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 Updated  
 3 August

  next update
   17 August

   








 

Forthcoming events

See our Calendar Page for operator details.

Llandudno Museum, as part of the Rail200 celebration, has some rail related talks which may be of interest to readers. All are for approximately one hour starting at 1300, at the museum, 17-19 Gloddaeth Street Llandudno, LL30 2DD
4 August – Past, present and future of railway heritage in Wales – Dr Louise Moon (Transport for Wales)

11 August – Station Masters, Agents and Tickets – Philip Evans

27 August – History of British Transport Police – Bill Rogerson MBE (Secretary of BTP History Association)
August 2026

Saturday 1 August Northern Belle "Penderyn Distillery, Conwy Castle Or Llandudno At Leisure", Hull to Llandudno Junction. WCRC 47/57.

Sunday 15 August Railway Touring Company "The Slate Miner", Oxford to Blaenau Ffestiniog. WCRC 57 to Bescot, with a Colas Rail 56 to Blaenau Ffestiniog and return

Wednesday 19 August Midland Pullman "Torbay Riviera Pullman", Chester, Wrexham General, Ruabon, Chirk to Torquay and Paignton. LSL Midland Pullman HST.

Saturday 22 August SPRS Railtours "The Thistle & Dragon" Leven to Llandudno. LSL 50050 Leven to Llandudno and Llandudno to Chester. 45118 from Chester to Leven.
Saturday 22 August Retro Railways 'The Retro Cestrian Bard' Class 37s from Stalybridge to Stratford-upon-Avon and return. Pickup:

Stalybridge    07:00  
Reddish South   07:15   
Stockport    07:25   
Altrincham  07:40  
Knutsford    08:00   
Northwich    08:15   
Chester         08:50

29-31 August 2026 Bala Lake Railway Steam Gala

September 2026

19-20 September Bala Model Railway Show

Thursday 3 September Clwyd Railway Circle  "Severn Valley Steam" Highlights of 2012 and 2013  Steam Galas - Glyn Jones

Saturday 19 September Northern Belle "Settle & Carlisle Steam Special", Wrexham General and Chester to Carlisle. WCRC steam locomotive over the Settle & Carlisle line. Diesel hauled otherwise.

October 2026

Thursday 1 October Clwyd Railway Circle 'The view from a signal box window' Adrian Bodlander

November 2026

Thursday 5 November Clwyd Railway Circle "40 years of Railway in the Chester area" - Geoff Morris

December 2026

Thursday 3 December  Clwyd Railway Circle Ian Mainprize 'German Railway Development'

Friday 8th January Jeremy Nicholls "100 Years of Trains to Audlem" and "Nantwich and the Railway".

Friday 12th February Chris Davies "The AERPS and the Last Years of the 1500 volts dc Altrincham Electrics". Chris is a Vice-President of the Society and he has been involved since the early days in the early 1970s.

Friday 12th March Paul Shackcloth "People and Places 9". More images of the pre-1968 steam railway with at least one person visible.


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 



A contrast in traction seen at Chester - see below.  Picture by Richard Snook.
The Life of a loco : 37 512 - compiled by Ivor Bufton



The latest movement of a class 231 unit from Holyhead back to Cardiff saw 37 512 used for the first time on when hauling 231 003 as 5Q78 11:45 Holyhead Car. M.D. to Cardiff Canton Sidings is seen passing Prestatyn on July 24  The only previous visit to the coast as 37 512 I have recorded was the test run from Crewe works in 1987 (I'm happy to be corrected) but it was a regular performer as 37 608 both as a DRS loco and a ROG loco.

37 512 entered service 65 years ago in  July 1961 as D6722,  being renumbered under TOPS as 37 022 in 1974.  Entering Crewe Works in 1986 and emerged early 1987 as 37 512, running on test from Crewe to Llandudno Junction in January 1987, then in May 1987 it was named Thornaby Demon. The name remained until July 1995 when it became 37 608 and repainted into EPS grey, as part of the EPS night train service that failed to materialise.

Transfer to DRS followed in 1997, where it remained until 2016 when it became part of the Rail Operations Fleet and hired to Europhoenix, repainted out of DRS livery into ROG Europhoenix livery and named Andromeda followed in 2017. Repainted into ROG Europhoenix Green livery in 2024. On cessation of the hire to Europhoenix it was retro painted into Railfreight livery and renamed Thornaby Demon in December 2025.




