NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY:NOTICE BOARD

Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd

03 December 2017

















Contributions and comments are encouraged: see the Contributions Page


Forthcoming events

December 2017

Tuesday 5 December  North Wales Railway Circle Christmas Bash. A free buffet is provided this evening and members are invited to bring their own slides/digital pictures and videos to entertain

Wednesday 6 December   RCTS Merseyside Chester & North Wales    LIVERPOOL    Tom Heavyside – “BR in the North West”   

Saturday 9 December Rhyl & District Model Railway Club annual Model Railway Exhibition. Venue: Prestatyn Parish Church & Community Hall, High Street, Prestatyn, LL19 9AR.  10.30am - 4.00pm. Featuring around a dozen layouts in scales "Z" to "G", trade stands, displays and light refreshments. In aid of Ty Gobaith Young Peoples Hospice (Conwy) and Ysbyty Glan Clwyd Cardiology Trust Fund.

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.

Tuesday 9 January  North Wales Railway Circle Speaker to be announced                                                            
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.

Tuesday 6 February  North Wales Railway Circle Barry Wynn, assisted by Steve Morris, presents more of his work.  A superb collection of photographs depicting British Railway practice going back to steam days.           

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”.

Tuesday 6 March  North Wales Railway Circle North to South. North Wales Railway Circle member Ken Owen returns with a pictorial journey north to south over the British Rail network.

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

Tuesday 3 April  North Wales Railway Circle Tony Griffith returns with two presentations.  The Dyserth Branch and an historic shipping disaster off the North Wales Coast.  
 
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

Tuesday 8 May  North Wales Railway Circle AGM and Annual Photographic Competition  
Thursday 10 May  Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society  W. Gordon Davies:  A taste of Japan





Sunday 3 December at Berwyn on the Llangollen railway. 2807 heads the 11.55 Llangollen to Carrog 'Santa' Train.


Excursions



A West Coast Railways-powered excursion under the 'Statesman Rail' banner ran from Holyhead to Edinburgh and back on Saturday 2 December. The empty stock arrived at Holyhead at 04:26 that morning, and departed as train 1X62 at 05:55. Locomotives were 47 772 Carnforth TMD and one-time Premier Express loco 57 316.

We hear that the old Class 47 put up a notable performance on the climb to Shap, managing 33 mph at the summit, the train having a gross weight of 623 tonnes, including the class 57 on the rear.  Arrival at Edinburgh was at 13:05, with time to explore Edinburgh's rather spectacular Christmas Market before departure at 16:15, for arrival back at Holyhead (14 minutes late) at 23:07. For obvious reasons we have no pictures of the excursion itself, but the empty stock did return in daylight the next morning as 5Z65 13:10 Holyhead-Carnforth.  Jim Johnson was able to photograph it at Bangor (above).1) Arriving a few minutes early,  it was held at the signal on on the Up main line.



47 772's nameplate celebrates West Coast Railways' Traction Maintenance Depot which is the based around the former Carnforth steam shed. 

(Some interesting news is that the Belmond have sold the 'Northern Belle' luxury train operation - the whole works, not just the rolling stock - to 'a joint venture company owned by David Smith, Chairman of West Coast Railways Limited and his business partner David Pitts.')



Departing at 13:42, 57 316 on the tail. Continuing signalling problems at Penmaenmawr saw it departing through a red light, under the relevant special arrangement.



Saturday 2 December also saw a Pathfinder Tours railtour made the 264-mile journey from Eastleigh to Chester, powered by Royal Train loco 67 005 Queen's Messenger. Bob Greenhalgh photographed the train at Green Lane crossing south of Wrexham - the milepost records 211 miles from London Paddington.


Manchester Scenes - pictures by Greg Mape



Visitors to the Manchester Model Railway Show the University's Barnes Wallis Building had the added attraction of the view from the café of passing trains on the Manchester Piccadilly - Oxford Road line. Above, a Northern class 319 passes by on 3 December.



A view of the Rochdale Canal at Deansgate station with a North Wales - Manchester Class 158 passing one of the fine cast-iron arch bridges in this area. The canal is undergoing maintenance in the area and has been partly.



Good views are now available of the new bridge on the 'Ordsall Chord' line which is now complete and scheduled to open to passengers on 10 December with an hourly service from Leeds via Rochdale to Manchester Oxford Road. A new location, Water Street Junction, has joined the Network, where this line meets the Ordsall Lane Junction - Castlefield Junction line. A Northern train on that line can be glimpsed in the distance.



The view from the Oxford Road across the site of the BBC buildings, demolished after the BBC moved to Salford Quays. A new development known as 'Circle Square' is taking shape, no doubt providing many student flats. The chimney on skyline served the Bloom Street power station, opened in 1901 and provided with an arm of the canal to bring in its coal.


Peter Basterfield's View



1 December's 6D43 Flask train at Llanfairfechan with 68 033 and 68 034 braving the waves.



Train 1V94 Holyhead - Cardiff Central heads out of Llanfairfechan on 1 December. The beach was covered in foam blown off the sea, quite a surprise as I had never seen anything like that before.



67 014 0n the 'WAG' set en route to Cardiff for the rugby on 25 November, from that footbridge that is often seen from the A483 but rarely photographed from.



On 25 November, 70013 Oliver Cromwell drops down from Gresford Bank onto the new double track section.



70013 at Beeston with the return to Bristol.


Llangollen News



The Llangollen Railway Santa Season started on Saturday 2 December, and on Sunday, in marginal lighting, the procession to Lapland at Carrog, as seen passing Berwyn, featured 2807 on the 12 noon departure ...



 ...  later seen returning ...



...followed by the third train of the day with 5199 in charge. Pictures by George Jones.



A long-term resident of the yard at Llangollen left for a new home on 30 November. 2859 was seen loaded up and ready to depart to its new owners' restoration base at Congleton. Proceeds from the sale of 2859 will go towards the boiler overhaul of small prairie tank 5532 which resides in the shed awaiting the final essential item to complete its restoration from scrapyard condition (George Jones).


Shipping news - by Jim Johnson



These pictures Nassau-registered MV Danica Hav at Port Penrhyn, Bangor, loading decorative slate chippings, either purple or blue, from Penrhyn Quarry (or possibly green from Pen-Yr-Orsedd) destined for Rye, Sussex.



She docked on Friday evening / early Saturday morning, 22 December,  and left on the evening tide, Saturday 2 December.


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