Retrieving my Camera

My day trip to Llandudno in April 2022 (described here) was marred by leaving my camera on a London-bound West Midlands Trains service on my return. West Midlands trains staff at Wolverhampton explained that their lost property is now dealt with through a website called MissingX.

MissingX (https://www.missingx.com/) is an international database of lost property covering the transport sector including airports and railways. It was started in Norway in 2000 to provide an easy method of reporting lost property and claiming found items. I found it easy to enrol online and I was invited to enter details of the loss and where it occurred. There's a separate section of the database with the details of found items. For a few days, nothing appeared in the 'found' section and I was fairly certain that the camera (with all my pictures of the trip to Llandudno which the camera does not backup automtically) was lost. Then, a description of a camera located at Euston appeared in the 'found' section so, as instructed, I made an online claim and printed a copy of the details. The website informed me that I would then be contacted by the location holding the item.

So far, very encouraging. But after another week I'd not been contacted so I found a general West Midland Trains customer support telephone number where a friendly gentleman offered to send a chasing email to the team at Euston. After another week, I tried customer support again. A different gentleman diagnosed that the chasing email had indeed been sent but to the wrong recipient. He said he's speak to the appropriate person and get them to phone me directly.

A couple of hours later, I received a call from the West Midlands Trains Duty Manager at Euston who confimed that they were holding what seemed to be my camera in their high-value property store. Unfortunately, although I was happy to pay for carriage and packing to return it to me, they seemed to lack a mechanism for that. After some negotiation, I decided I'd have to go to Euston myself to collect the camera, so I booked a 'quickie' trip to London just to retrieve the camera. I was able to book Advance tickets there and back for Friday, 20th May 2022, allowing a little under two hours at Euston to actually make the collection, anticipating that matters might not be completely straightforward.

The journey to London on 20th May followed the pattern of my earlier trip on 8th April described here involving bus, Cross Country 'Voyager' service to Stafford then an Avanti 'Pendolino' service non-stop to Euston. This time, I travelled First Class so was able to have breakfast on the fast journey, distracting me from studying operations too closely. As before, my train was preceded by a West Midlands Trains service to Euston (reporting number 1U22) but we overhauled this train at Tamworth as it made a station stop when on the Up Slow. I noticed (using Railcam UK)that we were being followed by a Birmingham-Euston Avanti 'Pendolino' just a few minutes later. My arrival at Euston found me in an optimistic frame of mind, although the weather which had been dry at Stafford had deteriorated as we headed south and our arrival at Euston had neen accompanied by drizzle and overcast skies. We were routed into platform 16, on the Down side, close to the works for the new HS2 terminus but black hoardings limited views of the advancing works.


London Euston: HS2 works viewed from arriving train showing bulk storage silos

I'd been given directions to make my way to the ticket Gate Line for the suburban platforms and ask the staff there for the West Midlands Trains Duty Manager, who was summoned by radio. This seemed to create some interest among the staff and we had assembled a group of four employees chatting by the time the Duty Manager arrived. I was admitted through the gate to wait on the platform whilst the Duty Manager despatched a West Midlands train service then I explained my mission. He then telephoned another person who had the key to the high-value property store and asked me to wait for her arrival before leaving to carry out other tasks. As I waited, another West Midlands Trains electric multiple unit arrived and crowds of passengers swept past me towards the ticket gates. A little later, the lady with the key arrived, examined the copy of my online claim form and asked me to wait whilst she fetched the camera from the store which was located at the far end of the platform we were on. After a few minutes, she returned with the camera, intact with its case and spare batteries. A quick check showed that the pictures on the memory card were those I'd taken in April so the camera was returned to mr. Expressing my thanks, I was passed through the ticket barrier again.

