26th May 1997

Pathfinder Tours
The Central Wales Navigator

Locos Used 59202 & 59204
Stock Used 4925+4949+4999+5007+4977+5023+5037+17023+1696+3143+3127+3114

Route : 1Z45 throughout

Loco(s) Route
59202 Sheffield - Chesterfield - Derby - Tamworth - Water Orton - Park Lane Jn - Ryecroft Jn - Walsall (station avoiding line) - Bescot - Perry Barr North Jn - Soho South Jn - Birmingham New Street - Camp Hill - Bromsgrove - Cheltenham Spa - Gloucester - Chepstow - Newport - Cardiff Central
59204 Cardiff Central - Court Sart Jn - Hendy Jn - Pantyffynnon - Llandovery - Llandrindod Wells - Knighton - Craven Arms - Abbey Foregate Jn - Wolverhampton - Portobello Jn - Bescot Up & Down Goods Loop (1)
59202 + 59204 Bescot Up & Down Goods Loop (1) - Perry Barr North Jn - Soho South Jn - Birmingham New Street - Tamworth - Derby - Chesterfield - Sheffield

Notes :
(1) Booked loco-change point was Bescot Up Goods.

Sources : Richard Hughes (on the train throughout) & Alan Sheppard

Tour Review
(by Mike Broom)

I have to say, before anything else, that I thought that this tour was a rather good idea. All electrics,

I arrived at Chesterfield at around 0530, in plenty of time to see the ECS on it's way to Sheffield with 47741 on the front. A few others started to arrive in their cars (How else do you get to tours at these silly hours??). Eventually our train came up on the display as "0709 Llandrindod". Eh? Our letter said 0654. Hmm... A good start to the day me-thinks.. It turns out that Failtrack had decided to retime the tour, and to add to our problems they hadn't finished doing it on the day of the tour. Our timing sheet (which was wrong from the start) stopped at Shrewsbury on the way back.

Anyway, our train arrived just after 0709 with 59202 on the front. My genmaster let me down until 2230 the day before the tour. I got a call telling me it would be 202 and 204. Until then I had been told 204 + 205. Anyway it was too late to tell anyone so I waited till the morning to let everyone know.

'202 performed perfectly (what do you expect with GM stuff?) unlike the farcical entry into Birmingham New Street. Because of engineering work in New Street the line to Five Ways was closed, so we had to enter New Street from the opposite side. This meant we traversed the Sutton Park route (required by me..)

The run to Cardiff via Gloucester was pretty uneventful, other than me scoring the track past Gloucester. Newport middle road was also scratched (not that I'm as desperate to be bothered about it..) At one point Cardiff station area was host to 3 Class 59's.. 59202+204 from NP, and 59001 on an Iron Ore working. Here at Cardiff is were 204 took over for the run up to Llandrindod and beyond..

The drivers of the 143's shuttling in and out of the station had their work set out avoiding all the photographers stood on the platform ends (and overthem..) Luckily no-one got in the way, and the Pathfinders stewards had their work cut out...

We set off from Cardiff at 1158 27 late. The run up to Port Talbot was the fastest we were going to go for several hours, as once we bore left after Briton Ferry, we were into the railway timewarp.. stations with 3-4 trains a day, open crossings with no gates, barriers that the driver had to operate.. you get the picture..

After a stop-start sort of run we reached Lann.. Lllan Llantwryd Wells (i think..) Don't ask me how to pronounce it.. I had enough difficulty typing it!! Here was a crossing point. Problem was as we were late our run straight through became a wait for the train we should have passed at Llandrindod.. It hit the single line section same time as us, and it won..

Speedy (for it is he) had a brainwave (a strange one at that..) in that he wanted a small bit of track near Swansea that you can only do by doing the Central Wales line. He decided to bail off at Llantwryd and use his all-liner to scratch in this bit of line... So when the 153 came off the single line section, Speedy joined the 5 other passengers for the run to Swansea. Meanwhile we all boarded our train for the run back north.

