09 October 2017
Contributions and comments are encouraged: see the Contributions Page
Forthcoming events
October 2017
Thursday 12 October Llandudno
and Conwy Valley Railway Society
Julian Birley MBE: The Bala Lake
Railway
13-15 October Llangollen
Railway Autumn Steam Gala
Saturday 14 October
Railway and Canal Historical Society Clinker
Memorial Lecture in Manchester 2:00 pm, Mechanics
Conference Centre, 103 Princess Street, Manchester M1 6DD.
William Fairbairn, the experimental engineer - a study in
mid-nineteenth century engineering. Admission free to all.
More
information (PDF)
Monday 16 October RCTS
Merseyside Chester & North Wales
CHESTER Les Nixon – “55 Years of Railway
Photography, Part 1”
Thursday 26 October Light
Rail Transit Association (Manchester) Robert
Pritchard: Tramways of the Czech Republic & Slovakia:
Part 1 Bohemia – Prague, Plzen, Most-Litvinov &
Liberec
Saturday 30 September Steam at Chester Vintage
Trains 'The Shropshire Express' Tyseley
Warwick Road - Chester. 5043: Tyseley - Wolverhampton -
Crewe - Chester - Wrexham - Shrewsbury - Birmingham New St
- Tyseley
November 2017
Friday 3 November Clwyd
Railway Circle 'Snowdon Mountain Railway' A
presentation given by Mike Robertshaw Msc IEng MIED, Senior
Engineering Manager of the railway.
Thursday 9 November Llandudno
and Conwy Valley Railway Society AGM /
Clive Evans Memories of North Wales steam and beyond
in the 1950s
Saturday 18 November Steam on the Coast Steam
Dreams 'Cathedrals Express' London Euston - Llandudno
for the Christmas Market. 46233 Duchess of
Sutherland: Crewe - Llandudno and return
Monday 20 November RCTS
Merseyside Chester & North Wales
CHESTER John Day – “UK Railways – Beyond
the Blue”
Saturday 25 November Steam at Chester Railway Touring
Company 'The Christmas Cheshireman'
Bristol - Chester 70013 / 45305: Bristol - Hereford -
Wrexham - Chester and return
Saturday 25 November Steam at Chester UK
Railtours 'The Chester Christmas Cracker'
London Euston - Chester 60163: Euston - Chester and return
Thursday 30 November Light
Rail Transit Association (Manchester) Bob
Bracegirdle: The Belgian Vicinal and its raison d'être.
December 2017
Friday 1 December Clwyd
Railway Circle 'Members Night & Christmas
Celebrations' Members are invited to give a 15 minute
presentation of their choice (any format). FREE tea/coffee
& festive treats during the interval. Contact David
Jones 01244 537440 to book a slot.
Wednesday 6 December RCTS
Merseyside Chester & North Wales
LIVERPOOL Tom Heavyside – “BR in the North
West”
Thursday 14 December Llandudno
and Conwy Valley Railway Society
Xmas Social / Bill Rogerson: Roaming the Rails with
Bill
Monday 18 December RCTS
Merseyside Chester & North Wales
CHESTER Bob Barnard – “The Lynton &
Barnstaple Railway“
January 2018
Friday 5 January Clwyd
Railway Circle Mike Blackburn 'The Welsh Highland
Railway (NWNGR)' A history of the North Wales narrow gauge
and Croesor Tramway and the linking to form the Welsh
Highland Railway, restoration and building of the new.
Thursday 11 January Llandudno
and Conwy Valley Railway Society Ron
Watson Jones: Rails to Roads
Monday 15 January RCTS
Merseyside Chester & North Wales
CHESTER AGM, followed by John Cowlishaw –
“The End of the Line, Part 1 (Non-members are invited to
attend from 20.15 hours)
Thursday 25 January Light
Rail Transit Association (Manchester) Tony
Young: The Tramways of Bury
February
2018
Friday 2 February Clwyd
Railway Circle John Sloane 'From Vulcan Foundry to the
Khyber' British built steam at work in Pakistan, It includes
pictures taken on the spectacular line up the Khyber Pass to
the Afghan border.
