The Cardiff Specials

The autumn of 1999 witnessed a virtual bonanza of locomotive hauled passenger workings in South Wales due to the Rugby World Cup and the opening of the new millennium stadium in Cardiff. Many interesting workings took place, with the majority seeing the use of Heritage diesels on the front.

Here D172 Ixion and 47705 Guy Fawkes head a special from Manchester passed CoedKernew near Newport on a glorious autumns day. The date was Thursday 21st October 1999. The 47 was to have powered the train alone but its speedometer had failed entailing the use of Ixion for the whole route.

Moving on to this year many more locomotive hauled trains run to Cardiff on Rugby days. Here 37408 and 37418 head towards their meeting with the Millennium Stadium on Saturday 25th may 2002. 37408 has recently received a fresh coat of EWS maroon and looks very clean in this shot.How long this sight will continue is anyone's guess but as long as the events are held here extra trains will be needed to meet the additional demand.

Shown passing the same location near Newport is Ian Riley's pair of class 37's numbers 37197 and 37038 team up to head a Crewe to Cardiff special. Sporting its unusual livery 37197 has been used frequently on driver training runs and service trains during 2002.

Both the more recent shots were taken with the new Canon EOS D60 and show the inherent quality achievable with this new camera.

Above 47733 rounds the curve at Rumney on the outskirts of Cardiff with a special train heading for the 2002 FA Cup Final.