Arriva 150s along the coast

[Edinburgh Junction]

Recently, I've seen Arriva's Class 150s which work the Llandudno - Blaenau Ffestiniog services, but recently, I've seen them shoot along the coast heading both directions.

 

Does anyone know why they are going along the coast? Are they swapping over with other ATW 150s? Does anyone know where I can see timings for these so I can see them swap over?

 

Cheers

 

Jack

[DIRTY DIESEL]

Hi Jack,

 

Was on early turn last week and I think there was some Mcr/Llandudno services formed of 150's as they drop time en route, this is sometimes because of lack of 175's. Also if Cardiff/HHD service is running 30+ late they start up another unit from Chester and runs as a 1TXX so they are sometimes formed of 150's which I think happened sometime last week.

B/F to Llandudno service is a 153 today (well it was at 0535 this morning before I came home).

 

Also 37423 worked Workington shuttle yesterday, today its a 57 & 47.

Also not had a unit swap for a while as it only happens add hoc.

Hope this is of some help

 

Stu

[Guest Phil]

I imagine the Blaenau branch unit will need servicing at Chester every night or two, so there's probably a diagram for swapping it out.

 

Is there also still an odd service from Llandudno (Town) to Holyhead which might be a "slower unit" ie non 158 or 175 ?

 

Last year I did two Ffestiniog Round Robins ;

1st trip

 

153 Blaenau Ffestiniog - Llandudno Jn, 175 to Chester, then a 150 on a Chester - Birmingham via Salop.

 

2nd trip

150 Blaenau Ffestiniog - Llandudno Jn 158 through to Telford.

 

Perhaps the 150 was a replacement for a 158 on the Chester starter ?

[John M Upton]

FGW have borrowed one on the odd occasion, witnessed by myself one afternoon a few weeks back as I pulled into Brighton to see a ATW 150/2 in full livery sitting on platform 1 waiting to go to Cardiff Central!!!

[Edwin_m]

I read somewhere that there have been problems with the ERTMS equipment fitted to their 158 fleet. Possibly 150s are filling in on turns that are normally worked by 158/175 units but don't require 90mph or 100mph running.

[DIRTY DIESEL]

I imagine the Blaenau branch unit will need servicing at Chester every night or two, so there's probably a diagram for swapping it out.

 

Is there also still an odd service from Llandudno (Town) to Holyhead which might be a "slower unit" ie non 158 or 175 ?

 

Last year I did two Ffestiniog Round Robins ;

1st trip

 

153 Blaenau Ffestiniog - Llandudno Jn, 175 to Chester, then a 150 on a Chester - Birmingham via Salop.

 

2nd trip

150 Blaenau Ffestiniog - Llandudno Jn 158 through to Telford.

 

Perhaps the 150 was a replacement for a 158 on the Chester starter ?

 

 

 

There is no Llandudno-HHD service anymore, just BF/Llan,Junc shuttle or Llan/Mcr, there is now an hourly service to HHD with the 7 Virgin services spaced in between.

 

Don't try and catch any XX10hr service from Llandudno to get to Bangor or Holyhead as you will miss it by 3 minutes at the Junction!!!!

 

We call it the Crewe connection, to anyone who's seen their conection tail lamps disappear round the corner to Chester with a wait of 60 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Branch set goes back to Crewe on 1K21 2145 Llan/Crewe and comes down on 5DO2 0335 Chester/Llan Jct

 

Stu

 

Stu

[Guest Phil]

There is no Llandudno-HHD service anymore, just BF/Llan,Junc shuttle or Llan/Mcr, there is now an hourly service to HHD with the 7 Virgin services spaced in between.

 

Don't try and catch any XX10hr service from Llandudno to get to Bangor or Holyhead as you will miss it by 3 minutes at the Junction!!!!

 

We call it the Crewe connection, to anyone who's seen their conection tail lamps disappear round the corner to Chester with a wait of 60 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Branch set goes back to Crewe on 1K21 2145 Llan/Crewe and comes down on 5DO2 0335 Chester/Llan Jct

Stu

 

Cheers for that Stu.

 

Probably a silly question to ask - I'm guessing 150 and 153 don't mult with the 175s, so the branch set would need to couple to a 158 or go solo ?

[magic_monkey09]

Cheers for that Stu.

 

Probably a silly question to ask - I'm guessing 150 and 153 don't mult with the 175s, so the branch set would need to couple to a 158 or go solo ?

 

Your quite right, the class 175 Coradia units cannot work in multi with class 153's or 150's as they have a different couplers on the front (the same as the Voyager i think) whereas the rest of Arriva's units eg: 142/143/150/153/158's have standard BSI couplers

[DIRTY DIESEL]

Cheers for that Stu.

 

Probably a silly question to ask - I'm guessing 150 and 153 don't mult with the 175s, so the branch set would need to couple to a 158 or go solo ?

 

No, 153/150 can't couple with a 175,and the 153 or 150 off 2D21 BF/Llan forms 1K21 solo back to Crewe.

 

We (Llan Jnc PSB) only have one diagram that couples up on a Sunday morning 175 from last service on Saturday night out of The Bay to front of first up service, we detatch or split a trains early morning with the stocks from Chester.

5D02(153 or 150 unit for 2D10 0535 BF & 158 unit for 1K02 0438 Crewe.

5D50(3 x 175 units)1H80 0546 MCR, 2D50 0613 Llan,2D52 0651 Llan.

 

Stu

[DIRTY DIESEL]

Your quite right, the class 175 Coradia units cannot work in multi with class 153's or 150's as they have a different couplers on the front (the same as the Voyager i think) whereas the rest of Arriva's units eg: 142/143/150/153/158's have standard BSI couplers

 

I think couplers (175/Voyager) are the same but ones the wrong way up from the other so they can't couple, and no doubt if they did have them the right way round the on board computer systems (TMS) would n't work with each other.

 

Stu