NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY:NOTICE BOARD

Real Ale on the WHR

Cumbrian Coast locos

A veteran diesel visits

Cornish charter cancelled

Spring at Berwyn - pictures by Peter Dickinson

Chinese steam in Chester

67s to Holyhead - by Ivor Bufton

I have been going back through my records to see which Class 67s have made it to Holyhead, at the same time looking at which ones have also visited Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog; the table below may be of interest. The dates used are the first recorded date. It shows that 67 008 and 67 010 have not been along the coast, and  67 009 has only been as far as Llandudno Junction.  67 028 seems to have been the first 67 along the coast but failed at Llanfair PG on the return.  

If anyone can help with additional information or correct any errors , I would be most grateful. In particular, Where did the Northern Belle with 67 019/030 go to on 28/06/2005?

The South Munster Railtour - report by Stephen Hughes

Heading off to Ireland once again for my annual fix of seeing a little bit more of the country by rail took me to Cork and Killarney this year (as well as Midleton and Cobh), all destinations that I hadn't visited before. I was hoping for better luck than last year, when '85' Merlin failed on the positioning run from Belfast, but all seemed set fair when the ex-GNR(I) 4-4-0 backed down form the recently acquired shed at Dublin Connolly onto the Cravens stock for a 09:30 departure on the Saturday.  The run was pretty good,taking on water at the usual stops, such as Portallington, seen above (very efficiently, I've never seen the hose laid out over a redundant footbridge before, as happened at Charleville) and allowing Cork expresses to pass.

As we approached Cork Kent station, it was announced that we would pass on the station avoiding line, a piece of track that is rarely used for passenger workings, so for some that was a bonus. Above: 461 on Cork Kent shed, taken from the train as we went past on the avoiding line.

There was a gentle run down the branch to Midleton, on the newly reopened line that previously reached Youghal, where ex D&SER 2-6-0 461 took over for the journey back to Cork.With the Sunday promising rain, we started with a run down the estuary to Cobh (above) behind 85 where 461 again took over for the run through Cork and onward to Killarney on the line to Tralee.  Immediately after Cork station is a tunnel and a long 1 in 70 climb, on which 461 performed well but then endured some injector problems, but any lost time was regained at the water stop and run-round at Mallow.

The rain duly appeared and spoiled the opportunity to have a look around Killarney, and whether the damp rails contributed to an unscheduled stop on the return run I don't know, but we reached Rathmore (above) late where Control decided that we should remain and pass up and down trains, this involved some shunting /reversing but did allow the footplate crew to sort out the fire problems and eventually had an uneventful trip back to Cork...120 mins late! Monday brought better weather with a long day in prospect, a return to Dublin, a four hour layover and then an evening return to Belfast - the route for which 85 was built. 85 provided a storming run up the bank out of Cork but between Mallow and Charleville came to a sudden halt having triggered a hot-box detector. After the usual checks that, of course found nothing amiss, we continued.

There followed some excellent running. It does not seem possible to ascertain the maximum speed allowed for 85 ('depends who you ask' was the typically Irish cryptic reply), so I won't mention the top speed attained, suffice to say that 85 covered the 42.7 miles from Charleville to Thurles in 43 minutes and the 35 miles from Thurles (above) to Portlaoise in just over 35 and a half minutes. Exhilarating stuff!  Over ambitious timings for water stops did provide a late arrival into Connolly, which I didn't mind as it meant less time waiting for the evening departure which occurred at the scheduled time of 19h08. With 85 steaming impeccably, the water stop at Lisburn was missed out and a 10 minute early arrival attained at Botanic where I left the train to walk to my hotel.Another great tour, probably the best of my six visits for good running. Next year, the prospect of three 4-4-0's in action is very attractive!

461 and 85 on Cork Kent shed on the Monday morning. 461 was to follow light engine back to Dublin. It must have been some years since the shed had seen two locos in steam.