17th August – A return to the Conwy Valley
(Part 1)
The Conwy Valley line runs from Llandudno to Blaenau
Ffestiniog, and is quite scenic, however it is prone to flood damage, having
planned this trip back last October for it to fall aside when the line was
replaced by buses, and as part of my trip to North Wales in June, but the line
was closed. It is a line which will
always feature high for me as it was the line I finished the challenge the
first time round when I alighted from the 150 at Roman Bridge on a Monday
morning in October 2017. Sadly this time
I won’t be able to clear Wales with the trip as Dolgarrog is temporary closed
due to the platform being damaged in the storms earlier in the year.
The day began where the Friday ended, at the Walsall
Travelodge, as I made use of the nearby Tesco Extra for supplies &
breakfast before heading towards the station and onto the 06:33 stopping service
to Birmingham New Street (I was hoping for the 06:38 semi-fast service, but
that was running around 20 minutes late), the 06:33 forms from the “Walsall
Express”, the PSUL service from Wolverhampton which goes the direct route to
Walsall (06:10 Wolverhampton to Walsall), something which is on my “to-do” list
at some point. Needless to say when
350236 rolled in, it was rather empty, a slow and steady trip to New Street
where I had a few options for a potential linear hop, my eye falling on low
mileage 323222 on the next Wolverhampton stopper, so it was onwards to
Wolverhampton to await the Welsh train.
158838 rolled in, and I managed to get a decent seat on a
busy service (lots of families heading out for a day-trip), nice speedy run
towards Shrewsbury where it crashed into 158828 continuing along the line
towards Wrexham for a quick reversal at Chester before heading along the North
Wales coast route, the train emptying out at Rhyl, but I remained on a little
bit further to alight at Llandudno Junction where I had around 20 minutes
before the next Conwy Valley service rolled in from Llandudno. This was formed of 150235 and was quite busy
for the scenic run towards Llanrwst, passing the current platformless Dolgarrog.
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| No Platform for Old Men |
Nothing of note around Llanrwst station, as I set about on a
gentle walk into the town, picking up lunch from the Co-Op before carrying on
my slow walk towards North Llanrwst
station, the passing loop on this line and the southbound passenger information
system was a bit broken as it kept on announcing the next train would be the
10:54 to Blaenau Ffestiniog which has already been and gone. Still better than the endless security
announcements at Hope, with time to spare I took a seat and relaxed, flagging
down the return of 150235 and requesting the beautiful Glan Conwy, one of my top 6 stations just for the views of the
river.
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| View from Glan Conwy |
I had around an hour to fester here, so after going for a
walk around the area I returned to a nice bench, watching the weather with dark
clouds rolling in from the south, will the sprinter return before the rain
starts? Yes it did, as 150235 returned
to take me back towards North Llanrwst for a platform score and I had another
gentle potter around the town centre, making my slow way towards the Watling
Street bus stop, trusting the timetable information on the website to be
correct rather than the printed timetables on the bus stop. Thankfully the website was correct as bus YJ15
AFZ rolled in on an X19 service, and other than me there was one other
passenger and it was non-stop along the main-road to the Tal-y-Cafn Hotel
stop. A short walk along the road took
me to Tal-Y-Cafn station itself,
where I took a seat on the platform (after a quick explore) to carry on with my
magazine, flagging down 150235 once more.
It was back to Llandudno Junction for a short fester before
low mileage 175113 rolled in on the Holyhead bound, I saw this unit
earlier on but lost tracking of it (it was on a Birmingham service, so must
have been swapped over at Shrewsbury because 175s to Birmingham are quite
rare). Neither the less I was happy as
it meant the class was cleared for mileage, no longer need I keep an eye out at
Manchester for the Hippos. Anyhow I took
this 175 to Bangor where I had around 35 minutes to fester, so I popped down
towards the town centre to a large Asda for items for dinner before returning
to the station for 175111 to take me back towards Shrewsbury where I noticed
the Cambrian line had fallen over somewhat (this service carried on to Cardiff
with a service from Welshpool being the next Birmingham service, at the time
was running around 30 minutes late).
However someone within TfW control decided to cancel that
service at Shrewsbury and insert a new “Shrewsbury – Birmingham International”
service using an unit which would detach from the next Aberystwyth service, so
for me it was good news as it meant an empty unit, not so good news for any
passengers from Aberystwyth who would be delayed and have to head to Birmingham
on a 170 stopper. Anyhow it was onto a modified
150229 for some good speed towards Birmingham New Street, some Telford folk
being unhappy at being caught by the guard without a ticket for their trip to
Wolverhampton and being charged the full fat anytime fare with no railcard
discounts (evil laugh!).
Once at New Street I had a couple ideas, the first was a
jolly up the Chase line because on Saturday evenings there is a couple trips to
Rugeley Trent Valley which are in the hands of 323s (normally solid 350). But first it was a trip to Hednesford on
350241 for a random platform scratch before 323217 rolled in to take me to the
end of the line at Rugeley Trent Valley, the motor noise being very nice on the
fast section, and a bit of a novelty as I’ve only previously had 170s along this
line (other than a couple charter services).
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| A 323 at the wrong Trent Valley Station! |
Anyhow, a gentle turnaround at Rugeley Trent Valley before
323217 headed back towards Birmingham and I bailed at Walsall to walk back
towards the hotel, the end of a good day in North Wales. In theory when Dolgarrog does re-open I can
do it on a day trip from home to reduce the cost
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