NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY:NOTICE BOARD

Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd

26 November 2019









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Forthcoming events


December 2019

Tuesday 3 December North Wales Railway Circle Christmas Bash - as usual please bring any items of interest with you.

Wednesday 4 December RCTS Liverpool "Liverpool And Its Railways " John Ryan. A look at the varied railways of Liverpool and its surrounding over many decades by former British Rail civil engineer.

Friday 6 December Clwyd Railway Circle ' Member's Selections & Christmas Celebrations' Members are invited to give a 15-minute presentation of their choice (any format). Contact David Jones 01244 537440 to book a slot.



Saturday 7 December. Rhyl & District Model Railway Club Annual Model Railway Exhibition.  10.30am - 4.00pm. Parish Church & Community Hall, High Street, Prestatyn, LL19 9AR. Proceeds split between Rhyl & District MRC Roof fund and Ty Gobaith Hospice
(Conwy). Around 15 layouts in Scales 'N' to 'G', demonstrations, trade stands. Light refreshments.  Adult £3.50, includes 1 child free admission (5-15yrs). Additional child £1.50.

Saturday 7 December Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. At Sale United Reformed Church lounge, Montague Road, Sale M33 3BU Including seasonal refreshments! Owen Russell ‘Memories of the Woodhead Line’ The Woodhead line linked Lancashire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and London. As there were shorter routes to London, express trains often comprised only 5 or 6 coaches. The line was a good place to see a variety of GC and, later, LNER engines, which had to work hard on the notorious gradients. Like many steam routes, Woodhead was a line of contrasts.

Thursday 12 December Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society A railway pictorial of steam Barry Wynne (Special Christmas meeting with quiz)

Friday 13 December Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Steam across South Africa in 1973 Part 1. a digital presentation by John Sloane, who visited the country when many of the older classes of steam locomotive were still in service.

Saturday 14 December Steam at Chester UK Railtours 'The Christmas Chester Chuffer' London - Chester. Steam Bescot - Chester - Crewe.

Monday 16 December RCTS Chester "1960s Southern Branch Lines" David Miller. A 1960s archive of black and white photographs mainly of Southern branches but also from further north, with some interesting diversions. Images never seen before.

Thursday 19 December Steam at Chester Railway Touring Company 'The Chester Christmas Express' Stevenage - Chester. Loco 6233.

January 2020

Tuesday 7 January North Wales Railway Circle NWRC committee member and Coast Railway website contributor Peter Basterfield. Home & Away.

Friday 10 January Clwyd Railway Circle “Railways Around Holywell Part 1' Ray Bailey

Friday 10 January Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Locomotive Sheds of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. a digital presentation by Noel Coates.

Monday 20 January RCTS Chester AGM , then John Cashen will do a whistle stop tour throughout Britain of photographs he took in the 1960s and 1970s (Change of speaker)

Saturday 25 January Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Centre AGM (brief) followed by: Christian Wyatt ‘21st Century signalling Control Centre – The Manchester Rail Operations Centre’ Christian Wyatt, a career railwayman with 38 years’ service, started as a signal box lad at Manchester Victoria and is now Project Operations Interface Manager for the London North Western route. One of his key responsibilities is the development of the Manchester Rail Operations Centre. Christian will describe the MROC from its build in 2012 to its present operational status.

February 2020

Tuesday 4 February North Wales Railway Circle Robin Humphrey-Davies ('Humph'). The route of the Welsh Highland Railway, Part 2, Rhyd Ddu to Porthmadog.
Wednesday 5 February RCTS Liverpool "The Black & White Collection Of Bill Ashcroft " John Sloane. Bill Ashcroft was a well-known name in Lancashire steam railway circles and John Sloane from Wigan will present some of his large collection of monochrome pictures from the steam era.

Friday 7 February Clwyd Railway Circle 'Rheilffordd Talyllyn Railway' David Murphy

Thursday 13 February Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society Llangollen Railway Dave Southern

Friday 14 February Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society People and Places 4. Images of the pre-1968 steam railway including trains and railway staff, enthusiasts or the general public. a digital presentation by Paul Shackcloth.

