NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY :NOTICE BOARD
Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd
22 July 2024
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 advice and 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, society and tour operator details.
20-21 July Talyllyn Railway Awdry Extravaganza
Saturday 27 July Midland Pullman Crewe - Paignton
August 2024
3-4 August Llangollen Railway 1960s Weekend
Saturday 3 August - Rail Excursion to the City of Chester. Newcastle to Chester (via York). Bishop Trains. HST to be confirmed.
Wednesday 14 August Statesman Telford Central - Carlisle
pickups Shrewsbury, Gobowen, Chirk, Wrexham General, Chester, Frodsham, Warrington BQ
24-26 August Bala Lake Railway August Steam Gala
24-25 August Model Railway Exhibition in Machynlleth in support of the Corris Railway
30 August - 1 September - Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway - Steam Gala with model railway exhibition
September 2024
Wednesday 4 September Statesman High Wycombe - Blaenau Ffestiniog
Thursday 5 September Pathfinder Tours The Cambrian Coast Express Bristol - Pwllheli
Friday 6 September Clwyd Railway Circle The Denbigh, Ruthin and Corwen Railway in the Vale of Clwyd - Fiona Gale
12 September Pathfinder Cambrian Coast Express Swindon - Pwllheli
14-15 September Welsh Highland Railway Super Power Weekend celebrating the successful restoration of the NG15 locomotive.
Sunday 15 September Steam Dreams 'Welsh Dragon' steam-hauled London Paddington - Shrewsbury, then diesel through to Pwllheli. For more on this and this and the next two entries see the Steam Dreams website.
Wednesday 18 September Steam Dreams 'Welsh Dragon' steam hauled Bangor - Crewe, then diesel to Cardiff via the Heart of Wales line
Thursday 19 September - Steam Dreams 'Welsh Dragon' steam hauled Cardiff to London Paddington via Gloucester and the Golden Valley line
Saturday 21 September - Northern Belle Telford - Carlisle pickups Shrewsbury, Wrexham General, Chester.
21-22 September Bala Model Railway Show Ysgol Godre’r Berwyn Secondary School, Ffrydan Road, Bala, Gwynedd LL23 7RU. 10:00 - 16:00 (Bus link to Bala Lake Railway station)
Opening times: 10.00-16.00 on both Saturday and Sunday.10.00-16.00 on both Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday 28 September UK Railtours London - Chester 'Our tour takes an interesting route from London to Chester and Llandudno Junction where we plan to access the Glan Conwy freight sidings.'
October 2024
Friday 4 October Clwyd Railway Circle Wrexham’s Second Railway Mania - David Parry
4-6 October Ffestiniog Railway Bygoneds weekend
5-6 October Llangollen Railway Heritage Railcar Weekend
November 2024
Friday 1 November Clwyd Railway Circle Chinese Steam in 2001 and 2003 - Phil Thomas
December 2024
Tuesday 10 December Midland Pullman from Holyhead to Edinburgh Waverley - Edinburgh Christmas Pullman
14-15 December Manchester Model Railway Society - The Christmas Model Railway Show. The Sugden Centre, Sidney Street, Manchester
North Wales Coast Railway website created and compiled by Charlie Hulme
The Statesman visits Blaenau Ffestiniog, 17 July. Picture by Gary Thomas.
47 810 shows its age (Logan Humphries).
Dinas Diesels
Views from when cycling past Dinas station, Welsh Highland Railway on 21 July. Images by Greg Mape, information by 'Festipedia'.
WHR No. 9, Baguley 0-6-0DM locomotive, builder's number 2395 of 1953, built for the Drewry Car Co Ltd, for agents Underhill Day & Co Pty Ltd, for South Johnstone Co-operative Sugar Milling Association Ltd in Queensland, Australia. It arriveed on the WHR in 2009 and is used for Permanent Way wprk.The locomotive has a Gardner 8LW diesel engine derated to 132 hp. During restoration at Dinas, the engine was uprated to its original 150 hp power output.
