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Northwest Sparks News: 05/02/15

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All About The Lancashire Electrification Project. Saturday, 2 May 2015. This morning, as last Saturday, a 319 worked the 06.00 Liverpool to Wigan and 07.00 return. This week 319362 "Northern Powerhouse" did the honours, here's a shot of it at St Helens Central on the return run, kindly supplied by Paul Gaskell. So for phase 2 that's only Manchester Victoria still waiting for a passenger working. Any day now? Posted by Phil Wieland. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom).

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Northwest Sparks News: 04/16/15

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All About The Lancashire Electrification Project. Thursday, 16 April 2015. I've recently been a little negligent in following the news on this blog, so here's a few headlines and updates:. The Pendolino test runs which were aborted at the end of March were retried later in the week and were apparently successful. Pendolinos are scheduled to run between Liverpool and Euston via Manchester on both the bank holiday weekends in May. Actually both sides are now up, the down side on temporary pulleys. The 319 ...

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Northwest Sparks News: 05/16/15

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All About The Lancashire Electrification Project. Saturday, 16 May 2015. A few farewell pictures on the last day of diesel services at Huyton. Unfortunately, no 142s turned up (I never thought I'd write that! So I didn't get a complete set. 156456 on 2N88 12:05 Liverpool South Parkway to Blackpool North. 150220 on 2F51 12:31 Wigan North Western to Liverpool Lime Street High Level. 150146 on 2F69 12:03 Blackpool North to Liverpool South Parkway. 185141 on 1F67 11:10 Newcastle to Liverpool Lime Street.

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Northwest Sparks News: 04/25/15

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All About The Lancashire Electrification Project. Saturday, 25 April 2015. I understand that 319363 worked 2F52 06.00 Liverpool Lime Street to Wigan North Western and the 2F57 07.03 return this morning, before moving onto Airport runs. This marks the first electric passenger working on the Wigan line, and another important step in the progress of phase two. Only Victoria remains to be completed, and there appears to be an intriguing test train of some sort booked for this Sunday evening. See RTT.

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Northwest Sparks News: "New" Timetable

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All About The Lancashire Electrification Project. Thursday, 23 July 2015. It's about that time of year, so I wasn't at all surprised to find that the new timetable, which starts on Sunday 13 December, had appeared in my database overnight. When I looked into the details of the new schedules, however, I was startled and disappointed to discover that the timetable for trains at Huyton is exactly the same as the old one. Was I wrong to expect an "electric" timetable this time? Posted by Phil Wieland.

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Northwest Sparks News: Liar (anag.)

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All About The Lancashire Electrification Project. Monday, 15 June 2015. The current edition of Rail magazine includes an article on the Northwest electrification which marks a disappointing return to the low level of accuracy that earned it the nick-name "Liar" in the 1980s. I was particularly startled to read that the four tracking at Huyton is in the last stages of resignalling, testing and installation. In fact, the fourth track is isolated at both ends, has no signals, and no overhead equipment.

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Northwest Sparks News: 05/17/15

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All About The Lancashire Electrification Project. Sunday, 17 May 2015. Well, sort of. The Sunday trains at Huyton consist of an hourly Blackpool service and an hourly Manchester Airport service. In the new timetable, which starts today, the latter are to be electric, albeit still on diesel timings. Here's 319361 calling at Huyton while working 2A08 11:15 Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Airport. Posted by Phil Wieland. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom).

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Northwest Sparks News: 04/26/15

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All About The Lancashire Electrification Project. Sunday, 26 April 2015. And this evening, an eight car train with 319364 leading 319367 whizzed through Huyton on 5Z19 20:22 Allerton Diesel Multiple Unit Depot to Manchester Victoria, marking, as far as I know, the first electric working from Ordsall Lane Junction to Victoria. So, with the possible exception of paperwork signoff for this last section, that's the whole of phase two up and running. (Assuming this test is successful.). Posted by Phil Wieland.

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Northwest Sparks News: Current 319 Rosters

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All About The Lancashire Electrification Project. Wednesday, 27 May 2015. I have received a number of emails from people enquiring as to which services are 319 worked, or reporting a particular train as diesel operated, so I thought it might be useful to create a list. I was just beginning the process of doing so when a correspondent kindly pointed me to this page. On the Rail website, where they have the complete rostered workings for the 319s, thus saving me a job! Posted by Phil Wieland.