NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY:NOTICE BOARD
Rheilffordd arfordir gogledd Cymru: Hysbysfwrdd
16 March 2020
Forthcoming events
(see also our Calendar page for venues)
Note: we have removed all entries up to the end of May as the events are cancelled.
June 2020
Saturday 27 June Steam at Chester The Cheshireman (Railway Touring Company). 60163 London Euston - Chester and return.
July 2020
Sunday 19 July Steam on the Coast North Wales Coast Express (Railway Touring Company) LIverpool - Manchester - Holyhead (15:05 - 17:40).
Tuesday 21 July Steam on the Coast The Welsh
Mountaineer (Railway Touring Company) Preston - Blaenau
Ffestiniog and return
August 2020
September 2020
Saturday 5 September Steam at Chester 'The Cheshireman' (Railway Touring Company). Norwich to Chester. Loco 6233 for part of the journey.
Llandulas viaduct, 14 March. Picture by Greg Mape.
67s in action
67 001 passes Bagillt, 9 March with the 13:07 Holyhead - Manchester (Peter Laithwaite).
On 10 March propelling the 13:07 Holyhead - Manchester at Flint. Picture by Tim Rogers. As we mentioned in an earlier piece, the track layout and signalling here allow for a passenger train from the Chester direction to terminate and return using the crossover east of the station.
67 001 on the 16:50 Manchester - Llandudno arrives at Chester, 10 March ...
... and prepares to depart (Ryan Lloyd).
The 09:53 Manchester - Holyhead passes Dwygyfylchi, 11 March (Gary Thomas). That sign looks like a hazard for cyclists!
On the other, less-often photographed, working diagram, the Cardiff - Holyhead 'premier service' 67 020 at Chester where the train reverses ...
... the locomotive leading along the Coast, as seem after arrival at Llandudno Junction (Ryan Lloyd).
Out and About - wth Martin Evans
An unusual sight in Platform 8 at Crewe on 3 March was Network Rail electro-diesels 73 951 Malcolm Brinded and 73 952 Janis Kong which arrived from Coleham depot, Shrewsbury with ERTMS loco 97 303 sandwiched between them. ...
... and after reversal headed for Derby with Janis Kong leading.
On the same day, Rail Operations Group 47 813 Jack Frost (pushing) ...
... and 57 305 Galloway Princess depart from Crewe with a Crewe Carriage sidings to Allerton Depot working conveying Northern Class 319 319 424 to Allerton.
On 3 March, DB 66 101 powers through a damp Stafford with 4O21 09:17 Trafford Park to Southampton Docks service, one of the services launched in 2019 when Maritime Intermodal took over the operation of the Trafford Park terminal.
A fairly uncommon sight at Crewe on 10 March was TransPennine Express loco 68 031 Felix (named for the Huddersfield station cat) which had emerged from the Gresty Bridge depot if DRS which owns the Class 68 locos and leases them to TPE.
East Midlands Railway 156 498, one of four transferred from Northern in 2011, departs from Crewe on 10 March with the 10:07 to Derby.
Looking back: 9Fs at Chester - by Peter Neve
Former Franco-Crosti boilered 9F 2-10-0 92025 hauls a train of over 60 (condemned?) box vans past Chester no. 2 signal box on 2 June 1967. The painted shed code (8H) on the smokebox door indicates it's a Birkenhead (Mollington Street) engine. The locomotive was withdrawn in November of that year, just 12 years old.
9F 92094 drifts past the former Brookhirst Works car park with a train of mineral wagons (with double doors), presumably en route to the steelworks at Shotton. The location is Brook Lane, Chester, and in the background can been seen the lower quadrant signals of Chester Northgate station. The date is 1 June 1967.
Devoid of all smokebox door identification, Riddles 9F 2-10-0 92011 passes the junction to Chester Northgate station with a train of mineral wagons bound for Shotton steelworks. The train is in Cheshire Lines territory and the triple-masted bracket signal with lower quadrant semaphore signals can be seen in the background. The train is crossing the Chester to Birkenhead line and the diesel depot can just be seen in the right background. 92011 was allocated to Birkenhead shed (6C/8H) in her last days. She was built in Crewe Works in 1954, withdrawn in November 1967 and cut up at Campbells, Airdrie sometime in 1968. The photograph was taken on 26 June 1967.
From Dave Sallery's archive
Controversial at the time was the painting of preserved 'Deltic' 55 016 in Porterbrook Leasing's purple and grey colours while on hire from the Deltic 9000 Fund. Dave captured it in 2002 passing Prestatyn.
In the days when ballast trains from Penmaenmawr were formed of the wagons to be used at the work site, 37 107, in 'Speedlink' colours, passes Prestatyn with a train of 'Dogfish' or possibly'Catfish' hopper wagons on 7 March 1996.
47 712, now owned by Locomotive Servicesfeatured in the last issue, wears a livery we didn't mention when working the short-lived 'Blue Pullman' charter train through Abergele on 15 July 2006.
More on 47 712 - by Mark Hambly
The ScotRail livery first appeared in the 1980s as one of the features of the Chris Green era. Certainly when 47 715 was named Haymarket by Robbie Coltrane at that depot's Open Day in August 1985 it was in that livery. (Incidentally at some subsequently the overall branding was revised slightly, with the "R" becoming lower case). The Haymarket event was held not long before Chris Green moved south to become "Mr Network South East" and launch what might be regarded as the most significant identity creation and branding exercise of the entire 50 years of BR.
Green all the way
Taken from Burton Mere RSPB reserve with 500mm lens and 1.4x extender hence the extreme telephoto, nice stacking of the green signals. The train is the 14:32 Bidston -Wrexham on 6 March (Gareth Prestidge).
Llangollen news - by George Jones
With the locomotive erected in the engine shed at Llangollen, the final phase of this long term 'GWR Small Prairie' rebuilding project is underway with the boiler overhaul.
The Llangollen Railway Great Western Locomotive Group have launched a Tube Appeal to raise £20,000 to complete the Boiler of 5532 and return the Small Prairie to traffic for the first time in the Preservation Era. Requiring 195 Small Tubes in total and 6 Large Tubes these are being offered for sponsorship at £100 and £275 each respectively (payment by £25 instalments also available).
Anyone willing and able to help please either send a cheque payable to "LRGWLG" to Fundraiser Paul Bailey at "Dolwen, Bryneglwys Corwen LL21 9LY or contact Paul on 01490 450271 for alternative Payment Options.Tube Sponsors will receive a certificate in acknowledgement and also be invited on the first service train hauled by 5532.
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