Wales v Italy
27th March 2004
We rose early and drove the seven miles to Bangor station. Arriva's contract with EWS to hire class 47s expires in four days time when the programme to fix class 175 faults is supposed to be completed, yet as we waited a pair of class 156 units hired from First North Western rolled in empty stock to form the 06:38 to Manchester and the 06:53 to Crewe.
1A23 arrived in the form of the usual Virgin HST set, and we rode it as far as Chester. Luckily I'd bought a coffee at the Snowdon Buffet on Bangor station, because the train manager announced there were no catering facilities "due to unforeseen circumstances", i.e. "I know why but I'm not telling you".
Three class 175 units sat outside Chester depot with at least one more inside.
It was murky and misty so I didn't bother to hunt for my camera, stuck at the bottom of my rucksack.
We had about forty minutes before the 07.43 Crewe - Cardiff Central (1Z47)
arrived behind 47 848. This was the first of the three class
47 hauled specials down the Marches line and the only one routed via Chester
and Wrexham.
We had a few minutes spare at Wrexham, just time to pop out for a quick snap
And again at Shrewsbury
We had 25 minutes spare at Hereford, allowing us plenty of time to photograph
it from both sides and to buy a decent cup of filter coffee from the buffet.
Hereford station
60 086 Schiehallion is at the head of the steel
coil train
There was a bizarre sight at Cwmbran, where the opposite platform was crowded with smartly dressed people, in contrast to the usual gaggle of pimply teenagers clad in baseball caps and trainers.
The reason became apparent at Newport where the Northern Belle dining train passed us heading north.