NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY:NOTICE BOARD
Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd
02 December 2019
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Forthcoming events
(see our Calendar page for venues)
December 2019
Tuesday 3 December North Wales Railway Circle Christmas Bash - as usual please bring any items of interest with you.
Wednesday 4 December RCTS Liverpool "Liverpool And Its Railways " John Ryan. A look at the varied railways of Liverpool and its surrounding over many decades by former British Rail civil engineer.
Friday 6 December Clwyd Railway Circle ' Member's Selections & Christmas Celebrations' Members are invited to give a 15-minute presentation of their choice (any format). Contact David Jones 01244 537440 to book a slot.
Saturday 7 December. Rhyl & District Model Railway Club Annual Model Railway Exhibition. 10.30am - 4.00pm. Parish Church & Community Hall, High Street, Prestatyn, LL19 9AR. Proceeds split between Rhyl & District MRC Roof fund and Ty Gobaith Hospice
(Conwy). Around 15 layouts in Scales 'N' to 'G', demonstrations, trade stands. Light refreshments. Adult £3.50, includes 1 child free admission (5-15yrs). Additional child £1.50.
Saturday 7 December Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. At Sale United Reformed Church lounge, Montague Road, Sale M33 3BU Including seasonal refreshments! Owen Russell ‘Memories of the Woodhead Line’ The Woodhead line linked Lancashire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and London. As there were shorter routes to London, express trains often comprised only 5 or 6 coaches. The line was a good place to see a variety of GC and, later, LNER engines, which had to work hard on the notorious gradients. Like many steam routes, Woodhead was a line of contrasts.
Thursday 12 December Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society A railway pictorial of steam Barry Wynne (Special Christmas meeting with quiz)
Friday 13 December Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Steam across South Africa in 1973 Part 1. a digital presentation by John Sloane, who visited the country when many of the older classes of steam locomotive were still in service.
Saturday 14 December Steam at Chester UK Railtours 'The Christmas Chester Chuffer' London - Chester. Steam Bescot - Chester - Crewe.
Monday 16 December RCTS Chester "1960s Southern Branch Lines" David Miller. A 1960s archive of black and white photographs mainly of Southern branches but also from further north, with some interesting diversions. Images never seen before.
Thursday 19 December Steam at Chester Railway Touring Company 'The Chester Christmas Express' Stevenage - Chester. Loco 6233.
January 2020
Tuesday 7 January North Wales Railway Circle NWRC committee member and Coast Railway website contributor Peter Basterfield. Home & Away.
Friday 10 January Clwyd Railway Circle “Railways Around Holywell Part 1' Ray Bailey
Friday 10 January Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Locomotive Sheds of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. a digital presentation by Noel Coates.
Monday 20 January RCTS Chester AGM , then John Cashen will do a whistle stop tour throughout Britain of photographs he took in the 1960s and 1970s (Change of speaker)
Saturday 25 January Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Centre AGM (brief) followed by: Christian Wyatt ‘21st Century signalling Control Centre – The Manchester Rail Operations Centre’ Christian Wyatt, a career railwayman with 38 years’ service, started as a signal box lad at Manchester Victoria and is now Project Operations Interface Manager for the London North Western route. One of his key responsibilities is the development of the Manchester Rail Operations Centre. Christian will describe the MROC from its build in 2012 to its present operational status.
February 2020
Tuesday 4 February North Wales Railway Circle Robin Humphrey-Davies ('Humph'). The route of the Welsh Highland Railway, Part 2, Rhyd Ddu to Porthmadog.
Wednesday 5 February RCTS Liverpool "The Black & White Collection Of Bill Ashcroft " John Sloane. Bill Ashcroft was a well-known name in Lancashire steam railway circles and John Sloane from Wigan will present some of his large collection of monochrome pictures from the steam era.
Friday 7 February Clwyd Railway Circle 'Rheilffordd Talyllyn Railway' David Murphy
Thursday 13 February Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society Llangollen Railway Dave Southern
Friday 14 February Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society People and Places 4. Images of the pre-1968 steam railway including trains and railway staff, enthusiasts or the general public. a digital presentation by Paul Shackcloth.
