European Railroad Discussion > Porthmadog to Cardiff, Wales (July 2026) - what could go wrong?

On July 17 we headed out from Porthmadog on the 9:57 train to Wolverhampton, with plans to travel as far as Shrewsbury, then transfer to a train to Cardiff.
The initial part of the journey was fine, traveling again along the west coast of Wales.
1. Between Fairbourne and Tywyn, in some areas it is a steep climb down to Cardigan Bay
At Machynllen, they took the train out of service.  The replacement train arrived shortly afterward, however it already had several passengers on board.  It would have been standing room only for the next two hours.
The railway offered to 'bustitute' those of us going to major stations, so we opted for that.
2. The bus took routes A470 and A458, which is different from the rail line. We passed the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway
3. About 8 miles west of Shrewsbury, the highway was closed due to a car knocking out a power pole and landing in a hedge
The bus driver took his required break while we sat waiting. After his break was over, no progress had been made in opening the road.
The driver backtracked, took some border roads, and got us to highway B4393, which got us around the accident site.

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By the time we got to Shrewsbury it was around 5pm, rush hour.
The lifts (elevators) were out of order, and some security guards assisted with shlepping our bags up the stairs to the platforms.
4. This light engine set came through while we were waiting for our train
5. The next day, we took a bus tour that included a one way trip on the Brecon Mountain Railway
6. While we did not ride the trip back, we did get to see the power, the Santa Teresa, backing around the train for the return

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7. The Santa Teresa is a Baldwin
8. This is the Cardiff Central station, originally built by the Great Western

Thanks for looking

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