CREWE - CHESTER -- BANGOR - HOLYHEAD  MONTHLY REPORTS DECEMBER 2011 - PAGE ONE

A trip to Crewe to see 6201 "Princess Elizabeth" leave for Tyseley but, as it turned out, the engine had not entered the Crewe heritage Centre as planned but spent the night in the station and left early! Normally the Crewe service from Sandbach is worked by a 323 EMU but, running some 20 minutes late, 150147 appeared instead. Presumably there had been a failure earlier. 12/12/2011

The ride was pleasant enough but there was a continuous noise from the engines which, if prolonged, would be very annoying. 12/12/2011

The 150 was subsequently parked up but left later for Manchester Piccadilly. 12/12/2011

390019 "Virgin Warrior" came off the Manchester line and headed South. 12/12/2011

390045 "101 Squadron" powered North, non-stop. 12/12/2011

390021 "Virgin Dream" did the same but running South. 12/12/2011

On The Heritage Centre, 70000 (Britannia) was in steam and receiving attention. 12/12/2011

67003 in ARRIVA livery plodded North with three sets of class 325 mail units. I understand that these units are loco hauled because their drive motors have been cannibalised - unconfirmed. 12/12/2011

The units were 325011, 325001 and 325004 12/12/2011

175115 appeared from Manchester en route for South Wales. 12/12/2011

153353 was waiting to leave for South Wales. 12/12/2011

390024 "Virgin Venturer" paused where the 87's used to stand. 12/12/2011

It must be Christmas for the mail units to appear in numbers but this time under their own power. 325016 waits to leave for the maintenance depot. 12/12/2011

325008 "Peter Howarth CBE"and 325016 "John Grierson" headed South, 12/12/2011

66066 hurried North. 12/12/2011

A very dirty DRS 66301 passed through platform 12 with a freight. 12/12/2011

90024 in ScotRail livery ran from the maintenance depot into platform 12.....

.....and then left heading North. 12/12/2011

Just as my train was about to leave, two class 97's (973xx and 97302?) appeared on the avoiding line together with 90016 in Freightliner livery. No time to get down there so only a long shot. 12/12/2011

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Super Voyager 221115 in Bombardier livery passes the site of Calveley station en route for Chester. 03/12/2011

150236 hurried towards Crewe on the Crewe-Chester shuttle. 03/12/2011

And the reason for being stood on a bridge in the middle of Cheshire - 70000 "Britannia", minus nameplates, en route for Chester with a Cathedrals Express charter out of Euston. 03/12/2011