THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
Autumn's here! See RHTT story below.
This site is dedicated to
all
our regular
contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Last update 04 October 2005
RHTT Time
In our heading picture by P. Jones, 20 308 and 20 310
seen on the railhead treatment train at Rhyl on 4 October, the photo
taken at 08:20 when the train was running 200+ minutes late. See our traffic
guide page for the timings of this autumnal service.
EWS have the contract for the south Manchester RHTT, but it looks
like Class 37s are off the Autumn menu this year: the train is seen
lurking at Stockport on the evening of 7 October with 66 034 leading
and another 'shed' on the rear. 6000 horsepower to crack a
nut... - 7 October
Thomas Brassey - report by John Murray
My son Stephen and I went to the Thomas Brassey talk at Chester Town
Hall on 6 October (see below) and it was very well presented by Mike
Chrimes of the Institute of Civil Engineers (www.ice.org.uk). The talk
explained the work of Brassey as a contractor and his relationship with
the Stephensons as engineers. Thomas Brassey was responsible for
building about 1/3 of the UK rail network and 1/20 of the world
network, with extensive networks in France, Canada, India and
Australia. It was quite an eye opener for me. I did not
realise the extent of Brassey's contribution to the UK
rail network, indeed he was very much an unsung hero!
Further events are planned by Chester Civic Trust to
celebrate the bi-centenary of Thomas Brassey's birth. On Sunday 6
November there is a coach trip to Llangollen Railway and other
landmarks built by Brassey. On Wednesday 30 November 2005, Doug Haynes,
former Lord Mayor of Chester, will give a talk entitle "Thomas Brassey,
Contractor" about the local man who became the greatest of all railway
contractors. Brassey's awe-inspiring achievements
(employing some 75,000 men in the 1840s) deserve to be better
known. This talk will take place in the Grosvenor Museum Lecture
Theatre. Non-members are asked to make a contribution of £3.
Further details may be obtained from Chester Civic Trust, Bishop
Lloyd's Palace, 51-53 Watergate Row, Chester, CH1 2LE, telephone 01244
318415 or Email admin@chestercivictrust.org.uk. - 7 October
Track Machine 73264 was pictured in the yard at Bangor on 1
October by Eifion Hughes. This is a Plasser & Theurer
type 07-16 Universal Tamper / Liner, owmed by contractors Carillion
Rail. The function of these machines, which can move under their own
power using an on-board diesel engine, is to pack the ballast stones
round the sleepers to ensure that the track is properly supported, and
also adjust the enlgnment of the track as required. - 7
October
Newtown to York
Heartland Rail are offering am excursion from Newtown and intermediate
stations to Chester to York by High Speed Train on 3 December 2005.
Joining Stations: (depart/return): Newtown 0800 / 2230;
Welshpool 0820 / 2155; Shrewsbury 0850 / 2120; Gobowen 0920
/ 2030; Wrexham. 0945 / 2015; Chester 1000 2000. Destination
Stations (Arrive / Depart): Skipton 1225 / 1740; Leeds 1305 /
1700; York 1330 / 16;30.
'These timings are the best estimated guide, all trains run under the
constraints of the national network, we will issue accurate timings as
supplied by Network Rail at the time of issuing tickets.
Fares(all points): Standard Class
£42.00 Standard Class 'Juniors' - under 15s £23.50 'Super'
Standard £47.00 *First Class £62.00 First Class 'Juniors' -
under 15s £42.00 Premier Class (Breakfast and Diner at your seat)
£139.00 * Private 'table for two' seats available for a
supplement of £15 per person.'
Heartland Rail
(0845 607 6395) is the charter train operating arm of Costwold Rail,
who are now the proud owners of two InterCity 125 sets; we believe
these are ex-Virgin Trains sets which latterly operated on Midland
Mainline's 'Rio' Manchester - Lond St Pancras trains. The word is that
one of the trains may see a repaint into BR 'Intercity' livery. These
seem to be excellent trains for charter work, having a low axle-load
and being able to reverse direction easily when necessary, although
their passenger capacity is less than a long train of Mk1 vehicles. It
will be interesting to see how this venture works out: there are plenty
of other HSTs lying around out of use at present. - 7 October
‘Have your Say’ - Chester Station Developments Consultation Event
[Sorry about all the press releases here lately ... but here's
another one:]
Chester City Council, Cheshire County Council, and Arriva Trains Wales
would like to invite you to attend a consultation event to discuss and
comment on the future development of Chester Railway Station. The event
will be at The Mill Hotel, Chester on Thursday 13 October and will run
from 12 noon until 8.00pm.This is an opportunity to find out about the
developments and improvements proposed by the three members of the Railway
Station Gateway Partnership.
