LarryG's general album

LarryG

Western Thunderer
An unidentified Clas 40 speeds along the coast west of Abergele with the 09.27 Manchester Victoria-Llandudno on 13th June 1981. The train is passing the exact spot where the Irish Mail came ot grief in 1868. 32 victims of the accident are buried in a churchyard in Abergele. The road was the Abergele by-pass, which became part of the A55 Expressway two years later. I drove for McAlpines during construction of this road in 1966-68...

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I eat my noon sandwiches trackside whenever the weather was fine and took this photo on the truncated Beach House Road. Class 47's No.47444 University of Nottingham and 47590 were working the 11.30 Euston-Holyhead near Llandulas on 13th May 1988. The trusty Mamiya 645 is seen on the parcels shelf while i am visible in the rear view mirror. (Contax 139 Quartz/50mm Planar T)....
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Making something of a Sprinter! Eating my sandwiches as usual, I must have seen this view a thousand times. The Class 150/1 was working the 11.52 Chester-Bangor on 21st February 1989... (Olympus OM1/35mm Zuiko on XP1 film)...
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Class 31 No. 31408 crosses the River Dulas with the 17.23 Llandudno-Derby in 1989.
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
I climbed up the crumbling hillside to a position above Penmaenrhos Tunnel at Llysfaen for this panoramic view. The previous pictures at Llandulas were taken around the corner of the headland beyond the farther jetty. There followed a 1-in-100 climb to the summit of the climb from Abergele where an unidentified Class 47 is seen woth the 15.42 Manchester-Bangor on 27th June 1981. The sea is still there(!) but everything else left of the train has changed with the construction of the A55 road along the shore.....

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A Class 40 is dropping down the 1-in-100 through the cutting at Llysfaen in 1977. It was from here that a train of wagons (of paraffin) that had been shunted onto the running line ran away down the gradient and collided with the 'Irish Mail' near Abergele in 1868. Tracks in the foreground were laid after the accident to sidings laid on the level...
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
Not quite the picture postcard Wish you were here image! In freezing temperatures, 47502 is seen passing Old Colwyn with the 10.22 Holyhead-Euston on 12th December 1981. Greenfield Road school in the distance was awaiting demolition, and today I would be standing on the A55 Expressway which parallels the railway from Abergele to Aber...
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
Freight 1:
There was still plenty of mixed freight about in the very early 1980's as here being 25143 passing colwyn Bay station on 16th December 1981. Flat barrier wagons, three gunpowder vans, another barrier low sided wagon, five tube wagons, ten steel mineral wagons and domestic fuel, all forming the 14.30 goods off Llandudno Junction...
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Freight 2:
40050 thundering towards Colwyn Bay with the 7F18 14.45 Amlwch to Ellesmere Port and Walton Yard Associated Octel tanks on 4th May 1982. The trains had brake vans each end for reversal at Hooton...

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Freight 3:
24306 shunting in Colwyn Bay's low-level goods yard on 26th February 1979 where traffic by this date was mainly domestic coal and fuel oil. Access to the yard was via steep incline and tunnel beneath the station forecourt. It closed in 1981...
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
Downpour: 1

Although HST's took over InterCity's North Wales services from Class 47 loco-hauled trains on 30th September 1991, the very first working occurred the night before. And guess what ~ an editor phoned for a photo of it. It was raining heavily, so I headed for Colwyn Bay station where, hopefully, I would be under a canopy. With the camera mounted on a tripod, I left the shutter open while walking up and down the platform painting the train with light from my flashgun. Then I covered the open lens with my hand until the HST revved up at the moment of setting off to capture the exhaust. Job done! 43o82 departing Colwyn Bay with the 18.45 Euston-Holyhead on the night of 29th September...

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Downpour: 2

North Wales has its wetter moments even in the height of summer, but on this day it was torrential. Class 24 No. 24082 draws into Colwyn Bay station with the 13.30 Manchester Victoria-Llandudno on 3rd July 1978....
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
A Class 37 for a change seeing as they all-but took over the north Wales line from Spring 1993. This is 37425 Concrete Bob crossing the junction with the Conwy Valley branch with a Blackpool-Holyhead train on 25th September 1993.

