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North and Mid Wales Rail RoverDay 1: Wrexham, Chester and Rhyl |
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Rowan (my son) and I left Bangor
on the 9:05 Birmingham New Street service, one of the few loco-hauled
trains to stop at Shotton. Today's aim was to photograph some of the sparse
freight workings along the coast, starting with the westbound ballast
from Penmaenmawr which should have passed before we had to transfer to
the upper level station for a very bouncy Pacer trip to Wrexham Central,
which looks like it's in the middle of a bomb site. Neither of us had
visited Wrexham and apart from the station area we were pleasantly surprised
at the pedestrianised town centre with it's narrow alleys and arcades.
Shame about the weather though - heavy rain! We had trouble finding General
station, a few signs would have been handy. Railtrack have made a very
good job of renovating it though there were no toilets apart from the
disabled one, for which a key was necessary, and there were few seats
on the platforms.
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 Compared with the Pacer, the 156 to Chester seemed luxurious but it's such a shame this section was singled. It's still quite a fast run and restoring double track would allow a faster North-South Wales link to take in Wrexham. By the time we reached Chester it was hot and sunny but the city was packed out as usual so we just grabbed a quick takeaway and headed back to the station where I took this photograph of 37 420 The Scottish Hosteller on the 13:40 to Holyhead. Having done a fair bit of Scottish hostelling myself I'm rather fond of this engine! |
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On to Rhyl where we waited in vain for the flasks from Valley! But it was very pleasant sitting on the platform and we caught 47 788 Captain Peter Manisty RN arriving 50 minutes late with the 13:38 from Holyhead in place of the usual HST. The dvt sporting Abraham Darby in the naff new Virgin style, was followed by Virgin Train Line and Cheap Birmingham-London fares hoardings, a very garish sight! |
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The station is the nicest part of Rhyl,
the rest of the town being a disaster area. I tried the three nearest
pubs in vain for cask-conditioned ale, this being the land of tattooed
lager-drinkers with Manchester Utd replica shirts.
No freight but a nice day out and we caught the 18:16 back to Bangor anticipating tomorrow's outing, our Grand Tour of North Wales. |
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