I'd just under an hour before the departure of the train I was booked on to return. During my earlier trip in April, there had been no Tube service from Euston via London Bridge to Moorgate because of major engineering work at Bank station to improve the platforms. Realising that the line had re-opened a few days before, I decided that I'd time to travel to Bank underground station to look at the improved facilities, so I hurried across the concourse at Euston towards the underground station. As I've commented before, this transfer has been re-organised and now involves briefly going outside before re-entering the building by a separate entrance. I discovered it was now raining quite heavily, revealing the disadvantage of the altered arrangements. I made my way to the Southbound Platform on the re-opened City Branch of the Northern Line and was soon noisily speeding towards Bank, where we arrived at the wide, straight new platform which has replaced the narrower, sharply curved earlier arrangement.


Bank Northern Line: New Southbound Platform

Looking at my watch, I was a little alarmed at the time so, after a very cursory examination of the revised access from the surface, I moved to the Northbound platform so as to return to Euston. The Northbound platform, which appeared unchanged, is straight but much narrower than the new Southbound platform.


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52087451527_49841d54c4.jpg

After a short wait, a Northbound Northern Line train arrived and I returned to Euston, discovering as I transferred from Tube to 'Heavy Rail' that it was still raining. My journey back to Wolverhampton was booked on the 11:43 'Pendolino' service to Blackpool North via Birmingham which was displayed on the Departure Screens, but without a platform number showing. This normally meant that the incoming train was late arriving and cleaning was still in progress prior to boarding. I amused myself by using Railcam UK to try to identify which platform was holding the trainset which would form my train. I'd just drawn the correct conclusion when the platform number appeared on the Departure Screen so I joined the mass of passengers heading for ramp to the indicated platform. Unless at trainset has become 'reversed', First Class is normally near the entrance ramp so I only had a short walk to my seat where (using Railcam UK) I identified our train reporting number as 9P65.

Our departure was 5 minutes late and we were routed on line 'X' which allows trains leaving from low-numbered plattforms on the 'Up' side of the station to cross under the other lines approaching Euston (lines A -E) so as to emerge on the 'Down' side, minimising conflicting movements. This re-purposed 'fly-under' was originally built to facilitate the removal of empty carriages from arriving services for attention at a carriage shed. Nowadays, with more intensive use of rolling stock, limited cleaning and replenishment between workings is carried out at the platform, deferring other work until arrival at the Traincare Depot at the end of service. Once again, I had limited views through the rain of the HS2 work in progress.


London Euston: HS2 works viewed from a departing train on Line 'X'

We'd lost a further minute by Bletchley, apparently because we were following a West Midland Trains Euston to Crewe via the Trent Valley Line stopping service (reporting number 1U33). When this train made its scheduled stop at Milton Keynes, I thought we might be allowed to overtake but, in fact, the stopping train continued to precede us, making us 9 minutes late leaving Milton Keynes. Three minutes of this was 'pulled back' by Coventry but, once in the congested West Midlands area, there seems to be little opportunity to make up lateness except by reducing 'dwell' time at stops like Birmingham New Street where this is possible.

My last leg, from Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton, was particularly frustrating as we seemed to be following an 'all stations' to Wolverhampton (reporting number 2W28). On our arrival at Wolverhampton, I walked quickly to Lichfield Street hoping I'd still catch the bus home I'd planned on. I needn't have worried - the bus was ten minutes late arriving.

Not only was my camera retrieved intact but all my pictures taken on my trip to Llandudno were safe. I consider myself very fortunate that I had such a happy outcome. Mission accomplished!

Related posts on this website

Llandudno in April
Return to Croydon

My pictures

Northern Line
London: Euston Station

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Llandudno in April

Following the success of a recent day trip by rail to New Brighton (report here), I decided to make a trip to another favourite destination, Llandudno. I booked any Anytime Return online and decided on First Class. This was a questionable decision, since all Transport for Wales (TfW) trains are standard class only, apart from the Premium First service between Cardiff and Holyhead I mentioned in my post here). In addition, Avanti have a 'Voyager' service, currently between Holyhead and Crewe which has a First Class section. Although we are in the phase of 'Living with Covid', railway timetables are still not back to normal and services are liable to disruption at short notice.

