NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY :NOTICE BOARD
Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd
12 June 2023
Contributions to the Notice Board are welcome, although they may not always be used, due to time constraints, especially if they don't follow the file name convention given on the Contributions Page.
Forthcoming events
Charter trains, and meetings, may be subject to cancellation or postponement. See our Calendar Page for Club and Society details.
June 2023
Saturday 24 June North West Rail and Transport Collectors' Fair. Crewe Alexandra Football Club. Alexandra Stadium, Gresty Road, Crewe CW2 6EB (5 mins walk from Crewe Station) |0.00am - 3.00pm
Admission - £2 Adults, Children Under 16 Free
July 2023
Wednesday 12 July Statesman Rail The Snowdonia Statesman Kilmarnock IST Lancaster - Betws-y-coed/Blaenau Ffestiniog LSL Pullman
August 2023
September 2023
Friday 1 September
Clwyd Railway Circle A History of The Internal Railway at Shotton Steelworks and its Links with the Main Line. Glyn Jones
Wednesday 13 September Statesman Rail The Snowdonia Statesman High Wycombe IST Birmingham NS - Betws-y-coed/Blaenau Ffestiniog LSL Pullman
16-17 September : Bala Model Show Ysgol Godre'r Berwyn School, Ffrydan Road, Bala, Gwynedd LL23 7RU
10.00-16.00 both days
Approximately 20 layouts, half standard gauge, half narrow (including live steam).
October 2023
Friday 6 October Clwyd Railway Circle A Year in the Life of an International Train Spotter - Part 2. Phil Thomas
11 October Statesman Rail The Snowdonia Statesman Stevenage - Nuneaton - Betws-y-coed /Blaenau Ffestiniog LSL Pullman
November 2023
Friday 3 November Clwyd Railway Circle The Railway in Conway. Larry Davies
December 2023
Friday 1 December Clwyd Railway Circle Members Night Presentations. Members are invited to give a 15-minute presentation of their choice.
(see our Calendar page for meeting venues)
North Wales Coast Railway website created and compiled by Charlie Hulme
Reflected in the calm waters of the river Conwy as it approaches Llanrwst, 47 593 Galloway Princess heads the return 1Z76 16:08 Blaenau Ffestiniog to Hull Statesman tour. See item below. Picture by Garry Stroud.
Apologies for any blunders in this issue - this little room has been really hot today!- Charlie
Miscellany
On 12 June, 66 302 on 4D59 09:11 Wellingborough to Llandudno Junction, passing Prestatyn (Ivor Bufton).
5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe and 7029 Clun Castle pass Wellington on 10 June with a Vintage Trains (Tyseley) 'Welsh Marches Express', Birmingham to Hereford, out via Shrewsbury (Abbey Foregate) and back via Newport (Maindee) and Gloucester. on 10 June (Anthony Thomas)
Observed entering Bangor station on Saturday 10 June, 175 116 was in charge of the 1V96 10:30 Holyhead to Newport service.
Still at Bangor was failed Class 67, 67 022 seen 'dumped' along the west side of the Station. This loco has been here for quite a few weeks now (Garry Stroud).
66 760 David Gordon Hands passes Ruabon on 7 June with cement tanks for Penyffordd (Martin Evans).
158 839 on the 11: 37 from Pwllheli to Shrewsbury shortly after leaving Criccieth, 3 June (Ken Millward).
Bob Greenhalgh made An early start to photograph the Saphos 'Fellsman' trip to Carlisle leaving Chester at 07: 40 on 7 June...
... and a beautiful evening to catch the return. Bob writes '45231 sounded fabulous as it left Chester and could be heard for several minutes after it passed me. Brilliant!'
67 012 in Manchester Piccadilly platform 10 with the 12:30 to Cardiff (Charlie Hulme).
Snowdonian Statesman
On 7 June the 'Statesman' branch of the Loomotive Services organisation, ran a luxury excursion from Hull to Blaenau Ffestiniog. Above, the train passes Bagillt heading west (Stephen Dennett).
Approaching Llandudno Junction. Picture by Gary Thomas. The locomotives, from the Locomotive Services fleet, were 47 593 and 47 614 ,as currently painted. 47 614 is better remembered as 47 853, which had until recently carried its Brush Type 4 number of D1733, famous for being the XP64 painted locomotive.
Dolgarrog (Greg Mape).
Leaving the passing loop at North Llanrwst (Greg Mape).
47 614 crosses the River Conwy south of Llanrwst, on its way to Blaenau (Garry Stroud).
Betws-y-Coed ...
.. and 47 593 on the rear (Aaron Proctor)
Arrival at Blaenau Festiniog (Gary Thomas).
The connecting train from Porthmadog arrives (Gary Thomas).
197 002 departs Blaenau Ffestiniog with the 14:57 to Llandudno. The charter can be seen stabled in the loop (Ken Robinson),
47 593 with the empty stock ready for the passengers off a Ffestiniog train to board (Ken Robinson).
'Blast-off' (Greg Mape).
On the way home (Ken Robinson).
Between Tal-Y-Cafn and Glan Conwy on the return (Gary Thomas).
