European Railroad Discussion > Croeso unwaith eto i Gymru

Another weekend and another visit to Wales, this time with my partner as it's the half term holidays and we wanted to go walking, so trains took a back seat. We stayed in Borth, which is a small seaside town some 5 miles as the crow (or chough) flies north of the university town and administrative centre of Mid Wales, Aberystwyth. Borth is on Arriva Trains Wales Cambrian line connecting Aberystwyth, Pwllheli and intermediate stations with Birmingham in the English midlands. The small coastal plain is backed by mountains and, as in Snowdonia, there are narrow gauge steam railways to ride.

In the case of Aberystwyth it is the terminus of the Vale of Rheidol Railway, a 2' gauge line which connects Aberystwyth with Devil's Bridge, a beauty spot some 12 miles and 660 feet up the Rheidol Valley. Devil's Bridge, which has been a tourist destination since William Wordsworth's time, is noted for its gorge, cascades, three bridges over the torrent and the Mynach waterfall. The railway was built in the early 20th century specifically to haul lead and timber but also to take visitors to see the sights around Devil's Bridge. As the timber and lead declined the tourist numbers boomed, and that has remained the case ever since. Indeed since the late 1920s when year round passenger service stopped and freight facilities were withdrawn tourists provide 100% of the traffic

Originally independent it was taken over by the standard gauge Cambrian Railways in 1913 and in turn was absorbed by the Great Western (in 1923) and became part of British Railways in 1948, continuing in BR ownership until it became the first privatised part of the network, being sold to to the two owners of the Brecon Mountain Railway in 1989. That partnership split in 1995, with the VoR now under the care of a charitable trust. It is not a volunteer railway, it is run by paid staff but supported by the trust. This year it ran daily from 1st April to 30th September and then five days a week (Tuesday to Thursday, Sat & Sun) for the first three weeks of October and then daily until 31st October, then Sunday's only in November, some trains before Christmas before the railway shuts up to the public in Jan, Feb & March.

Since privatisation the railway has seen significant investment, passing loops have been reinstated, the wayside stations have had replica corrugated iron waiting shelters and lamps erected, it does look very professional.

There have only ever been seven steam engines; when it opened it had a pair of 2-6-2T from a firm of railway equipment manufacturers (Davies & Metcalfe), a 2-4-0T originally built for Brasil but never delivered and it hired Ffestiniog Railway 0-4-0STT Palmerston on a number of occasions over 20 years. When the GWR took over they shipped the two D&M 2-6-2Ts to Swindon, ostensibly to rebuild them but found that they were essentially worn out, and so replaced them with the three 2-6-2T new builds which have worked the line continuously ever since. One of the three is supposed to be a rebuild of one of the D&M locos, but that was just an accountants ruse, all three were newly built at Swindon in the early 1920s. Today the steam engines have been augmented by no.10, a Baguley-Drewry 0-6-0 diesel.

Today two are in service, 8 & 9. No.7 Owain Glyndŵr is awaiting rebuilding.

The railway has a well equipped workshop and shed at Aberystwyth to carry out heavy maintenance work.

The passenger cars were built by the GWR, some dating from the 20s, most from the late 1930s. They still have a number of freight wagons so can run demonstration freights, but most are used for MoW purposes.

Leaving home on Saturday morning we stopped off on the English/Welsh border for this shot of the 09:30 Aberystwyth/07:24 Pwllheli to Birmingham International, seen here approaching Middletown, about a mile from the border with England. On weekdays this train requires three class 158s but on Saturday only two, one from each of its start points.

Later in the afternoon we were at the RSPB reserve at Ynys Hir, just west of the point the Aberystwyth and Pwllheli lines diverge, Dovey Junction. At 15:00 the Aberystwyth portion of the 12:08 from Birmingham International to Aber and Pwllheli canters along the Dovey River with the 19th century Glandyfi Castle on the hillside, the latter is an upmarket B&B.

Fast forward to Monday and we're at Aberystwyth VoR for a ride up to Devil's Bridge, primarily to do a six and a half mile walk up into the hills along the Mynach River. No.8 and no.10 are on shed. The shed itself is the old standard gauge steam shed built by the GWR in the 1930s and turned over to the VoR in the early 1970s. The workshop is the building beyond with 2012 in bricks.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/14 00:07 by 86235.

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No.8 comes off shed looking very spick and span, wreathed in steam. But all was not well, and 10:30 came and went but we still hadn't gone. Lots of worried looking faces both in and around the footplate. The problem, Swindon fans will be pleased to know, was nothing to do with any of the GWR components but with the large airbrake pump with which the locomotives have been fitted and which simply wasn't working. Normally it fizzes and pops, but today only some wisps of steam could be seen. What to do...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/14 14:13 by 86235.

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The solution was quite simple, no.10 was summoned and double headed no.8 to Devil's Bridge providing the braking power whilst no.8 still did much of the work climbing the 2% + grades. Travelling in the open car behind no.8 we were assailed by the exhaust of both locomotives, quite a heady cocktail :-). At Devil's Bridge we set off for our walk, returning for the 16:15 departure back to Aberystwyth, for which no.9 had been fired up. This was what I had hoped to see as it has been repainted in the ersatz Cambrian livery, which its Davies & Metcalfe predecessor would have worn. And very nice it looks too. Before the train leaves water is taken which, at Devil's Bridge is 100 yards outside the station, which is where 9 is off too before joining its train.

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As the UK put its clocks back on Satuday 26th light was starting to fade by the time we set off at 16:15 but thanks to an ISO of 2400 I managed one more shot as we headed down hill.

And finally from Tuesday morning, as we started the long journey home, another pair of Arriva Trains Wales 158s, on the 08:08 Birmingham International to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli descending from the summit at Talerddig down the 2% grade past Dolfach towards Commins Coch and Machynlleth.

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Thanks for posting these. My son and I considered a side trip down to Vale of Rheidol this summer, but chose to spend an extra day up near Porthmadog instead.

We were totally unprepared for how gorgeous the coast of Wales is, and I swear I will get back there with the dear spouse some time in the next few years.

march_hare Wrote:
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> We were totally unprepared for how gorgeous the
> coast of Wales is, and I swear I will get back
> there with the dear spouse some time in the next
> few years.

I agree, with or without steam trains the west coast of Wales is pretty gorgeous. We walked from Borth to Aberystwyth on Sunday, along the coast path. It's only five and a half miles but the ups and the downs make it seem twice as long. And we saw choughs, ravens and, out at sea, porpoises. And having got to Aberystwyth and had lunch in the pub which is in the station we walked around the town, up to the Wellington monument before catching 15:30 ATW train back to Borth.