Getting there: Friday, 22nd April 2022

I took the customary 07:30 bus to Wolverhampton, discovering that the £2.60 single fare has risen to £2.80. The pedestrian approach to the station still entails an ever-changing obstacle course as work continues on the modest yet late-running extension of the West Midlands Metro tram service from the current terminus at St. Georges to the railway station.


Wolverhampton Station, showing continuing work on the Metro extension, with the railway in the background (Llandudno trip)


Entrance to Wolverhampton Station with yellow arch and name displayed (Llandudno trip)

I had a few minutes to wait before my train, giving me a chance to study the fire alarm map showing the odd-shaped, vaguely triangular site which the new, unloved building occupies. My train 9S44, a 'Pendolino' service from London Euston to Edinburgh via Birmingham arrived on time. Although this train is only allowed 29 minutes to Crewe, the friendly staff in the First Class section found time to provide a glass of orange juice with two rounds of toast and preserves so that I arrived at Crewe in good spirits. Checking Railcam UK on my 'phone (see post here), I discovered that the Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) in the north end bay platform 9 would form train 1D82 to Chester at 09:51, but the passenger information displays showed an earlier departure from platform 11 at 09:17. A quick check on Railcam UK showed train 1K33 already approaching platform 11 from Chester. A fair number of passengers got off and a reasonable number boarded but the refubished Class 153, operating as a 2-car train provided plenty of space. I noticed extensive tree-cutting as we made the usual speedy run to Chester, arriving in bay platform 1.

Then I was a little unsure of the best train forward. There seemed to be three departures in the next 30 minutes which would all take me to Llandudno Junction but that day arrangements seemed a little disarranged. When in doubt, I normally take the first available service, particularly remembering I needed a connecting service from Llandudno Junction to take me to Llandudno itself. I took the first departing DMU, from platform 3 which I think was 1D33 from Manchester to Holyhead, quite well turned out in TfW livery, well-patronised but not crowded. Chester Power Box controls the line up to the vicinity of the short (99 yards) Rockliffe Hall Tunnel beyond which there is a section of modernised signalling controlled from a Railway Operating Centre (ROC).

The Wales ROC, situated just west of Cardiff Central station opened in 2010 and in 2018 added the North Wales Desk with a single workstation for the Rhyl area, controlling the section from the Chester Power Box boundary in the east to the Llandudno Junction boundary in the west. The control code for signal numbers in the Rhyl workstation area is 'FH', which I assume stands for Fflint-Holyhead.

We made the usual progress, bursts of high speed running alternating with frequent station stops where a flurry of passengers boarded and alighted. During our stop at Fflint (a station I'd travelled from a few months earlier, described in the post Rail Travel in January 2022), I took a couple of pictures showing the well-proportioned station building on the Down side, presumably a relic of the Chester and Holyhead railway company.


Fflint Down Side Station Building (Llandudno trip)

Near Fflint, we passed an Avanti 'Voyager' on the Up line - the 08:55 Holyhead to Crewe, reporting number 1A23. We were under the control of Llandudno Junction's colour-light signals by the time we stopped at Bae Colwyn, which was still known as Colwyn Bay when I was growing up. At that time, like Rhyl, it was an important destination for holiday-makers using the railways, as testified by the broad steps of the footbridge


Colwyn Bay station footbridge, Down side (Llandudno trip)

At Llandudno Junction, we used platform 3 which is one face of the through platform island and, as I hoped, I found the connecting shuttle service to Llandudno waiting in plaform 2, the remaining terminal bay let-into the west end of through-platform island 1 and 3. In steam days, there were two adjacent bays let-into this island, with a similar island platform on the Down side now simplified to a flanking platform 4. As I waited for our departure, a Down train quietly rolled into platform 4, paused briefly and then noisily set off towards Conway. The train was Mark 4 Driving Van Trailer leading a train of Mark 4 coaches and being propelled by a Class 66 diesel electric. It was clearly one of the TfW Preium First services from Cardiff to Holyhead but it was a while before I realised it must have been the 06:45 from Cardiff, running late.