Arriva Trains Wales will be displaying their plans for the station
concourse redesign and investment in station facilities, Cheshire
County Council will present their station square design options and
Chester City Council will be displaying the proposed development
prospectus for the area.The developments will be presented on display
boards and you will be given the opportunity to view plans and a draft
development prospectus.
Staff from the three organisations will be on hand to discuss the
developments and answer questions throughout the day. There will
subsequently be a further opportunities to view the proposals at the
station as part of a two week consultation process. - 6
October
Freight trial to
Anglesey Aluminium, 6 October - all pictures by 'Corrie'
The rumoured freight trial train did indeed make an appearance on 6
October, with 67 027 Rising Star in charge of a train
of bogie ferry vans, which ran first to Holyhead station to run round.
Our reporter 'Corrie' was there with his camera in very bad
lighting conditions.
Portrait of the Class 67.
Close-up of one the wagons used, 83 80 474 1 020-7. These vehicles are
registered with the Greman Railways and built in the late 1980s to a
size suitable for working between Britain and the Continent. They
originally operated for the Norsk Hydro chemical company, as can be
seen from the logo still remaining on this vehicle.Paul Bartlett's
excellent wagon website has a page about them.
Following the departure of the16.40 passenger service from Holyhead to
Crewe the train set off for the Aluminium Sidings.
The train came to a stand just short of the Stanley Embankment before
setting back into the siding. Aluminium billet was a common traffic on
the Speedlink freight trips which used to serve the area back in the
1980s, the vehicles used at that time being the earlier design of
'cargowaggon' with a clerestory-like roof.
The aluminium plant has quite extensive sidings, but they have seen
little or no use since the petroleum coke traffic ceased about four
years ago; the covered wagons built specially for this traffic are
still stored in the sidings, and can be glimpsed in the distance in
this view.
The train was split, and five wagons shunted into the siding alongside
the buildings for loading by fork-lift.
With the ATW service clear of Valley, 67027 was permitted to travel to
Valley where it is pictured awaiting its onward passage across
Anglesey. - 6 October.
More Pendolino-coupling problems as 57 303 Alan Tracy
finds itself running round its train at Chester on 26 September (John
Murray)
Thomas Brassey: The Greatest Cestrian? Press release from Chester
City Council
Thomas Brassey was the wealthiest commoner of
Victorian Britain, his wealth coming from building railways all over
the world. This year we are celebrating the bicentenary of this son of
Chester’s birth on 7 November 1805. To mark the occasion the
Institution of Civil Engineers and Chester City Council will present a
special lecture entitled 'Thomas Brassey – The Greatest Cestrian?' The
lecture will be in the Assembly Rooms of the Town Hall, Chester on
Thursday 6 October at 6.00 pm. Entry is free of charge, with light
refreshments provided after the lecture.
'Chester has had many famous sons - John Douglas, Randolph
Caldecott, Charles Kingsley, Sir Adrian Boult to name just a few - but
Thomas Brassey is probably the least known. In his day he built
one-third of all the miles of railway in this country and one-twentieth
of all the miles in the rest of the world. At his peak he employed over
70,000 people and worked with the great engineers of the day – Robert
Stephenson, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Joseph Locke. He also built
docks and warehouses, harbours and ports, sewerage systems, drainage
schemes, housing estates, mines and much more,’ says Mike Chrimes, Head
Librarian at the Institution of Civil Engineers who will be presenting
the lecture.