Llandrindod Wells was reached at 1545 for our break. We were met by the Mayor(?) and other top nobs! I think whilst we were there the population was double it's normal size!! Walking round the town only took 10 minutes.. The staff in the local Spar were working double quick in re-pricing the ice-creams etc.. The prices will have gone down again when we left! :-)

Our run back from there was delayed (waiting yet another unit..) so we didn't depart until 1707. After Llandrindod a lot of people decided to have a bit of doss, which was a sensible idea.. However as I'm not as sensible as most I decided to stay awake.. (Why I don't know..) Knighton was another booked pathing stop, although we managed to pass after exchanging tokens. Craven Arms was only supposed to be a one minute stop but turned out to be a twelve minute stop. Our stop on Shrewsbury avoider was a minimal stop, just to drop off a couple of members of the train crew..

We had an additional set-down at Wolverhampton due to late running for connectional purposes. Passengers leaving were told to close the doors (I believe this was because Failtrack didn't get paid for the stop?). Our next move was around the corner to Bescot where we were routed into the Up+Down Goods Line instead of the Up Goods Line which we were booked for. This blew out a lot of photographers on the station platforms as we were routed behind the platforms instead of through them!!

From this point we had both 59202 + 59204 in multiple!! The driver drove these like a man possessed! 6,600 hp at his hands and he used it!! We absolutely stormed away from all the station stops on the way back, although between Tamworth and Derby we must have followed a stopper.. We were following single and double yellows all the way. We arrived at Chesterfield at 2158 where we left the train. I moved to the front to watch the beasts depart, and it was a sight to be seen!! I reckon that the back coach passed us at the same speed it would have done if the train had not stopped! Amazing! The run to Hull was in a fast car and Hull was reached in 1hr 10...

Mike Broom.

Timings (Booked & Actual)
(from Alan Sheppard)

M.C Location Booked Actual Booked Actual M.C
0.00 Sheffield [P8] 06.38d 06.57d (i) 22.19a 86.79
3.70 Dore Station Jn 06/43 07/04 (i) ? 83.09
12.20 Chesterfield 06.52a ~ 06.54d 07.07 ~ 07.09 (i) 21.59a ~ 22.00d 74.59
16.30 Clay Cross South Jn 06/59 ? (i) ? 70.49
26.38 Ambergate Jn 07/08 07/27 (i) ? 60.41
36.31 Derby 07.18a ~ 07.20d 07.38 ~ 07.46 (i) 21.30a ~ 21.32d 50.48
41.15 Stenson Jn 07/28 ? (i) ? 45.64
47.32 Burton-on-Trent 07.34a ~ 07.36d 07.58 ~ 08.00 (i) 19.13a ~ 19.15d 39.47
52.75 Wichnor Jn 07/43 ? (i) ? 34.04
60.23 Tamworth High Level 07.51a ~ 07.53d 08.12 ~ 08.14 (i) 20.55a ~ 20.58d 26.56
66.04 Kingsbury Jn 08/00 ? (i) ? 20.75
69.79 Water Orton 08/07 08/24 (i) ? 17.00

 

