NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY:NOTICE BOARD

Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd

13 February 2017


















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February 2017

Monday 20 February RCTS Chester Fred Kirk: Leicester Area Steam Days. Fred, from Leicester, spent a lot of his time bicycling around with his camera at the ready to various locations on all the main lines within reasonable reach of his home.

Friday 24 February Great Western Society North West Branch. Group AGM


March 2017


Friday 3 March  Clwyd Railway Circle Amlwch Branch Line and Annual General Meeting Chairman of the Lein Amlwch - Central Anglesey Railway Company, Walter Glyn Davies  will give a presentation on the progress of the lines revival. The talk will be followed by the Annual General Meeting.

3-5 March  Llangollen Railway Spring Steam Gala

Tuesday 7 March   North Wales Railway Circle The Abergele Accident. Tony Griffiths gives a talk on the accident that occurred on 20th August 1868 at Abergele involving the Irish Mail and a part of a goods train that was being shunted.

Wednesday 8 March  Welsh Highland Railway North Wales Group Speaker to be confirmed

Thursday 9 March  Llandudno & Conwy Valley Railway Society    ... And we run trains too! Clare Britton (Ffestiniog Railway)

Friday 10 March  Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Lecture Eric Lomax, Railwayman of War and Peace. Images of steam in the UK before and after the Second World War with a few taken in India during the war; featured locos are a mixture of industrial and main line, mostly in Scotland A digital presentation of black and white images by Dr Michael Bailey

Monday 20 March  RCTS Chester    Paul Chancellor. A Colour-Rail Presentation. Paul, from Bromsgrove, is owner of Colour-Rail and will highlight the work of many fine railway photographers covering the better part of 70 years. He is also the RO Editor for the ‘Preservation and Other Railways’ section.

Friday 31 March  Great Western Society North West Branch.  Birkenhead Joint Railway.  Paul Wright.

April 2017

Tuesday 4 April    North Wales Railway Circle Bangor to Hong Kong by Rail. Adam Fetherstonhaugh gives an account of his epic journey by rail from Bangor to Hong Kong via Beijing and then on to Vietnam and Cambodia.

Wednesday 5 April RCTS Liverpool David Rapson. Railways - The Digital Effect David, who lives in Connah's Quay, has worked on the railways for many years spending a lot of his life in Control positions and now works for West Coast Railway Company. He is also a Branch member and for those who read Rail Express will be aware of his contributions.

Friday 7 April Clwyd Railway Circle Railways of North Cheshire in Early BR Days Being a Manchester lad, Russell Hatt was able to capture the busy scenes around his home area.

Friday 7 April  (note: first Friday  of the month) Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Lecture The Last Years of British Trolleybuses. A colour slide presentation by Brian Yates  

Wednesday 12 April Welsh Highland Railway North Wales Group Norman Kneale, Renowned railway photographer.

Thursday 13 April Llandudno & Conwy Valley Railway Society Barry Wynne's Steam Odyssey.

Monday 24 April   RCTS Chester   George Jones : Onwards to Corwen.George lives in Wrexham and for many years has been an important publicist for the Llangollen Railway and certain of its locomotives. He will cover the railway’s reinvigoration of the line to Corwen and look at its future prospects.       

Friday 28 April Great Western Society North West Branch. The L&Y in BR days.  Noel Coates.

May 2017

Tuesday 2 May   North Wales Railway Circle AGM and Annual Photographic Competition.  The Annual General Meeting of The North Wales Railway Circle will be followed by the annual photographic competition.  Members are invited to submit their work in three categories, prints, slides and video.  Video to be kept reasonably short, approx. 5 mins.  In line with Circle rules all work should have been taken in the last 12 months.

Wednesday 10 May  Welsh Highland Railway North Wales Group Group’s AGM + John Ellis Williams - The Continuing Story.

Thursday 11 May   Llandudno & Conwy Valley Railway Society   A tribute to the late David Jones, by John Myers 





On hire to Colas, GB Railfreight's rebuilt electro-diesels 73 964 and 73 965  (rear) at Wrexham Central with Network Rail's 13:13  Derby RTC - Crewe CS (LNWR Site) measurement train on 13 February.  The itinerary required reversals at Buxton, Croes Newydd, Bidston, Wrexham Central, Wrexham Exchange Junction, Croes Newydd,  Warrington Bank Quay, Hooton, Warrington Bank Quay and Birkenhead Central which is a lot of walking for the driver! Picture by John Cowlishaw.


Tim Rogers goes down the Coast



8 February at Rhyl: 175 113 calls with 1H90 14:40 Llandudno to Manchester Piccadilly.



37 716 and 37 610 T.S. (Ted) Cassady with FNA wagons 550035 and 11 70 9229 006-5 pass Rhyl on 8 February as 6K41 14:58 Valley Nuclear Electric to Crewe, 49 mins early.



On 10 February 1D34 09:50 Manchester Piccadilly to Holyhead arrives at Llandudno Junction. The consist: 67 008, Mk3 TSO 12177, 12178 and 12185 plus Driving Van Trailer 82308.



221 143 Auguste Picard leads a Holyhead - London train through Valley on 10 February.




On the rear, 221 142 Bombardier Voyager.