‘This lecture will describe some of Brassey’s great triumphs and
disasters and highlight his contribution to the infrastructure of North
West England and North Wales. We will try to put his wealth in context,
and describe in detail his early career, including hitherto unpublished
information on his early work in Cheshire and Liverpool. Brassey
learned that the key to high productivity and profits was high pay for
a skilled workforce. His unostentatious lifestyle makes his success
easy to overlook, but his legacy and wealth make him impossible to
ignore.’ - 4 October
Station adoption meeting
cancelled
George Jones writes: 'I regret to say that due to clash of dates
with a meeting now arranged by Shropshire County Council to be held in
Oswestry on the same night at which David Lloyd is taking the chair,
the Shrewsbury and Chester Rail Users Association public meeting
at Gobowen on Monday 17 October has been cancelled.This has been a very
difficult decision to make as the speaker Miss Shelley Hall of ATW had
been a long standing booking to speak on the subject of Station
Adoptions.
'However on balance it was felt that the audience would be split and
the numbers at Gobowen would not justify the efforts of the presenter
and expense of hiring a venue - the booking office at Gobowen would not
be available as the builders are in making alterations. A new date and
venue for the speaker has now to be agreed but is unlikely to be this
side of the New Year.' - 3 October
Farewell to a landmark -
report by Alan Roberts
The picture shows 1K39 09:50 Holyhead to Crewe formed by 221
119 Amelia Earhart passing beneath the former Up Home
gantry at Abergele on Saturday 1 October. The gantry was due to be
demolished in the early hours of Sunday 2 October, and lifted
over the main lines by a crane located on a temporary access road
located to the left of the down signals. However, this did not take
place as planned during a line blockage overnight between Rhyl and
Llandudno Junction. - 2 October
Locos to Pwllheli - the
official statement
The comment from Kingfisher
Railtours in our last issue that there 29 October railtour would be
the 'last loco-hauled train to Pwllheli' brought in some considerable
correspondence.
Here's a statement for you from official Network Rail sources:
'Because there were no loco-hauled trains (not even
engineering trains) allowed across Barmouth bridge for many years all
maintenance carried out between Barmouth and Pwllheli had to be done by
use of trolleys and road vehicles. The line was kept usable and safe
for its basic DMU traffic by this means.
'When in early 2004 the structures engineers allowed the operation of
loco-hauled trains to resume (at that time for ballast trains only)
there was a big backlog of track work waiting to be done. During 2004
the engineers were able to make some inroads into this, and we began to
allow the first charter trains to run through to Pwllheli in 2005. Most
of the engineering work that has been carried out thus far has been
between Barmouth and Porthmadog, and there is a still a substantial
amount remaining to be done between Porthmadog and Pwllheli.
'In order to protect the railway between Porthmadog and Pwllheli, the
engineer has decided to restrict this portion of the route to DMUs
only, until such time as the necessary work has been done. There is a
significant amount of work programmed to be done during 2005/6/7 and,
subject to satisfactory progress having been made, we fully expect to
be able to resume through loco-hauled operations to Pwllheli in summer
2007. In the meantime, we've no difficulty in accepting loco-hauled
charters up as far as Porthmadog for summer 2006. The situation is the
consequence of a genuine and serious practical maintenance problem,
which is being worked through as quickly as possible. The coast railway
is an absolute life-line, and the temporary restriction is to make sure
that no damage is caused to the track that could jeopardise the local
services.
'Network Rail is actually happy to have seen the resumption of charters
on the Cambrian, and the fact that (after a lot of careful evaluation)
we were even able to allow the resumption of steam-hauled trains to
Barmouth in summer 2005, does show that we are committed to the route,
and to getting full operations back on the route as and when we can.'
However, we are assured by Riviera Trains that the Pathfinder Tours
Sheffield to Pwllheli and return train which actually went to Blackpool
on Saturday 18 June 2005, due to locomotive problems and the train
missing its path at Shrewsbury, is being re-run for those passengers
with the agreement of EWS and Network Rail on Saturday 20 May 2006.
Thanks to everyone who helped with this item. - 2 October
Shipping news
Corrie writes: 'The vessel in the picture Mike is
pictured in the inner harbour at Holyhead 1 October..I am informed that
it has been loaded with aluminium billet from the nearby aluminium
smelter and that the consignment is destined for Italy. In the
foreground there is still evidence of former quayside railway lines on
the Town Quay - well there has to be some rail relevance to the
picture!'
On a similar topic we have heard rumours that EWS are to run a trial
load of aluminium out of Holyhead by train - can anyone confirm this? -
2 October
North
Wales Coast Railway website created and compiled
by Charlie
Hulme