NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY:NOTICE BOARD
Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd
11 December 2018
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December 2018
Friday 14 December Altrincham Electric Railway Society. People & Places 3. images of railway staff, enthusiasts, the general public and the steam railway. A digital presentation by Paul Shackcloth.
Saturday 15 December Steam on the Coast Pathfinder Tours 'The Chester Chuffer'- Salisbury-Chester with 60163 Tornado: Bescot - Crewe - Chester - Wrexham - Worcester.
Monday 17 December RCTS Chester "The Fate of The Irish Mail" Tony Griffiths (A film which relates the story of the Abergele disaster in 1868)
Saturday 22 December Pathfinder Tours 'The Festive Frolic' Diesel-hauled excursion from Birmingham to Chester and back including some unusual routes.
January 2019
Friday 4 January Clwyd Railway Circle “West Country Memories” An illustrated talk which includes all the branch lines of Devon and Cornwall. Dave Southern
Tuesday 8 January North Wales Railway Circle (Speaker to be announced) The Bala Lake Railway
Friday 11 January Altrincham Electric Railway Society. Journeys through Wales during the 1960s including narrow gauge railways A colour slide presentation by Bill Chapman.
Monday 21 January RCTS Chester AGM, followed by "A Photographic Tribute to Edgar Richards"( Non-members are invited to attend from 20.00 hours)
February 2019
Friday 1 February Clwyd Railway Circle “The Glorious Steam Railways of India” The images were taken when it was a fully steam worked system, with a variety of steam across four different gauges. John Sloane
Tuesday 5 February North Wales Railway Circle [To be announced]
Friday 8 February Altrincham Electric Railway Society Steam and Diesel in the Northern Fells 2010-2016. A digital presentation by Ian Pilkington.
Wednesday 6 February RCTS Liverpool "North West & North Wales Reminiscences of the 1960s" John Cashen
Monday 18 February RCTS Chester "A Taste of Japan" Gordon Davies
March 2019
Tuesday 5 March North Wales Railway Circle Humph Davies with mostly narrow-gauge archive material.
Friday 1 March Clwyd Railway Circle “Annual General Meeting” followed by “Chairman’s Choice” A night of self indulgence from the retiring chairman, David Jones
Friday 8 March Altrincham Electric Railway Society. The Glorious Steam Railways of India. Steam across India from 1976 to the early 1980s. A digital presentation by John Sloane.
Monday 18 March RCTS Chester "55 Years of Railway Photography, Part 2" Les Nixon
April 2019
Tuesday 2 April North Wales Railway Circle Gareth Haulfryn Williams, archivist and author, on 'Rails to/from Bethesda.'
Wednesday 3 April RCTS Liverpool "Manchester to Liverpool by CLC" Ken Grainger
Friday 5 April Clwyd Railway Circle "Scotland in the 1960s" The talk covers the whole of Scotland - going up the west side to Wick and Thurso and returning down the east side from/to Carlisle.
John Cashen
Friday 12 April Altrincham Electric Railway Society Great Western and Southern Steam in the West Country. A colour slide presentation by Alf Storey.
Monday 15 April RCTS Chester "Steam on the North Wales Coast" (Video Presentation) Ron Watson Jones
May 2019
Tuesday 7 May North Wales Railway Circle AGM and Members' Photo. Competition.
A Class 221 Super Voyager between Abergele & Pensarn and Rhyl on the 1A43 Holyhead to Euston on a dull and rainy 5 December. Picture by Alan Martin.
RHTT's last run
Saturday 8 December saw the last run of the Rail Head Treatment train for this season, with the usual power 56 087 and 56 094 and piloted by 50 050 Fearless (formerly D400), owned by Boden Rail Engineering. Bob Greenhalgh photographed the ensemble westbound past Beeches Farm.
Near Prestatyn (taken from a legal position) (Dave Sallery).
Rhyl (Roly High).
56 094 on the rear wearing the usual RHTT livery of gunge overlaying its Colas orange. Only the rear loco gets gunged, but with top-and-tail working both get equal treatment.
Bangor (Rowan Crawshaw). D400 became 50 050 when the class number-based system was adopted, as it as thought that 50 000 could not be used. Some other classes fixed this by re-using the number of a withdrawn loco, but all 50 class 50s were still around at the time.
The 50 was run round the train at Holyhead to lead on the return, so its rail blue livery remained unsullied, as seen at Bangor (Rowan Crawshaw).
Llandudno Junction, with station refurbishment in evidence (Gwion Clark). Eighteen Class 50s survive in preservation, including several registered for main line use.
Class 37 nostalgia - with Graham Breakwell
37 428 was one of the batch of class 37 rebuilds allocated to Cardiff depot for passenger services, but on 7 June 1986, having emerged in this form from Crewe works earlier that year, it is passing Baschurch crossing north of Shrewsbury with an an engineers' train, judging from the 'Mermaid' ballast tipping wagon behind the loco.
Later that day, 37 428 stabled at Shrewsbury with 37 426 (named Y Lein Fach/Vale of Rheidol on 5 May 1986) and 20 135.
Also given a Welsh name (on 11 May 1986) was 37 430 Cwmbrân, seem at Aberystwyth on 21 June 1986 with train 1A50, the 11:10 to London Euston which it would work as far as Shrewsbury.
Fourteen feet above sea level. The wording of the small plaque eludes us, but it relates to the opening of the new station serving Cwmbrân new town on 12 May 1986.
37 428 had to wait until 1997 for a name. On 15 August Graham was at Baschurch to capture the loco heading south, with an other 37 waiting for the signal to continue north with HEA domestic coal hoppers, perhaps for the coal depot then still in operation at Gobowen.
On departure, the black material covering the new nameplate could be discerned, as the loco was on the way to Pwllheli for a the unveiling the next day of the name David Lloyd George by Lady Olwen Carey-Evans, daughter of the famous statesman. See our 28 August 2017 issue for more about this.
The newly-named loco then worked the 07:40 Pwllheli to London Euston 'Snowdonian' service on its first run of the summer. Graham photographed the train at Machynlleth (above) ...
... and departing from Welshpool. The name had previously been carried by 47 409. 37 428 had further adventures, including a period in 'Royal Scotsman' maroon livery, North Wales Coast work, the Rhymney line, the Fort William sleeper, and transfer to the freight sector, before being put in store in 2003 and final withdrawal in 2009 and scrapping in 2013.
Interesting up-to-date 37/4 news is that 37 418 (a regular on North wales passenger trains in the 1990s) has emerged from overhaul at Barrow Hill, resplendent in 'large logo' livery complete with 'Highland Stag' and will be working for Colas on Network Rail trains.
Cambrian 97
97 304 enters Barmouth as the 08:12 from Coleham on 4 December to pick up a 'Stoneblower' (Ken Robinson).
97 304 has run round the loop and returned to the up platform, whilst the Network Rail Stoneblower (no. DR80211) moves under its own power from the headshunt to the siding (Ken Robinson).
The ensemble is almost ready to return as the 12:03 to Coleham it didn't leave until 12:14 (Ken Robinson).
Near Fairbourne (Ian Wright).
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