THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
67 007 on the Northern Belle at Blaenau Ffestiniog on 8
June, the first time this class has worked a train over the Conwy
Valley line. 153 312 is arriving with the 13.32 from Llandudno. (Larry
Goddard)
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Edition of 15 June 2004
The Conwy Belle - by Larry Goddard
The 1Z64 'Northern Belle' ran on 8 June
2004, departing 09.15 Manchester Victoria to Llandudno Junction,
Blaenau Ffestiniog, ECS to Junction and Llanfair PG, 19.02 Holyhead
return to Man Vic. The train left Llandudno Junction on time but
arrived at Blaenau an hour late. It was put in the loop where it is
seen behind 66 212.
67 007 at the other end of the train looks on as F.R. Double-Fairlie
'David Lloyd George' enters Blaenau Central with a train from
Porthmadog. - 15 June
Virgin 47 variety - by
Rowan Crawshaw
47 826 Springburn calls at Bangor with the 1A49 09:20
Holyhead - London on 7 June
47 830 calls at Bangor with the 1D87 08:35 London - Holyhead on
the same day. -15 June
Missing the Sherpa - and
Missing the passengers
Dave Sallery, operator of the excellent Cambrian Rail Cruise
website, writes: 'I had hoped to send some pictures of the open top
bus on the Snowdon Sherpa on 6 May, sadly it was not open top and
anyway didn't stop for us. We later found out that "platform 2"
in Betws is hidden out of the way on the right leaving the
station. Being a simple soul I had assumed that BUS STOP written
on the road on the left of the station meant what it said - apparently
not, silly me. With lamentable operating like that and a pathetic
handful of passengers on the Conwy Valley train to Blaenau (above), its
little wonder that Betws is choked by traffic.'
On a similar topic, we wrote to the Ffestiniog Railway official website
asking why the make no mention of the train services operated by Arriva
Trains Wales anywhere on their site, not even a link to ATW in their
links page. Here's the reply from their webmaster Ian Butters:
'The reason we don't advertise the "connecting" services on the web is
because they aren't connecting services - the operating companies of
main line services on the Cambrian Coast or the Conwy Valley branch
WILL NOT wait for an FR train if it's running late - because of
timekeeping penalties imposed on them by Network Rail. When we did show
"Connecting" services on
the website it caused so many problems when passengers were unable to
catch their train to the junction if it had left on time and the FR
Train was only 5 or 6 minutes late - sometimes the Conwy Valley train
would be pulling out of Blaenau as the FR service arrived. The FR will,
wherever possible, wait for trains on the branch. It is therefore
simpler not to show a "connecting" service - but we are hoping for a
more integrated service next year, so we will try again then.'
Readers are left to form their own opinions. - 15 June
A couple of oddities
67 030 and 508 140 climbing Storeton bank on 5X61,
12:54, Birkenhead North - Eastleigh, the Merseyrail EMU on the way to
be refurbished. (Dave Skipsey)
A picture taken (with permission) on 7 June by Steve Morris
following brake testing work on an ES wagon between Crewe and Winsford.
Freightliner provide the locomotives: 47 847 Railway
World Magazine was the train loco from Derby to Crewe and pull back
loco from Winsford following the test. 86 622 was the train
loco for the test. - 15 June