13th April – Harbourmaster Tour to Milford Haven

 13th April – Harbourmaster Tour to Milford Haven

My first tour with UK Railtours of the year heading towards Milford Haven via the Robeston oil termina freight line.  Appealed to me due to wanting to head back out to West Wales and that it could be done without the expense of accommodation.  I was joined on the day with my good friend Dan who was staying for a few days in the Andover Travelodge.  It was a very early start (04:30 alarm) with a drive to the hotel in Andover to pick Dan up around 5am before heading to the Andover station area, parking up on a side street which has free parking at weekends.

159009 rolled in to take us to Basingstoke on the first train of the day followed by 165117 to Reading on the stopper.  At Reading we headed towards a Sainsburys to grab supplies for lunch before swinging via Wendys for breakfast and headed back towards the station ready for the charter train to roll in.  57303 was leading the charter for the section between London & Newport (the Alexandra Dock Siding), a loco I haven’t had since April 2015 when it popped up on a Great Western sleeper service, and first 57 I’ve had since October 2018 (another trip on the GWR sleeper is very much overdue).

57303 arriving at Reading Station

We boarded the Mk2 coach, finding out seats and thankfully this tour featured a couple of others at the table who were talkative as the tour headed out west, a bit unusual for a railtour not to call at Didcot Parkway with a pathing stop in the loop near the former Wantage Road station before carrying on towards Swindon to pick up more passengers.  After Swindon the train continued to pick up the last passengers at Bristol Parkway before heading into South Wales, the 57 putting on a good performance in terms of speed.  The train headed into the sidings near Alexandra Dock in Newport with the 57 being changed for 66718 on the front and 66730 onto the rear, both winners for me which is always a bonus on these sort of tours.

After the loco change, the train continued towards Cardiff, Bridgend & Port Talbot (where the train had a pause for a crew change), then onto the Swansea District Line to bypass Swansea with the lower speed limit compared to the mainline, but nice to cover this line again (probably a good few years since the last time I was on this line).  At Llanelli the train paused to allow passengers off who were going to visit some gardens via a coach transfer (causing a bit of chaos due to overhanging the level crossing).  After Llanelli the train continued towards Carmarthen bypassing the station using the direct line then nonstop towards Clarbeston Road where it had a pause for a train from Fishguard to clear the single-track section beyond the signal box giving access to the Milford Haven line.  The train paused on platform 2 at Haverfordwest (bit of required track for me) to allow passengers an hour break, which was nice just to have a gentle stroll.

66718 at Haverfordwest Station

I headed towards the town centre going towards Morrisons to grab supplies for dinner before returning to the station and returning to the charter as it headed south towards Milford Haven.  Before visiting Milford, the train had a little detour along the short branch line towards the Robeston Oil Terminal reaching the gates of the terminal before reversing towards Herbrandston Junction and then onward to Milford Haven where we had around a 30 minutes break, time used for a couple of photos and a visit to a supermarket for a bottle of drink to try and give me some energy as that early start was slowly catching up on me.

Back on the train as it departed Milford Haven, passing the next passenger service (a 197) at Haverfordwest (where it paused to pick up passengers who wanted a longer lunch break).  After Haverfordwest it joined the double track section and had a 20 minute photo stop/fresh air break at Whitland (which was a nice touch to allow passengers to photograph 66730 as it was off the platform at both Haverfordwest & Milford Haven).  After Whitland the train continued east, bypassing Carmarthen once more and pausing at Llanelli to pick up passengers from the gardens, picking up some delays as it caught up with a late running passenger service.  Unlike the morning the train headed towards Swansea via Gowerton but bypassing the station by using the curve at Landore (passing various 175s in storage on the former HST depot).

66730 at Whitland Station

The time which was lost following the late running train was made up by not pausing at the junction and going straight onto the line towards Neath.  Another brief pause at Port Talbot to change crew before the train carried on towards Cardiff where the train went from around 10 minutes early to 15 minutes late due to congestion.  By the time the train reached the outskirts of Newport it was around 20 minutes late for the loco change with the 66s getting replaced by 57303.  The train continued along the relief lines towards Severn Tunnel Junction before going back into England for the first set down at Bristol Parkway.  A late running IET was on the charter’s tail, but the charter went first heading towards Swindon for the 2nd set down (where the train emptied out).  The 57 was on fine form as it headed towards Reading, arriving a minute or so late giving myself & Dan a 29-minute wait for the next Basingstoke train.

This was an extra busy 165113 (didn’t help that the previous stopper had been cancelled and the XC which would have run before that not running), we got seats in declassified first class for the trip to Basingstoke where thankfully we had an extra few minutes to reach platform 1 for 159020 & 159015 on the 22:20 from Waterloo.  This took us back to Andover and after dropping Dan off at the hotel I drove home, getting back just after midnight.  Needless to say, I wasn’t up for long before crashing out to sleep after a long day.  An enjoyable railtour to a lovely part of West Wales, bit of new track in my book (both the freight line and the loop at Haverfordwest) and I think Mini Miles enjoyed it as well (lol).

A quiet week with the Sunday spent doing gardening getting ready for a busy few weeks with trips to Scotland & Cheshire coming up