European Railroad Discussion > Views from the Marches (and around)

Had a most enjoyable month so far although I don't think this week is shaping up to be anything other than dull, weather-wise. This is what I've seen so far.

1: On Halloween the regular 4V20 Fiddlers Ferry to East Usk empty coal hoppers (Fiddlers Ferry is a coal fired power station near Liverpool) sped past me through Great Triley Wood. Loaded it's a class 6 (max 60 mph) but empty it's allowed 75 mph (class 4)
2: Train of the day was this STP (Short Term Planning aka Extra) working, DRS 68025 on five Mk 3 passenger cars previously stored at Plymouth Laira depot and destined to be used for crew training for the new CAF loco hauled stock being introduced on the Trans Pennine Express (TPE) services next year, for which DRS are providing 68s as the motive power. It's just north of Abergavenny station.
3: And taken at Abergavenny station a little while later Freightliner 66413 (which continues to wear its original DRS paint job) on the Monday to Friday 6M86 loaded steel to Dee Marsh (for Shotton Steelworks)

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4: The following day, November 1st, it brightened quite considerably, this is the 4V20 again, approaching Abergavenny's fine bracket down home signal.
5: This was the day Network Rail suffered a data meltdown and consequently the various apps we all use to track trains were thrown into a tailspin, so there was an element of waiting and seeing what would turn up. There was an STP on the day's schedule from Westbury to Moreton-on-Lugg, a stone loading siding north of Hereford. It wasn't reporting on Realtimetrains but one of the map applications did show a train working its way from England to Wales, when it turned right at Maindee East Junction (in Newport) I knew this was my baby. Here it is, 66035 and a set of HTA former coal hoppers, now used to haul stone.
6: My partner and I spent the following weekend in the neighbouring county (but one), Shropshire, in the small village of Lydbury North, no trains just plenty of hill walking. We came back on Monday via the Ynys Hir bird reserve in Mid Wales, which is crossed by the Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth line of the former Cambrian Railways. This is the 10:29 Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth passing Ynys Hir Castle, an upmarket restaurant with rooms. We were watching a kingfisher.

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7: Back home November 8th dawned bright and sunny, this is the daily Holyhead to Cardiff flyer with 67015 providing the power.
8: It was followed by the Bristol based Railhead Treatment train, 3S91, which makes a foray up the Marches Line to Moreton on Lugg in the early hours, returning just after 09:00 behind the flyer. 66152 and 66024 are the motive power.
9: The 6M86 to Dee Marsh passing Hatterall Hill running 83 minutes early!

More to come

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Some really great photos here!

All the media seems to indicate coal mining in GB has just about ended. Is the coal import or from some other source?

I am interested to see the brush cutter has visited in a couple of your shots. No "pole line" remaining it seems.

There's a tiny bit of coal mining still in the UK, from South Wales, with the coal produced going to one or two industries in the north such as cement plants.

All the coal in the UK for power stations (levels are much reduced compared to the past) is imported.

King_Coal Wrote:
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> Some really great photos here!
>
> All the media seems to indicate coal mining in GB
> has just about ended. Is the coal import or from
> some other source?
>
> I am interested to see the brush cutter has
> visited in a couple of your shots. No "pole line"
> remaining it seems.

The coal from Portbury is imported, but there is still open cast mined coal moved by train in Wales and Scotland. This flow will end in the spring, it may resume next August if Fiddlers Ferry remains on stream. As things currently stand it is our government's intention to cease using coal for generation by 2025. And, yes Network Rail had the flail out to clear the vegetation close to the track on the gradient from Abergavenny to Llanvihangel Summit. I don't know of any telegraph pole lines which remain on Network Rail, the last I remember seeing were on the Ely to Norwich line before it was re-signalled.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/17 14:06 by 86235.