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Class 40 No. 40192 and Class 50 No. 50007 Sir Edward Elgar returning from Blaenau Ffestiniog at Llandudno Junction on 21st April 1984...
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Class 46 No. 46045 departs Llandudno Junction with the 11.30 Bangor-Manchester Victoria on 30th June 1979. Much of the complex trackwork at this end of the station was removed after the end of steam, but the old junction with the Conwy Valley branch remained on the left...
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A view of the Conway Valley line as it used to be with 25140 returning with a brake from Blaenau Ffestiniog in 1976. I didn't start keeping a diary of exposures and dates until early 1977....
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The west end of the station with Class 24's No.24073 and 24057 crossing onto the branch to Llandudno town with empty stock before retuning to Crewe with a day excursion on 26th June 1977....
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
One for the weathering experts! Class 40 No. 40106 was the last of its class to retain steam-era green livery and was badly in need of a repaint when I quite literally grabbed this shot as it sped through Llanduno Junction non-stop with an unidentified train on 26th August 1977...

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Class 24 No. 24081 heading the 'Horse & Carriage' parcels from Holyhead through Llandudno Junction on 26th August 1977...
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At the west end of Llandudno Junction, 40118 speeds through non-stop with a relief Holyhead boat train whle 25122 approaches the station past the LNWR signal box with the 13.05 Llandudno to Nottingham on 20th August 1978.....
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
Llandudno Junction had a motive power depot and re-marshaling yard for years. Class 31 No. 32304 and a companion were combining the nuclear flak trains from Valley (Anglesey) and Trawsfynydd in readiness for the run to Sellafield in January 1990. SR Bogie goods brakes and bogie barrier wagons were being used on the Trawsfynyyd section until the track settled down following much relaying...
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Following demolition of the steam shed, the carriage shed became home for the handful of diesels based there to work the freight and summer passenger services along the coast. 24082 was being fueled between shunting duties in 1977...
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A panoramic view of the depot taken on an old Olympus Trip. On shed are 24073, 24057, 25153 and 47555, June 1977.
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When Roy Dock, one time editor of Model Railway News, settled down in Rhos-on Sea, we became good friends. One of his hobbies was collecting old cameras, so one morning I took one trackside. Older than the pre-World War One camera I was carrying was this ex.Midland spotted across the tracks. With no time to waste, I fired off a shot and enlarged a small section of the 6X9 negative to produce this. It was testimony to the quality of the old optics. DM 39502 on 9th March 1984...
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
My negatives are in the attic and there was nothing written on the back of the print, so I don't know when I took this shot! Anyway, it's a view across the River Conway with a Class 37 approaching Deganwy...

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40 092 passing Deganwy station with the return 1L76 Adex to Hadfield on 29th May 1978...
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Commencing 8th August 1992, the 13.52 Manchester-Llandudno was worked by a pair of Class 31 locos. The return 16.40 Llandudno-Liverpool is seen passing Maes Ddu golf course headed by 31442 and 31413 Severn Valley Railway on 15th August 1992....
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
Remodelling at Llandudno in 1977 brought the Up and Down track together before splitting them again at the various station platforms, thus creating a bottle neck. This DMU was passing over the bottle neck after passing Class 25 No.25121 which was running round it stock in the carriage sidings on 8th September 1979.

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The signal box was a good vantage point for a panoramic view of Llandudno Station. Waiting to depart with various trains are 47050 with the 17.40 to stoke, 40019 to I know not where, and 40108 on the 17.20 to Manchester Victoria, 5th September 1979.
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Class 24 No. 24082 has just arrived at Llandudno with the 09.42 from Manchester and is uncoupling before moving forward to the crossover. The wall on the left shows there was once an extensive overall roof over the platforms. Eventually even the surviving roof was found unsafe and was removed in 1990...
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The arrival of Class 33's on the North Wales line proved popular with enthusiasts, if not with me haha. 33021 was laying over before taking out the 15.40 to Crewe on 15th May 1986...
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Class 20's No. 20007 and 20032 depart Llandudno with the 17.14 to Derby on 28th June 1991. It was to become a regular Class 20 working during that summer...
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
Returning to the north Wales coast line, 40138 coasts down the cob from Conway Tubular Bridge with the 12.57 Holyhead-Euston on 176th July 1979...

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Some 6 years before the Class 37 invasion of north Wales(!), ARC, the owners of Penmaenmawr Quarry struck up a contract with Peakstone to supply granite chippings to hope Street Stone Terminal for distribution in the Manchester area. The normal load was 21 RMC Roadstone PHA wagons, each loaded to 64 tons Haulage was by Class 37/6 locomotives. 36684 and 37685 pass by the castle walls of Conway on 15th May 1987...
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47344 passes through Conway Arch en route to Associated Octel on Anglesey with elderly HJV hopper wagons from Mostyn Dock on 18th December 1987. The leading wagon carried the plastic sheets when wagons were returning empty...