Another flask train ran on 10 February, again with Class 37 power. 37 604  and 37 059 await departure from Valley to Crewe after backing out of the loading siding with FNA 550039, 550055 and 550049. As usual the train left earlier -54 minutes earlier - than the scheduled time.



A closer look at 37 059. Note the circular fire-alarm glass compared with the square one on 37 604.


Red Rose Tornado - pictures by Chris Morrison



On 11 February A1 Pacific 60163 Tornado leaves Shrewsbury for Coton Hill Yard with the stock of the 07:45 London Victoria - Shrewsbury  'Red Rose' charter organised by UK Railtours.



Tornado races through the attractive station at Wellington on the through line, with the 15:53 return trip from Shrewsbury to London Victoria.

This loco is in charge of a service of Stopping Trains on the Skipton - Appleby line from 14-16 February: link to more information.


Llandudno in Old Postcards - with Jim Ikin



Llandudno Station taken between 1903 and 1910 sees the arrival of day trippers - they don’t appear to have any luggage; one lady is met by another pushing her bike.



The second view is described as from the Happy Valley; I have always understood the Happy Valley to be just beyond the trees where a number of people can be seen.

The card was actually published by the LMS Railway and as can be seen quotes some interesting prices for Runabout tickets – 10 shillings (50p) third class or 15 shillings (75p) first class with unlimited travel for a week in the district and ends with 'Its a Jolly Good Bargain!’. At today's rates this would be around £20 and £35 which I suspect would be quite a sum in 1930 – in fact my house was for sale in 1934 at £350!


Off the beaten track: Thornton for Cleveleys



Amlwch and Trawsfynydd are not the only branch lines where volunteers have been authorised by Network Rail to clear disused lines in the hope of running a heritage train service. Greg Mape's picture above, taken on 11 February, shows Thornton for Cleveleys station on the Poulton-le-Fylde to Fleetwood line after receiving the attentions of the Poulton & Wyre Railway Society.  The line is officially 'mothballed' having seen use by freight trains serving a chemical plant in 1999. It lost its passenger service in 1970; but back in 1840 it was part of the route from London to Scotland. Trains ran to Fleetwood and passengers stayed at the 'North Euston'  hotel before continuing by ship as the line over Shap had not been built.



The same viewpoint ten years ago (Greg Mape).


Abergele 1983



Roger Carvell writes: 'Here is a view of Abergele, taken in 'June 1983' according to the Kodak slide
auto-stamp. This is a less common view taken beyond the road bridge, looking east. The station buildings have clearly had a recent repaint. The Class 47, looking very ex-works, and the photographer are unknown for the slide was an eBay win.

'The central arch of the bridge looks wide enough to accept a siding or head shunt but I can't find a drawing or map that shows that one ever existed. The slide also shows an up train passing, so perhaps someone with a 1980s Working Timetable can pinpoint the time of day and workings- certainly afternoon by the shadows cast.

'The current platform works are not the first time a down slow platform on the Chester & Holyhead was extended outwards to meet the down fast line. A similar platform extension was done at Shotton Low Level when that station re-opened in 1972.'


Movements



A different view of the Valley - Crewe flask train on 10 February.  37 604  and 37 059 seen from Bridge Street, Saltney (Bob Greenhalgh).



37 716 and 37 610 pass Bangor in sunshine with the 6K41 Valley to Crewe flasks on 13 February (Rowan Crawshaw)




GB Railfreight locos are not common in North Wales but on 13 February. 66 714 Cromer Lifeboat passed Green Lane crossing, Saltney as 0Z66, a Longport to Crewe light-engine movement (Bob Greenhalgh).



On more usual ground for GBRf, 66 737 Lesia winds its way through Altrincham on Sunday 12 February with a Liverpool - Drax biomass train (Greg Mape).



A colourful scene at Green lane level crossing on 13 February as SB Rail Tamper DR 73904 Thomas Telford, on a Guide Bridge to Wrexham movement, passes Green Lane crossing, Saltney (Bob Greenhalgh). It's a little confusing that the 739xx number series includes both electro-diesels and tampers...


Llangollen news - report by George Jones



Train services resumed at Llangollen on Saturday 11 February running through to Dwyrain Corwen East. Although GWR 2-6-2T 5199 was restored for the day, in the event it was failed on shed and the Class 26 D5310 was quickly deputised for the first departure. Above, D5310 awaits its 10:40 departure at Llangollen



Departing a bleak Berwyn where snow was evident on Llantysilio Mountain. Amazingly, despite the wintry weather, people turned out for a ride along the Dee Valley and took in a visit to Corwen or went for a walk.



Later  7822 Foxcote Manor came to the rescue to haul the 13:00 departure from Llangollen seen arriving at 13:45 at Corwen East's damp temporary platform.



Pending the availability of Corwen Central terminus in 2018, the temporary platform at Dwyrain Corwen East is having a life extension in 2017 and station facilities have had a mid-winter make over in readiness for the new season.



Photographed by Ian Henderson at Llangollen Class J94-alike "68030" was seen in store at River siding. It is the former Josiah Wedgwood - Hunslet 3777 of 1952 -  once active at the Churnet Valley Railway. It seems to have been acquired by Llangollen Railway Trust for eventual long term restoration but first the priority is on completing the overhaul of Pannier tank 7754 for which funds are being collected to allow work to begin.
 

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