10 April 2017
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April 2017
Wednesday 12 April Welsh Highland
Railway North Wales Group Change of
Speaker: Richard Sant from the LMS Patriot Project
to tell us all about the undertaking
to build a new Patriot Class Loco.
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
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A different loco on the 'Poor Man's WAG' - 67 020 at Chester on
10 April. Picture by Ian Wilson.
News: The Conwy Valley Line has
re-opened after prolonged repairs to storm damage.
Five Frames of Frodsham - pictures by Anthony Robinson
Five scenes following the progress of train 1H88 12:46 Llandudno -
Manchester Airport on sunny * April, from Overton Hill. Above, the
Class 175 is approaching Frodsham.
Arriving at Frodsham station ...
... heading across Frodsham Viaduct,
built
1848-1850,
designed
by
James Meadows Rendel and built by Thomas
Brassey, contractor, for the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire
Junction Railway.
... approaching Frodsham Junction and signalbox. Having crossed
the original River Weaver on the viaduct, the train is the Weaver
Navigation.
The line diverging to the left is the 'Halton Curve' which has been
much in the new lately as its current very limited service one-way is
to be replaced by a regular one. The Up Goods Loop can also be seen.
Steam through Hartford - report by Phil Clarke
Steam movements through Hartford on 3 April. Above, 45699 Galatea
on a move from Southall to Carnforth, having been replaced by a diesel
on a 'Cathedrals Express' run on 1 April after failing its 'Fitness to
Run' examination.
Later, at 21:20, 45231 The Sherwood Forester, making a
return to the mainline after a two-year absence, was running for
Carnforth to Crewe after making a test run from Carnforth to Hellifield
and back earlier in the day.
Picture Miscellany
Approaching the footbridge at Rossett, the 11:30 departure
from
Chester heads south along the recently opened 'Up line on Thursday 6
April (Peter Neve).
Barrow for Tarvin station between Mouldsworth and Mickle Trafford
served a very rural area and was closed to all traffic in 1953; the
line was singled in 1969 (see the
Disused Stations website). The station building survives, in a
parlous state, as shown in Greg Mape's picture taken on 1 April
with 150 144 passing on a Chester - Manchester service.
Bodorgan, Anglesey, 31 March. Above, 66 305 and 66 304 working 6K41
14.58 Valley - Crewe flasks (Peter Chapman).
67 014 propelling 1H89 13:07 Holyhead to Manchester
Piccadilly past
Bodorgan on 31 March (Peter Chapman).
Excursion to Chester - report by Roger Carvell
I was up early on Saturday 25 March to record the charter from
Letchworth and Stevenage to Chester using 67 029 Royal
Diamond and 67 015 in top-and-tail mode. The pictures show
the train arriving, on time, for its booked pick-up point at Welwyn
Garden City. The crimson and cream MK1s looked am absolute treat. Some
station staff at Welwyn Garden City had never seen a booked charter
call so those of us in the know put them right!
I hope everyone aboard had a good afternoon in Chester for I hear the
return ran into problems and was diverted via Toton where 67 015 was
examined by staff from the DB Cargo depot with brake trouble. The train
finally arrived back in Hertfordshire almost upon midnight, with the
errant 67 015 left far behind, according to reports, at Toton.
Having seen the train off, it was time to follow 1Z45 by EMU for the
Alexandra Palace model railway show. I am pleased to report that
Chirk-based Dapol were doing very good business, not only in 'N' and
'OO' gauges but also in 'O' scale; a pre-production model of a 'Jinty'
0-6-0T in 'the senior scale' was on show and the finished item is
expected, perhaps later this year, to retail at a very competitive
£200.It is sure to be a popular model and even the show model,
unpainted,
looked superb.
Big Push for Corwen - report by George Jones
On 7 April the Llangollen
Railway hosted a visit by Susan Elan Jones, MP for Clwyd South, on
the occasion of the launch of its Corwen - The Big Push share
brochure. During the course of the train journey Susan was reminded of
the huge volunteer effort over the past 40 years to rebuild Llangollen
Railway. On arrival at Corwen Susan was escorted around the railway
site by project manager Richard Dixon Gough. Richard explained the work
that had been completed to date, which has been done in the main by
volunteer effort, and the construction that is still required to
complete the terminal station.
Thepictures shows the group on arrival at Dwyrain Corwen East
brandishing the Share Brochure - left to right - Susan Elan Jones MP,
Peter Lund (Chairman of the Llangollen Railway Trust, Kevin Gooding
(General Manager of the Llangollen Railway, and Quentin McGuinness, the
director Llangollen Railway Trust who has masterminded the share
brochure.
The Corwen Central project is costed at approximately £500,000, of
which Llangollen Railway anticipate some funding from the Welsh
Government European Rural Development Fund. The remaining funds will
come from share purchases and donations. The Llangollen Railway
promotion was to showcase the project so far and encourage people to
make a donation or purchase shares.
Susan Elan Jones said, 'I am most impressed with the progress that has
been made since my last visit in 2016 and the efforts of all the
volunteers who have been involved in this project. I note that for work
to continue financial support is imperative and an essential part of
this support is the launch of the share brochure to encourage much
needed funds'.
The 46-page Share Brochure is a bi-lingual publication reviewing the
history of the Llangollen Railway and the Preservation Story with a
review of the Corwen Phase 1 achievement and the current work at the
terminus station. The details of the share appeal for the 370,000
shares available in Llangollen Railway plc and benefits accruing to
shareholders are defined along with financial information and
application process. As a full colour compilation, the share brochure
is a very attractive publication.
The following day the volunteers were back at the work of building the
corbels on the base of platform 2 at Corwen, with some 3000 blocks laid
which will support the oversail blocks and edging stones.
Cambrian Corner
Greg Mape made the best of the sunshine on 7 April with a
walk on Harlech beach.
158 820 has just departed from Harlech station and makes
its way across the level crossing with the 11:27 Pwllheli - Machynlleth
service on 7 April (Greg Mape).
Greg Mape writes: 'This shows the exposed sea wall at the
far end of Harlech beach; I remember seeing this bit on a Boys Brigade
camp hike (late 1970s!) There is a steep stepped path down from the
road to the beach, crossing the railway, this is where the picture is
taken. Apart from the orange trousers the men are wearing on the rocks,
there are no clues to what era this is.'
A couple of pictures from our archive, taken from Harlech Castle in
2005. Above, a Machynlleth-bound 158 appraches the station, with
Snowdonia as a backdrop (Charlie Hulme).
The 158, still in Wales and West silver livery, negotiates the level
crossing. The acute angle of the tracks here requires some caution on
the part of cyclists.
One from 1984: A well-loaded Class 101 calls at Harlech, with semaphore
signalling still in evidence.
Late in the Evening - with Bob Greenhalgh
It's almost 8pm on 10 April at Saltney as 67 010 passes with
the 17:16 Cardiff - Holyhead 'WAG Express' premier service, train 1W96,
heading for Chester.
Running two hours late, 37 175 heads a Network Rail train at
Saltney towards Green Lane crossing.
On the Premier Serivice - with Richard Putley
I travelled to Abergavenny on Friday, 7 April 2017 from Great Malvern,
returning on the 'WAG Express' between Abergavenny (above) ....
.... and Hereford. It was hauled by DB Red 67 010, unusually marshalled
at the Holyhead end.
Earlier in the day I’d seen 97 304 John Tiley head
north through Hereford running light, and again later in the day
running light south through Abergavenny (above).
Also running light in that direction was Freightliner 66 598.
66 200 headed north through Abergavenny on a Margam – Dee
Marsh steel train.
North
Wales Coast
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