European Railroad Discussion > Lockdown staff training

All this week Transport for Wales (TfW) has been refreshing existing and training new staff on the class 67 and Mk 3 stock which before Lockdown was used between Holyhead and Cardiff and Llandudno and Manchester. Since lockdown all TfW services have been DMUs so I guess there's some logic ensuring staff familiarisation with the loco hauled stock in case they are brought back into service soon. 67001 in Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) blue has been the power, making for a nice uniform set. The route has been between Cardiff Canton depot and Crewe, running north in the afternoon, returning from Crewe the following morning.

1: this is the Canton to Crewe working (5W67) on Monday afternoon, reaching the top of Llanvihangel bank.
2: On Tuesday I rode down to Pandy for the Crewe to Canton (5F67). The loco leads north, the DVT south.
3: On Thursday I have a Zoom class, which I take in the car down at Llanvihangel as the latency of our satellite broadband doesn't allow we to do it from home. But it does mean I can see the trains, like today's 5F67.

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Nice catch ! This train is on my bucket list !!! :):):)

I rode it from Hereford to Shrewsbury in 2014, they still had a Restaurant car in BR colours. That car served up some delicious ravioli.

EDIT: I added pictures!
1) Restaurant Bisto M 10246 in Brit-Rail colours at Shrewsbury July 31 2014
2) More important Arriva Wales ravioli!

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/20 08:41 by tq-07fan.

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tq-07fan Wrote:
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> I rode it from Heriford to Shrewsbury in 2014,
> they still had a Restaurant car in BR colours.
> That car served up some delicious ravioli.
>
> Jim

The restaurant car is now in ATW aquamarine but it's still open to anyone on the train, serves breakfast on the morning run to Cardiff and dinner on the return to Holyhead. One of the last surviving proper restaurant cars in Britain.

I really like this train in the Arriva livery. Their colours look good on buses too! Anyways nice pictures Nick!

Jim

tq-07fan Wrote:
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> I really like this train in the Arriva livery.
> Their colours look good on buses too! Anyways nice
> pictures Nick!
>
> Jim

Usually you can see the menus on the TfW website, but all catering services have been suspended during the Covid Crisis. Menus usually change every week.

What is the heritage of this Arriva stock ?   Are the 67's ex-EWS ?  The DVT's WCML or East Coast ?

SZ

The 67s are EWS / DB, TfW simply lease them. The Mk 3 TSOs and DVT were ex-VWC, not sure of the heritage of the restaurant first. The Mk 3s are due to be retired, replaced by three or four sets of Mk 4s consisting of two standard opens, standard buffet and single first class / restaurant car plus DVT. At present more work is required on the Marches Line before the Mk 4s can enter service.