350/4 Test Trains

An eagle-eyed reader of this blog has spotted the schedules for what we suspect are 350/4 test runs:

5T72 10.40 Crewe Carriage Sidings LNWR to Carnforth Down & Up Goods Loop
5T73 13.03 Carnforth Down & Up Goods Loop to Crewe Carriage Sidings LNWR

The times are different on Mondays and later in November, see realtimetrains.co.uk for details.

Today's runs were cancelled.

UPDATE:  The test trains ran on Thursday and Friday, here's a shot kindly supplied by David Hull of the Friday run at Wigan.

Chorley Complaints

The people of Chorley and nearby locations are realising their services are to be significantly cut when TPEx's Manchester/Scotland trains are diverted via Wigan in December, in preparation for the phasing in of electric units.

A correspondent kindly forwarded a link to a report in the Lancashire Evening Post.

As I understand it, the intention is to return these services to the Chorley route once phase four is completed in 2016.