European Railroad Discussion > Storm Claudia

Storm Claudia dumped a months worth of rain across South Wales in 24 hours yesterday. This is the impact on the Newport to Shrewsbury Marches Line at Pontrilas, a few miles north of Abergavenny.

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Nick, were the stones along the RoW placed there as a guard against this sort of damage?  Gerry

GPutz Wrote:
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> Nick, were the stones along the RoW placed there
> as a guard against this sort of damage?  Gerry

I would think so, yes. Clearly didn't work, or didn't work very well. The line remains closed today, there are a number of locations where flood water has damaged the formation.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/25 05:59 by 86235.

86235 Wrote:
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> GPutz Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Nick, were the stones along the RoW placed
> there
> > as a guard against this sort of damage?  Gerry
>
> I would think so, yes. Clearly didn't work, or
> didn't work very well. The line remains closed
> today, there are a number of locations where flood
> water has damaged the formation.

It l;ooks like water has flowed from left to right off the hill.... the rocks on the right are probably more to protect from the main river on the right flooding.

That's an interesting observation.  If true, it appears the rocks on the right channeled the water down the middle of the two tracks.  Gerry
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exhaustED Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 86235 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > GPutz Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Nick, were the stones along the RoW placed
> > there
> > > as a guard against this sort of damage? 
> Gerry
> >
> > I would think so, yes. Clearly didn't work, or
> > didn't work very well. The line remains closed
> > today, there are a number of locations where
> flood
> > water has damaged the formation.
>
> It l;ooks like water has flowed from left to right
> off the hill.... the rocks on the right are
> probably more to protect from the main river on
> the right flooding.

Reminiscent of the old Penn Central....

exhaustED Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 86235 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > GPutz Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Nick, were the stones along the RoW placed
> > there
> > > as a guard against this sort of damage? 
> Gerry
> >
> > I would think so, yes. Clearly didn't work, or
> > didn't work very well. The line remains closed
> > today, there are a number of locations where
> flood
> > water has damaged the formation.
>
> It l;ooks like water has flowed from left to right
> off the hill.... the rocks on the right are
> probably more to protect from the main river on
> the right flooding.


Talking to one of the engineers on site yesterday he said the water came up on both sides if the track from thd River Monnow, which the railway crosses a few hundred meters behind where the picture was taken, and that was aggravated by the farm track which crosses the railway being turned into an impromptu torrent. The previous flood defence work had been to simply protect the line on the river side. No one anticipated the volume of water that fell on Friday. Hopefully the line will reopen tomorrow.