THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
175 114 and 47 815 at Chester, 20 March (Darryl
Thomas)
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Edition of 25 March 2005
More loco-hauled?
www.sulzerpower.com
has the following: "Next Saturday [26 March] the following
reliefs are class 47 hauled:
09:30 Holyhead-Man Picc, 17:22 Crewe-Man Picc, 18:03 Man Picc-Holyhead,
21:05 Holyhead-Crewe (calling at Chester only)." Any confirmation of
this would be welcome.
An other feature of the Easter weekend will be a blockage of the Crewe
- Shrewsbury line at Whitchurch.
"Due to engineering work being undertaken by Network Rail to renew a
railway bridge at Whitchurch (Shropshire) damaged in a road traffic
accident, there will be changes to Arriva Trains Wales services between
Crewe and Shrewsbury on 26, 27 and 28 March 2005. On these dates,
services in both directions between Cardiff and
Manchester will be diverted via an alternative route with longer
journey times. A replacement bus service will also serve
intermediate
stations between Crewe and Shrewsbury. " states the Arriva Trains Wales website.
For the most part the 'alternative route' is via Wrexham and
Chester and extra trains may be expected throughout the day. It will be
interesting to see how the single line section north of Wrexham copes
with this extra traffic.Timetables (of a sort) are on the National
Rail site - 25 March
Rugby fans return
Sunday 20 March saw the return working of the rugby fans'
special from Cardiff to Holyhead, with many railway fans also
taking the chance to ride.
In this Sunday view by Shaun C, a First Great Western HST
departs Cadriff Central, with in the distance 47 847 Railway
World Magazine stabled at Canton.
Two views taken by 'Bushcutter' at Haston, south of Shrewbury.
From the front....
... and from the rear.
Arrival at Shrewsbury. (Rowan Crawshaw) The train was reported
as well-filled, despite little publicity.
The train ran non-stop from Shrewsbury to Chester and along the Coast,
but at Rhyl things went a little pear-shaped, as 47 847 was declared a
failure. (Picture by John Myers)
Passengers got chance to stretch their legs ...
... while it was decided to detach 47 815 from the rear of the train
and run it round to the front. (John Myers)
Pictures by John Myers
Picture by Shaun C.
Pictures by John Myers
And away! (John Myers)
At Holyhead, 47 815 runs round leaving 947 on the rear (Rowan
Crawshaw)
Ready for departure on a non-stop run to Chester. (Rowan Crawshaw)
Night-time arrival at Chester (Darryl Thomas)
47 847 on the rear. (Darryl Thomas)
Alan Crawshaw has an excellent picture report on
the day on his website.
There was a third 47 on passenger duty on North Wales that day: 47
449 Orion on the Llangollen Railway. (Darryl Thomas)
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