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31 January 2011Last issue Archive RSS Link to this issue Contributions and comments are encouraged: see the Contributions Page This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and supporters, and especially the all rail staff of North Wales. Forthcoming events February 2011 Friday 4 February Clwyd Railway Circle David Rapson: Reflections on a Railway Career.A reflection in pictures and anecdotes of a 35 year career on the railway based largely in the North West. Monday 7 February RCTS Port Sunlight: Peter Jackson: STEAM IN THE SNOW Slides of Peter’s visit to China in 2002, showing mainline and industrial steam. Thursday 10 February Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society "Arriva Trains Wales 2011 - The Way Forward" - Ben Davies, ATW Stakeholder Manager. Friday 11 February Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society RED SEA RAILWAY - THE RAILWAYS OF ERITREA a PowerPoint presentation by Jennie Street (author "Red Sea Railway") Monday 21 February RCTS Chester MEMBERS SHOW 30 slides or digital images of your choice. Thursday 24 February Merseyside Railway History Group Allan Lewis: Norfolk & Western March 2011 Friday 4 March Clwyd Railway Circle AGM followed by Photo Competition and Members Night. Members are invited to give a 15 minute presentation of their choice, any format welcomed. Please book your slot no later than 18th February by contacting David Jones (see below for details). Monday 7 March RCTS Port Sunlight John Day will give a digital presentation on 21st Century Steam featuring steam in the UK, USA, China and the Ukraine. 10 March Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society The last months of the Routemasters with Dr John Willis and 'Society tribute to the late Bill Rear' by Bob Barnsdale and Larry Davies Friday 11 March Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society STEAM AROUND CHESTER FROM THE 1960s ONWARDS a colour slide presentation by John Feild Monday 21 March RCTS Chester Paul Chancellor FROM BLUE AND GREY TO BLACK AND GREEN. Paul from Colour-Rail presents slides illustrating the wide variety of liveries that have adorned British steam, diesel and electric locomotives over the past 60 years. Thursday 31 March Merseyside Railway History Group AGM: Members Slides April 2011 Friday 1 April Clwyd Railway Circle Geoff Morris: The Railways of South-West Wales over the last 30 years. A photographic journey looking at the railway scene in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and West Glamorgan, an area often neglected by the railway enthusiast. We visit far-flung outposts of the passenger system (Fishguard Harbour, Milford Haven, Pembroke Dock, Central Wales line) and also meet some unusual diesels (cut-down classes 03 & 08) on the way. Monday 4 April RCTS Port Sunlight BRANCH AGM (Members Only) Followed by Members' Photographs. Friday 8 April Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society TORNADO - A STEAM LOCOMOTIVE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY illustrated presentation by Graham Nicholas (A1 Steam Locomotive Trust) Thursday 14 April Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society "Cardiff Canton Diesel Depot” Steve Morris Monday 18 April RCTS Chester Geoff Morris: ANOTHER AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE. A digital presentation of Geoff’s 2010 visit to Australia featuring main line & preserved steam in Victoria, New South Wales & Queensland plus views of the modern scene and the odd kangaroo! Thursday 28 April Merseyside Railway History Group Richard Kells: Quiz and informal evening See the Calendar page for more details and later dates. |
Chester station, 15 January (Geoff Morris) The end of the Wrexham & ShropshireWhat can we say? At 09:00 on 26 January Wrexham & Shropshire released a statement that due to continuing losses their operations would be closing down completely after the evening train from London to Wrexham two days later on Friday 28 January. The staff had been told the day before, we believe, with the result that the first train from Wrexham on 26 January left Wrexham without passengers, reportedly as some of the crew were too upset to report for work. Remarkable as it may seem that a train company can crash like this at such short notice, this was indeed what happened. Arrangements had been made for other companies to honour tickets, and that was that. Needless to say, we have received many pictures, reports and comments from readers: we'll collate these and present them properly in the next next issue. Rich Billingsley's picture above shows the last train on arrival at Wrexham. The locomotive for the last train was 67 013 Dyfrbont Pontcysyllte (George Jones) The Holy Oakes RailtourOn Saturday 26 March, a Spitfire Railtours charter is running from Taunton to Chester, and is called the 'Holy Oakes'. As well as the main trip (running via Weston-Super-Mare, Bristol, Cam & Dursley, Cheltenham, Droitwich, Tame Bridge and Manchester), a mini tour from Manchester Victoria and Chester to Holyhead and back, is planned to run. The fare structure for the 'mini tour' is as follows: Manchester Victoria - £25 if booked in advance, or £30 on the day. Chester - £20 if booked in advance, or £25 on the day. Traction for the tour is planned to be a pair of West Coast Railway Company Class 37s. Further information from the Spitfire Tours website, Train reaches destination - report by Chris MorrisonFollowing the failure of this train on the last two Saturdays, I'm pleased to report an exemplary performance from the driver of 57 304 Gordon Tracy from Crewe to from Holyhead on the 'Pendolino drag' on Saturday 29 January. He was spot on time all the way, and about 7 mins early into Holyhead. Above, the loco is being attached to Pendolino 390 018 for the return journey. Caught the 13:23 train from Holyhead as far as Rhosneigr to get a photo of the 57 on the return 14:38 to Euston from the popular field by Llyn Maelog lake to the east of the station. I couldn't resist attaching a couple of July 1995 pictures scanned from Fuji Sensia transparencies taken at the same location, of 37 418 East Lancashire Railway (above) ... ... and 37 429 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol