THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
Saturday 12 February, and 47 847 Brian Morrison waits
for its passengers at Chester (Charlie Hulme)
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Edition of 18 February 2005
Can
this really
be the end?*
We have it on extremely good authority that the Class 47-hauled
workings for Arriva Trains Wales on Saturday 19 February will be the
last in the current contract, and very possibly for ever. From 21
February a 175 (freed up by a 158 replaced by a 150) will take over. As
a reminder, the trains are
07:41 Chester - Manchester Piccadilly arr 08:35
10:06 Manchester Piccadilly - Holyhead
13:35 Holyhead - Manchester Piccadilly arr 16:15
17:41 Manchester Piccadilly - Chester
Rob York's picture above shows 47 847 at Chester on 12 February,
which started from Chester at 11:05 as the loco had to fetch failed 47
853 (AWS fault apparently) and the coaches from Holyhead, so the
early run from Chester to Manchester and back were taken by a
175. Another 'farce' occurred on 15 February when 47 812
failed and spent three hours stuck at Astley between Manchester and
Newton-le-Willows while working 13:35 Holyhead - Manchester and was
eventually rescued by 47 843 sent from Crewe. Let's hope there's no
repetition of this on the last day: hopefully 47 847 will work as it is
certainly the most reliable of the fleet.
Our next update will certainly be a Class 47 extravaganza! - 18
February
* as Mr Dylan might have
said.
Thomas at Llangollen -
report by Charlie Hulme
Again we find ourselves at Llangollen during the 'Thomas and
Friends' season which always seems to coincide with the quilting show
at the Eisteddfod arena. The picture above (not the extremely high waer
level in the river Dee) features three of the Participants: Thomas
himself, 'Duck' the pannier tank, and lrking behind the wagon in the
siding Toby the tram engine. Here's a quick 'steamy
video clip'
of Duck for the younger and older readers.
At the other end of Duck's train, the some 'modern image' in the
impressive shape of 'D199' ('D199 is a blue diesel with a bright
yellow face. He believes that all important jobs should be left to
diesels, and steam engines are only good for parts.') 46 010
fills the role impeccably, and as usual with the big diesels at
ths event, his painted-on face is amenable to a little digital surgery.
What he thinks of steam locos we cannot say. - 18 February
The Scotrail 150s in
pictures, and other DMU notes
Further to our recent item concerning the influx of Class 150 units to
Arriva Trains Wales ( we have updated our Class 150 page to
include details of these) here are some pictures of the beasts in
question. 150 262 is seen above at Chester on 12 February
awaiting its next turn of duty on the Shrewsbury line.
Some are still in Scotrail service, such as 150 258
photographed at Edinburgh Waverley on 9 February by Dave Bramley.
Older readers might form the impression from the red cantrail stripe in
this livery that every coach has buffet facilities...
Readers will also be aware that there's been a lot of shuffling around
of Class 158 sets in the last few months. Here's our attempt at a
round-up of the situation. 158 849 / 850 / 851, formerly
part of the Cambrian Lines fleet which transferred from Central Trains
to Wales and Borders and then Arriva Trains Wales, are now allocated to
Neville Hill depot in Leeds, still in
unbranded Central Trains green.
There is an hourly York-Blackpool service which uses
Neville Hill based units, three units of which base
themselves at Blackpool overnight. Those services are normally worked
by 158 901-10 in Metro
red/silver livery. Before the 12 December Dec 12th timetable (and
company) change if there was ever a shortage
of units it was extremely common to find the TransPennine 158's
with the first class compartments on this route
(158 737 / 742-744 / 750 / 760-779 / 781 / 798-814, of which
798-814 are three car units), this stemming back to
pre-1 February 2004 when Trans Pennine Express became a separate
company. Also used
occasionally before Dec 12th were other Neville Hill
units; 155s, 156s, and extremely rarely 142s and
144s. As from 12 December 2004 though, the deal to lease
those units for cover ceased, and some of the 150s on their
way from ScotRail to ATW at Cardiff, namely 150 208,
256 and 284, were temporarily working for Northern Rail
in Yorkshire.
When 158 849-851 arrived in Leeds, the three 150s went down
to
Wales, having only been used for a number of weeks. Since12 December
the York-Blackpools have been worked by former
Arriva Trains Northern 156s, and 158901 - 910.
144s and 155s will not be used very often, if at all,
as most of the diagrams involve Blackpool guards at
some point, who do not 'sign' them, although a mid-afternoon working on
5 February was a three car 144, as
it was a Leeds guard throughout its journey.
It would also seem that seem Northern Rail at Neville Hill are
hiring two
ex-Central Trains (still branded) 158s from TransPennine Express: 158
783 and 158 787.
Also related are 158 757 and 158 758, part of the former
Newton Heath First North Western fleet (158 752-759),
of which 757-759 were painted dark blue when a
Blackpool/Rochdale-London Euston service was launched
in 1998, and the others were painted the FNW shade of
purple/navy blue. In February 2004 158 757 and 758 passed to Neville
Hill on the orders of the Strategic Rail Authority,
leaving First North Western short, hence the Class 31 diagram which ran
for a while but has noew ceased. In December, when the 31
diagram finished, 757 / 758 returned from Neville Hill to Newton Heath.
Meanwhile, all the FNW unitshad their logos removed in
preparation for the formation of Northern Rail, 757 / 758 escaping this
and returning to FNW
just before the company ceased existing with the
branding still on the side! 757 - 759 were all fitted
with a first class compartment (although in the 2+2
seating formation rather than the usual first class
2+1) for the afore-mentioned Euston services. In 2004,
158 752 - 759 were re-upholstered (although 757/758 were
done on return from Neville Hill), and 759 had its
first class compartment removed. 757 / 758 still have
their compartment although with standard seating
patterns.
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A regular haunt for the Newton Heath Class 158 fleet is the new service
from Manchester Piccadillyto Liverpool via St Helens Junction: 158
755 is seen above at Manchester Oxford Road on 9 February, with the
new 'green apartment building' forming a curious backdrop to the scene.
- 18 February
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