24 June 2013
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Contributions and comments are encouraged: see the Contributions Page
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and supporters,
and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Forthcoming events
This list may be out of date if you are reading an archived page. For
the current list visit our Calendar.
July 2013
Saturday 6 July. The Welsh
N-Gauge Model Railway Show, organised by the N-Gauge Society
North Wales Area Group.An exclusively N-Gauge Exhibition with layouts
from the Group and visiting layouts in British and American outline. St
Mary's Church hall, Rosehill Steet, Conwy LL32 8LD,10.00am to 4.00pm,
adults £3.00 Children £1.50 Refreshments available.
Hall fully disabled accessible - car parking, bus stops and rail
station adjacent.Further information: 01492 572633.
Saturday 6 July Excursion Statesman Rail
'Welsh Mountain Statesman' Saturday 25 May 2013 Sheffield, and stations
to Wolverhampton to Aberystwyth for the Vale of
Rheidol Railway. (Fully booked.)
Saturday 6 July Hooton to Helsby 150:
special
train
and other events.
Saturday / Sunday 6-7 July Llangollen
Railway Classic Transport Weekend
Saturday / Sunday 6 July Talyllyn
Railway Garden Railway weekend.
Saturday 13 July Llangollen
Railway Murder Mystery evening
Saturday 20 July Excursion UK Railtours Cardigan Bay Panorama
London to
Aberystwyth. Note: entirely First Class Dining, fare £169.
27-28 July Llangollen
Railway July 1960s weekend
Sunday 28 July Steam on the Coast
Railway Touring Company 'North Wales
Coast
Express' Liverpool - Holyhead - Liverpool. Loco 45305, 46233, 60009 or
70013.
Tuesday 30 July Steam on the Coast Railway Touring Company 'The Welsh
Mountaineer'
Preston-Frodsham-Llandudno Jc -Blaenau Ffestiniog and return. Loco
45305 or 61994.
August 2013
3-4 August Llangollen
Railway Day Out With Thomas
Sunday 4 August Steam on the Coast
Railway Touring Company 'North Wales
Coast Express' Crewe - Holyhead, steam-hauled Manchester Piccadilly -
Altrincham - Chester - Holyhead and return by 45305/70013
8-11 August Llangollen
Railway Day Out With Thomas
Friday/Saturday 9 - 10 August Talyllyn Railway
beer festival
Saturday 17 August Vintage Trains 'The
Welsh
Dragon' Tyseley - Llandudno Junction and return. Loco 5043
Sunday 18 August Steam on the Coast
Railway Touring Company 'North Wales
Coast Express' Liverpool - Holyhead - Liverpool. Loco 45305, 46233,
60009 or 70013.
Tuesday 20 August Steam on the Coast Railway Touring Company 'The Welsh
Mountaineer'
Preston-Frodsham-Llandudno Jc -Blaenau Ffestiniog and return. Loco
45305 or 61994.
Thursday 22 August Talyllyn Railway
Children's 'Duncan' Day
Saturday 24 August Wirral 0
Gauge Group Open Day, Unit 7, The Odyssey Centre,
Corporation Road,
Birkenhead CH41 1HB American model trains running 13:00 to
17:00. Admission £2 - ample free parking. Nearest Station
Birkenhead Park.
Contact 0151 653 0637or j.elliott37[at]sky.com for more
information.
30-31 August and 1 September Llangollen Railway
Steam gala
September
2013
Sunday 1 September Steam on the Coast
Railway Touring Company
'North Wales Coast Express' Crewe - Holyhead, steam-hauled Manchester
Piccadilly - Altrincham - Chester - Holyhead and return by 45305/70013.
Tuesday 3 September Steam on the
Coast Railway Touring Company 'The
Welsh Mountaineer'
Preston-Frodsham-Llandudno Jc -Blaenau Ffestiniog and return. Loco
45305 or 61994.
Sunday 8 September Steam on the Coast
Railway Touring Company
'North Wales Coast Express' Crewe - Holyhead, steam-hauled Manchester
Piccadilly - Altrincham - Chester - Holyhead and return by 45305/70013.
14 September Llangollen
Railway Murder Mystery evening
21 September Llangollen
Railway Diesel Day
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Steam was represented for the weekend of the Llangollen DMU gala by an
older answer to branch
line working, pannier tank 6430 and push-pull 'autocoach' seen above
amid the lush scenery of the Dee valley. Picture by Jack Bowley.