Monday 17 February RCTS Chester "The Unknown Warrior – The Patriot Rebuild" John Hastings-Thomson. The LMS Patriot project are rebuilding a Patriot, ‘The Unknown Warrior’ and this presentation will describe the huge amount of work and money involved to build a new steam locomotive.

Saturday 22 February Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Tony Wright ‘Aspects of the Origins & Development of Monorails including Behr, Lartigue and the Manchester to Liverpool Lightning Express Railway’ You may remember Tony’s excellent presentation on Mayfield Station. Don’t miss this intriguing meeting.

Tuesday 25 February 18:30 Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Joint meeting with the Newcomen Society, Location to be confirmed. Bob Gwynne, Associate Curator, National Railway Museum ‘Sticking with steam – an examination of why Britain’s railways stuck with steam into the space age’ This talk examines some of the complex history behind moving on from the steam age on Britain’s railways and attempts an answer as to why the UK’s love affair with the steam hasn’t ended.

March 2020
Friday 6 March Clwyd Railway Circle Annual General Meeting - followed by a Film Show

Thursday 12 March Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society plan to have a visit from a representative from Transport for Wales. More details later

Friday 13 March Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Wheels on Reels. Transport Films – taken with a cine camera and shown using a cine projector. Geoff Lomas presents a selection of his Films in the traditional manner.

Tuesday 3 March North Wales Railway Circle Barry Wynne and Steve Morris. Another show from Barry's superb collection.

Monday 16 March RCTS Chester "The Lever Brothers Railways Of Port Sunlight" Mike Lister Telling the story of Levers’ railways. The soap factory was constructed in 1888 and its railways covered 54 track miles and the talk will describe the railway within the soap factory and other factories at Bromborough.

Saturday 21 March Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Melvyn Roberts ‘Indian Summer of the Somerset & Dorset Railway’ The S & D was (and still is) many enthusiasts’ favourite cross-country railway. We will hear about its unusual history, but the main feature will be a slide show of its operations in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

April 2020

Wednesday 1 April RCTS Liverpool "L&Y Engines At Work" Paul Shackcloth. Paul Shackcloth is the photographic historian for the Manchester Locomotive Society who have a large collection. This talk will show Lanky locomotives at work over the whole of the ex-L&Y network, including Liverpool Exchange.

Friday 3 April Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Great Named Trains. (note: first Friday) featuring postcards of named trains and video of the engines which hauled them and survive in preservation. a digital presentation by Society President Nick Dodson

Tuesday 7 April North Wales Railway Circle Richard Sant, Secretary of the LMS Patriot Company. Progress on The Unknown Warrior

Thursday 9 April Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society Trams in Llandudno (Including L & CBER and Great Orme Tramway) John Davies

Saturday 18 April Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Tim Owen ‘The activities of the Furness Railway Trust’ The Furness Railway Trust has a collection of six steam locomotives, including Furness Railway No. 20, plus historic carriages. The illustrated talk will cover the work of the Trust over the past 30 years.

Monday 20 April RCTS Chester "Another Colourail Journey" Paul Chancellor. A ninth Colour-Rail Journey will again trawl this vast collection of images for both views from across the country and through time, so expect both steam and modern traction to appear with may be the odd bit of infrastructure thrown in for good measure.

May 2020
Tuesday 12 May North Wales Railway Circle AGM and Photo Competition.

Thursday 14 May Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society Evening Train Trip to Betws-y-Coed, where we will spend an hour in the Gwydyr. (Times will be confirmed later)



A postcard published by the LNWR from their 'pictorial series'; a packet of six would have set back the collector the princely sum of 2d.  On the rear we read that 'The Royal Mail Route from England to Killarney, Cork, Waterford, the south and west of Ireland is via Dublin and Holyhead.'

Conwy Valley closure



The line between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog, is closed from 21:30 on Friday 22 November until 10:30 on Sunday 15 December;  a bus replacement service will be in operation.