Monday 17 February RCTS Chester "The Unknown Warrior – The Patriot Rebuild" John Hastings-Thomson. The LMS Patriot project are rebuilding a Patriot, ‘The Unknown Warrior’ and this presentation will describe the huge amount of work and money involved to build a new steam locomotive.
Saturday 22 February Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Tony Wright ‘Aspects of the Origins & Development of Monorails including Behr, Lartigue and the Manchester to Liverpool Lightning Express Railway’ You may remember Tony’s excellent presentation on Mayfield Station. Don’t miss this intriguing meeting.
Tuesday 25 February 18:30 Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Joint meeting with the Newcomen Society, Location to be confirmed. Bob Gwynne, Associate Curator, National Railway Museum ‘Sticking with steam – an examination of why Britain’s railways stuck with steam into the space age’ This talk examines some of the complex history behind moving on from the steam age on Britain’s railways and attempts an answer as to why the UK’s love affair with the steam hasn’t ended.
March 2020
Friday 6 March Clwyd Railway Circle Annual General Meeting - followed by a Film Show
Thursday 12 March Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society plan to have a visit from a representative from Transport for Wales. More details later
Friday 13 March Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Wheels on Reels. Transport Films – taken with a cine camera and shown using a cine projector. Geoff Lomas presents a selection of his Films in the traditional manner.
Tuesday 3 March North Wales Railway Circle Barry Wynne and Steve Morris. Another show from Barry's superb collection.
Monday 16 March RCTS Chester "The Lever Brothers Railways Of Port Sunlight" Mike Lister Telling the story of Levers’ railways. The soap factory was constructed in 1888 and its railways covered 54 track miles and the talk will describe the railway within the soap factory and other factories at Bromborough.
Saturday 21 March Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Melvyn Roberts ‘Indian Summer of the Somerset & Dorset Railway’ The S & D was (and still is) many enthusiasts’ favourite cross-country railway. We will hear about its unusual history, but the main feature will be a slide show of its operations in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
April 2020
Wednesday 1 April RCTS Liverpool "L&Y Engines At Work" Paul Shackcloth. Paul Shackcloth is the photographic historian for the Manchester Locomotive Society who have a large collection. This talk will show Lanky locomotives at work over the whole of the ex-L&Y network, including Liverpool Exchange.
Friday 3 April Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Great Named Trains. (note: first Friday) featuring postcards of named trains and video of the engines which hauled them and survive in preservation. a digital presentation by Society President Nick Dodson
Tuesday 7 April North Wales Railway Circle Richard Sant, Secretary of the LMS Patriot Company. Progress on The Unknown Warrior
Thursday 9 April Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society Trams in Llandudno (Including L & CBER and Great Orme Tramway) John Davies
Saturday 18 April Stephenson Locomotive Society. Manchester Centre. Tim Owen ‘The activities of the Furness Railway Trust’ The Furness Railway Trust has a collection of six steam locomotives, including Furness Railway No. 20, plus historic carriages. The illustrated talk will cover the work of the Trust over the past 30 years.
Monday 20 April RCTS Chester "Another Colourail Journey" Paul Chancellor. A ninth Colour-Rail Journey will again trawl this vast collection of images for both views from across the country and through time, so expect both steam and modern traction to appear with may be the odd bit of infrastructure thrown in for good measure.
May 2020
Tuesday 12 May North Wales Railway Circle AGM and Photo Competition.
Thursday 14 May Llandudno and Conwy Valley Railway Society Evening Train Trip to Betws-y-Coed, where we will spend an hour in the Gwydyr. (Times will be confirmed later)
Taliesin working on the Welsh Highland Railway working from Porthmadog to Hafod y Llyn. on 23 November. Picture by Greg Mape.
North Wales Coast 29 November - pictures by Ryan Lloyd
67 013, currently the 'Manchester' loco, waits at Holyhead before propelling the 13:07 to Manchester Piccadilly on 29 November.