Thanks for all the pictures of the
DMU Gala at Llangollen: we have grouped them by day of operation and
interspersed them throughout this issue. - Charlie
Conwy - Llanrwst 150 - report by Larry Davies
There was a very successful celebration of the 150 years of service
from the Conwy - Llanrwst Railway on Monday 17 June, 2013 North
Llanrwst Station. Above, the big day starts at Llandudno Junction
at 07:30, as the train crew prepare to take the token for the single
line section to North Llanrwst.
The train was eagerly awaited at North Llanrwst.
The ceremony was opened by the Community Rail Officer, Larry Davies who
welcomed
Ben Davies, Arriva Trains Wales Stakeholder Manager (on the right in
the picture above) who talked of his times on the line and the family
connections. Jo Reeve spoke of the enjoyment that she and her colleague
Soroptomists from the Dyffryn Conwy Branch have volunteering as the
station adopters. The children of Ysgol Bro Gwydyr sang local
songs and they really added to the occasion. The children, after
all, are the future of the line. Prior to the arrival of
the 10:08 train from Llandudno, the Mayor, Cllr Garry Lloyd Jones
unveiled a plaque on the station to commemorate this milestone.
The unit officiating on the day was 150
282 (complete with 6G shed plate) the same unit that was on duty
on the 22 July, 2009 when a similar celebration took place at
Dolwyddelan to commemorate the 130 years of the whole line to
Blaenau. Again, special headboards were carried.
The Llandudno & Conwy Valley Railway Society have prepared an
exhibition of history and photos of the line which is on display at St
Crwst Parish Church, Llanrwst for two weeks.
Also, other members of the Society who are the station adopters at
Tal-y-cafn ...
...have added their own contribution at their station. Both
well worth seeing.
End of the day: 150 282 on the last train of the day on 17 June
slows for Glan Conwy station.
Llangollen railcars: the prelude
A late and very popular addition to the roster for the Llangollen
Railway's 'DMU gala' on 22-23 June was single-unit railcar 55032 (unit number 121 032) which,
refurbished for Arriva Trains Wales, worked the Cardiff Bay branch
until recently, as photographed (above) at Cardiff Queen Street in 2010
by Ken Robinson.
Earlier this year it was withdrawn, reportedly because of the
difficulty of
keeping an 50-year-old non-standard vehicle operating, and sold to
Chiltern Railways who are (according to reports) to use it as a source
of spare
parts for their own vehicles, so the weekend was the last chance for a
ride. It was photographed (above) by George
Jones on 17 June shortly after arrival from Tyseley.
Later, around 17:00 the class 26 D5310
was being off loaded in the yard after a visit to Loughborough (George Jones).
The Arriva 'bubble-car', having previously propelled a Class 105
vehicle (currently under restoration) from Pentrefelin yard to
Llangollen station at around 5.30pm. did a photographic charter on the
Friday evening 21 June (6pm start) from Llangollen, seen above at
Berwyn (Peter Dickinson).
Liverpool railcars
A selection of pictures by Martin
Evans of trains under the roof at Liverpool Lime Street on 20
June. Martin notes: 'Although not as attractive as locomotives, the
pictures show the varied stock in use today.' Above, 'Pacer' units 142 036 (right) and 142 055 await their next duty. Unit
055 has the original front-end style with a roller-blind destination
indicator. 036 does not have this, as it is one of a batch
(142 041-049 / 051-058) which were refurbished under the auspices of
the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive and feature electronic
destination displays as well as diabolically cramped low-back seats.
The ventilation grilles on the front also vary: some units have both
types.
TransPennine unit 185 138
waiting to begin its journey via Manchester and Leeds to the east
coast. These German-built diesel trains, augmented by a small group of
170s, are the mainstay of the TransPennine Express (TPE) fleet, soon to
be joined ten new four-car electric trains of Class 350, also built by
Siemens in Germany, which will be used on the Manchester Airport -
Scotland service from December 2013 - by which time installation of
overhead wires on the 'missing link' from Castlefield Junction to
Parkside is planned to be complete. TPE have a web article
with video about their new stock.
