10:30.

The adventure begins! Despite the weather I had a decent night’s sleep last night, which is just as well as that’s a commodity that’s going to be in very short supply for the next few days.

Having packed all my kit – including stuff to cope with all the vageries of the British weather I’m on my first train of the day. As many services have been cancelled across the network I’m giving myself plenty of time to get to Crewe. Dawn’s been a star and given me a lift down to Sowerby Bridge station in time to catch Northern’s 10:20 to Manchester Victoria, so I’ve not started the day off hot and sweaty!

This train’s pretty empty. It looks like many folk have heeded to call not to travel. The few who have are dressed for the weather with shorts being de rigueur!

12:00.

I can breathe easy now. I’ve made it as far as Manchester, a city baking in the sun. A condition which is ruining its reptation! There’s no shortage of trains from here to Crewe so I can take time to get a few pictures here before heading off again for the final leg to Crewe where I don’t need to be until later this afternoon as when registration starts. The train itself doesn’t leave for Bangor until this evening.

13:05.

Nothing’s stopping me now! Having hung around in Manchester to enjoy the sun, do a bit of work* and get some pictures I’m now aboard a vintage Class 323 to Crewe. This is one of the former West Midlands units transferred to Northern, who’re now the sole operator of these 1990s built trains.

Now I’ll be in Crewe before temperatures reach their zenith. The information screens at Piccadilly bore witness to the cull of train services that have already taken place due to the weather. Some already planned, others not.

On the bright side (ish). I’m on an old train with opening windows and no air-conditioning, so there’s nothing to break down!

16:45.

The teams from all corners of the country  are gathering at Crewe. It’s great to see so many old friends and familuar faces amongst them.

*the work I was doing means thay you’ll be able to read about the 3 Peaks challenge in a future edition of RAIL magazine.

19:30.

We’re on our way! We’ve already had fun as a short notice loco change has meant our train in now being hauled by a Class 45  ‘Peak’ locomotive 451118. Now the 3 peaks has become the 4 peaks!

23:00.

Sorry for the gap. We’ve had a few technical issues with tge train’s power supply which has meant I had to take time off to power up my laptop and phone.

We left Crewe on time but ran into problems on the North Wales Coast whilst the volunteers were serving the walkers a cooked dinner followed by cheesecake. A failed train ahead meant we had to work ‘bang road’ (wrong line) between Mostyn and Rhyl, so any hope of a spirited run to Llandudno Junction were dashed. Even so we were only a few minutes late into Bangor where the teams departed by bus to get to Snowdon. I stayed on the train with other volunteers who were busy cleaning the train and also preparing food so that everyone could eat when the train arrived at Holyhead. It may have been an ’empty’ train but it was still a hive of activity!

Now we have a little time to relax before we bed down for a few hours sleep. We’re due back in Bangor around 0400 tomorrow to pick up the weary walkers. Let’s see what happens. But for now, good night!

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Cheers,

Paul