37 608 with 37 259 working Spitfire Railtours  ‘Cumbrian Crusader III’ railtour is seen at Carlisle on 31 July 2010 in DRS livery.



37 608 top-and-tail with 37 611 moving 175 112 as 5Q69 09:54 Holyhead Car. M.D. to Barton Under Needwood is seen passing Prestatyn in ROG Europhoenix livery on 24 February 2024



37 608 top and tail with 37 884 moving 175 114 as 5W97 08:16 Holyhead Car. M.D. to Landore T.M.D. is seen passing Rhyl in ROG Europhoenix Green livery on 11 June 2024. These moves were part of a project to transfer for Class 175 to a new life in the South West.




Passing Conwy station. Note the special coupling (Garry Stroud).

A note about Eurostar

ch010-46.jpg (800×516)

As 37 508 at Stockport with 37 504 after delivering a Eurostar unit to the depot at Longsight, some time in the 1990s. The idea for the passenger service was that the Eurostars would be in sections from different parts around Britain, them into one 18-coach train to go through the Tunnel.

From the West Country, where there was no electrification, the trains, with sleeping cars, would be hauled to the tunnel by pairs of the 37s. By 2009 the proposed service was whittled down to two trains on the West Coast line and one on the East Coast. The trains would not call in London. Soon afterwards the whole project was abandoned. At the Manchester end of Platform 1 at Stockport station part of the canopy is missing - removed as out-of-gauge for a Eurostar.

There is a very interesting article about the twelve 37/6 locos on the Kentrail website.

The Derby Lightweight era

The Manchester Locomotive Society has recently received a collection of images by the Ian Foster.  Unfortunately there were list of contents.



Among them were these views of the Derby Lightweight units, which were to be seen on the Coast for a number years from their introduction to the area in 1956.  This one appears to one of the early example, with yellow diamonds above the buffer beam indicating that they could not be coupled to later units. They carried on the the early British Railways on the engined vehicle.  The location above is the long-lost station of Afon Wen, with a train for to Pwllheli departing. Note the red discs, which were the need to hang an oil lamp to indicate the end on the train.  Colour views of these units are rare,  especially ones showing this device from the rear.



Llandudno Junction. This unit has a white-painted end roof.  Note the Palethorpes Sausages advert, and the gas lamps with shiny new 'totem'.



Another view of 'The Junction'. Conwy Castle in view.

For information about the Manchester Locomotive Society link here.
For detail about Derby Lightweights see this link
From Dave Sallery's Archive

Class 31 97 204 in Departmental livery leaves Prestatyn on a Derby train, 24 June 1989.  97 204 was later renumbered to 31 970.

37 075 on a Down test train from Crewe works at Prestatyn, 26 February 1992.  This loco is now preserved on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.

37 800 + 33 028 at Prestatyn on a Cardiff - Holyhead train, 20 August 1986. The 37 had just been refurbished and renames from 37 143 and 40 years later it is still in traffic as Cassiopeia. In its 143 guise t survived a shunting mishap in sidings at Marine Colliery, Ebbw Vale in 1975. The loco fell sideways down a bank where it stayed for six months in the Ebbw river before it was finally recovered.

33 028 was withdrawn in 1988 and scrapped the next year.

08 843 Holyhead is engaged in shunting duties at Crewe, 20 April 1988.

37 408, Mostyn, 3 March 1995. Loch Rannoch is seen deputising for a class 47 on train 1A27 09:15 Holyhead -  Euston -  10 coaches plus the driving trailer as far as Crewe. A favourite loco for many,  37 408 was damaged in a shunting accident at Rhymney station in August 2005, and it was decided not to repair. It was scrapped by EMR, Kingsbury in January 2008.

Looking back : to the last weeks - Images by Gary Thomas

We normally don't include galleries of current images but Gary's selection here definitely deserves an airing.



On 6 July 47 832 passes Pensarn with the return three-day charter  from Llandudno to Saltburn.
 


8 July: 37 884 Cepheus passes Church Stretton while taking a Flirt DMU back to Cardiff after wheel turning at Holyhead.


 
9 June: 43 013 and 43 062 emerge from the Tubular Bridge and round Conwy Castle with the monthly NMT test train.


 
9 July : 37 884 passes Conwy Castle taking another Flirt DMU from Cardiff to Holyhead for wheel turning.
 


12 July: 47 804 and 47 812 pass Towyn charter from Liverpool to Holyhead hauled by diesel instead of steam due to dry and warm weather. Its destination was Holyhead but it left early and instead passengers spent unplanned time in Llandudno instead.


