Black 5 Chase Into North Wales

Hello & Welcome to Harnetty Railways
In this video we see Ian Riley's Black 5 Main Event 44871 as he worked the steam sections of The Railway Touring Company's The North Wales Coast Express from Crewe to Llandudno & return.
We start at Crewe as we see 44871 not long after coming off Crewe Heritage Centre while awaiting to take over from class 86 86259 Les Ross which was bringing the train from Euston earlier that morning.
We see the black take over the train & depart from Crewe in drizzling rain with 12 coaches & class 47 47812 in tow mostly consist of ex BR Blue & Grey MK2's.
We next catch 44871 at Llandudno Junction as prior to this the hole train turned on the triangle at Chester & due to the gab between the buffer stops & the semaphore gantry at Llandudno 44871 was uncoupled from the train at the junction while the train went down the branch with 47812 which resulted in the 1st Black 5 to go down the branch since July 2013 on hold.
At the junction it did give us the chance to have a look of 44871 in great detail & by this time the weather improved with great sunshine while we have a look round the black 5 at close quarters.
For the return we opted to do Abergele & Pensarn to replicate what we got of 7029 Clun Castle earlier in the summer.
There was a problem the railtour left Llandudno over an hour late due to a points failure on the Llandudno branch causing cancellations to services for a few hours.
However though the delay did gives us a positive as the sun turned more sufficiently to get the black 5 side on in sun which was a blessing.
We end with 44871 heading east back to Crewe in sunshine.
Thanks for the company at Llandudno of ‪@_j_loco_‬ for a gd chat & catch up.
Thanks for reading enjoy the film.
#black544871 #teamriley #railwaytouringcompany #westcoastrailways

[@crunchynutsteamfilms5043]

Fantastic clips as always Rich! Hope you had a good day out. Regards, Dan

[@SimonTog]

Great video Richard :)

[@JoshHodginsTrains]

Thanks Richard 😅😅

[@elaineblackhurst1509]

The engine is magnificent; the diesel stuck on the back is not.

[@andylaws4247]

The 47 on the back was needed on this tour to provide ETH for the coaches and to take the tour from Chester to Llandudno, as the train reversed direction at Chester because there is no way of turning the steam loco at Llandudno.