Wednesday 7 February RCTS
Merseyside Chester & North Wales
LIVERPOOL Doug Birmingham –
“Rail Reflections in Merseyside”
8 February Llandudno
and Conwy Valley Railway Society
Ellis Morey: The Penrhyn Railway
Monday 19 February RCTS
Merseyside Chester & North Wales
CHESTER Ian Pilkington –
“Steam and Diesel in the Northern Fells”
March 2018
Friday 2 March Clwyd
Railway Circle Annual General Meeting followed by
“Film Shows - Railways Past and Present”.
Thursday 8 March Llandudno
and Conwy Valley Railway Society John
Cashen RCTS: North West & North Wales
Reminiscences in the 1960s
Monday 19 March RCTS
Merseyside Chester & North Wales
CHESTER Peter Berry – “The Robert
Whitfield Collection, UK Steam 1948 - 1958”
April 2018
Friday 6 April Clwyd
Railway Circle John Cashen 'North West & North
Wales Reminiscences In The 1960s' The presentation will
cover from Liverpool to Liverpool within an area bounded by
Southport, Burscough, Standish, Warrington, Crewe,
Whitchurch, Chester, Holyhead, Barmouth, Aberystwyth,
Shrewsbury, Wrexham, the Wirral, Chester, Northwich and
Speke
12 April Llandudno
and Conwy Valley Railway Society Members
Evening
Wednesday 4 April RCTS
Merseyside Chester & North Wales
LIVERPOOL Alan Moore – “The
Railways of St. Helens”
Monday 16 April RCTS
Merseyside Chester & North Wales
CHESTER Brian Armand – “Railway
Roundabout”
Thursday 26 April Brian Yates: Light
Rail Transit Association (Manchester) The
Tramways of Berlin, Potsdam, Lyon and Grenoble.
May 2018
10 May Llandudno
and Conwy Valley Railway Society W. Gordon
Davies: A taste of Japan
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68 017 Hornet and 68 032 on 6K41
Valley - Crewe flasks at Llanddulas. Picture by Jack
Bowley.
Additional items uploaded
Tuesday 10 October start
below
Barmouth 150
Over the weekend of 14-15 October Barmouth will be
celebrating 150 years of the Cambrian Coast line. There will
be several attractions put on by the local council including
a light and laser show on the bridge and surrounds, a
children’s competition in the town and an exhibition in the
leisure centre with a railway theme including a static
exhibit in the form of Barrie Kelsall's 0 gauge model of
Barmouth Bridge. More details can be found on Facebook:
as so often these days, the organisers appear to believe
that everyone reads that so no other on-line publicity is
needed.
On Tuesday 10 September a diesel-hauled
excursion is visiting the line: photographs welcome.
RHTT time
It's the autumn leaf season again, and the Rail Head
Treatment Train made its first appearance on 9 September.
Bob Greenhalgh gets the credit for the first
picture received, showing 56 105 passing Mold
Junction with 56 096 on the back. It's always good to see
locomotives, but contributors could bear in mind that we
may have to choose the most interesting RHTT
views...
Notes from a wet weekend - by Barrie Hughes
I stayed in North Wales for two weeks from mid
September. On 15 September I sampled the 'Irish
Mancunian' service by travelling from Llandudno Junction to
Holyhead, Holyhead to Manchester and Manchester to Llandudno
Junction; the loco on duty was 67 018 Keith
Heller, seen above at Holyhead.
At Manchester Piccadilly later, 67 018 propels its empty
train to the nostalgically-named Longsight Excursion
Platform opposite Longsight depot, where it will return to
form the 16:50 to Llandudno, a peak service which was
'wedged' as far as Chester. Passengers must be
very disappointed when a short railcar turns up in its
place.
