THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
The final (yes, we know you've heard that before) loco-hauled
Manchester - Holyhead service arrives at Manchester Oxford Road on 24
September, with 47 853 Rail Express powering and
Riviera sister loco 47 839 along for the ride. (Charlie Hulme)
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Edition of 26 September 2004
There's a lot of end-of-era stuff about...
Below we cover the end of loco-hauled trains to Manchester, (very) full
coverage of the the last Halton Curve train and the last Virgin train
will follow on our next service, thanks to our supporters for
some specially interesting submissions which are being compiled as fast
as we can ... Pictures and reports of the first Pendolinos out of
Holyhead on Monday 27 September welcome: Rail
Elite has the timetable, but note that the 01:50 from Holyhead will
not run and sources vary as to the status of the 05:38. The 09:00 from
London and 14:17 return will, although originally booked as Pendos,
will be 221 initially.
This picture by Merfyn Jones shows the banners erected over the
weekend at what's left of Llandudno station, with 175 112 in attendance
standing on some rather wonky track. Once fancy trains looks much like
another to banner makers, no doubt, but Llandudno's daily London train
will be a Voyager unit: there are no plans to run a 57 round its
train here. The 11:21 from Euston (Mon - Sat) will arrive Llandudno at
14:36. It departs back at 15:23, arriving in London at 18:48; these are
really quite good timings for people wishing to spend a few nights in
the Victorian delights of the resort. However, despite the banner's
championing of 'London - Chester - Stafford' the Llandudno
trains do not call at the last-named place, which will require two
changes of train: even the Holyhead - London trains do not seem to call
at Stafford.
Virgin Trains tell us that 'A million Virgin Trains customers will be
e-mailed or mailed a pack, outlining the unique features of Virgin’s
revolutionary new tilting trains and detailing the huge journey time
savings and frequency improvements brought by the new timetable which
starts on 27 September.' Has anyone had one?
Apparently, the Official Launch of the new order on the Coast is with
the departure of the 09.50 Holyhead-Euston Voyager on Monday morning.
It seems that not all the Virgin staff are totally happy about the
shiny new trains, perhaps they are apprehensive about problems
with overcrowding with the 221s. It's also been reported that
Friday's trial run with a 221 from Euston failed to tilt as it was not
activated by the on-track equipment between Euston and Willesden...
These changes to new motive power also mark the end for the duties for
Arriva Trains Wales drivers on Virgin trains west of Chester, replaced
by Virgin drivers who are having to travel from Liverpool to take up
their trains. As the diagram for Virgin train crew crosses
the time boundary between old and new workings 'Resources' were
rumoured to be asking Liverpool drivers for volunteers for the first
day to be taken by taxi to Holyhead to work the 05:38 Pendolino The
grapevine also has it the guard on very first Pendolino out of
Holyhead is going to be doing his very first job in that grade!
All we can say is, we wish all the Virgin train crews the best of
luck and may all your couplers stay coupled. - 26 September
End of the Manchester Club Train (again)
Arriva Trains Wales closed the book for the sevaralth time on the
Monday - Friday North Wales - Manchester loco-hauled 'Club Train'
services on Friday 24 September: the Riviera Class 47-hauled diagram
continues, but transfers to an all-Crewe- Holyhead axis from Monday 27
September. Photographers will lose some very interesting photo
locations, such as Vulcan Bank near Warrington where John Eyres
captured 47 853 Rail Express on the 17:17
Manchester-Holyhead on Thursday 9 September.
Another of John Eyres' works: 47 839 on Frodsham
Viaduct with the 10:00 Manchester-Holyhead on Monday 13 September. John
notes that t he barge on the shot is worth photographing as it was
built in 1937 and is the only one of its kind still in operation in
this area.
It's a wet morning on Wednesday 22 September as Concrete Bob
braves the rain to make this picture of 47 839 arriving at
Manchester Oxford Road with the 06:38 'Club Train' from Bangor. The
next day, Thursday 23 September, your compiler was in position on a
lovely sunny evening to bring you a picture of the 17:17 Manchester -
Holyhead, but it never turned up. After we reported this previously,
and a message was later wrapped round piece of coal and thrown out on
to the platform for us (or something like that - thanks chaps!)
explaining that defective brakes had been found on the locomotive. By
the way, our previous report that the Manchester - Chester via
Northwich was cancelled was erroneous, as our contributor Richard
Boyd travelled on the this train, and tells us it was a specially
memorable journey as a Class 150 was used instead of the usual 'nodding
donkey' 142. The next morning, sunshine again, with the last
services due to run, we played truant and risked the alien
territory of the UMIST multi-storey car park in the hope of seeing the
10:00 Manchester - Holyhead, but without luck.
