18th September – A trip to South Wales
With a Saturday with nothing booked, after looking at a few options I decided on taking a little day trip towards South Wales, solely to revisit some stations I needed for photographs, along with having a nice walk. I had a rough plan for the day, but that didn’t last long due to various cancellations.
The day began with an early morning drive to Salisbury, to catch the 06:40 SWR service towards Bristol Temple Meads, which gave a tight connection with a Bristol – Cardiff service, but as the ECS from the depot was running late, the connection to a pair of Turbos was easily made as I took a seat in the front coach (because most of the crowd waiting for the train were at the opposite end, I had a private coach until Newport). The 166+165 combo took me towards Cardiff Central where I headed towards platform 6 to catch the next train towards Merthyr Tydfil, a single 150 which was lightly loaded.
The 150 took me along the line towards the town of Merthyr Tydfil, quite scenic in places, but I was glad to alight at the end, solely due to the automatic announcements being turned on. A minute long announcement about “travel safe” stuff after every station does get annoying after a while, and after exiting the station I popped to the nearby Tesco to grab items for lunch to save me a job for later.
A 150 at Merthyr Tydfil.
My main walk of the day began as I made my way slowly towards the river Taff, getting lost due to construction work closing the “River Walk” passageway from one of the shopping areas to the river. I eventually gained access to the river near the fire station before heading in a southern direction following the Taff Trail, crossing over the river on “St Tydfil’s Bridge” and doing a short dogleg to access the path. I continued along the path as it followed the river passing a leisure centre before heading away from the river passing behind a leisure park & a really old looking Travelodge.
Weir on the River Taff in Merthyr Tydfil[
Continuing with my walk as it went underneath an old railway bridge and was quite nice with the trees, mostly all tarmac as it crossed some minor roads along the way reaching the area near Pentre-Bach where I went down from the path to head towards the station for a couple photos before I headed back towards the path (up a steep hill) to continue heading south along the path. The next settlement I reached was the area around Troed-y-Rhiw, which was another station I headed down from the Taff Trail to reach for some photos, including one of a train departing heading north.
A 150 departing Troed-y-Rhiw
After the brief visit to the station, I retraced my tracks back up the hill to reach the Taff Trail, continuing along the path, passing some workmen doing some work (the path along here does seem like it used to be an old railway line). Eventually I reached the village of Aberfan, known sadly for a disease nearly 55 years ago when a coal colliery spoil pile collapsed killing 144 people. I had a moment of reflection in the memorial gardens, having learnt about the disease at secondary school many years ago. After the moment of reflection, I returned back to the Taff Trail path.
I continued my walk along the path, coming off the Taff Trail to head down towards the River Taff, passing what looked like an old railway bridge which had been removed. Crossing the river and a brief climb saw me reaching Merthyr Vale, the passing loop on the line. I joined a footpath which ran alongside the railway line, crossing over at a bridge (which I guess at some point in the past used to be a foot crossing of the railway). Continuing my walk, I joined the alignment of the old “Merthyr Tramroad”, signposted as the “Trevithick Trail”, one of the earliest places for railway history, complete with original stone sleepers on the ground.
Trackbed of the old Tramroad
With the river (sadly hidden by many trees) to my right hand side and the railway high on an embankment on the left I continued along the tramroad path, as the Taff Trail rejoined the path I was on. Soon I reached an area where a poorly marked path went up a hill to reach Quakers Yard station for a photograph, before heading back to the path to continue my walk along the old Tramroad. I went underneath a lovely looking railway viaduct (where the railway went over the River Taff & a valley), but sadly due to the trees photos I attempted to take turned out to be a bit rubbish.
I continued on the road, as it followed the river in a large loop, reaching a residential area, continuing along a path as it crossed the River Taff once again, and going underneath a couple road bridges before I reached Abercynon station, the end of my large walk. I passed the site where I think where the old Abercynon North station was located, before reaching the island platform at Abercynon catching a busy 150 to Pontypridd.
Quakers Yard Station from foot crossing
Due to signalling issues around Mountain Ash the Aberdare line had been reduced to hourly (something with the signalling not allowing the trains to pass at Mountain Ash), so my original idea for a short walk between stations on the Aberdare line went into the pile to do at a future date as I took a 150 towards Aberdare (noticing the speed of the electrification with poles popping up). During the 5 minute dwell at Mountain Ash I jumped out for a quick photograph (it will do for now!), before heading to Aberdare. I wonder if the line beyond Aberdare towards the old Tower Colliery will ever get reopened to passenger use with a couple more stations built along the line, although I guess the big limiting factor will be the single track.
