NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY :NOTICE BOARD
Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd
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13 October 2025
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See our Calendar Page for operator details.
October 2025
Wednesday 8 October Statesman Rail Snowdonia Statesman from Durham to Blaenau Ffestiniog with LSL 47 and/or 57
Friday 10th October Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Alteration: A new speaker, Lee Stanford, who is speaking on "Unseen Southern Steam from the late Edward 'Ted' Banting Collection". The talk features steam in the Salisbury and Andover area in the early 1960s.
20 October, Belmond Britannic Explorer 3-day Tour of Wales
November 2025
Thursday 4 November Clwyd Railway Circle Jeff Nicholls “A Baptism of Fire and Water-My First Wolsztyn Experience” Part Two
Saturday 8 November Northern Belle Settle and Carlisle Steam Special. Wrexham General and Chester to Carlisle via the S&C. Diesel to/from Carnforth, steam for remainder
Saturday 10 November; Belmond Britannic Explorer 3-day Tour of Wales
Friday 14 November Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Noel Coates "Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Engine
Sheds".
Saturday 22 November Pathfinder Railtours The Chester Christmas Explorer Oxford Parkway, Golden Valley and Marches line to Chester
December 2025
Monday 1 December Midland Pullman Edinburgh Christmas Pullman from Bangor to Edinburgh
Thursday 4 December Clwyd Railway Circle 'Railways & Tramways of the Isle of Man' Geoff Morris.
January 2026
Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Friday 9 January John Hooley "A Midlands Miscellany".
February 2026
Friday 13 February Altrincham Electric Railway Preservation Society Paul Shackcloth "People and Places 8".
Other useful sites:
For up-to-date North Wales information
join the North Wales Trains News group
North Wales Coast Railway website created and compiled by Charlie Hulme
... 197 050 and 197 108 on 1V40 Manchester Piccadilly to Milford Haven at Crewe. Picture Paul Hajdasz.
This is a rather short issue: some items will be added before 10am Tuesday, others will be held over for next time. - Charlie
Miscellany
Paul Hajdasz writes: 'On Thursday 9 October I observed a couple of light engine moves whilst at Crewe. The first was 66 114 awaiting on the adjacent line to platform 11 with DB 0K54 from Toton TMD to Crewe ETMD ...
... Making my way quickly to platform 1 66 570 passed on Freightliner 0Z72 Crewe Basford Hall to Crewe.
The large loco 66 789 working from Tunstead sidings to Banbury Reservoir Tarmac negotiating the Skelton Junction - Deansgate Junction curve near Altrincham. The anchors in the centre 'four foot' are to prevent the track from moving sideways. (Greg Mape).
A busy scene at Chester on 8 October recorded by Roland High. MPV DB98954 at the front and DB98904 at the rear wait for the road to Wrexham...
... Colas Tamper DR73921 a Plasser & Theurer 08-16/4x4C80-RT sits under the Signal Box...
...in company with Swietelsky/SB Rail's DR75013 a Plasser & Theurer Unimat 09-4x4/4S Dynamic Tamper.
Llangollen Railcar Weekend - report by Ken Robinson
Class 108/104 railcar combo arriving at Corwen, with an interesting destination!
Services arrived at, and departed from, Glyndyfrdwy during the weekend - here the class 108/104 units are seen on the left with the Wickham (class 109) on the right. The 109 had a 127/108 hybrid on the rear!
The 127/108 are seen (with the 109 behind) preparing to depart from Glyndyfrdwy. Did not have time to take photos at Llangollen! All taken on Sunday, 5 October.
A Traveller's Tale - by Alan Crawshaw
67 015 is seen here bringing the Holyhead to Cardiff into Newport on Friday. I should have been travelling in the opposite direction by then, but the 09:23 Cardiff Central to Holyhead started 15 minutes late. I was surprised to find two Central Wales line 153s tacked onto the advertised class 158 unit, one being a refurbished example with enhanced cycle capacity. The conductor announced that we'd be losing them at Shrewsbury, from where the two car unit was well filled but nobody had to stand.
We'd lost a further ten minutes by Chester. A Manchester Airport to Llandudno service arrived, and passengers for intermediate stations were told to transfer so we could run non-stop to Llandudno Junction, which recovered ten of the lost minutes. We reached Bangor a minute after my bus departure time but luckily it was a few minutes late, saving me an hour's wait for the next one.
The Impossible Dream
71000 Duke of Gloucester, newly returned to operation, on a test run, Wrexham, 7 October (Anthony Thomas) Below is a selection of its test runs in 7 - 8 October, not necessarily in any order.
The 7 October run near Beeston Castle (Ian Pilkington)
On 8 October the run was Crewe - Shrewsbury -Crewe Above: Approaching Tattenhall...
... and passing Walcot (Dave Jepson).
Gresford Bank, by Peter Neve, who remembers: 'I last saw Duke of Gloucester on the main line in early 1962 (from memory). I spotted “her” one Saturday afternoon at Chester General station as I was riding my bicycle across Westminster Road bridge. She was waiting for the “off”, standing on the freight road (near to where Chester PSB is now) with a train of box vans bound for Crewe, I seem to recall. It was good to see her some 63 years later, looking immaculate and sounding wonderful. All credit to those who have made this possible. Indeed, the Impossible Dream'.
