NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY:NOTICE BOARD
Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd
18 November 2019
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Forthcoming events
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)
56 087 at Chester station with the Rail Head Treatment Train, 15 November. Picture by Ryan Lloyd.
The Christmas Cheshireman
'The Christmas Cheshireman' was a steam-hauled excursion run by the Railway Touring Company on 16 November from Bristol (07:04) to Chester (13:05) double-headed by 'Black 5' locos 44871 and 45407 The Lancashire Fusilier. The new locos made their way from the East Lancs Railway to Bristol, with both their support coaches, on 14 November, photographed at Helsby by Greg Mape.
Passing Balderton crossing ( Bob Greenhalgh). A4 pacific 60009 Union of South Africa was originally booked to run this train, but repairs were not completed in time.
Rossett (John Cowlishaw). As John notes: 'This shows the benefit of looking at Realtime trains every day.' [Over in Northern-land at the moment we look at it every day to count how many services at our local station have been cancelled. - C.H.
On 16 November, the special crossing the viaduct and approaching Chirk station (Anthony Thomas).
At Pentre, after departing from Chirk where water was taken (Anthony Thomas).
Wrexham General (Martin Evans). 44871 headed the train in both directions.
Passing Wrexham North Junction (John Cowlishaw). The line in the foreground is the Borderlands route to Bidston; the milepost marks 1 mile 20 chains (1¼ miles) from Wrexham.
Balderton crossing (Bob Greenhalgh). 842 of these LMS Railway multi-purpose 4-6-0s were built between 1924 and 1951; the number series started at 5000, but overflowed the original allocation, so vacant numbers in the 4xxx series had to be used. 44871, built in 1945, is several years younger that 45407.
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Roodee Junction (Lee Davies). Both these locos last in British Railways service until the final year of steam, 1968. 44871 took part in the so-called 'Fifteen Guinea Special' on 11 August 1968, celebrated as 'BR's last main line steam train.'
Chester, Northgate locks (Claire Davies). Like the recent 'Flying Scotsman' run , there was no tail-end diesel loco provided; it appears there has been a change of policy.
The train turned on the triangle of lines west of Chester, ready for the return trip (Lee Davies). Was one loco run round the train to achieve this without an assisting diesel?
A Day on the North Wales Coast - pictures by Ryan Lloyd
A series of pictures taken at Abergele on 8 November starting with 158 825 heading west. Note the Network Rail workers in the distance: perhaps they are involved putting the signalling cable into its waiting trough.
158 836, again in the new livery (with added track dirt). Re-livery and refurbishment of 158s is proceeding quickly: by mid-October 17 of the 24 sets had been done, along with 5 of the 11 20car 175s, while 175 107 remains the only 3-car set that has been done. (information from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/transport-for-wales-livery.172016/). Locomotive 67 025 is also reported in TfW livery, has anyone seen it?
12:02. The 09:10 London Euston to Bangor formed of 221 142 Bombardier Voyager (Formerly Matthew Flinders). All Virgin branding, including the shield on the front, has been removed in preparation for the franchise change.
175 104 on Manchester Airport - Llandudno.
175 106 working Llandudno - Manchester Airport.
12:10: The wind refuses to blow in the right direction as 60103 Flying Scotsman passes by with its Holyhead-bound excursion.
12:50: 56 087 leads the Rail Head Treatment train, with 97 304 at the other end.
175 116 Manchester Airport - Bangor.
150 240 heads west, with its remembrance poppy in place. 150s should not be found on long-distance services, but they have become increasingly common. None have been re-liveried, perhaps because of their early (?) replacement.
Greg Mape's view
Passing on the tight curve between Deansgate and Skelton Junctions in Timperley on the morning of 15 November is a Drax-bound 60 096 Impetus with another load of Biomass; 66 592 running light-engine Guide Bridge to Runcorn to collect a refuse train Bridge-Runcorn) is waiting for the Drax service to clear the single line next to Metrolink through Navigation Road station.
Northern 150 112 passes Skelton Junction with a Chester - Manchester service. The disused line on the left served industries in the Partington area until 1993, and that section is still in place. Until 1983 it continued across the Ship Canal to meet the Cheshire Lines Manchester - Liverpool route at Glazebrook. In 2017 there was a blaze of publicity about a possible re-opening as a heritage railway, but the poor state of the Ship Canal viaduct makes this unlikely.
Little and large on Llandulas viaduct, 16 November.
Our Friends in the North - by Jim Ikin
We took a trip up north several weeks ago and took in several railways, some with connections to Wales. At 'Locomotion' Shildon on 23 September (above), one of the locos from HST 253 001 on a low loader -the last Great Western power car.
The Rocket replica in action at Shildon.
The lowest-numbered (but not the first to enter traffic) 'Black 5', 5000 (45000) which was based at Holyhead in 1959 and 1963.
On 23 September, we visited the Causey Arch (above), the oldest railway bridge still standing in the world, built in 1726 as a horse drawn tramway....
... which runs into the now 'heritage' Tanfield Railway.
Although the railway wasn't working we were allowed to wander at will around the large site (apart from the machine shop) and the volunteers were superb, including those working on the boiler of 'Horden'. a Barclay 0-6-0 works number 1015.
The North Yorkshire Moors Autumn Gala on 27 September featured ' Black 5' 5428 (45428), allocated to Patricroft depot in 1948, now named after Bishop Eric Treacy, the railway photographer who died after having a heart attack on Appleby Station in 1978.
Seen on a number of occasions on the Coast, 60009 Union of South Africa being piloted by 62005 and owner John Cameron on the footplate. 6990 Witherslack Hall which entered Barry scrapyard in 1966 and left in 1975.
Great Western 'King' class 6023 King Edward II awaits departure at Goathland, showing off its blue livery.
At the National Railway Museum in York on 28 September, the original Rocket recently on display in Manchester, and Pet one of seven 1' 4¼” narrow gauge engines in use at Crewe Works, built in 1865.
6229 (46229) Duchess of Hamilton, a regular on the Coast – in its non-streamlined form - in the late fifties and early sixties. Identities were exchanged with 6220 Coronation when it attended the World's Fair in New York in 1939, being shipped back in 1942 and resuming its old identity. Based at Crewe North and Edge Hill in 1960 and 1961, it was withdrawn in 1961 and saved from scrapping by Billy Butlin.
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