Not to worry though, as Andy Williams was on hand to see 47 853
passing Valley's amazingly low platform with the return 1H52 Holyhead -
Manchester (taken at 13:46). It had been checked by signals on the
approach to Valley, writes Andy, 'probably because the London was
running a bit late and wasn't far ahead.' Friday turned out to be
a bad day for the North Wales Coast, after 66 519 was delayed
by problems with a wagon
while hauling the Penmaenmawr to Crewe ballast train. It was assisted
to
Chester by 67 004 which was in the area on EWS route learning
duties, then 66 528, which had run light from Crewe replaced
the 67 at the rear of the train, which was reported still at Chester at
15:00 in the middle road awaiting a path to Crewe. The long delay was
reflected back into the westbound service, and trains left Chester for
North Wales between 12:50 and 14:44, and (writes our correspondent) you
can imagine what the 14:44 looked like!
Anyway, things had got more or less back to normal by the evening peak,
and this time Charlie (and just one other photographer) did get to see
the final 17:17 from Manchester, which turned up at Oxford Road about
15 minutes late with 47 853 on the front and 47 839 'dead in train'
causing a problem for the driver as he had to draw way past the signal
and platform end before stopping, to ensure that the fourth coach
fitted into Platform 1 which is much shorter than platforms 2-4. Much
craning of the next required to observe the 'right-away' signals from
the staff on the platform.
Book news
Just published is In Focus: Class 40s to Holyhead, a colour picture
album by our regular contributor Steve Morris. A collection of over 100
colour photographs on 64 pages depicting the service given by the
English Electric Class 40 locomotives on services into Holyhead. the
book is published by North Wales-based Cheona Publications as the first
in a series of books covering British Railways diesels in colour.
See Steve's flyer / order form for
ordering details. - 26 September
Hippos of Oxley
The Class 175s spread their wings further south; on 23 September,
another platform gauging test train (see also our report on the
10 September run to Shrewsbury) formed of 175 112 ran from
Chester to Oxley, north of Wolverhampton, dodging between the three or
four trains per hour south of Wellington. They will commence work over
this route from Monday 27 September, on through North Wales to
Birmingham trains which are to run this way, reversing at Chester and
serving Wrexham, rather than via Crewe.
Fortunately for us, our contributor 'Concrete Bob' was part of
the test train team, and sends these pictures of the operations at
various stations south of Shrewsbury, Above is Wellington (Telford
West), looking very well cared-for.
This is Oakengates (for Telford).
And the 'modern' station at Telford Central with Central Trains railcar
153 375.
Codsall station....
And finally, resting in the carriage sidings at Oxley before the return
run, with a selection of Pendolinos lurking in the background. All
platforms en route were guaged. - 26 September
Points (and crossings)
The platform comments from a passenger about 'excitable' passengers
on loco-hauled Arriva services has raised a few eyebrows and hackles.
Yes, of course, everybody is excitable at times, and there are no
railway bye-laws stopping any railway passengers being excitable
... And indeed, a lot of the time, bashers and spotters are able
to help when passengers ask for information, and with shutting doors
when the guard is at the other end of the train. However, that is what
the man said: he was saying it with a smile to man who was
standing at the platform end with a camera, so let's not be too
offended!
Changing the subject quickly, George Jones writes to tell us
that the Shrewsbury to Chester Rail Users' Association has
finally acquired a website - www.scrua.com. Pay it a visit to find
out more about this line which will be seeing a wider variety of
services soon, and serves some very interesting destinations.
Our earlier comments about the lack of crossovers north of Stockport
station bring this interesting information from Andrew
Macfarlane: 'I understand that the crossover between the up and
down fast lines and the connection from the up fast to the up slow,
both controlled from Stockport No.2 box, are being reinstated during
the Saturday possessions in September and will be commissioned during
the total blockade from 25 December to 1 January.' - 26 September