East Midlands Trains (EMT) units 158
854 and 158 847 wait
under the graceful curve of the roof for their next journey to
Norwich. Many of these trains are now formed of four coaches, at least
as far as Nottingham. Fast services to Manchester via Warrington
Central are shared between EMT and TPE, with different Advance ticket
offers: only TPE offer a First Class option.
Llangollen Railcars:
Saturday 22 June
With the rain now out of the way for a few minutes, the huge 9-car
consist rounds the bend out of Glyndyfrdwy station with the 09:50 from
Carrog (Jack Bowley).
Jack Bowley writes: 'I
was very happy to see ex-Arriva 121 032 (a.k.a. 55032) come around the
bend whilst the sun was still out. The 'bubble' heads out of
Glyndyfrdwy with the 13:20 Bonwm to Llangollen.' The single unit
'bubblecars' were created for the Western Region of British Railways
for use on branch lines, although some did migrate to other areas.
6430 and autocoach 168 at Llangollen (Roger
Carvell)
Berwyn, with 55032 (Richard Putley).
55032 exchanging tokens at Deeside loop (Roger Carvell).
55032 at Glyndyfrdwy (Roger Carvell).
Above the cab is the box which contained the four-character
roller-blind headcode display; the older Class 122 type does not have
this, making identification easy.
Token exchange at Carrog (Richard
Putley). All the BR 'first-generation' railcars have the engine
exhaust pipes at the end, but on the normal type they are at the
non-driving and and so less conspicuous.
Carrog (Stuart Harvey).
Originally ever5y seating bay had a door, but some were sealed during
the Arriva refurbishment, when central door-locking was fitted to the
remainder. Are
there any records of these Class 121 and 122 units operating on the
ordinary lines in North Wales?
Class 108 56223 and the Wickham unit at Carrog (Roger
Carvell).
The railway's Derby-built Class 108 at Berwyn (Peter Dickinson)
Cravens-built trailer 56456, currently under restoration, was on view
at Llangollen (Roger Carvell).
The interior of 56456, giving an idea of the work involved in the
restoration of these vehicles (Roger
Carvell).
Roger writes: 'The DMU volunteers are to be given a large pat on their
back for their professionalism and dedication to keeping the DMU flame
(and blue exhaust!) alive.'
Driver experience runs took place on the Saturday evening with the
final arrival into Llangollen at around 22:15, using the Class 104 (Peter Dickinson).
Freight views
Flask train 6K73, Sellafield - Crewe, hauled by 37 605 and 37 601, photographed at Acton Bridge
by Andrew Vinten on 19
June. At Crewe the train would be divided to serve different
destinations.
56 087 and 56 105 on train 6J37 Carlisle –
Chirk logs at Coppull Hall, north of Wigan, Monday 17 June. Picture by
Ian Pilkington, who notes: 'I took advantage of a dull evening to
photograph from the east side of the line. Class 56 locomotives were
never common on this stretch of West Coast Main Line even in their
heyday and double-headers unheard of; we’ve now had them on successive
Mondays.'
20 309 and 20 305 pass Llandudno Junction
heading for Crewe with three flasks, running some two hours early, on
14 June (Jack Bowley).
66 040 and several
classmates all queued up on engineering trains between Dorrington and
Bayston Hill on the Shrewsbury - Hereford line, Sunday 23 June (Richard Putley).
66 739 Bluebell Railway passing Helsby on
24 June with empty biomass wagons from Edge Hill Tuebrook to Ellesmere
Port (Mark Barber). This loco
became a celebrity on 28 March when it hauled the first
passenger charter over the re-opened connection from the national
network on to the Bluebell
Railway, and was named to celebrate the occasion.
Steam double
Another view of the strange double header of the Duchess and Castle,
mentioned in the last issue, passing Daresbury on 14 June. Picture by Graham Bond who notes: 'The weather
changed just in time for the passing as they breezed past.'
A sunny afternoon - with Stavros Lainas
An assortment of pictures taken on the afternoon / evening of 19 June.
First was Colas loco 56 094
erupting as it applies power passing Gobowen at 14:16 with log empties
for Baglan Bay.
Second is the regular limestone train to Oakleigh from Tunstead. 60 091 was passing Mobberley
at 16:42.
A long drive ensued to Cheney Longville, north of Craven Arms, to
capture the evening Cardiff - Holyhead service passing me at 19:46.
