26th June – A trip to the Welsh Valleys
The last time I visited Wales was back in August 2019, which feels so long ago, back when the pacers were still floating around on the Valley lines services (so it was going to feel strange being at Cardiff and not seeing any pacers floating around). I managed to book reasonably cheap advances to Cardiff from Salisbury (and vice versa) so a day in the Valleys was on the cards, with a focus on the Rhymney, Coryton & Barry line for stations I needed to revisit for photographs, along with a few walks.
The day began with a drive to Salisbury station, leaving home around half six, giving me time to pop to Sainsburys for breakfast and also to pick up my rover from the ticket office. I was booked on the 07:30 departure to Cardiff which was a single 166 until Westbury where it crashed into a 2 coach 165, I swapped units at Westbury as the AC on the 166 was a bit pants, ending up on a cool 165 for the run towards Bristol Temple Meads, reversing before carrying on towards Filton & the tunnel under the Severn to reach Wales and onwards to Cardiff arriving pretty much bang on time giving me a chance to get ahead of my rough plan with a 4 minute connection to a Rhymney service.
A connection which was easy to make and I took a seat on a refurbished 150 (new seat covers, repainted parts on the inside etc) for the run to Rhymney, although the constant hanging around at stations due to the slack timetable did get annoying after a while (60-90 second dwells). At the end of the line with the empty sidings it was a case of changing ends on the 150 to head back south to Pengam, the train getting quite busy along the way. I dread to think how busy it would have been by Caerphilly or even Heath.
End of the Line
Anyhow I had a short wait at Pengam, before the next Rhymney train rolled in, another 150 (this time still in Arrive Trains Wales colours) to take me back north to reach the very basic Pontlottyn station, a station which features what must be a completely pointless “shelter”, basically 4 pillars holding up a roof, no side walls, no seats (not even perches). Something I dare say won’t offer much in the way of shelter unless the rain is coming vertically. Another busy train as the 150 returned (a good 20+ boarding) which took me one stop to the passing loop of Tir-phil (maybe one of these days it will actually see use as a passing loop with 2 trains passing there!).
It was time for the first of my walks of the day, heading towards Bargoed going via the Tir-Phil village centre crossing over the railway and towards Brithdir station (another basic station), before doubling back on myself underneath the railway, over the river and up a steep hill to reach a mixed use path which uses part of the former “The Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway” line turned into route 468, a quiet and peaceful woodland walk on one side of the steep valley, although not much evidence of its former life until near the end where it went straight on onto a bridge which no longer exists.
I came back out onto the road in the Bargoed area, coming down a hill to cross the river Rhymney), giving good views of the Bargoed viaduct before climbing back up to reach the station which was quite busy. Thankfully the next southbound train was a 769, mighty odd seeing a 319 in this part of the country, although I didn’t have long to sample it nor enjoy the motor noise for the short hop to Hengoed where I had a short break. I spent this time doing a little loop over the Hengoed viaduct (from the former “Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway” line before coming back underneath the viaduct to reach the station. This is an area on my list to return to walk the former railway line towards Crosskeys or Quakers Yard, along route 47.
Hengoed Viaduct
Back at Hengoed station, it was another busy 150, this time taking me to Aber to clear the line for photographs. I went back on my feet to walk the mile or so to Caerphilly station, via Greggs, to board the Cardiff Bay shuttle, a pair of 153s, one refurbished with the new toilet & a former EMR unit (which itself was a former Great Western unit) for the run towards Cardiff Bay. Seems strange seeing services to Cardiff Bay which don’t start at Queen Street, but I suspect Cardiff Bay is very popular with those who think payment is optional due to no ticket barriers. There was RPIs at Caerphilly and the guard checked tickets on the Bay service when it was between Heath & Queen Street but couldn’t sell tickets, how much revenue is being lost?
Anyhow after a quick photo at Cardiff Bay (another place I will revisit one of these days, solely to have a look around), before I returned to Cardiff Queen Street on the pair of 153s, changing over to a Coryton bound 150 to take me to Rhiwbina where I set off for another gentle walk via Whitchurch & Coryton stations before joining the track bed of the old “Cardiff Railway” line for a mile or so before the walkable section comes to an end near an old bridge. I carried along a wooden area to reach the River Taff to walk along the busy riverside, passing the Radyr Weir (where I waited to try and get a photo of a passing train, but the sun was in the wrong place). I crossed the river and passed the old entrance to Radyr station going underneath the line to the new entrance, now roughly an hour and a bit ahead of my rough plan.
End of the Line...
I decided to make a slight change to my rough plan, and ditch Taffs Well and instead board the 150 (the one I saw departing Coryton) for the run via the City Line to reach Ninian Park, where I had another gentle walk along the roads to reach Cardiff Central (it was a toss-up between walking to Cardiff Central or towards Grangetown, deciding on Cardiff Central so I could go via the Tesco Express outside the station for a nice cold drink).
At Cardiff Central I headed towards platform 8 to board a Bridgend service, it was a pair of 150s (only pair of 150s I saw all day) with a low mileage unit on the back (150285). I took this pair of Cogan for a short wait before a Barry Island bound 150 took me to Cadoxton, before another 150 took me back one stop to Dinas Powys where I set out on my legs again to follow the road to reach Eastbrook, returning to Cardiff Central, pretty much an hour ahead of my rough schedule so my rough idea was to change at Cardiff Central to take a service towards Caerphilly to intercept that 769 I had earlier in the day to push it over 10 miles.
150278 rests at Dinas Powys
Well that was the idea as I changed at Cardiff Central to take a seat on a 150 starting from platform 7 (a time wasting move before the next Caerphilly), however this service got delayed as I noticed the next Portsmouth service had my last 165 on, so with the announcement was made that it the Pontypridd train was getting delayed due to a signal problem so my idea to grab that 769 went into the bin as I headed over to platform 1 to take 165135 attached with another 166 to Newport, returning on a 2 coach 170 (sitting in the posh seats) to find Cardiff Central in chaos as the signal problem had shifted from the Valleys platforms to the entire station with trains on all the platforms.
I headed over to platform 1, taking a seat and just watched the chaos unfold, eventually things started moving, which did clear some of the passengers (at least the Aberdare train was a pair of 150s!), although hats off to the announcement being made for any passengers wanting the Derby train to board a London bound 800 to Newport just as the doors were closing being mistimed (as a XC service to Derby & GWR towards Exeter got spun at Newport). Eventually the 166 rolled in from the sidings and departed around 25 minutes down, thankfully the seats in the former 1st class area were available (the door was locked open) so I had a little bit of luxury for the run back to Salisbury.
A Masked 800
The train got busy in the first class area after Bristol and remained busy until Salisbury, where it was a nice gentle drive home, the end of a busy and productive day in South Wales. Certainly my map of the area looks better and I can count myself lucky that I didn’t get stuck on a train when the signalling broke.
Everything is broken!
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