THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
Second time lucky: 57 301 Scott Tracy + 390
040 Virgin Pathfinder head west though Abergele, Friday 30
July. Picture by Dave Sallery
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Edition of 02 August 2004
Editorial
Sometimes compiling a website can be almost as hard as coupling a Class
57/3 to a Pendolino. In the last few days we have suffered from an
unprecedented total crash of the Totalweb company's FTP server (hacker
attack?), the loss of NTL's email service for a day (ditto?), plus a
self-inflicted fiasco caused by not noticing our server space
filling up which resulted in this mega-page of Pendophotos and
Pendogossip vanishing into the great recycle bin in the sky when I
pressed the 'publish' button and having to be re-done. Anyway, here it
is - thanks to everyone who's contributed and indeed to the people who
took time to chat to our contributors.. - Charlie
Pendolino Perservance
Pays
The second booked trial run of a Class 390 'Pendolino' unit along the
Coast, on Friday 29 July, was more successful than the previous day's
effort (see
last notice board) although the booked times which we published
here turned out to ba rather academic as the train ran 90 or so minutes
late due to waiting for the Pendolino to arrive back at Crewe from
Wembley depot in London where it had been receiving attention
overnight.. Our first picture, by Chris Mills, shows 57 301
Scott Tracy + 390 040 Virgin Pathfinder, the
same stock as the first attempt the day before, departing Crewe,
destination Llandudno Junction.
Rounding the curve on to the Chester line. (Chris Mills) Note
the old Crewe North signalbox on the right, now part of the Railway Age
heritage centre ...
.... and the vantage point for this view by Rob Latham.
Arrival at Chester - picture by Dave Bramley.
John Myers was stationed near Rhyl Marine Lake in delightful
sunshine, and while waiting for the special took some pictures of other
passing trains of interest. Here's 66 602 on 20 loaded JNAs
forming 6K22 Penmaenmawr - Crewe ballast train...
... a decorated 'Valley Lines' Class 150....
.... 47 816 (with DVT 82108) with the delayed 1D87 London -
Holyhead ...
... and finally, 57 301 and train.
The rear of the 'sleek' train passes the loco shed of the the Rhyl
Miniature Railway. (John Myers)
Eryl Crump waited at Llandudno Junction as the VT service train
called, with 47 816 emitting a fair amount of clag as it departed the
station.
Eryl relocated himself to the Queen's Road bridge in time for the
arrival of the special. The tracks into the 1980s-built goods depot are
looking very overgrown now.
Arriving at The Junction ...
... and stopping in the station. (Eryl Crump) Note that 040 is
one of the units which has been augmented to nine coaches.
Incidentally, Virgin's press officer assured Eryl that the scenes at
Crewe on Thursday were of a 'validation process' and not just simply
attaching the loco to the set. Another version, from an informed source
on the platform, is that the reason for both abortive
attempts was not the Dellner Couplers but that the Electric Train
Heating cables would not connect from either of the Pendolinos.
Peter Roberts was on hand at the Junction as the loco was
re-attached to the train, having run round. It seemed to take a long
time for the coupling but we understand that it was instructional
as well.
47 816 returns from Holyhead while the 57 awaits departure (Peter
Roberts.)
Time to head back to Crewe. Some platform gossip: There are two more
trials to complete - one to Bangor and a separate one to Holyhead. They
are concerned about Conwy tunnel and they know that some of the bridges
on the Island will be a problem but, apparently, they are to lower the
track. They also have to complete a trial involving tilt failure.
Flint station is, we hear, to be extended by about 60 feet to
accomodate the Pendolino: Virgin have not been able to stop there
recently, even though it is just as big a town as the places where
trains do call, due to the short platforms.
One of the trials said to be planned on the return trip was for the
emergency brakes to activate on the 390 to study the two driver's
reaction and also toensure there wuld be no problems with the couplers.
It seems that when scheduled runs begin in September, the crew that
take the late train from Crewe to Holyhead will do the run round at
Holyhead and then shut down. The crew will then be taken by taxi
to the nearest Virgin staff base at Liverpool. Early in the the morning
the crew for the early train to London will travel the same way
from Liverpool to Holyhead. The crew will need to include two drivers,
at least initially, as a driver will need to be aboard the 390 to
observe the indications of the Train Management computer
£5,000 a month will allegedly be the bill for this travel; not
necessary up to now as Arriva Trains Wales drivers drive the 47s, but
it is not planned to train ATW drivers on 57s. To correct a previous
statement here, though, some of the Virgin Liverpool-based drivers do
already 'sign' the Coast line, so a 'conductor driver' from ATW is not
essential on these test runs.
The return train at Colwyn Bay (Ian Bowland)
The stops at stations were 'practiced' on this run, allowing Ian to
walk to the front of the train while it was still stopped. Note that
the 57/3 + 9 coaches does just fit the platform here. Departure was at
15:07, compared with the original booked time of 11:53.
The ensemble arrives back at Chester. The 390s are being assembled at
the Washwood Heath factory of Alstom, builders of out good friends the
175s. Picture by Mark Atkinson.
Rolling into the platform ...
... and heading east. (Mark Atkinson). The titlting feature of
the Pendolino, which gave it its Italian name, will always
be locked of use during its ventures west of Crewe.
A nice portrait of things to come by Dave Bramley. The services
worked by Pendomoniums will not be the fastest of the day from
Holyhead, a distinction which will go to the Class 221 Voyager diesels.
According to Modern Railways magazine, 15 minutes will have to
be allowed for the coupling operation at Crewe while the computers
reset themselves.
Another close up of the coupling gear in action. There do seem to be a
lot of moving parts and bits and pieces ... try to imagine this
operation taking place to rescue a failed train in the snow and ice of
Shap summit on a dark snowy winter's night with snow and ice packed
into the retractable coupler of the 390.
It'll be all right on the night, as Denis Norden might say. - 2
August