My train was a Class 175 with just a handful of passengers, quite attractive inside, carrying Covid warning signs with pictograms advising mask-wearing, distance-keeping and regular hand washing. We left on time at 10:59 for the short journey through Deganwy, with views of Conwy castle and the estuary of the Conwy river, to Llandudno.


TfW 3-car Class 175 in platform 2 (bay) at Llandudno Junction


Conwy castle and the estuary of the Conwy river

On arrival at Llandudno station, I walked across the booking hall of the modernised station building, through the automatic glass doors and headed along Vaughan Steet to the sea front. The appearance of the sea front betrays its Victorian origins. A broad, pedestrian promenade around the curving bay is flanked by a road with attractive hotels on the landward side with the bulk of the Great Orme to the west and the Little Orme to the east. The weather was dry and reasonably warm but overcast, rendering the offshore wind farm virtually invisible.


Llandudno beach, showing the Pier and the Great Orme (Llandudno trip)

I took the promenade west past the bandstand and, once past the shingle, continued along the sandy beach for a time, returning to the promenade before choosing my next target, either the pier or the Great Orme Tramway. I decided to look at the tram so I crossed to Church Walks, the fairly steep approach to the lower terminus of the tramway, passing hotels and boarding houses on both sides along the way. I discovered that the tram was operating so I purchased a ticket to travel to the summit and back.

The Great Orme Tramway

The Great Orme Tramway ascends on a route about one mile long from Victoria Station to Summit Station at the top of the Great Orme headland in two, completely separate stages requiring passengers to change between lower and upper trams at the Halfway Station which includes the Engine House controlling the cables for both sections. Both sections follow the geography of the land, with changes in gradient and variable curvature. It is a type of cable railway called a Funicular where descending and ascending cars are linked by cable, reducing haulage power requirements.

As built, haulage was by winches operated by steam engines located in one Engine House at Halfway Station. On the lower section, each car was connected by cable to a winch at the Engine House with two cable drums so that as one car is hauled uphill, the other descends. The Upper section is similar but, because the powered winch is at the lower end of the section, a third cable links the upper end of the two cars via an Idler pulley at the Summit station. Electric winches finally replaced the steam engines in 1957. For more information, see Book Reference [1].

Around 2000, funding from the Lottery, the European Union and the Local Authority allowed comprehensive modernisation. There's more information on the Great Orme Tramway website here together with Book Reference [1] and Book Reference [2].

The lower terminus is called Victoria Station because it is built on the site of the former Victoria Hotel. It was some time before the incongruity of this single-track station sharing its name with the rather larger terminus in London (briefly described here) struck me.


Llandudno: Victoria Tram Station in 2014

There are normally three tram departures an hour (although additional services can be added in very busy periods). The tram station was bustling with people and I failed to board the first tram but the overcast was giving way to blue sky and bright sun so I was content to wait for the next service which took me to Halfway Station.


Tram No. 5 ready to leave Victoria Station with a full load.

The lower section shares the route with a public right-of-way for most of its length and uses 'inset' track to provide a level road surface. The haulage cable is below road level with a slot between the rails allowing each car to be connected to the cable. A passing loop is provided at the midpoint of the lower section with the line below the loop arranged as '2-rail' and that above the loop as '3-rail', as explained in the Wikipedia article here). Although the line from the lower section loop to Halfway Station is classed as '3-rail', there are actually 4 rails, with the middle two close together.


Great Orme Tramway: View of passing loop on the lower section from an ascending tram, showing the descending tram approaching the loop.


Great Orme Tramway: View of lower section tramshed at Halfway Station. Note two tracks, side-by-side ('3-rail') as far as the lower passing loop.

At Halfway Station, a brisk walk through the Engine House with the other passengers took us to the waiting upper section tram which departed once we had all boarded.