Here are 68 033 and 68 002 Intrepid
hauling flasks on 22 September passing through Bangor on the
through line, an hour early just after the Virgin London
train. One wagon had a bad 'wheel flat'.
68 034 and 68 016 Fearless on flasks
at Penmaenmawr, seen from the from the footbridge by the
rest stop on 25 September. Again, the train ran an hour
ahead of its booked time. The reopened Puffin Café here
provides a nice retreat from the weather. It rained almost
every day of the two weeks ... no Indian Summer this year!
Loco haulage of the Manchester diagram was a bit
hit-and-miss in late September with DMU substitution on at
least 20, 22 and 25 September. Finally on a very squally day
I managed to catch 67 016 at Pen-y-clip on 29
September on the 09:50 Manchester - Holyhead ...
I beat a retreat from the squalls to the the relative
comfort of Llanfairfechan station to see the return working
...
... with 67 016 on the rear as usual.
The flasks ran as usual an hour early through
Llanfairfechan, after the Virgin London train, hauled by 68
016 and 68 034.
Then and Now: Conwy - with Jim Ikin
An LNWR publicity card published in January 1905 and posted
in 1907 showing the ‘Entrance to Tubular Bridge’ at
Conway – note the platelayer. The signals are also of
interest: the home and distant signal has its lamps at a
lower level than the arms, and the distant (with its
fishtail end) appears to be red like the home; yellow
was not standardised until the 1920s. The ground signal for
the exit from the goods sidings is the rotating type.
The nearest one can legally get to the same position
today.The siding and headshunt are no longer present and the
track has been realigned.
ATW notes
Recently we had a chance to sample the Wireless internet
connection now being installed on Arriva Trains Wales Class
175 units. It's free but you need to register with your
email address; the suppliers have applied an interesting
technique to prevent hogging of bandwidth by people
streaming music, folks, etc. The download speed will be
'throttled' once you have downloaded 20 Megabytes of data -
you'll still be able to get a connection for email and
simple websites. And this did appear to happen when I tried
it. 20 MB is not really much these days when a single
digital picture from a fancy camera can be that size, and
it's not even enough to download a half-hour BBC radio show.
On another topic, thanks to Adrian Dykes writes to
tell us that the link we
gave to buy Arriva Club 55 tickets 'only works via a
web browser and not on a mobile device. It's possible to
access these tickets using their mobile ticket browser on a
mobile device (not the app) and you simply insert
ATWCLUB into the promo section.' It's also worth
pointing out that unlike ordinary off-peak returns which are
valid for a month, Club 55 tickets are valid for just eight
days.
Gobowen freight - report by Martin Evans
On Tuesday 26 September I photographed the late running 6V75
Margam steel empties with Freightliner 66 567 in
charge at Gobowen, this appeared at 12:20pm two hours late.
Apparently on the incoming working the consist was headed by
66 509 and 66 567, however, 66 509 remained behind at Dee
Marsh.
Whilst at Gobowen I noticed that the steps to the signal
box had been replaced recently, however, they
certainly do not look aesthetically pleasing.
Bridge 148, Talybont - pictures by Peter Basterfield
Wednesday 27 September: in the rain at Talybont, Bridge no.
148, 68 017 Hornet and 68 032
Thursday 28 September: in the sun, with 67 016.
Flask events
It's been quite some time since the flasks run comprised
four wagons. On 29 September 68 016 Fearless and 68
034 head through Bangor with 6K41 Valley-Crewe at 14:42...
... three of the four wagons are of the recently-built
batch. Pictures by Jim Johnson.
Friday 6 October at Beeches Farm: 68 034 and 68 016 again
(Bob Greenhalgh). Apparently the locos for TransPennine are
to be 68 019 to 68 032, so the final two of the current
order, 033 and 034 have received DRS livery. Re-liverying of
the TPE machines has begun: a picture of 68 019 Tireless
have appeared in the press. It does not have a yellow front
panel: this is no longer required if the marker lights meet
current specification.
