Wales v Scotland
14th February 2004
The Wales v Scotland Six Nations rugby international was to start at 16:00,
meaning the Crewe to Cardiff specials left later than usual and we could take
the 08:26 departure from Bangor to connect. This was lucky as the 08:26 was
the class 47 hauled train, today featuring 47 750 seen here
on arrival at Crewe's platform 12.
Most freights take the avoiding line so we were lucky to see 57 007
Freightliner Bond within minutes of our arrival
Virgin's Pendolinos are still a novelty to me but I'm sure I'll soon get fed
up of them
The class 47 hauled specials were due to leave at 10:04 via Wrexham and at
10:18 directly down the Marches line, the latter scheduled to arrive more
than an hour ahead of the Wrexham service. We opted for the latter, but at
10:15 the 10:04 hadn't moved and the 10:18 had vanished from the departure
screens. We panicked at the nightmare thought of having to travel by class
158 unit and jumped aboard. As Deiniol remarked, it felt like being on a railtour
as despite the late departure we still had to wait 20 minutes for time at
Wrexham. The conductor said "anyone who'd like a smoke or wants to photograph
the locomotive has plenty of time!". Most of the passengers at this stage
were railfans, but there were a few normal passengers annoyed at being sent
on such a circuitous journey... but it transpired that there's been a points
failure between Crewe and Shrewsbury so it was a sensible move after all.
This class 158 unit is the usual life form operating the Marches Line