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Osgood

Western Thunderer
I'm going to assume the archway relieving was a deliberate act by stonemasons rather than caused over the years by abrasion.....:eek:
 

LarryG

Western Thunderer
This is the photo taken in 1976 that started me down the road of regular contributor and eventually 'North Wales correspondent'. My dear wife suggested I buy a 'proper' camera, which I did, so armed with a Russian SLR, I aimed it at anything and everything until one day I took this photo at Conway's famous arch. It was a trespass shot, so I asked the ganger (in the picture) if I might take just one photo seeing as we could hear an approaching train. He agreed but stood with his face away from the camera. His presence clearly 'made' the picture. It was published in Amateur Photography for a very good fee and henceforth I took it upon myself to get as much publicity for the Chester & Holyhead as possible. I had found a new hobby....

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LarryG

Western Thunderer
I have skipped Conwy Morfa and Penmaenbach to head straight for Penmaenmawr. Below was the Fridays-only Hope Street to Penmaenmawr RMC Roadstone arriving at the yard over the new crossover behind Class 60 No. 60095 Crib Goch. For many years, trains ran into the station and had to reverse into the yard headshunt before drawing into the yard proper...
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This 16th March 1978 view shows the original loading hoppers in Penmaenmawr quarry yard. 25112 was waiting to leave with a loaded train of ballast while 40109 was reversing its train under the loading facility...
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A view of the yard with Class 40 No. 40135 slowly drawings it train through the new loading facility on sunny but bitterly cold 22nd February 1986. The A55 Expressway now runs alongside this yard on the right of the picture and the raised platforms have gone...
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37209 and 37129 drawing RMC Roadstone wagons under the new loading shute at Penmaenmawr on the occasion of this trains first run on 20th March 1987.
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Class 20's Nos. 20035 and 20228 are seen in the sidings beyond the loading shute before drawing their Edge Hill bound ballast under te loading shute on 15th August 1990. An average of 180,000 tons of railway ballast left tis yard annually. One cannot miss the new A55 Expressway....
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
Farewell Class 25! Passing the freshly laid sidings at Penmaenmawr on 13th March 1987 is 25057 heading the Anglesey-Llandudno Junction freight, know locally as 'The Valley Goods'. This was the Class 25's final mainline duty and it was officially withdrawn two days later. It is currently stored on the north Norfolk Railway...
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Sunlight and shadows at Llanfairfechan, the next station along the line. A very clean 40165 stops at the station with the 11.30 Bangor-Manchester on 28th August 1979...
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Class 47 No. 47446 speeds non-stop through Llanfairfechan when it still looked like a station. In years past, it had won the 'Best Kept Station' award with its Emmett like figures all over the platforms...
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This was the result when construction of the A55 Expressway reached Llanfairfechan, although the station at least got a pair of upmarket waiting shelters. When Regional Railways wanted to run an hourly loco-hauled service in North Wales, it quickly discovered the Class 31's could not keep time. Class 37/4's were duly selected and driver training commenced on them in February 1993. This is 37429 in Sector livery on one of the first driver-training runs...
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Original Llanfairfechan Station in October 1987 and my second Sierra. This street is around 20 feet underground today...
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
I was hoping my shots on the Llangollen Railway might inspire some members to visit the line after lock-down even though I was aware the line was in very serious difficulties.

But that's it....No steam or sights like this winter and summer and a halt to the slow dash for Corwen, a town that is about as lively as Blaenau Ffestiniog on a wet Sunday. Will the line be purchased? Who knows? It was a long suicide.
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
When we talk of preservation, we can restore many things to as they were, but I wonder if we could really go back with the landscape? Members of my generation and older will remember a landscape where it was possible to see for miles across a treeless landscape. Carrog looked more like this in BR days. It only requires a chainsaw and an argument with our future King....
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
Class 37 No. 37425 Sir Robert McAlpine passing Llanfairfechan with the 13.30 Holyhead-Manchester 'Irish Manucunian' on 5th June 1993. A shame there was not a headboard although coach windows did carry stickers later on...

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37422 Robert Fairlie, in its new Regional Railways livery, briefly disturbs the peace at Tal-Y-Bont as it speeds past with the 13.36 Llandudno Junction-Holyhead on 30th August 1993. My little Fiesta was written off the following year and set me on a course of 15 years of operations and clinics. Avoid RTA's at all costs.....
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Arrival at Bangor, and 40118 bursts out of Belmont tunnel with the non-stop 12.57 Holyhead-Euston Boat Train on 29th August 1979. Someone had taken the trouble to put the numbers on the ends and stencil the name Carmania where the cast nameplates once resided. I knew the fellow and he worked with stealth. BR didn't seem bothered....
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Camera: Nikon FM. Nikkor 100mm/f2.5 Tri-X
 
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