Chester Locks (Logan Humphreys). The name refers to the history of this unique loco after it was consigned to Barry scrapyard, minus the cylinders and valve gear to be a museum item.
The right hand cylinder was removed at Crewe Works and used as a “guinea pig” for the final sectioning of the left hand cylinder which was later exhibited at the Science Museum, South Kensington, London. This sectioned cylinder together with its valve gear currently resides at the Heritage Centre, Crewe. The loco stood at Barry for seven years, deteriorating. seemingly lost for good with no hope of running again - an impossible dream. But a group of enthusiasts in 1973 thought different, an impossible dream. The history is told on the
Some news clippings
TfW plan to introduce a shuttle service between Chester and Wrexham, worked with a 197 unit, to relieve the crush on the existing services. Part of the route is single track, which might problems for the timetablers.
The Britannic Explorer has suffered yet another 'door problem', this time when during the service with passengers aboard. They were evacuated to hotels, and the train was returned to its depot.
Well-known railtour company Pathfinder is closing down, the owners wishing to retire. They will be missed by the many people who have enjoyed their well-organised tours, often including non-passenger lines.
From David Sallery's Archive
101 685 is on a Llandudno - Blaenau Ffestiniog service near Dolwyddelan on 1 July 1994. This unit is now preserved on the North York Moors Railway.
31 224 and 31 134 have just arrived at Llandudno Junction with the flasks from Trawsfynydd, 15 July 1994.
47 347 nears Tal-y-Cafn on a Pathfinders Tour from Kings Cross to Blaenau Ffestiniog on 26 June 1993. 47 347 has since been rebuilt as 57 004.
56 010 nears Buckley on empty coil wagons from Shotton to South Wales, 3 June 1997.
Looking Back: Steam and Diesels 1969 part 7 - by David Pool
Most railway enthusiasts will be familiar with Stroudley’s Terriers, but perhaps less so with his final design, the Gladstones. These were successful locomotives intended for express services between London and Brighton. All were named after politicians, the first locomotive in the Class being LB&SCR 214 Gladstone. They were eventually withdrawn as more powerful locomotives became available, but 214 survived until 1926, and was purchased by the Stephenson Locomotive Society in the following year. It is now under the care of the National Railway Museum, and was being displayed at York on 1 November 1969.
Another locomotive at York on that date was North Eastern Railway 1463, built by the NER at Darlington in 1885 and later designated as a Class E5. It was withdrawn in 1927 and is now part of the National Collection, being on display at Darlington. This was a later version of the similar 901 Class locomotives of the NER, one of which has also been preserved as NER 910, and has appeared at the Stainmore Railway. It would seem that York Museum considers that NER 910 is a more worthy exhibit than NER 1463, and so the latter was moved to a less well known location.
Although not on show in the main museum, several locomotives were in an adjacent shed which was not closed off to the public. The A4 60019 Bittern was visible, but an unusual diesel was of interest. DS 86 was under the radar of most publications at that time, and it has been difficult to establish much information about it, apart from the fact that it was built in 1961 for the North Eastern section of BR and scrapped in 1970. To my surprise I discovered that Hornby had recently produced a model of sister locomotive DS 84, which was a Ruston & Hornsby Type 88DS, which looks to be identical to DS 86. The information is usually out there somewhere, the problem is finding it!
On 29 November 1969 I wanted to visit Dinting, and took the opportunity to photograph at Hayfield, where a Class 108 DMU M56487 was leaving with the 14:12 to Manchester Piccadilly. Passenger services between Hayfield and New Mills Junction were withdrawn in January 1970.
The EM1 Electrics were still to be seen on the Woodhead line with passenger trains, which were ended in early 1970. The 14:45 Sheffield Victoria to Manchester Piccadilly was passing through Dinting headed by 26057 Ulysses, one of the fourteen locomotives fitted with steam heating. The late afternoon sun seems appropriate for the twilight of the Woodhead passenger services.
The Royal Scot 6115 Scots Guardsman was at Dinting and looking in excellent condition, but at that time it did not look likely that it would ever reappear on the main lines. The condition was accurate for 1947, when it had been rebuilt with a taper boiler and smoke deflectors and painted in LMS lined black.
My final shots in 1969 were at Llandudno Junction on 27 December, which was a particularly sunny day. The 14:45 from Llandudno comprised a pair of 2-car Class 101 Metro-Cammell DMUs, which would split at Chester with portions going to Manchester and Crewe. .
As the Class 101s were arriving at the station, the 10:35 Euston to Holyhead was departing with 307, one of the Darlington built Type 4s, later re-numbered 40 107. A train photograph with the locomotive and coaches in shade is not likely to be successful, but the remains of 6G Shed in the distance provide some interest in the scene, as does the wisp of steam from the steam heating boiler in the locomotive.
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