THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
'Y Draig Goch' at Llandudno Junction, 25 June (Gwyn Williams)
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Last update 29 June 2005
Right, so what happened on Saturday 25 June?
Well, there were one or two surprises, and a significant proportion of
the readership of this site was out there to see them! There was the
Railtour to Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog, which surprised us by
arriving with just one Class 47, thus requiring some run-round moves.
Then, we were expecting all Virgin's trains to be 57-hauled Pendolinos,
but what happened in fact was rather different. First of all, two of
the three turned out to be formed of Mk3 coaches needing an electric
loco south of Crewe, and odder still, a Class 90 electric locomotive
managed to reach Llandudno Junction for probably the first, and
possibly last, time. Read on.
The departure screen at Chester as John Skipsey
starts his
day's train watching.
150 222 on 2F80, 08:25, Chester - Runcorn forms an appetiser for
the day's events. (John Skipsey)
Not something you see every day: 57 313 Tracy Island,
with EWS loco 90 039 attached, prepares to depart from Chester
with 1D00, 05:20 Birmingham - Holyhead. What happened, it
seems, is that the Virgin driver and the Crewe shunter between them
agreed that the electric loco could stay attached to the train, despite
the fact that this has never been the normal practice. We should
bear in mind, perhaps, that Virgin drivers only recently took over the
driving west of Crewe, and that this train is booked for a Voyager
Mondays - Fridays. Even so, rules were broken. Virgin Trains
admit that an 'oversight' took place on Saturday and the
'opportunity has been taken to brief staff at Crewe and to clarify the
situation' regarding locomotive changes. I suppose we've all had
that kind of 'briefing' from time to time ...
57 313 and 82 105 form the improvised 1A24, 10:03
Llandudno Jcn - London Euston, the loco having shunted the errant Class
90 into the siding and run round the train. The grapevine has it that
someone from Network Rail read on a railfans' internet site that
the Class 90 was heading for Holyhead, and ordered its removal at
Llandudno Junction, as there was concern that these locos have never
been checked for clearance under the bridges and tunnels on this line.
However, Virgin sources have suggested to us that there was no real
danger, as a 90 is within the dimensions of a Class 390 for which
infrastructure modifications have already been done.
90 039 sits in the loop on the Conwy Quay line, with Conwy Castle
looking on. (John Skipsey)
The view from Tesco: 90 039 with cabin (John Skipsey)
57 313 and train head back towards London, at a less than sunny Rhyl (Dave
Sallery)
The Red Dragon
Back to Chester, still on 25 June, and 47 854 on 1Z80, 06:50,
Carnforth - Blaenau Ffestiniog via Llandudno calls at Platform 3.
Correspondents have said there is spelling error on the headboard and
that 'Y
Ddraig Goch' is the correct form of Red Dragon (the Welsh flag),
where the double 'd' is pronounced as in the 'th' in English
'the.' Although a Welsh - English dictionary gives the word
'draig' meaning 'dragon' - Welsh is a puzzling language in that the
beginnings of words can vary and d can sometimes 'mutate' to dd ...
various pages on the Web about the Welsh flag use both forms in
headings. Which is right for a train headboard?
Passing Maes Du golf course on the way to Llandudno (Ivor Bufton)
Arrival at Llandudno (Merfyn Jones) Note that the West Coast
Railway Company 47 has been repainted, losing the stripe along the side.
Preparing to run round at Llandudno. It's good to know that the release
crossover is still operable and that not every train has to be
'top-n-tailed,' (Alex Roberts)
On the blocks at Llandudno. Is the guy on the platform praying it
doesn't rain or that the 47 wont fail? (Garry Stroud)
Ready to depart Llandudno for Blaenau Ffestiniog (Alex Roberts)
Deganwy ('Corrie')
The charter crosses over to access the Conwy Valley line at Llandudno
Junction (John
Skipsey)
The train stabled in the loop at Blaenau Ffestiniog, Ffestiniog Railway
tracks in the foreground (Alex Roberts)
Running round at Blaenau Ffestiniog (Alex Roberts)
The return train with 47 854 at Betws-y-coed, the weather
still on the dull side. The Conwy Valley Tramway's line behind. (Dave
Sallery) Note that it is now named 'The Lancastrian' The train
returned to Llandudno to pick up the passengers who had spent the day
there, and ran round again before heading back across the border.
Train 1D22, 08:45 London Euston - Holyhead also produced a 'standby'
rake of Mk 3 stock
57 305 John Tracy (Driving Van Trailer 82136 on the
rear) approaches Llandudno Junction (John
Skipsey)
The same train returned as 14:14 Holyhead - London, seen here
passing Llanfair PG (David Flitcroft)
And again at Mostyn. (John Skipsey) Due to the earlier events,
Virgin had no electric locomotive to take over this train at Crewe, and
were compelled to hire 87 013, which is now operated by GB
Railfreight, which also worked the evening return train back to Crewe.
We are told that these Mk3 trains will appear again for the next two
weekends at least, and that there is a possibility of hired Class 47s
making an appearance to haul them, as there is so much engineering work
planned in the next fortnight that there could be 17 diagrams on
Sundays for 16 Class 57s ... and at least one 57 is away on a
modifications programme. Nothing will be certain until the day
dawns, except that no Class 90s will venture west of Crewe.
The wanderer returns
And what happened to the electric loco? 47 830 was sent light
engine from Carnforth to collect it during the afternoon. Mark
Barber took this picture at Rhyl ...
... then travelled by train to Chester and take this second picture,
because the two locos had been 'looped' at Holywell Junction.
So that's an interesting Saturday. Many thanks to all who sent
pictures, ran the trains and fed us with information. We have tried to
include as many people's pictures as possible, apologies if we have
missed someone Question is, can we catch up with the all the other news
that's waiting before another weekend arrives?