Llangollen Railcars: Sunday
23 June
Sunday dawned very wet at Carrog but it did not dampen a trip down
memory lane to see some of the units that once we took for granted
along North Wales lines. Above, the start of service with the
nine-car formation at Glyndyfrdwy. Picture by Larry Davies. The destination
blind read 'Blaenau Ffestiniog', which would be an interesting run!
55032 arrives at Carrog and the token exchange is made. That's
what you call rain!
Truly delightful (Larry Davies).
Interestingly,
the
steam loco, built in 1937, is just a generation - 20
Years - older than the 1957-era Class 104 unit.
55032 rests at Carrog on return from Bonwm (Larry Davies).
At Llangollen (Darren Durrant).
From the Llangollen Railway forum:
'On behalf of the Railway I
would like to thank all volunteers and staff for their efforts in
making the weekend’s Railcar Gala such a success. Despite running 16
trains each way each day we never got more than 10 minutes out on the
timetable, passenger numbers were very good overall, but most important
we all had a lot of fun. This morning I am getting a lot of feedback
from satisfied customers, including quite a lot from senior members of
other railways who were present and it is all very complimentary. It
was great to see both railway staff and our passengers having such a
good time, with many commenting that they really enjoyed the barbecue
and social event on the Saturday evening. To to all of those who
contributed in any way, however small, very many thanks. Your
assistance and effort really is appreciated. - Evan Green-Hughes,
Chairman, Llangollen Railcar Group.'
To which we at the North Wales Coast website add our thanks to all
concerned on behalf of our contributors and readers.
Passenger miscellany
The longest days of the year, and along comes the annual 'Three
Peaks
Challenge by Rail' train from London on its way to Bangor,
passing through Chester on what was a murky evening of 20 June (Picture
by Bob Greenhalgh).
DRS provided the traction, in the form of 47 501 Craftsman (above) and
47 805. The passengers, mostly staff from the rail industry, would
spend
the night walking up and down Snowdon before returning to the train for
the journey to the Cumbrian Coast for the ascent of Scafell Pike and to
Fort William for Ben Nevis. The aim is to raise money for the Railway
Children charity: did anyone reading this participate in the challenge?
In failing light on 21 June, 67 001
hurries past Abergele with the
18:21 Cardiff - Holyhead (Roly High).
Now in the new Arriva Trains Wales livery is 150 251, pictured by George Jones shunting to the bay
platform at Wrexham General on finishing its day's work on the Bidston
line.
Virgin Super Voyager 221 105 William Baffin departs Rhyl for
Holyhead with train 1D83 from Crewe at 11:37 on Sunday 23 June (Roly High).
This train runs 20 minutes behind Sundays-only empty stock train 5D43
from Crewe to Holyhead, also a Super Voyager (221 108 Sir Ernest
Shackleton on this occasion). Would it not be more
cost-effective to
run these two units as one train, and split them at Holyhead?
6430 bows out - report by George Jones
The occasion of the Railway's annual Railcar Gala saw one the regular
steam engines based at Llangollen operate its final passenger trains on
Sunday 23 June 2013 when No. 6430 completed ten years in service since
restoration to working order. The pictures above shows 6430 at
Llangollen on its final day in
service before overhaul, and members of the train crew as they prepare
for the final
departure. Left to right are: Ben Jackson driver, Wayne Ronneback
guard, Martyn Amys Ticket Inspector and signalman Paul Reynolds.
The popular Great Western Pannier Tank engine is now withdrawn for a
major overhaul after its boiler certificate expired. On its last day in
service it ran with the Great Western Autocoach owned by the group
based in Oswestry as the steam train option on a day when other train
services on the Dee Valley line were provided by the heritage diesel
railcars.
6430 is a brave little engine, having been restored at Llangollen from
a very basic kit of parts after it had survived a visit to a scrapyard
when originally withdrawn by British Railways. It is the only main line
steam engine to have escaped from a scrapyard other than the famous one
at Barry, South Wales from which many steam locomotives were
rescued. After it had donated various parts to keep another pannier
tank in service, a lot of the missing parts were re-made at Llangollen
to allow the engine to be restored to working order by 2003. Since then
it has achieved fame as part of the two-coach Great Western branch line
auto-train. It has been a worthy ambassador for the Llangollen Railway
during its visits other heritage railways in Britain during its ten
years in service. We hope that a fast track overhaul of the boiler and
mechanical parts will allow for an early return to service.
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