After reversing at Llandudno Junction, crossing the River Clwyd (Gary Thomas).
Passing Mostyn on the return. The train arrived at Hull one minute late at 23:27.
Thirty Years Ago - by Garry Stroud
With the appearance of former Scottish based Class 47s, 47 614 and 47 593 'Galloway Princess' working the Statesman tour from Hull to Blaenau on Wednesday. You may like to have a flashback to yesterday of these two locos over 30 years ago when Scotland was their home turf. Pictured outside Glasgow Eastfield depot, 47 593 Galloway Princess' then in InterCity livery awaits attention on Sunday 29 April 1990.
In large logo livery and Scottie dog emblem, 47 614 passes Moy, south of Inverness, working the 10:35 Inverness to Euston service. Tuesday 26 July 1988.
From the Website archive, 47 853 - today's 47 614 - in 'Heritage' XP64 livery at Manchester Piccadilly, 6 March 2002.
Ffestiniog Round Robin - report by Gary Thomas
I'm pleased to report that I also did a Ffestiniog Round Robin on Thursday 8th. The ticket seller in Llandudno Junction had never (in their 5 years in the role!) heard of the ticket, so I had to refer them to the ticket code on BRFares.com and then the mystery was solved. Our morning train which should have been a 67 was replaced with a 175. The trip to Shrewsbury and then on to Porthmadog was nice and uneventful. We joined the 14:10 Mountain Spirit to Blaenau Ffestiniog having reserved a couple of seats on the train by calling the Ffestiniog Railway booking office without issue. We arrived at Blaenau about 20 minutes late, but this still left a couple of hours in Blaenau before a 197 took us back to the Junction.
Flying Scotsman at Chester
10 June saw iconic loco Flying Scotsman hauling the the Railway Touring Company's excursion "The Cheshireman" from London Euston to Chester.
Stephen Dennett captured the train near Waverton, heading for Chester
Arrival at Chester (Roly High).
Returning from a trip around the Chester triangle (George Jones).
Chester, ready for departure back to London (Anthony Thomas).
From Dave Sallery's archive
40 022 at Llandudno Junction, 24 October 1983. On the side is the unofficial name Laconia; the official version had been removed some time before.
40 143 with an up ballast train at Mostyn, 2 July 1984.
40 150 passes Prestatyn with a short engineers train, 4 October 1984.
40 122 (D200) after repainting into green, at Prestatyn on the 08:20 Stoke-on-Trent - Llandudno, 28 May 1986. At this period, this summer-only train did a trip to Blaenau Ffestiniog and back before returning to Llandudno to form the 18:15 return to Stoke. Happy memories for some no doubt!
Looking back: Buxton lime part 3 (Diesel shunters) - by David Pool
I previously illustrated the Thomas Hill diesel Harry Townley in ICI orange livery in 1988. Returning to the Tunstead area on 8 April 1995 Harry Townley was in the blue and white livery of Buxton Lime Industries, retaining the ICI number SCW 105. ICI had sold their Lime Division to BLI in 1992, and this Anglo American company is now part of Tarmac UK operations.
Harry Townley was responsible for the rebuilding of an Avonside steam locomotive at Tunstead to a Rolls Royce powered diesel locomotive RS8 in 1959. This unusual locomotive was eventually taken out of service, and on 29 April 2016 it was being displayed at the National Stone Centre, Middleton, looking in a sorry state.
I was very pleased to hear that the locomotive was being restored at Tunstead Works – an interesting task for apprentices under training. Removal from the National Stone Centre and restoration at Tunstead masterminded by Pete and Andrew Briddon. Lots of detail on the restoration can be found on their blog. The work was finished in 2019, and on 29 May 2022 RS8 was at Darley Dale on the Peak Railway, together with other diesels in the care of Andrew Briddon.
The other Diesel locomotives operated by ICI were much more conventional in appearance, such as the Class 08 lookalike John Brunner, English Electric No.1901 (1951), photographed on 25 June 1982 at Oakleigh sidings with the ICI limestone hoppers.
The ICI diesels could be confusing for anyone trying to identify a particular locomotive, since locomotive manes were often transferred between locomotives. Ludwig Mond is typical, in that my photograph taken at Weston Point, Runcorn, on 6 April 1972 shows this name on a Yorkshire diesel 2611 (1956). This became Cavendish in the following year!
Ludwig Mond was then an English Electric diesel at ICI Winnington, Works No.1552 (1948), but when a new locomotive was supplied by the GEC group, Works No.5578 (1980), this inherited the name. The new Ludwig Mond was photographed at Winnington on 7 September 1983. Originally preserved by 'Rocks by Rail', this is now another locomotive acquired by Andrew Briddon.
I have had no success in trying to confirm the identify the Sentinel diesel photographed at Peakstone’s Peak Forest Quarry on 15 April 1989. Any information would be appreciated. (dp20855).
And finally, another pair of shunters to identify. Two RMC Roadstone Sentinel diesels were photographed at Peak Forest on 28 March 1997. I’m sure the details must be somewhere on the web, but I’ve had no positive identification so far!
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