 
13 July at Llanfairfechan 37884 runs light engine from Holyhead to Cardiff, the Flirt DMU was not ready to be returned.



13 July: 66 760 and 66 752 pass Glan Conwy with the weedkiller train running from Rhyl to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
 


19 July: 60 029 passes Dwygyfylchi empty wagons from Chaddesden Sidings for loading in Penmaenmawr Quarry.


 
19 July: 805 002 and 805 010 at Dwygyfylchi working Avanti's only 10-car service along the North Wales coast, from Holyhead to Chester (as 10 car) then Crewe (as 5 car)

Looking back:  1972 part 1 - by David Pool




The Britannia Bridge was reopened to rail traffic on 30 January 1972, although the work to provide a deck for road traffic above the rail tracks was ongoing.  A Special train had been advertised to run from Crewe to Holyhead on the reopening day, so I went to photograph it at Rhyl.  The weather was rather miserable, but perhaps typical for mid Winter.  I wasn’t expecting the assortment of multiple units, and noted only M51569 (a Derby Class 108) leading the procession.  I don’t know if this was actually the first train over the bridge, and would appreciate any further information. 



A few weeks later the weather was no better on 12 February 1972.  At that time the East Coast Main Line had not been diverted past Selby and the Swing Bridge over the River Ouse.  The 08:10 Newcastle to Kings Cross was being hauled by the first production Deltic, D9000 Royal Scots Grey, which later became 55 022 and is now preserved. 



On 3 March 1972 I visited Birmingham, with the intention of photographing at Moor Street and Snow Hill Stations, which were being left to decay as New Street station was seen by the London Midland Region as the main station for the centre of Birmingham.  The GWR main line between Snow Hill and Moor Street had been severed by the closure of Snow Hill Tunnel in 1968, and Snow Hill station was due to close on the following day.  Moor Street was surviving, and a Derby Class 116 W50072 was working the 16:15 to Leamington Spa.



Snow Hill was a sad sight.  Two Class 122 single units were about to depart with the 16:25 to Wolverhampton Low Level and the 1638 to Langley Green.  By then the sun had appeared, but this did little to brighten the scene.  The ticket office was selling souvenir tickets for the services on the next day. I bought a ticket, although I didn’t intend to travel.  My ticket was numbered 6609, but I can’t believe that 6000 tickets had already been sold! Snow Hill station was finally demolished in 1977, but a new station was built on the site ten years later and the tunnel was reopened, so today Snow Hill appears to have a secure future. 



Lostock Hall was one of the last steam sheds in 1968, but much of the site was derelict on 12 March 1972.  Class 24 5133 on track maintenance duties was about to leave with a train of spent ballast. 



Another station with empty platforms was Bradford Exchange (named after the nearby Wool Exchange). On 18 March 1972 a pair of Birmingham Class 110 units M51818/59809/51834 and M51839/59811/51817 was working the 1400 to Leeds.  In the distance the station pilot, a class 03 shunter, with its 'match wagon' attached to ensure contact with the track circuits. The station closed in 1973, and a new Bradford Exchange was opened a little further from the City Centre.  The new station was renamed Bradford Interchange in 1983, being adjacent to a new bus station.



The electric trains to Bury were still running in 1972 since the Manchester Metrolink trams did not appear until 1992.  On 18 March 1972 the 16:00 Bury to Manchester Victoria was approaching Besses o’ th’ Barn, M77172 leading.  Today this and its companion coach M65451 are the only surviving Class 504 units, being at the East Lancashire Railway, although their future is rather uncertain. 



The line from Ormskirk to Preston had survived the closure plans, although it was operated as a shuttle service with a diesel unit.  The 11:00 Preston to Ormskirk on 25 March 1972 was formed by a Derby Class 108 M50970/M56256, and the single line tablets were being exchanged at Rufford signal box.  A small platform for the Signalman would have been useful! 



More track work was taking place at Storeton on 26 March 1972, as several track panels were being replaced. In comparison with present day track renewal systems, much manual labour seems to have been necessary.



It was a wet day on 1 April 1972 when I visited Holyhead.  A class 25, 5272 was departing at 11:52 with 4H07 to Manchester Mayfield presumably a parcels train.  A class 47, two 37s and a Class 25 with oil tank wagons are visible on the Depot. 

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