Network Rail say: 'This work is the second phase of a major upgrade delivered this year and includes the installation of 600 rock bolts in the Ffestiniog Tunnel, the replacement of sleepers along the line and vegetation management. Work will also continue to replace the flood damaged platform at Dolgarrog station, which remains closed.

'The line was initially closed in March, following extreme weather that washed out ballast and damaged infrastructure over a six-mile stretch. Work during this phase included the removal of 8,000 tonnes of wash out materials, the installation of additional culverts and over 7,500 tonnes of ‘rock armour’ to improve flood resilience. The line was reopened in time for the National Eisteddfod in August.'


Photo Gallery



The Railhead Treatment train paused at Llandudno Junction on 21 September with 56 090 (above)...



... and 56 113. Pictures by Ryan Lloyd.



Thursday 21 Noverber,  Chester station. Black 5 45231 The Sherwood Forester stands waiting time to depart for Shrewsbury on a Saphos Trains training run (Bob Greenhalgh). While on the subject of Black 5s: in an early version the last issue we 'enhanced' the caption of 'Black 5' 5000 with the fake news that it was the first of the class to enter traffic.  In fact, the first into traffic was No.5020, one of fifty built by Vulcan Foundry, in 1934. 5000 was built at Crewe Works in 1935. Thanks to Peter Hanson for the correction.



On the other end of the train, Class 37 D6851 (37 667,  rebuilt from 37 151), a recent addition to the Locomotive Services company's ever-growing fleet (Bob Greenhalgh).



Martin Evans writes: 'A brief visit to Crewe on 23 November found Black 5 44871 running around at Crewe having brought in a rake of empty coaching stock. The loco was planned tp stable at the Heritage Centre.



... West Coast Railways 47 804 on the rear.



Virgin's Voyager units are now getting the de-branded ghostly look in advance of the end of the franchise; Greg Mape spotted one through the trees near Abergele ...



 ...  forming half of  the 07:55 Holyhead - London on 23 November.  The 'bald' unit is 221  101 101 Squadron, the only Voyager to have received the updated Virgin livery.

By the time you read this, the 'Brand Launch' for the new operator may well have happened and well know what it will be called and what colour the trains will be.


Model Rail Exhibitions



Modellers have a choice of exhibitions  on the weekend of 7-8 December, with the large Manchester event (above) on both days, and the local Rhyl MRC show in Prestatyn on Saturday 7 December 10.30am - 4.00pm. Parish Church & Community Hall, High Street, Prestatyn.


Looking back: The North Wales Coast Express - pictures by Gareth Prestidge



In the 1989-90 period, British Rail ran many steam specials along the Coast, using a variety of locomotives. Above, 45596 Bahamas - returned to traffic in 2019 passes Beeches Farm.



34027 Taw Valley passes Shotton.


Mid-Cheshire Freight - pictures by Greg Mape



A series of views from the morning of 25 November. Above,  loaded stone train from Dowlow Sidings to Wembley Euro Freight Ops Centre with DB loco 66 079, still in full EWS livery,  passing Northenden Junction  ...



... a few minutes later,  a train of empties heading back to Peak Forest Cemex Sidings with Blue DB Class 66 109 passing  Baguley just about to go under Hall Lane bridge.



In-between the pair was a Runcorn to Brindle Heath empty 'Binliner'  passing through Sharston with 66 560 - all within about 30 Minutes ...



... plus a 150 277 on a Chester - Manchester Piccadilly service at Northenden Junction.

The following day, 26 November 6E10, the 11:15 Liverpool Biomass Terminal to Drax failed somewhere on the Northwich line and stayed there for two hours causing considerable disruption.   It's not altogether clear how the line was finally cleared; a 'binliner' train from Runcorn was behind the failure, either it pushed the failed train or it moved under its own power on to the single line  towards Stockport. Evenually, another GBRf loco was dispatched ftom Tuebrook sidings in Liverpool, running via Eccles and Manchester to reach the front of the failed train to haul it away, arriving at Stockport at 19:12. (Thanks to Mike Stone for help with this item.)


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