Narrow-gauge scenes -
report by Ian Pilkington
Former Dinorwic Quarry loco Dolbadarn (Hunslet 1922)
approaches Gilfach Ddu, Llanberis Lake Railway on Monday 2
October.
Snowdon Mountain Railway no 5 Moel Siabod
(SLM 1896) rests on shed at Llanberis on Monday 2 October,
after working a single unadvertised round trip, steam
operations supposedly having finished for the season two
days earlier. (Picture taken with permission.)
Earl of Merioneth arrives at Porthmadog with the
stock for the 11:25 Ffestiniog Railway service to Blaenau on
Wednesday 4 October. The locomotive, built in the
Ffestiniog Railway's Boston Lodge workshop in the 1970s will
be permanently withdrawn on expiration of its boiler
certificate (due March 2018) and replaced eventually by a new-build
replica of Fairlie James Spooner.
A trip from Scarborough
Wednesday 4 October saw a West Coast Railways excursion from
Scarborough (dep. 06:00) to Blaenau Ffestiniog (arr 13:03)
make its way across Britain. Bob Greenhalgh was on
the footbridge near the Roodee Viaduct as the train crossed
the River Dee out of Chester with 57 315 leading.
At Blaenau Ffestiniog 57 315 stands on the rear whilst
Ffestiniog Railway Earl of Merioneth backs on to
work the 13:40 to Porthmadog. Passengers had time for a trip
to Tan-y-Bwlch and back and a look around the town before
heading for home at 16:10 (Ian Pilkington).
47 760 reverses the excursion stock out of the
station past Earl of Merioneth before stabling in
the loop. (Ian Pilkington, taken with permission).
Cumbrian Coast expedition - with Alan Crawshaw
Monday 2 October saw Rowan and I in Preston for the 10:04
loco-hauled service to Barrow. While we were waiting, the City
of Bangor Pendolino passed through to make us feel at
home.
It's always a relief when a loco-hauled diagram doesn't
disappoint with a DMU substitution so we were very pleased
to see former North Wales Coast regular 37 422 roll
up with the early morning run from Carlisle, currently
sporting a plain blue livery. As always, we enjoyed the
scenery despite the grey gloom. We were a few minutes late
into Barrow for the five-minute connection onto the other
locomotive turn so there was no time for a photograph.
Turnround is only eight minutes at Carlisle so we were soon
heading back to Barrow. 37 403 provided some much needed
colour to the drabness and we had time for a quick photo
(above) before the large-logo loco took us north as far as
Ravenglass where we spent the night.
We ate at the 'Ratty Arms' which faces the platform so we
could enjoy the sight and sound of 37 422 passing. It's a
strange pub with an elderly clientele and a life-size
cardboard cutout of the queen.
We'd originally intended a ride on the Ravenglass and
Eskdale but Tuesday had been declared a day of industrial
action with a restricted service and besides it was another
drizzly day. We opted instead to visit the 'Brief Encounter'
café on Carnforth station, where there was only one other
customer so we could take plenty of unobstructed photos. A
few more people arrived later. With a gap of over three
hours between trains, we took the bus to Lancaster for the
train to Warrington Bank Quay. The freight traffic was
disappointingly sparse so we were glad when 67 016
turned up to take us to Llandudno Junction for a twilight
shot (above) before boarding a Voyager to take us on to
Bangor.
FR-WHR Victorian Selection
A few of the many pictures received from the Ffestiniog and
Welsh Highland Railways' 'Victorian Weekend.' Above, Taliesin
and Merddin Emrys at Porthmadog in murky weather on 7
October (Jim Ikin).
Victorian travellers in place (Jim Ikin).
Merddin Emrys in the Aberglaslyn Pass (Jim Ikin).
Palmerston in black and white (Greg Mape).
Lyd heads out into the street at Porthmadog (Greg
Mape).
Reflection on a Garratt (Greg Mape).
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