M.C Location Booked Actual
71.29 Park Lane Jn 08/12 08/28
82.78 Ryecroft Jn 08/35 ?
83.40 Walsall (station avoiding line) 08/37 09/02
86.44 Bescot Stadium 08/41 09/07
91.01 Perry Barr North Jn 08/48 09/11
91.40 Perry Barr West Jn 08/49 09/12
93.39 Soho East Jn 08/53 09/16
93.72 Soho South Jn 08/55 09/17
95.73 Birmingham New Street [P3] 09.00a ~ 09.03d 09.24 ~ 09.30
97.44 St. Andrews Jn 09/09 ?
97.70 Bordesley Jn 09/15 ?
103.05 Kings Norton 09/27 09/47
105.38 Longbridge 09/30 ?
108.13 Barnt Green 09/34 ?
111.56 Bromsgrove 09/37 ?
113.69 Stoke Works Jn 09/39 ?
125.06 Abbotswood Jn 09/48 ?
135.73 Ashchurch 09/56 10/16
143.04 Cheltenham Spa 10.05a ~ 10.08d 10.24 ~ 10.26
148.47 Barnwood Jn 10/14 10/33
149.21 Horton Road Jn 10/15 ?
149.44 Gloucester 10/16 10/36
163.62 Awre 10/28 10/48
168.77 Lydney 10/33 ?
176.73 Chepstow 10/41 11/03
184.21 Severn Tunnel Junction 10/48 ?
194.10 Newport (Down Through) 10/58 11/21
199.20 Marshfield 11/03 ?
205.70
0.00
Cardiff Central [P3] 11L14a ~ 11L31d 11L35 ~ 11L56
11.10 Pontyclun 11/42 ?
20.15 Bridgend 11/52 12/16
32.29 Port Talbot Parkway 12/02 12/26
36.27 Court Sart Jn 12/12 ?
37.36 Dynevor Jn 12/15 ?
40.53 Felin Fran 12/20 12/41
47.62 Grovesend Colliery Loop Jn 12/35 12/49
48.79 Hendy Jn 12/37 12/51
49.51 Pontarddulais 12/39 ?
54.33 Pantyffynnon 12.47 t 12.48 ?
55.46 Ammanford 12/51 13/08
57.33 Llandybie 12/53 ?
61.41 Ffairfach 13/00 ?
62.34 Llandeilo 13.04 t 13.07 13.29 ~ 13.39
68.04 Llangadog 13/20 ?
69.65 Llanwrda 13/27 ?
73.49 Llandovery 13.38 t 13.41 14.07 ~ 14.11
78.24 Cynghordy 13/49 ?
81.34 Sugar Loaf 13/58 ?
84.76 Llanwrtyd 14.03 t 14.06 14.33 ~ 15.13
88.32 Llangammarch 14/17 ?
90.10 Garth 14/21 ?
93.40 Cilmeri 14/26 ?
95.39 Builth Road 14/29 ?
101.06 Llandrindod Wells (Up plat) 14.40a ~ 15.44a ~ ECS to URS
Llandrindod Wells (Dn plat) ~ 16.25d ECS ~ 17.05d
101.43 Llandrindod Crossing 16.27 t 16.28 17.07 ~ 17.07
104.58 Pen-y-Bont 16/33 ?
107.53 Dolau 16/38 ?
111.24 Llanbister Road 16/44 ?
114.22 Llangynllo 16/50 ?
118.10 Knucklas 17/00 ?
120.56 Knighton 17.06 t 17.09 17.43 ~ 17.44
124.75 Bucknell 17/16 ?
127.70 Hopton Heath 17/20 ?
130.33 Broome 17/24 ?
133.14 Craven Arms 17.31 t 17.32 18.08 ~ 18.09
140.37 Church Stretton 17/40 ?
146.66 Dorrington 17/46 ?
152.23 Sutton Bridge Jn 17/52 18/31
152.63 English Bridge Jn (i) 18.32 ~ 18.34
153.08 Abbey Foregate Jn (i) 18.36 cc 18.37
163.02 Wellington Telford West (i) 18/50
173.34 Cosford (i) 19/04
181.74 Wolverhampton North Jn (i) ?
182.37 Wolverhampton [P3] (i) 19.16 ~ 19.17
184.21 Portobello Jn (i) ?
188.38
0.00
Bescot Up Goods Loop
?L? ~ ?L?
Up & Down Goods
19L32 ~ 19L48
4.37 Perry Barr North Jn (i) 19/59
4.76 Perry Barr West Jn (i) 20/00
6.75 Soho East Jn (i) 20/04
7.28 Soho South Jn (i) 20/05
9.09 New Street North Tunnel Jn (i) 20.08 ~ 20.21
9.29 Birmingham New Street [P4] (i) 20.22a ~ 20.26d
10.17 Proof House Jn (i) ?
10.74 Landor Street Jn (i) ?

Timings continue in first table.

(i): From English Bridge Jn onwards, there was a comment on the timing sheet -
"Unfortunately, due to the inability of Railtrack and E.W.S to time the train until the
actual day of running, we regret that no further timings are available"

Back to "The Railtour Files"