Hi All, Even though I am in the United States. I am becoming very interested in Welsh Railroads. Mostly the real ones and their operations. Any help on these? Thanks Yall
Hi BN! What would you like to know? Try this for starters Ffestiniog Railway p.s. You will find several others on the FR links page [ 15 September 2001: Message edited by: Alan ]</p>
Hi - if you could just be a little more specific, there are quite a few of us over here who know quite a lot about Welsh railways (standard gauge, narrow gauge, miniature and model!) and we will do our best to help you. We just need to know what you want to know! Ben
Ben and Alan, thanks for the reply, well I am interested in the lines in and around Swansea/Cartiff South Wales. My Girlfriend is from the Ammanford area, hence the interest in that area imparticular. She gave me a book on the tourstisty railroads in wales and there was a short blurb on the line around Swansea, but I am interested in operations, dispatching, and what kind of trains, commuter, long distance passenger, freight. Thanks again for the help and I will check out the site now.
I reread the potion of that book on the line and see it must have some kind of commuter service. Any info on that? Thanks Guys!
Errrr....that is one part of Wales I am not too hot on, but if you log on to the Railtrack website (either www.railtrack.com or .co.uk) you should be able at least to see a map of the system. There is not a great deal of freight generally any more, at least not the traditional heavy freight such as coal and steel (those industries are all but dead in South Wales now), but try one or two search engines when you have half an hour or so to spare and you might track down some info. Sorry can't be of more help. Ben
Ben, thanks for the help you have given, I will be sure to take a long look at those, if you do come up with any more info, please by all means post it, thanks Again!
Hi there, http://www.samsonrail.com/ has a whole load of modern South Wales railway photo's, if you're over and want a good place to watch trains, I can reccomend Newport, lots of freight & passenger workings, avoid the weekends as there is less freight about. HTH & ATB!
Hello Martyn, welcome to Trainboard Thanks for the link, had a quick look, and must go back for more! Good to have another Brit on board
Yeah, it's a really good site, there's some great 1970's/80's pics on there as well if you search around but don't get me all nostalgic ! I was having a think about South Wales services last night, here's a quick run down... The whole of South Wales (and the South West) is non-electrified, so you will find a mix of diesel locomotives (lots of GMD built ones these days!) diesel MU sets and diesel High Speed Train sets. Long distance (formerly Intercity) passenger workings are mainly run by First Great Western, at present with green/grey/gold HST sets, but there are new "Coradia" 5 car MU's on order to partially take over from these, these are painted in First's "poofter" livery(*) The other long distance operator that you *may* see there is Virgin trains, nice red trains! (*bold pink stripe, BTW that's an Exeter traincrew description, probably not the official one ) Local/medium distance services are mostly MU's of various operators. We still don't have proper open access, but trains from various area's run into South Wales, so you may see "Centro" (Green trains) on ones from Birmingham and Wales&West units as well as the local "Valley Line" ones. And possibly others too! There seem to be occasional commuter/extra loco hauled runs with "heritage" loco's powering them, but i'm afraid I don't know much about these. The main UK rail freight company is EW&S (English Welsh & Scottish) which was part of the Wisconsin Central system (now CNNA) and they run the lions share of freights in that area. They also operate parcels & mail trains. Loco's are mainly in WC style maroon & gold, some may still be seen in pre or early post privatisation colours (Loadhaul, Transrail, Mainline Freight, plain grey etc.) Freightliner is the 2nd largest freight operation in the UK (green & yellow engines) and mainly runs container/intermodal trains, they have recently started winning contracts for other traffics but I don't think that has affected any trains in Wales yet. The other UK freight companies are GB Railfreight (GBRf) with orange/blue loco's and DRS (Direct Rail Svcs) with blue loco's, I don't think these normally work to South Wales (I could be wrong!) but they do lease loco's out to the larger two companies on occasion. The biggest traffic flows are related to steel making, which despite all the recent problems in the UK industry is still generating plenty of rail traffic. Also related to this are bulk trains of