I returned to the 150 for the run back along the Aberdare branch to reach Pontypridd, changing over platforms (after going via the Tesco Express located outside the station for some more drink), and boarding a Treherbert bound 150. However this train got cancelled due to an obstruction on the track near Porth, so my little plan to grab the stations I needed on that line went into the bin, as it started to rain. I crossed back over to platform 2 at Pontypridd watching as the 150 I was just on reversing back towards the crossover to the south of the station to access platform 1 to get it out of the way.
Another 150 went through the station ECS, before an empty 150 rolled in from the loop towards Abercynon (would have been from Aberdare), as I took it towards Cardiff Central, changing over to platform 0 to board a 3 coach 170 bound for Ebbw Vale Town. The front coaches were busy but the rear former first class area only had 2 passengers in, so I took a seat in comfort for the run towards Rogerstone, where once more I set out for a walk, this time back towards Pye Corner.
A 170 departs Rogerstone bound for Ebbw Vale
I went a slightly longer route (compared to going via the road) from the housing estate to reach a bridge over the River Ebbw where I joined a footpath which ran alongside the river bank, going underneath a busy sounding road and reaching a large recently built housing estate (Jubilee Park I think it was called), the footpath came to an end as I joined a mixed use path, but this path dropped behind a flood defence wall so sadly no decent views of the river were available. I continued along this path, coming to an end before joining the road, and because I had time I decided to swing via a Co-Op in the hope of getting something for dinner, but alas they didn’t have anything I liked left.
After leaving the Co-Op I continued my walk, going over the A467 dual carriageway and walking along another road which went over the railway and reaching Pye Corner station, arriving just as the next northbound train was arriving which allowed me to grab a photo of it departing, before taking a nice bench seat and relaxing (my legs were telling me they had enough). The 170 I had earlier returned, this time there was nobody in the former 1st class area as I took a seat for the run back to Cardiff Central.
I exited the station once more, swinging via Tesco to grab something to eat for dinner, before returning back to the station. I decided on a little time wasting move with a Taunton bound HST for the run to Bristol Temple Meads (better than just hanging at Cardiff for an extra 30 minutes for a 3 coach 166). At Bristol I waited for the 166 to arrive (sadly a charter train from Penzance got caught behind a late running stopper from Taunton meaning it wouldn’t arrive until after the 166 from Cardiff would have done).
43027 at Bristol Temple Meads
The only issue I have with trains at Bristol Temple Meads is that there doesn’t seem to be a standard stop mark, but I got lucky with the 166 as it stopped close to where I was standing, also the rear former 1st class area was unlocked so I took a better seat with a table (where I could eat my dinner I got from Cardiff earlier). The guard caught out a chancer who had boarded at Bath without a ticket (who was heading towards Trowbridge and looked a bit drugged up). An unexpected unit swap happened at Westbury as we got told to change to another 166 which was waiting on platform 1 as I joined several others in heading into the rear FC area (including one family with 2 youngish kids).
All was going well until a member of off-duty staff marched in, shouting at passengers to “GET OUT” of the area, resulting in the kids bursting into tears. To make things worse he did a disappearing act (I guess he buggered off to the front FC area away from a group of loud kickball drunks heading back home). There are ways of asking people nicely to move so they could have their own private section (because ya know, they can’t be sitting with the general public on a train as it’s highly dangerous, even though if the train was a 158 they would have to), but the attitude of that member of staff was truly rotten. On the complete contrast the guard was ever so nice with her duties and when she saw nobody was in the rear FC area she released the door allowing that family to get a seat.
Anyhow, the train continued along the way to Salisbury, where I alighted, having a short walk back to the car to drive home, where it featured someone who must have wanted to smell my socks I took off and put in the car boot along with my boots based on how close he was driving (I tend to change from my walking boots to a pair of trainers when driving, and normally socks as well after a long day). Overall a good day, I did what I had planned to do (although my rough plan had myself doing Ebbw Vale first), the stations I need on the Treherbert branch & Ebbw Vale itself will get done on a long weekend based in Cardiff. Although Treherbert will need to be done on the Friday to avoid a rail replacement bus from Radyr.
Scenery from Taff Trail near Troed-y-Rhiw
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