on afternoon departures from Holyhead when there was a 37 nearly every hour. Happy days. LCVRS report - by Larry DaviesThe next meeting of the Llandudno & Conwy Valley Railway Society will be at held on Thursday 10 February, 2011 at the Llandudno Junction Sports and Social Club, Victoria Drive at 7.30pm. The principal feature will be an address by Mr Ben Davies, Senior Manager of Arriva Trains Wales on 'Arriva Trains Wales 2011 – the Way Forward' , together with an opportunity for questions and answers. After a break there will be an illustrated show by Larry Davies entitled 'Arriva Land – Then & Now' – sixty years of changes. New members and visitors are always welcome. Sunset ScenesLater, at Abergele (Darren Durrant) Welsh Highland Railway newsOn Saturday 19 February, two inaugural trains will set off at 10:45 - one from Caernarfon and one from Porthmadog Harbour - offering the chance to be one of the lucky few to travel the entire 25 miles of the Welsh Highland Railway for the first time since the 1930s. Return tickets are priced at £100 first class [sold out already we think] and £50 standard class. Passengers will receive a special souvenir ticket and complimentary magazine commemorating their participation in this historic event.From 20 to 27 February (half-term week) a public service will run over the whole route, with two trains each making a return run, crossing at Rhyd Ddu (timetable). On Friday 25 March the Ffestiniog Railway Society’s London Area Group is promoting a whole-line special train called the 'Eryri Venturer' billed as 'the first opportunity to travel 80 miles on Narrow Gauge in one Day.' The train will depart Porthmadog Harbour station about 09:30 to Blaenau Ffestiniog behind a Double Fairlie loco, then return to Porthmadog and traverse the new Cross Town Link over the Cambrian Line, and up the New Welsh Highland line, hauled by the oldest Garratt Locomotive, K1, to Caernarfon, and return to Harbour Station by 18.00. A packed lunch is included, together with Souvenir timetable booklet and some special little extra. The fare is 65.00. Booking forms are available from k.winter@imperial.ac.uk. In the Dark - report by Geoff MorrisHaving just acquired a new camera I have been testing it out. Here are a few of the results - all hand-held at very high ISO ratings (1600 ASA or higher). As it was relatively warm on 13 January, I ventured out to see the Chirk log train. With a film speed of 6400 ASA I took the attached shot of 66 842 passing Chester Locks - it was too dark to read the number but it was reported as this one on the North West Gen group ! On Saturday 15 January I was going out for the day and took a few shots at Chester and Crewe early in the morning - around 06:30 and 07:00 respectively. At Chester, a pair of Voyagers were waiting to form the 07:17 to Euston - 221 115 Bombardier Voyager (in its special livery) provided a nice contrast with the other set. At Crewe 57 311 Parker was 'parked', presumably prior to working the Saturday "drag" to Holyhead. Perhaps more interesting was the AC Locomotive Group's 86 101 Sir William A Stanier FRS behind it in the headshunt between platforms 11 & 12. This loco seems to have been there for a while as I noted it in the same position on January 3rd while returning to Chester after Xmas in South Wales. Prestatyn progress - report by Dave SalleryThe first section of the new footbridge at Prestatyn station (above) was erected over the weekend of 22-23 January. A lift tower is under construction in the station car park; the temporary booking office is on the left of the picture. Rhyl signalling questionAs reported last issue, on Saturday 22 January the Class 57-hauled Pendolino failed at Rhyl, and while it awaited rescue, other westbound trains had to pass it via the central 'Down Main' line which does not have a platform. Contributor John Hobbs wrote to ask why these trains could not have used the 'up' platform line which appears to be signalled for reversible working. We passed this interesting question to local signalling expert Alan Roberts, who has kindly provided the following explanation and accompanying diagram: The first problem with this is that there is now no crossover at the west end of Rhyl station. Westbound trains calling at the Up (eastbound) platform at Rhyl would then have to set back on to the Down towards Prestatyn and then forward on the Down main towards Abergele by-passing Rhyl platforms. [Larger version of the diagram] The trouble with this move is that any following Down trains due in Rhyl would have to be held at Prestatyn and also an Up train would have to wait at Abergele, causing more delays. Before the move from the Up platform to the Down Main can be done the signaller at Rhyl box has to send a '3-3' bell signal to Prestatyn, meaning the Down main line is about to be blocked outside the home signal (RL2,4,8) - this prevents the signaller at Prestatyn from clearing the signal for a next down train. Also, it's impossible to signal a down train to the up platform in Rhyl if a train has already left Abergele on the up and been held on RL89 signal. There is a signal at the Abergele end of Rhyl Up platform (next to the former Rhyl No.2 box) - but that signal (RL101) is in fact fixed at 'red' and is not worked from the signalbox. There were proposals at one time to have the Up platform bi-directional all the way; trains would gain the Down Main again via a new crossover which would have to be installed somewhere in the Marine Lake area. However this has never happened, and the present arrangement caters only for any trains from the Chester direction which are known to be terminating at Rhyl. Freight newsThe stone trains from Penmaenmawr still make appearances: Stéphanie Durrant captured 66 518 emerging from Conwy tubular bridge on 17 January. 27 January and, 66 531 is ready to depart from the quarry with a loaded train (Nick Gurney) The flask train on 17 January featured the first appearance on these trains by a loco - 66 434 - retaining the livery of the now-defunct Fastline company, and now in use by DRS. It is seen above at Rhosneigr, leading 66 424. Picture by Garnedd Jones. The same train at Abergele (Stéphanie Durrant) Llangollen 'Manor' update - by George Jones
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