Iron ore and Coal bound for the mills. There are also oil refineries out in west Wales (nr Milford Haven) that generate through trains of tank cars, plus the intermodals and mail/parcels trains you have quite a nice mix. (for the UK at least!) That's pretty much what I can remember without digging a lot. Generally as there is basically one line along the South Wales coast it's busier at the English end than at the other, and IIRC Newport is about the best place to trainwatch. It should be fairly cheap/easy/quick to get there from Swansea or Cardiff by rail as well dependant on how you wanted to travel. As Ben said, www.railtrack.com has a full UK timetable on the site (Railtrack is the independant company that owns the track/signalling/structures) and if you wanted to book online you could try www.thetrainline.com which is run by Virgin Trains, but will issue tickets on most routes. Hope that helps, if you need any specific info then feel free to ask, even if nobody on here knows then I'm sure I can find someone who does
Hey Martyn, Thanks for the info, I haven't had time to check in. Newport, thanks I will be looking into that when Iget over there, won't be for a while but I will get over there when in wales, thanks for the tips and if you have any more, thanks in advance
Martyn, I am looking Specificly on the South Wales Line that runs along the southern coast through Cartiff and Swansea, Girlfriend lives near Swansea so I would be in that area when I am over there, any information on the station in Swansea, and branches out of there? What kind of trains? Local freight/passenger? Any Passenger from London to there? Thanks all for all your help!
Swansea gets through First Great Western trains from London Paddington, plus lots of local MU's. I'm not sure about how the freight runs that far west, but I'll check into it for you, the oil from Milford Haven must come through that area, but I'm not sure what else is around. I'll get back to you. All the best.
Okay, sorry about the delay there (something you'll also hear using UK railways ) I was trying to find my Quail map which shows actual track layouts, I do have one of the area but can't locate it, so this is from my UK rail atlas dated 1988, a bit older than I would have liked, but all the main lines & lines with passenger services should be similar. Swansea has a terminus station, fed from a wye off the South Wales main line, heading towards Cardiff the line runs through Neath, Port Talbot, Brigend and Llantrisant before arriving at Cardiff Central, it then continues on to Newport. FGW will have a fairly regular HST service that links Swansea, Cardiff & Newport to London via Bristol Parkway, Swindon & Reading. There will also be a local MU service along there. There are some freight only routes around some points on this line, one seems to avoid the Swansea wye and Neath, and another goes from Brigend to Cardiff along the coast instead of the inland route the main line takes. So from the map at least Brigend and Cardiff stations look like good train watching spots, can't comment on how photogenic they are or personal safety issues though. There are a whole mess of branches up the valleys above Swansea and especially Cardiff, some freight, some passenger, some mixed usage, to be honest, you're best off getting a map yourself to look into these, as they have a very complicated structure & history, there were often multiple routes built up the same valley by competing companies, and the freight only routes have seen lots of change over the past few years with various heavy industries in the area declining. I could try & describe them, but I fear I'd confuse things totally! The western exit from the Swansea wye leads to Llaneli and Carmarthen, and 3 branches go further west to Fishguard Harbour (Irish Ferry connection), Pembroke Dock (Via Tenby, which is a v. beautiful place, worth a visit) and Milford Haven. The Milford Haven branch splits again at the end linking to the oil facilities at Robeston and Waterston. Ammanford itself has a station on the "Heart of Wales" route which goes from Llaneli north & east to Shrewsbury, and is meant to be a very scenic route, north of Ammanford and it will be pretty much MU's only unless you're very lucky. Does that help?
Martyn, you are a mine of information The last time I was in Swansea, it was full of steam locomotives!
I'd better not ask how long ago that was!!!! BTW I like your steam pics pages, Clapham Jcn & Paddington were regular haunts of mine when I lived in London, but my memories (& old pics!) are of class 50's not Bullied pacifics & pannier tanks
Hey she's kinda cute.... D'you know anything of the heritage of it, it doesn't have that "GWR Standard" look except for that cast number plate?