10: I have a class in Abergavenny on Thursdays (I'm learning Welsh), but if I'm lucky I get to see the 4V20 before class and the 6B35 to Moreton on Lugg afterwards. Class finishes at 15:00 and the MoL is due past Abergavenny at 15:40, which at this time of the year is just as the sun disappears over the hills to the west. Here, on November 9th is the 6B35 approaching Abergavenny in the last rays of direct sun.
11: On the 9th Colas ran their Baglan Bay to Chirk loaded timber train, which means the empties will return the following morning. They are due past Abergavenny at 07:52, which is marginal for any direct sun so on Friday 10th I drove down to Ponthir, on the outskirts of Newport and was rewarded with 66849 Wylam Dilly. Unusual to see a 66 on this working, it's normally a 70.
12: On the way back home I stopped at Pandy, north of Abergavenny, for the 1V91 Holyhead to Cardiff flyer

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13: On Sunday 12th we endured a morning of sun and some very heavy showers, some of which were wintry. There was an engineering train due through carrying material from a worksite near Cardiff so off I went to Pandy for a photograph. But first the 10:07 Hereford to Carmarthen with attendant rainbow. And I thought you found a crock of gold at the rainbow's end...
14: The engineering train appeared momentarily later, just as the heavens opened.
15: On Monday I drove over the River Severn to Patchway, on the outskirts of Bristol. The approach lines to the Severn Tunnel are at different levels, the lower level line is for the loaded coal trains from South Wales which used the tunnel. Until the tunnel was opened in 1888 the line, the single track on the higher elevation, only went to a place called New Passage Pier where passengers took a ferry across the Severn to Portskewett where they boarded the onward train. the train is another empty coal train, this time from Aberthaw power station in South Wales to Avonmouth. Electrification work is in evidence, the massive foundations for the earthquake proof catenary supports are very apparent.

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16: The view from above the portal of the westbound (upper level) tunnel, an HST bound for Cardiff approaches
17: OK there's no railway in this shot. This was taken alongside the River Severn some 15 miles north of Bristol and on the west bank. Looking down the river, on the left is Sharpness and on the right is Purton. Until 1970 these were connected by the Severn Railway Bridge, the only crossing of the Severn, apart from the tunnel, south of Gloucester (15 miles behind me) until the first road bridge was built across the river at Chepstow in the mid 1960s. Built by the Severn & Wye Railway (a GWR / Midland Railway joint operation) to carry coal from the Forest of Dean coalfield it was disused after a span was knocked down when a ship collided with it in 1961 and was finally demolished in 1970.
18: This is the train I was waiting for, the 4V44 Tesco Express from Daventry to Wentloog (Cardiff) carrying supermarket goods.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/17 23:50 by 86235.

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Final three

19: November 14th was damp but bright, here's the 4V20 from Fiddlers Ferry passing Llanvihangel behind 66420, which monopolised it all week
20: November 15th saw a Neath to Washwood Heath gristone strain, 6M45. Colas operated and almost inevitably a class 70
21: On November 17th 4V20 66420 again stirring the leaves as it speeds through Abergavenny at line speed

Some more pictures here: https://nick86235.smugmug.com/Trains/2017/Night-draws-on-October-2017/i-6Vms89k



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/17 14:41 by 86235.

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Nice set of photos.

Very enjoyable.

KG

Interesting photos, but originally thought...oh...photos from the Italian Province of Le Marche. Didn't know there was an area in GB with a the same name.

ATSF3751 Wrote:
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> Interesting photos, but originally
> thought...oh...photos from the Italian Province of
> Le Marche. Didn't know there was an area in GB
> with a the same name.

Same meaning, borderlands. The Welsh Marches stretch from the River Dee in the north to the Wye and the Usk in the south. This frontier land is dotted with Marcher Castles, like Chirk, built by the Normans and the Plantagenets to keep an eye on the unruly Welsh. And English borderland towns like Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford are blessed with both English and Welsh names, both are used by Arriva Trains Wales.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/17 13:10 by 86235.

Another great posting of your excellent photos.
Like all of them. However, especially like those of Class 66.
ALLEN

I enjoy seeing the freight movements, with explanations.

75 mph for an empty coal train!!

JGFuller Wrote:
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> 75 mph for an empty coal train!!

Only about 20 hoppers, so not a monster train or anything. Most empty freights and intermodals are routinely run at that speed in the UK.

exhaustED Wrote:
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> JGFuller Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 75 mph for an empty coal train!!
>
> Only about 20 hoppers, so not a monster train or
> anything. Most empty freights and intermodals are
> routinely run at that speed in the UK.


And of course they all have to fit in with a frequent passenger service - even in this case on a secondary route every 45 minutes and generally timed for 100mph max.

A great group of photos, thank you for posting them.