Ex-Virgin Trains Driving Van Trailer 82308 is the regular at the other end.
Arrived at sunny Llandudno Junction.
Avanti West Coast
The new West Coast franchise, taking over from Virgin, and run jointly by FirstGroup and Trenitalia, finally announced its branding with just a few days to go before the changeover, issuing the above video to commemorate the event. It's to be called 'Avanti West Coast' , where Avanti is Italian for 'Forward'. As usual, expensive consultants were paid to devise the branding, including a triangle symbol which points backwards ... the video seems to suggest that the westerly apex is Holyhead, although Birmingham is a more likely candidate. As many have pointed out, 'Forward' was the motto of the pre-grouping Great Central Railway.
The Trainline is ready with a booking site, complete with a nice picture of Castlefield in Manchester, and the company itself has set up a simple site at www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk counting down to the change.
The franchise itself is actually called the West Coast Partnership and includes future services on the HS2 high speed line, when and if it gets finished. This link outlines their plans, which involve keeping the Pendolinos, but replacing all their seats, and ordering 23 new 'bi-mode' trains to replace the Voyagers. There will also be 'changing places toilets' at Coventry Preston, Stockport and Birmingham International. (Maybe they will also fix the broken lift at Stockport?)
Steam news - Royal Scot in action
46100 Royal Scot passing Northgate Locks, Chester on 27 November with a Locomotive Services test run to Coton Hill Sidings, Shrewsbury (Robert Meredith).
Balderton crossing (Bob Greenhalgh).
Rossett (Peter Neve).
Drifting in ahead of time to Wrexham General, to be held at the signal (George Jones).
D6851 on the rear at Wrexham (George Jones). The train continued from Coton Hill sidings to Wolverhampton, took the connection at Bushbury Junction which allows a train to reverse without stopping, and on to Crewe via Stafford.
Another run was made on the wet and miserable evening of Thursday 18 November, photographed at Chester by Bob Greenhalgh.
In other steam news, 45699 Galatea has lost its rather odd red livery, and been turned out in British Railways lined green and given the name and number of 45562 Alberta. Has it therefore become the 45562?
Finally, following on from previous mentions of LMS Black 5 5000, here it is with 4930 Hagley Hall leaving Church Stretton with a 'Welsh Marches Express' on Saturday 11 April 1981. This image appeared in a Silver Link Classic Steam series book , Steam at Work by J. Corkhill and Peter Hanson. Thanks to Peter for allowing us to publish it.
RHTT scenes
As if the Rail head Treatment Train was not filthy enough, the 'street artists' have joined in. Here's 56 078 ...
... and 56 090 on 29 November complete with criminal damage (Ryan Lloyd).
Llandulas Viaduct (Greg Mape).
56 113 at Crewe, 23 November (Martin Evans).
New Cambrian book
 |
Newly-issued by
publishers 'Pen and Sword' is a hefty new
large-format hardback book, Cambrian Railway
Gallery. The publishers say: " This book in Pen & Sword’s ‘Gallery’ series starts with a brief history of the Cambrian Railways’ early years, followed by a magnificent comprehensive set of early photographs of Cambrian engines and Oswestry Works made available by the former Chairman of the Manchester Locomotive Society and the National Library of Wales. A tour of the sumptuous scenery of mid Wales follows – the trains in the landscape taken from Andrew Dyke’s collection and a few so expertly ‘colourised’ by him that most find it difficult to distinguish these from the many genuine colour photographs, the Welsh countryside deserving the rich and varied hues. The book is jointly authored by David Maidment and Paul Carpenter, the latter bringing the story of the Cambrian up to date and persuading a number of former railwaymen who worked on the Cambrian system to share their memories and experiences. The book finishes with a description [of efforts] to restore part of the closed section of the line through the efforts of members of the Cambrian Heritage Railways. The book has over 25,000 words of text, and more than 250 photographs, including over 40 in colour." See the Pen and Sword website for formats and prices. |
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