CREWE - CHESTER -- BANGOR - HOLYHEAD  MONTHLY REPORTS OCTOBER 2008 - PAGE ONE

Crewe Station and a shot from the footbridge as 57312 and 67023 wait for a green. 17/10/2008

57312 "The Hood" was waiting for the arrival of the morning Pendolino for the drag to Holyhead. 17/10/2008

67023 eventually headed off up the West Coast Main Line. 17/10/2008

"The Hood" meanwhile, had managed to hook up to its train after much messing about with the couplings etc. and finally left some 15 minutes down. The Pendolino was 390034 "City of Carlisle". 17/10/2008

57312 complete with silver buffers. 17/10/2008

Recently delivered 66953 was dragged into the station by 66573. 17/10/2008

The pair later left for Basford Hall sidings. 17/10/2008

Enter the main attraction, class 50 numbers 50049 "Defiance" towing D444 "Exeter". The pair were in Crewe as a prelude to taking a charter from Manchester Piccadilly to Minehead the next day (Saturday). 17/10/2008

Crewe and the WCML are, of course, the old stamping ground for this class when they were double headed on the Scottish trains to improve the timetable in preparation for the electrification programme. Subsequently they were made redundant and transferred to the Western Region where they gained their names while putting in sterling service between Paddington and the West Country. 17/10/2008

323207 in "Midland" green livery was heading for the IEMD. 17/10/2008

.....and finally, just as I was leaving, I noticed that 37603 had crept up to the signal at the South end of the station. Unfortunately it was a direct into the Sun shot which revealed all the indentations on the nose end. Still, it looked magnificent in the Autumn sunshine. 17/10/2008

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57303 "Alan Tracy" was waiting to collect the morning Pendolino for Holyhead. 3/10/2008

47812/D1916 was ticking over in the former Diesel Depot yard. Thanks to Solomon Riley for identifying this loco 3/10/2008

Also ticking over was 47769 "Resolve" still bearing the "Virgin" livery. The stock was receiving an external wash - good to see some activity on the depot. 3/10/2008

86607 had been parked in bay platform 8 and later moved off onto the LNWR depot. 3/10/2008

66087 entered the platform 12 avoiding line with 4 flats, where it stopped to run round. 3/10/2008

66087 running through platform 12 to collect the flats before running off onto the Stoke line. 3/10/2008

66564 entered platform 12 where it stopped and reversed to enter the LNWR depot. The Autumn shadows are starting to lengthen as a precursor to Winter. 3/10/2008

90016 left the LNWR depot to enter bay platform 8 before heading for Basford Sidings. 3/10/2008