Welsh short line!

Railway reminder at the waterfront.

153 333 at Cardiff Bay.

En route.

153 333 at Cardiff Queen Street.

(All pics copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing 21.6.2019

FACEBOOK - rail thing routes - british branch lines

FACEBOOK - rail thing - rails of wales/rheilffyrdd cymru

11th anniversary trip to Cardiff on Friday/Saturday. Wasn't supposed to be rail related in any way. But strange things happen. We wanted to go down to Cardiff Bay to see some of the sights. From the hotel it was about a mile. Half way down my wife started moaning 'This is boring, it's like Hartcliffe. I am NOT walking back!' I explained this was just the journey, not the destination, as we passed another cheap shop selling fags and lottery tickets.

But help was at hand. All the way down we'd been following a railway, being a bit out of my area I'd not much idea what it was, but we'd seen a few passenger trains running along it.

Turns out it was the Cardiff Bay branch, which used to be the Cardiff (Bute Street) branch which also connected this area of the docks to the network.

So train trip back it was! Cardiff Bay station reminded me a bit of those bus shelter type places so common in the 70s. Just a single line. A train came in quickly and we were soon trundling up the branch. It was a very short ride! Within about 4 minutes we were in the bay at Cardiff Queen Street station. So the train just shuttles up and down all day. Great service, busy and cheap.

Getting back to Bristol I did a little research. It seemed to me that the line would be so much better if it went the extra kilometre or so to the nice shops and restaurants at the water side. Also to the Welsh parliament (Senedd) and Welsh National Opera, both nearby.

Turns out that this is EXACTLY the plan. Within a few years the station at Cardiff Bay will close, the line will be extended towards the centre of the harbourside, an intermediate station will be built at Loudon Square and tram-trains will run every ten minutes on the line. It's great to see our branch lines being developed in the 21st century.

train travel 2050 style

 

We took the Cathedrals Express to Ludlow yesterday, picking it up at Bath.

 

We topped up with water at Magor.

 

REAL carriage interior!

 

Hereford stop.

Britannia at Bristol Temple Meads. 

 

Perhaps the most enduring image of the day ...

 

 

We took our first ever steam excursion yesterday, taking the Cathedrals Express from Bath to Ludlow. I wasn't sure what to expect. I have of course travelled by steam on the main line before, but don't have any memories of it! And apart from a few brief glimpses of steam in the sixties - at Waterloo, Ryde, Lyminster and a few other places that was it! Seen plenty on heritage lines, but that's a whole different experience.

 

All in all it was a great experience but what struck me really strongly was how much a look into the future it is. A busy train, real coaches with space to sit and windows to look out of, superb service and, of course, all pulled by a locomotive that can run on sustainable fuel. The most striking example of this future experience was when we ran alongside an allotment in south Wales, with rows of compost bins looking over vegetables and good soil with a steam train in the background!

 

On the return we got a taste of the past, or what will soon be the past - a diesel loco heading the train. Britannia stayed on to provide (rather ineffective!) steam heating, but the diesel was doing most of the work.

 

As always I urge people to get out and travel behind diesel and photograph them as much as possible - it won't be many years before they are replaced by electric and steam locos, and once they are gone they really will be gone forever.

 

But the highlight of the day, for me and many others standing on the station, was watching - and listening - to Britannia reversing through the main station and vanishing in the dark on its way to London.

a walk up the line

FACEBOOK - REVERSING BEECHING - REOPEN THE HORSHAM-SHOREHAM LINE

On 20 November 1986 I took a walk along the remains of the Horsham to Shoreham line, which retained track as far as the old Beeding Cement Works.

This was a strange closure, a double track line that provided an excellent alternative route from Brighton to London (with junctions facing the right way) and serving a number of sizeable towns on route. It actually closed on the very same day as the S&D, 6 March 1966.

I did actually see this line when it was still open to passengers, from the car as we were on the way to Bramber castle. I could see Bramber station but, being only 9 years old, was not allowed to visit it. On the next visit the line was closed and overgrown, and I still wasn't allowed to visit it!

Not long after closure the line was lifted apart from the 2 or 3 miles between Shoreham and Beeding. But eventually even that section closed. There was an abortive preservation bid, the main stumbling block being that the last short stretch of the line into Shoreham was still a busy BR route.

So on that sunny November day in 1986 I said goodbye to the line, though I didn't know it at the time. I walked the whole length apart from about 500 metres in Shoreham.

There have always been mutterings about reopening the route. It would seem a sensible time to start planning this now. There are a few of the usual stupid 'blockages', characterless houses plonked for some reason right on the trackbed even though it must have always been clear that the line would be needed in the future. Towns like Henfield and Steyning are ridiculously without railway stations! Other places like Bramber, West Grinstead, Southwater and Partridge Green have (currently unfulfilled) potential to be commuter towns. I can't see the Adur Valley being without trains for much longer, but for now the route is silent, yet another disgusting reminder of the stupidity and shortsightedness of the Flower Power generation.

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If you think rail investment should be directed at restoring Britain's closed railways as well as building many NEW branches, ensuring that all towns and villages with a population of 500+ have modern transport facilities, rather than being wasted on prestige High Speed lines, please join this new Facebook group.

(Pics Beeding, Shrewsbury Abbey, Bideford and Woodhead)