The upper section passes through unfenced moorland using sleepered track with stone ballast. The haulage cable is above ground, supported on a variety of pulley wheels. A passing loop is provided at the midpoint of the upper section and the line both above and below the loop is arranged as '2-rail'.


Great Orme Tramway: View of the upper section from an ascending tram, with the passing loop visible on the left. Note the level crossing. On the upper section, exit from the loop to either 'uphill' or 'downhill' sections is via a 'trailable' set of points allowing a car leaving the loop to force the points to the correct position. A special Tumbler mechanism then holds the points in that position, so that the returning car is directed to the correct side of the loop. For more information about the 'trailable' points and the Tumbler mechanism, refer to the report on an accident which occured in 2009 here.


Great Orme Tramway: View of upper section passing loop from ascending tram nearing exit points. Note extra 'crossings' to accommodate the cable joining the trams via the Idler pulley at Summit Station


Llandudno: Great Orme Tramway: This small building at Summit Station houses the large Idler pulley on the third cable which connects both upper section trams. Winding for both the Upper and Lower sections is from Halfway Station.


Great Orme Tramway: View of Summit Station and Museum. Note the telecommunications tower

The Summit area was quite busy when we arrived and the car park was well-patronised. There's a large restaurant, various amusements and small museum next to the tram station which outlines the history of the Great Orme. The haze had largely cleared and it was pleasantly warm. I walked for a while taking in the sea views and re-visited the museum but, with limited time, I boarded the next descending tram.


Great Orme Tramway: View of 'top hat' cable pulleys from descending tram on upper section. Note cables clipped to sleeper ends

At Halfway Station, windows give a view of the winch gear as you walk through the engine house to board the tram for the remaining section.


Great Orme Tramway: View of upper tramway cable haulage motor (blue) and gearbox (white) with twin winch drums visible in the background at Halfway Station


Great Orme Tramway: View of lower tramway cable haulage motor (blue) and gearbox (white) with twin winch drums just visible in the background at Halfway Station

On the lower section, there's a road/tram crossing with conventional traffic lights for road vehicles and the usual row of white lights applying to the tram (horizontal row: stop, vertical row: proceed). I believe that a magnet under the tram should ensure that trams always receive a 'proceed' signal: if not, the tram attendant issues an 'emergency stop' and winching (of both cars) halts until the system is reset which I'm told involves a 'magnet on a stick'.


Great Orme Tramway: Road signal (red) and tram signal (proceed) viewed from descending tram on lower section

Llandudno Town

Rather than retrace my steps back to the promenade, I turned into Mostyn Street, the town's major traditional shopping area. Encouraged by the good weather, the street was quite busy. I called in a one shop selling discounted new books, but refrained from making a purchase. I remember trams running along Mostyn street because trams operated along an eight mile route to Colwyn Bay until 1956. There's a Wikipedia article here.

Already fairly tired by my adventures, I determined to have lunch before making the return journey home so I turned into Vaughan Street to reach the promenade and the Imperial Hotel where I enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the enclosed terrace restaurant with panoramic views of the sea.


Imperial Hotel, Llandudno, viewed from the promenade in 2011.

Suitably fortified, I spent a few more minutes on the promenade enjoying the sea air and the sun before walking back to the railway station to start my return journey.

The Return Journey

That's the point at which things started to go wrong. I'd intended to catch a shuttle to Llandudno Junction, connecting with an Avanti 'Voyager' to Crewe. Then, an Avanti London service would take me to Stafford where West Midlands Trains would complete the journey to Wolverhampton. At Llandudno, I walked confidently up to the automatic glass doors and was surprised that they failed to open. Undaunted, I moved to the adjacent manual glass doors and found them locked. Then I noticed a small paper notice secured to the glass giving station closing times. It appeared the station had closed ten minutes previously. Through the glass, I could see the train I intended to catch in the platform and I was temporarily bemused. A kindly pedestrian passing by had seen this little pantomime played out and called "When it's locked, you have to go round the side and through the little gate". Thanking him profusely, I hurried to the car park at the side of the building and found the gate giving access to the platforms, in time to see my train depart.

