THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
The nadir of long-distance train travel: Merseyrail-liveried 142
056, on loan from First North Western, complete with its
impossibly-cramped seating, calls at Chester on 4 September as the
06:53 Bangor - Crewe, a two-hour journey. Another loco-hauled
diagram is needed, perhaps?
Picture by Laurence Wheeler.
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Edition of 05 September 2004
Northern
Rail stalled?
We hear that the contract for the Northern Rail franchise, for
which Serco/Nedrail was nominated some time ago as 'preferred bidder'
has still not been signed, even though handover of the First North
Western and Arriva Trains Northern services is meant to be on 14
October. An announcement was expected at the beginning of September,
but nothing has happened, and even insiders seem to be in the dark
about what's going on. - 5 September
The Runcorn flyer
150 222 waits to depart Chester on 4 September with the Summer
Saturdays-only 08:25 to Runcorn 'Mainline' (via the Halton curve), the
only service over the Frodsham Junction - Halton Junction connection.
(Picture by Laurence Wheeler) Only three more weeks to go for this
service which is to be withdrawn by the Strategic Rail Authority
despite protests from rail user groups and local authorities. A a
recent letter to the railway press from a Mr Steer of the SRA informs
readers that the main Crewe - Liverpool line through Runcorn is
scheduled for relaying new signalling, and to include the renewal of
the single junction point at Halton Junction and its associated
signalling would cost an extra three million pounds (Did we read that
right?) The SRA view appears to be that if the line is required
in future, for example to provide a through train for North Wales to
Liverpool Airport, it can always be reinstated. Of course this
will lose a useful strategic diversionary route, and by the time anyone
gets round to wanting it again it will be lost among trees and
illegally-dumped spoil and rubbish, but who are we to argue with the
great SRA? - 5 September
Gardener's World - by
Dave Sallery
Two views of the attractive garden which has been created on the old
down slow platform at Prestatyn.
We believe the team is led by Amanda Wiggins. It's a
shame, though, that
Network Rail can't clear the litter at track level. - 5 September
Freight in the eighties
- by 'Concrete Bob'
Let's look again at Dave Sallery's mystery picture from the
last issue, taken in 1988. As Dave suggested, it's in the Tunnel (later
Castle) Cement sidings at Penyfford; there was a convenient log to
stand on near the points.
Compare this view: 40 168 is 'inside' at Penyffordd Tunnel
cement sidings with the Dee Marsh Junction freight trip in November
1984.
A couple of other freight locations from the same era for your
entertainment. 40 192 is on the Chirk Cadbury's private siding,
placing a wagon on the Kronospan extension, which was the only rail
access to the Kronospan chipboard factory prior to commissioning the
timber reception sidings farther north; I believe that this was the
penultimate use of the Cadbury's siding, which was removed earlier this
year.
40 192 is then seen at Weston Rhyn, where the train was run round and
returned to the Down line for the trip back to Wrexham. Several runner
wagons had to be used for this Kronospan job, as the loco was not
allowed to
proceed beyond the unloading bay because of between-rails wagon-moving
gear that would have fouled some rather delicate parts of its anatomy. -
5 September
Ferry Tales
Lots of interest in our recent items regarding the various ships
serving
North Wales. John Lewis writes: 'I can answer Darryl Thomas's
question - 'Whatever happened to the St Columba?' quite easily.
The ship was built for the Holyhead service in 1977 and worked the
route until 1996, having been renamed Stena Hibernia after
Sealink was sold to Stena Line (picture above) and then Stena
Adventurer.' (picture below.)
'In 1997 the ship was sold Hellas Ferries of Greece and is now
called Express Aphrodite. She is currently employed on the
Rafina - Andros - Tinos - Mykonos route as far as I know at the moment
(this changed earlier this year from Piraeus - Siros - Tinos -
Mykonos). I have a lot of affection for the old St. Columba,
she was
the ship I "grew up with", and was rather upset when she left Holyhead
in 1996 after 19 years on the route! It seems like there is also quite
a following for the "Old Girl", check out the St
Columba website by a correspondent of mine, Justin
Merrigan, which has a comprehensive history of the ship and many
pictures. For a full listing of the ship's movements (in Swedish!), and
recent photos, see the Fakta om
Fartyg website.'
We also have some interesting notes from Phil Atack concerning
the two ships which worked the short-lived Mostyn - Dublin service
which closed on 4 April 2004.
The European Ambassador (built in 2000) is now the “Stena
Nordica” and operates on
Stena’s route from Karlskrona (SE Sweden) across the Baltic Sea to the
northern Polish Port of Gdynia (near Gdansk). The Danish Ferry Site
has details. The European Envoy now operates as the Envoy
for the Norwegian
Ferry company Kystlink,
on their route from Langesund (south-east Norway)
across the Skagerrak to Hirtshals (northern Denmark). This ship
as had a varied career, having been built as the Ibex for P
& O, it worked for North Sea Ferries from 1980 to 1995, first as
the Norsea until this name was transferred to a new passenger
ferry in 1986 and then as the Norsky before reverting to Ibex
for a couple of years, becoming European Envoy in 1997.
Now here's another question for the maritime experts: what's the
destination of the stone that goes by sea out of Llandulas? -
5 September
Shunting problem
As we have reported, 47 853 Rail Express failed at
Bangor on 28 August and was 'dumped' with its train in the siding by
the disused platform at Bangor. We are informed that this not as big a
failure as some havs suggested, a certainly not a major generator
failure. A cable from the main generator was arcing and caused a very
minor fire (just smoke really, say Riviera Trains.) The crew were able
to stop safely at Bangor and the damage was minor enough to allow
shunting into the siding. The loco has been under repair, and it is
hoped to put it back on the last service to Holyhead on Sunday 5
September ready for action on Monday's Bangor - Manchester.
Chris Milner was at Bangor to observe the action when 67 014
arrived to recover the locomotive and train and return them to Crewe.
It was required that the failed loco should travel east behind the 67
rather than on the rear, so the crew set about arranging this. 67 014
first removed 47 853 from the stock and positioned it on the adjacent
siding.
The 67 then attached itself to the four coaches ...
... and drew them
towards
the west tunnel before propelling them back on to the 47.
It then
pushed the
47 further down the siding to clear the points at the west end.
The 67 then ran back through the old platform road ...
... and the expanding
buddleia plantation at the east end. to the headshunt, and then back to
attach to the front of the 47. So complex was all this, the EWS
driver
and
shunter (and possibly our reporter too) needed to take a Personal
Needs Break.
Next, 67 014 propelled the ensemble into the tunnel ...
... and set off for Crewe
via the centre road. The whole procedure took around 90 minutes.
Readers may be tempted to work out a solution in fewer moves - at a
first uninformed glance it is not clear why it was necessary to move
the coaches to the other siding - but please don't send your answers to
us as we don't have the time to check them all! - 5 September