Castell Caernarfon is one of two 27 ton, 335 hp turbocharged B-B diesel-hydraulic built by CH Funkey & Co (Pty) Ltd of Alberton, near Johannesburg, South Africa, for the Consolidated Diamond Mines of Namibia. After the diamond mines swapped to road haulage, they worked at the private siding of Pretoria Portland Cement Ltd, a twelve mile branch from the South African Railways Avontuur line. It arrived on the WHR in 1993, and recently has had a comprehensive overhaul. It is one of two in the diesel fleet capable of hauling a 6-coach train.
Northern Belle on the Coast
57 314 Conwy Castle passes Abergele with the 1Z41 07-08 Hull to Llandudno Junction 'Northern Belle' on 20 July
Arriving at Llandudno Junction (Garry Stroud).
On the rear, 57 313 Scarborough Castle seen as the train continues empty to Holyhead, and the passengers enjoy off-train options to Llandudno, Bodnant Gardens or the Penderryn Distillery.
The empty stock passing Penybont near Bangor (Logan Humphreys).
The return crossing Llandulas Viaduct in monsoon conditions (Greg Mape).
Riding the Llangollen Line - by Paul Hajdasz
Myself and my brother went on a return trip to Llangollen Railway on Sunday 2 July, taking the 10:30 am service hauled by 31 271 Stratford 1840-2001 .
It was fairly lightly loaded on this round trip and we arrived on time at Corwen where it ran round for the return journey.
As we had about an hour to wait we had a walk into Corwen town. On the way back at Glyndyfrdwy we met DMU class 108/127 numbered 51618 56223.
Class 197 notes
The 21 units intended for the Cambrian lines are being moved from storage at Donnington to Long Marston. The plan is to fit them with the necessary equipment for the ERTMS signalling in time to begin operation in 2015.
A note in Rail Express magazine records that most of the 3-car units have been seen in traffic; remaining to emerge at the end of May were 197 119, 121, 123, 124 and 126. Can anyone update this? It's not known when (if ever) the supplement for sitting in the section of the coach with more comfortable seats will be applied.
Statesman Chester-le-Street - Blaenau Ffestiniog
47 810 (D1924) Crewe Diesel Depot and 47 712 Lady Diana Spencer prss Rhyl with the 1Z53 Chester-le-Street to Blaenau Ffestiniog 'Statesman' tour. on 17 July (Ivor Bufton)
Abergele (Garry Stroud).
After visiting Blaenau 47 712 leads as it enters Llandudno Junction on the return service. 47 810 out of sight on the rear (Garry Stroud)
After running round, the two locos are seen departing Llandudno Junction with the return to Chester-le-Street. (Gary Stroud).
Class 37/4 news
Two of the Class 37/4s recently sold by DRS, 37 424 and 37 425, were going to a company called Meteor Power, purveyors of 'High Performance Electric & Hybrid Power' but it now transpires that they are actually to join their friends at HNRC, who state that they are all to be returning to the main line.
A Llangollen event
Llangollen Railway welcomes back the Popular 'Swinging Sixties Weekend' on 3 & 4 August.
Making a very welcome return after several years’ absence, this is a great weekend with something for everyone. As the attached poster shows, the event will include live music on Llangollen station, vintage vehicles, a heritage bus service from Corwen, a real ale bar at Llangollen station and the chance to drive a diesel shunting locomotive at Corwen station. There will be a busy timetable of steam, diesel and railcar trains, all of which would have been seen at work around the country in the 1960s.
The Ruabon-Barmouth railway was one of the victims of the Beeching Cuts, closing at the end of 1964. The closure of rural railways was extremely unpopular and attracted considerable resistance from the communities about to lose their transport links. Demonstrations were not uncommon and LR volunteers, dressed in period clothes and bearing placards, will recreate anti-closure protests at Glyndyfrdwy station over the weekend.
From Dave Sallery's archive
31 188 passes Penyffordd on an engineering train in conjunction with the Merseyrail resignalling, 11 May 1993.
37 218 and 37 251 at Bangor working the 'Mabinogion' charter back to Euston from Amlwch, 16 October 1993.
37 418 'Pectinidae' on a Crewe - Bangor service leaving Rhyl, 3 June 1993.
