NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY:NOTICE BOARD

Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd

30 December 2019

















Contributions and comments are encouraged: see the Contributions Page


Forthcoming events


(see our Calendar page for venues)

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)


Boxing Day nostalgia at Llangollen. Picture by Ian Henderson.

Penyfford Cement



In the gloom at 15:58 on 27 December, 66 737 Lesia passes Cefn-y-Bedd with train  6Y75, 11:11 Gloucester New Yard to Penyffordd Cement Sidings empty cement tanks,  after which the locomotive ran empty to Crewe. Paths are in the timetable for trains of cement to Avonmouth and Small Heath (Birmingham) and it looks like the flow is about to begin. Picture by Bob Greenhalgh.


From Dave Sallery's archive



On 14 June 1993 electro-diesel 73 001, 002 and 005 sit in the old DMU shed at Chester, having arrived from Eastleigh for use on engineering trains on the Merseyrail network. 73 001, the first of the class, and 73 002 still exist, and have recently been purchased from preservation groups by Crewe-based Locomotive Services, although 002 is likely to be used as a spare parts donor. 73 005 has been heavily rebuilt to become 73 966 to work the diesel portions of the Caledonian Sleeper services.


South Manchester selection, 16 December - by Greg Mape



A busy half hour by the site of Baguley station on 16 December.



66 161 with stone empties for Peak Forest.



Looking the other way, 66 094 with a loaded stone train, possibly from Dowlow although Dowlow trains normally use red DB wagons.



Something different - Manchester Metrolink car 3117 negotiates the hump-back bridge near Sale Water Park station on the Airport line.


Seen at Wrexham North -  by John Cowlishaw



Three pictures from Wrexham North junction on 19 December. Above,   175 103 passes with the 11:24 Cardiff - Holyhead.



Being very carefully driven to ensure the pleasure of the Northern Belle customers with the silly
hats eating their Christmas dinners, 57314 leads 1Z90 north on the 12:06 Coventry to Chester outward leg.



57 601 Windsor Castle was at the rear.


Llangollen festivities - report by George Jones



No sooner had Santa departed on Christmas Eve, than the railway resumed operations on Boxing Day - once again providing the only standard gauge train service in North Wales, albeit only between Llangollen and Carrog.



7822 Foxcote Manor was in action on the Mince Pie Special trains offering seasonal refreshments for travellers who came from all parts for the holiday. The train was running with a traditional style headboard.



The end of day activity at Llangollen provided some light and shade photography for Ian Henderson who captured 7822 at rest then running through the station back to shed. Something the travelling public fail to see - early morning preparation and late evening disposal on-shed activity for the loco crew in rainy conditions.



This year the 'Cold Turkey' train for members of heritage railways in North Wales operated on the Llangollen line giving narrow gauge adherents a chance to sample the standard gauge.
With 7822  in charge, the train was seen running into Carrog on Saturday 28 December.  Otherwise Pannier Tank 6430 was in charge of the Mince Pie Specials.



As an end of year report from Corwen, laying the siding at Corwen East was completed on 21 December. Some 300 ft of double track now exists on the final approach to the new station platform. This concludes the effort begun on 21 April to infill the gap and set out the mainline connection with points for the terminal loop. The pictures show the twin-track layout - east (above) and west views - a first for this side of the Corwen site.



The priority for the New Year is to concentrate on completion of the island platform with the insertion of drains, installation of lamp posts and running in board, and the final pair of canopy columns, with a need to level up the infill material and spread fine grain sand ready for the pavers. There is also the matter on completing the gap in the platform wall, which has provided road vehicle access, with the final layer of easi-blocs and platform edging. Sounds easy but represents a lot of work for the project volunteers. Ballasting, packing and alignment with the aid of a hired in tamper will follow before an official inspection later in the year.


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