I was anxious to be on my way but the next train to Llandudno Junction was not for an hour. Before the pandemic, taxis could frequently be found waiting outside but, with a reduced timetable in use post-Covid, the station was very quiet. Then I noticed a taxi office at the far end of the station building. The street door of the taxi office led to a waiting area and an internal door led to a counter behind which a base station radio operator was visible. I ordered a taxi to take me to Llandudno Junction which, to comply with the company's 'Covid Safe' rules, was done by shouting details from the waiting area. I waited in the street for about ten minutes for the taxi to arrive and the cheerful driver quickly drove me to Llandudno Junction station.

I hastened over the footbridge to platform 1 which was crowded with passengers supervised by two well-built security men as an already well-loaded DMU arrived. It took a little while to fit all the waiting passengers together with the security men onto the train and I settled for a cramped standing position next to a door. It appeared that there had been some prior dislocation to the services but I never discovered the details. Using Railcam UK on my mobile phone, I found out that I'd caught the 14:34 from Holyhead to Cardiff, reporting number 1V97, and that we were being closely followed by the 14:50 Holyhead to Crewe Avanti 'Voyager' service, reporting number1A53, so I came up with a plan to disembark at Rhyl and transfer to the 'Voyager'. The surge of passengers and bicycles getting off and on at Rhyl meant that I was trapped at the wrong side of the vestibule and, as the doors closed, I resigned myself to continuing to stand until Chester.

But I was disappointed when we were brought to a stand at Saltney Junction where the former Great Western Line from Wrexham trails in from the right. Railcam UK showed the line ahead clear to Chester but there was a Cardiff to Holyhead service, reporting number 1W94, approaching from Wrexham. "Surely", I thought to myself, "they won't cross this in front of us?". But they did, so we sat there, sardines in a tin, whilst I watched on screen as 1W94 made what seemed its agonisingly slow progress in front of us to Chester and 1A53 waited a block behind us. I can remember when there was quadruple track, paired by use, from Saltney Junction over the Roodee Viaduct and through the tunnels into Chester which allowed two trains to simultaneously approach the station. The arrangements were simplified by British Rail to a simple double-track junction with only two lines over the Roodee Viaduct and additional slow lines (this time paired by direction) commencing nearer Chester which was the arrangement inherited by Chester Power Signal Box in 1984.


Chester: West end of Roodee Viaduct in 2014. Note Guard Rails between Running Rails over the bridge.

My screen showed train 1W94 being crossed to bay platform 2 so, once he was clear, I was not surprised that we were routed into the adjacent through platform 3, leaving through platform 4 available to handle train 1A53 behind us. Once off the crowded train, I made my way over the footbridge to catch 1A53, the Avanti 'Voyager' to Crewe, which was 8 minutes 'down' on departure. There was plenty of space in First Class and I managed a welcome cup of tea on the journey before we arrived in bay platform 9 at Crewe, having lost a further minute on the short journey.

The late running destroyed my chance of connecting with Avanti 'Pendolino' service 9M84 from Blackpool to London via Birmingham which would have returned me to Wolverhampton in style. Instead, I disconsolately watched this train depart from platform 5 whilst I was still heading to the footbridge from platform 9.

Whilst I was trying to work out the next departure towards home, another 'Pendolino' arrived in platform 5 from the Manchester line and the public address announced that it was not in service so, intrigued, I sought more information from Railcam UK which revealed an Empty Stock working, reporting number 5T25 from Longsight Carriage Maintenance Depot to Widnes Transport Technology at Ditton Junction. Longsight is Alstom's centre for bogie maintenance and Widnes Transport Technology is the 13,000 square metre train modernisation and repainting facility opened by Alstom in 2017.