31 304 passes the long closed Maentwrog Road station on 21 July 1993. This was a test service after a period of disuse and was run to get the line ready for the removal of nuclear fuel from the power station in the background. The three flasks were borrowed from a Wylfa service as the siding at Trawsfynydd could only fit two.
Note: If you wondered why last week's article about Bord na Mona was labelled 'Part 2', Part 1 can be found on the 31 May 2021 notice board,
Looking back - Ireland 1969 - by David Pool
Steam in the Irish Republic had ended in 1962, and at the time of my visit in 1969, most CIE passenger services were locomotive hauled, although diesel multiple units were being used in some areas. I had crossed from Fishguard to Rosslare on 30 August 1969, in order to explore the Southern part of Ireland after my previous visit to the North in 1968. I wanted to photograph one of the trains which had connected with the ship at Rosslare Harbour, the 18:00 departure to Waterford, and Killinnick seemed to be a suitable location. The train was hauled by No.184, one of the newest Class 181 diesels built by General Motors in 1966, but having a little more power than the earlier GM Class 121 and Class 141 locomotives. The passing loops on the single line were signalled for bidirectional running.
The following day I went to Waterford station, which was basically a terminus for the main line but with a through track for the New Ross and Rosslare lines. More recently this track has been used for freight to the nearby Bellview Port. The signal cabin is impressive, and there were two locomotives in the platforms, B164, a 141 class GM, and A59R. The latter was one of the A Class Metrovick diesels built in 1956. The R suffix indicated that the original Crossley engine had been replaced by a GM 12 cylinder 1325hp engine.
At Tralee on 3 September 1969 I was pleased to see one of the older diesels, C218, in the unexciting CIE black livery. This was another Metrovick locomotive, built around 1957, and used generally on freight duties. This would have had the unreliable Crossley engine, rated at only 550hp, since all of this Class were being fitted with much more powerful GM engines, signified by a B prefix to the number. As B218, this locomotive went to the Northern Ireland Railways as NIR 105 in 1991, but was scrapped in 1997.
The late afternoon sunshine on 3 September 1969 was excellent for photographs, and the 1835 from Tralee to Mallow was headed by Metrovick A15, still with a Crossley engine. The train was slowing for a tablet exchange at Farranfore station. Note the usual signals for bidirectional running through the loop.
Killarney station was little more than one long platform, with an adjacent goods yard. Most passenger trains on the line would be travelling to or from Tralee, but Killarney station is on a short spur from the main line, so Tralee trains have to reverse 300M along the spur when calling at Killarney. On 5 September 1969 I was fortunate to see a freight train at Killarney, headed by B103, built by Birmingham Carriage and Wagon Co. in 1956. This had a Sulzer 960hp engine. Later that day I was at Listowel, on a branch no longer having a passenger service, and found B103 there after having come from Tralee. This locomotive has now been preserved by the Irish Traction Group and is at their restoration base at Carrick on Suir, not open to the public.
Limerick is a terminal station, and was busy on 6 September 1969, with B106 on station pilot duties and E428 available for shunting. While most of the freight wagons were conventional vans, the open wagons containing what I assume to be beer kegs were unusual. There were bogie wagons built in the 1970s which carried cages of Guinness kegs, often called Keg Liners, but I would welcome information on what was in the wagons at Limerick, and how the individual kegs would have been handled.
I intended to end my visit to Ireland by crossing from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead, so had the opportunity to see the rail activity on the coast line from Dublin to Rosslare. At Dun Laoghaire Pier on 8 September B130 was leaving with the 17:40 to Dublin (Pearse). The Hibernia was moored nearby.
I returned on the Holyhead Ferry I on 9 September, after having photographed B124 on the 09:00 Dublin to Rosslare Harbour as it climbed round Bray Head. The Fixed Distant signal was presumably to remind drivers to exercise caution as they approached Bray.
The Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) system operated to Bray when it opened in 1983, and was extended via Bray Head to Greystones in 2000. B124 was also acquired by the Irish Traction Group, and is at Moyasta (West Clare Railway). Sadly this is another site in Ireland which is now closed, due to Volunteer resource problems.
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