European Railroad Discussion > Llanvihangel Crucorney

After 40+ years working in the Energy Industry I'm retiring next month and with my partner we are leaving London for the Black Mountains in the Brecon Beacons National Park in South Wales, yep we're going abroad :-)

We've bought a house overlooking the Grwyne Fawr Valley, surrounded by mountain, moor and forest and seven miles from the nearest railway, which is the Marches Line from Newport to Shrewsbury. We were there last weekend taking delivery of some furniture from storage although our main move won't be until the end of March. On Saturday I drove down the valley road to Llanvihangel Crucorney, which is the summit of a stiff climb for northbound trains from Abergavenny heading to Shrewsbury.

1: Class 150s are not usually associated with the longer distance cross country type services over the Marches Line, but on Saturday this Manchester to Port Talbot train was so formed. It was a lovely day, albeit cold, about -4C.

2 & 3: My reason for going was to see the 4V20 coal empties, returning from Fiddlers Ferry power station to Stoke Gifford sidings behind Bristol Parkway station. Coal is being worked from the terminal in Avonmouth docks to Fiddlers Ferry, which is in NW England, which has a short term generating contract during the winter as a stand by station. So this train won't be around for very long. The locomotive is 66507

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Well done Nick, what a sensible move! This is a fantastic location to which your pics certainly do justice. I spent all my early childhood holidays in the 1950s camping further down the Monnow valley. We had to get there by train to Ross-on-Wye and then by Red and White bus to Skenfrith. If we were lucky all the tents etc would have arrived by BR luggage in advance (being sent off a month ahead!). One famous trip to Sandsend in N Yorks we had to wait a week for all the (very basic) equipment to get there. Good job my dad had long holidays as a teacher!

I also believe that the old manual signal box at Llanvihangel was manned by the father of Raymond Williams, the distinguished author, social anthropologist and philsopher, whom I met at King's College Cambridge. I will try and dig out my colour slide of the box taken on my honeymoon in 1970. (My wife is still as tolerant!)

Happy retirement.

Thanks, yes it is a lovely part of the world, our house is visited by ravens and buzzards, not birds generally associated with suburban North London! We're also going to challenge ourselves to learn Welsh, which might be the biggest adventure of them all! 

Does this mean we are not going to have any photos of the first electric trains between Gospel Oak and Barking?
Please don't abandon N19 too soon!

Ha ha, no we're not planning to complete our move until the end of March. The Gospel Oak line reopens next month, supposedly, although the passenger service will remain in the hands of the 172s DMUs until next year.

Welcome to the wild west, 86235! Traffic is a little light on the Marches route compared to about a year ago but there's still some stuff of interest...i'm looking forward to some longer days as spring progresses - there are some nice spots for photography around, especially up around the Ludlow/Craven Arms area.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/17 09:36 by exhaustED.

I'm looking forward to finding some new locations, there are also the steam narrow gauge railways to keep me occupied, also thinking of volunteering on the Mon & Brec Canal. Plenty to do.

Not many ravens in my part of South London, but a few buzzards. Hope you don't get bored in mid-Wales.

cricketer8for9 Wrote:
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> Hope you don't get bored in
> mid-Wales.

Thanks, I don't think we will, we've a barn to convert to keep us occupied, but if we decide we really can't take the rural life we can always move back, as we're keeping our London apartment.

I cannot believe how much the coal scene has dropped off since I binned Freightliner Control to move to Georgia in 2015.

Good luck mate, rural Wales has got old chokey licked all day long. 

Got out to ask one question though, why 86235??

 

Peak45068 Wrote:
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> I cannot believe how much the coal scene has
> dropped off since I binned Freightliner Control to
> move to Georgia in 2015.
>
> Good luck mate, rural Wales has got old chokey
> licked all day long. 
>
> Got out to ask one question though, why 86235??
Thanks - the power generation scene in Britain has been transformed in the last few years; the coal fired stations at Didcot, Rugeley, Ferrybridge, Longannet, Ironbridge, Cockenzie have all gone; Fiddlers Ferry and Eggborough have been relegated to stand by stations. Only Drax (now coal / biomass), Cottam, West Burton, Ratcliffe on Soar and Aberthaw remain in front line service out of the pre-privatisation fleet of large coal fired stations. Uskmouth is also still generating, but again as a standby station and only on one set. Blyth, just north of Newcastle, is set to re-open but burning bio mass. The slack has been taken up increasingly by large gas fired plants, both West Burton and Didcot are sites of 1000MW CCGT plants, and of course by on and off shore wind.

86235 was the last 86 I saw in Anglia passenger service in 2005.

Beautiful Nick.Enjoy a long retirement.
Regards,DK

Apart from any other factors (musn't get too political here!) what a great place to get away from all the madness, (until we have border posts at Chepstow, that is). (No. I can see Severn Tunnel Junction becoming like Chiasso or Hegyeshalom)

Plus lower quadrant semaphore signals... 

Have Fun in retirement!

Jim

tq-07fan Wrote:
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> Plus lower quadrant semaphore signals... 
>
> Have Fun in retirement!
>
> Jim
Indeed, thanks Jim.

Join the club. I too am retiring next month.but staying put on the S coast. However, I am doing a month's railfanning in the US in April