I decided to catch the West Midlands Trains 17:33 stopping train to Euston, reporting number 1U40, alighting at the first stop, Stafford. I made myself comfortable in the rear First Class section of the 8-car Siemens 'Desiro' Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) in bay platform 7, awaiting departure. We were 4 minutes late leaving, awaiting the arrival of a late-running Shrewsbury-Crewe DMU in adjacent bay platform 8 because bays 7 and 8 share a common 'throat' track.

As we passed the remodelled junctions at Norton Bridge (outlined in the post here), we passed a Class 66 hustling a container train north on the Down Slow. Railcam UK revealed this as the 09:32 from Felixstowe via the Northampton Loop due at the O'Connor Freightliner Terminal, Ditton at 19:41.

By now rather tired, I just managed to get off at Stafford platform 1 before the doors closed and the train left. There was a Wolverhampton service expected on platform 4, so I hurried across the passenger bridge, grateful for working lifts.

I was puzzled to see the signal at the end of platform 4 displaying a single, flashing yellow, since I'd never seen a flashing yellow displayed at that location before. Railcam UK clarified that the approaching train was not a passenger but a fast freight: the 15:49 from Garston Car Terminal to Dagenham Dock Reception Ground Frame, due there 23:10. This train, reporting number 6L48, is routed via the Crewe Independent Lines, thr Trent Valley, Northampton Loop, Camden. Stratford and Ripple Lane. This train is allowed to travel at 60 miles an hour and was certainly shifting as it swept through the platform with a Class 66 heading a long train of empty 'Carflats'.

The public address then announced a platform change for the expected passenger train to platform 1 so all the passengers trooped across to platform 1, either using the stairs or the lifts. By the time I was back on platform 1, I realised I no longer had my Canon camera with me.

At first thinking I'd left it on a seat on platform 4, I decided to miss the approaching Wolverhampton train and return to platform 4 to search but I found no camera. Then I became certain that, in my haste to leave the Euston train at Stafford, I'd in fact left the camera on the train seat which was speeding towards London.

I then took the next service to Wolverhampton (a Cross Country 'Voyager from Manchester, reporting number 1O68) and made a report to the West Midlands Train staff at Wolverhampton. The supervisor at Wolverhampton explained that West Midland Trains use a third party website called MissingX to deal with lost property enquiries, although he didn't display much confidence in the arrangements. So I finally caught a taxi home after a mixed day of good and not-so-good experiences.

Book References

[1] 'Great Orme Tramway: The First 80 Years' by R.C. Anderson (Light Rail Transit Association)
[2] 'The Great Orme Tramway: Over a century of service by Keith Turner (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch 2003) ISBN 0-86381-817-X
[3] ‘British Railways Layout Plans of the 1950’s - Volume 10: LNW Lines in North Wales, Chester and Wirral areas’ (Signalling Record Society) ISBN: 1-873228-12-0
[4] ‘A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 11 North and Mid Wales’ by Peter E Baughan, published by David & Charles (ISBN 0-7153-7850-3) [2].

Related articles on other websites

Great Orme Tramway
Collision on the Great Orme Tramway 15 September 2009
British Rail Class 153
British Rail Class 175
Funicular (Wikipedia)
Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Electric Railway



Related posts on this website

Llandudno by Train
Rail Travel in January 2022
A Trip to the Seaside (Part 2)
Trip to Holyhead (Part 1: Crewe to Llandudno)
Llandudno (2014)
Return to Llandudno
A Trip to the Seaside (Part 1)
Llandudno Railway Station
The Holyhead to Crewe Railway Line
Watching The Trains Go By
Return to Manchester (Norton Bridge remodelling)

My pictures

Llandudno trip (This trip)
North Wales Line (Crewe - Llandudno) All pictures
Crewe Area rail All pictures
Great Orme Tramway All pictures
Llandudno Earlier pictures

Depending on the display device, the right hand edge of pictures may not display. To see an uncropped image, click on the picture. Alternately, you can find the image by following the 'My pictures' links and display or download the image in various resolutions.