12th June 1977

Main Line Steam Trust & Leicester Chronicle
North Wales Land Cruise 1 & 2

Locos Used at least 24036, 25036, 25120, 25168 & 25271
Stock Used set 1: ?
set 2: ?

Route :

Loco(s) Used Stock Used Route
????? set 1 Kettering - Market Harborough - Leicester - Sheet Stores Jn - Stenson Jn - Lichfield City Jn - Brownhills - Walsall - ?avoiding Wolverhampton? - Shrewsbury area (3)
25???+25271 set 1 Shrewsbury area (3) - Barmouth - Minffordd
?'Merddin Emrys'? ? Minffordd - Porthmadog
'Merddin Emrys' ? Porthmadog - Minffordd - Tan-y-Bwlch - Dduallt
'Merddin Emrys' ? Dduallt - Tan-y-Bwlch
- (road coach) Tan-y-Bwlch - Blaenau Ffestiniog
24036+25168 set 2 Blaenau Ffestiniog - Llandudno Junction
25036+25120 set 2 Llandudno Junction - Abergele - ?Crewe - Uttoxeter - Stenson Jn - Sheet Stores Jn? - Leicester - Market Harborough - Kettering

Route :

Loco(s) Used Stock Used Route
25036+25120 set 2 Oakham - Melton Mowbray - Syston North Jn - Loughborough - Long Eaton - Derby - Chester - Llandudno Junction
25168+24036 set 2 Llandudno Junction - Blaenau Ffestiniog
- (road coach) Blaenau Ffestiniog - Tan-y-Bwlch
????? ? Tan-y-Bwlch - Dduallt
????? ? Dduallt - Tan-y-Bwlch - Minffordd - Porthmadog
????? ? Porthmadog - Minffordd
25271+25??? set 1 Minffordd - ??? - Oakham

Notes :
(1) A circular outing, passengers would have gone out on one train set and back on the other (Land Cruise 1 being from Kettering and Land Cruse 2 from Oakham). Alan Baylis believes a photo in the OPC 'Double Headed Diesels Nationwide' showing 25168+25271 (but see note 2 below) crossing the Barmouth Bride and captioned as on a Leicester to Minffordd special is in fact the working from Kettering to Minffordd. A photo in Railway Magazine showed 25036+25120 returning through Abergele 'on a train from Kettering'. The headboard on this train read 'Leicester Chronicle and Main Line Steam Trust', 'Silver Jubilee Tour' & 'Conway Valley Adventurer'. Presumably both trains employed the same class 25's (and maybe other locos too) on the opposite direction legs.
(2) Barrie Hughes comments: 24036 and 25168 were noted as the haulage from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Llandudno Junction, coming off the train there so clearly 25168 was not the second loco on the Cambrian Coast leg. 'Earl of Merioneth' was used on the FR. The train went via the little used freight line from Litchfield to Walsall via Brownhills which was closed a few years later on 12/83.
(3) Was the loco change undertaken in Shrewsbury station or on the avoiding line?

Sources : Alan Baylis & Barrie Hughes

Photo Review


25???+25271 en-route to Minffordd (photo: Barrie Hughes)


'Merddin Emrys' in action (photo: Barrie Hughes)


24036+25168 heading for Llandudno Junction (photo: Barrie Hughes)

25168 & 24036 at Llandudno Junction (photo: Barrie Hughes)
Identities (below) confirmed from above slide
 


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