyhead curtailed Virgin service.
47 810 Porterbrook was outside Holyhead station on
standby with its engine running (No flat batteries here, writes Ian).
New "murials" grace the platform at Holyhead - what class of loco is
this? (Ian Bowland)
Tuesday 1 June, and John Myers writes: 'I was interested to
see that EWS provided the traction on two consecutive workings this day
after 47 810 Porterbrook powered 1A23, 05:27
Holyhead - Crewe (above). It was said that these last two EWS machines
were to go 'off-lease' on 31 May but I understand that delays are being
experienced whilst Freightliner identify which ones they can spare as
replacements for use by Virgin Trains.
'It was after my having noted EWS-liveried 47 787 Windsor
Castle, heading 31 May's1D89 - the 21:27 Crewe - Holyhead -
that I decided to see on which working it would return. In the
end, it worked 1A77, 13:23 ex-
Holyhead with 47 750 having been entrusted with 1A49, the
09:20 service from Holyhead.'
Sunshine re-appears on 2 May for Alan Crawshaw to take this
portrait of 47 826 on 1D87 10:49 Crewe - Holyhead.
Thursday 3 June, and here is 47 787 Windsor Castle at Shotton. (Darryl
Thomas.)
47 750 is reported to have suffered a failure during the day,
but was running OK as it called at Bangor with the 1A49 09:20 Holyhead
- Crewe.
47 787 Windsor Castle calls at Bangor with the 1D87
10:49 Crewe - Holyhead on 3 June (Rowan Crawshaw)
Saturday 5 June, and the debut in this session by 47 851 Traction
Magazine, which features the original 1960s two-tone livery of the
Class 47s, passing through Sandycroft with the 1A49 09.20 Holyhead -
Euston.
The whole Virgin Class 47 fleet ('pool code ATLO') currently
comprises 47 810, 47 816, 47 826, 47 828, 47 830, 47 840, 47 841 and 47
851, plus the two EWS machines 750 and 787. Allocated to Willesden
depot in London, these locos are used alongside the Class 57s on
various 'Thunderbird' duties as well as these North Wales turns. Oddly,
47 841 Spirit of Chester with its local name has
apparently yet to make an appearance.
The coaches used appear to be all Mk 3 types rather than the Mk 2
coaches which have sometimes appeared in the past. Keep reading this
site for any further developments - the next 'Notice Board' will return
to our usual format of miscellaneous news items. - 6 June