Railwatch 081 - October 1999

Mid Wales and Border Counties

By Chris Magner

Barmouth bridge Railtrack has said repairs to the bridge could take up to nine years and the cost of such repairs could be over £10 million. Apparently the 'wrong kind of timber' was used in the 1980-1986 repairs (even though the bridge supported 12-coach trains hauled by two class 37 diesel loco-motives in 1988/9. The Cambrian Coast Line Action Group is most concerned about the situation and urges everyone including RDS members to lobby hard so that Barmouth Bridge will be fully repaired. Railtrack has claimed that repair work on all structures west of Shrewsbury (except Barmouth Bridge) has been completed and they are cleared for railcars to travel over at line speed. Locomotive hauled trains can travel from Shrewsbury as far as Aberystwyth and from Dyfi Junction to Morfa Mawddach. Because of global warming and other factors the Cambrian Coast Line is vulnerable to flooding and wash-outs. It is imperative that the Barmouth Bridge is fully repaired so that heavy engineering trains could attend to any problem particularly north of Barmouth.

Cambrian Coast Line A superb colour folder entitled Great Summer Breaks on the Cambrian Coaster has again been produced by the Cambrian Rail Promotion Group (a partnership comprising Central Trains, local and statutory authorities in Mid Wales and Shropshire with EEC support) and this includes a brief route description, cheap fare offers and full details of local attractions reached by rail including discounts and a two-for-one cheap rail offer. Automatic half barriers have been installed at Pwllheli and Sandilands (Tywyn). Barmouth station ticket office has been re-opened for the summer period. Station refurbishment work has taken place at Dyfi Junction, Fairbourne, Pensarn, Harlech and Llandanwg. Overcrowding has been a feature of Saturday workings with road coaches having to be turned out on at least one Saturday.

Charter Trains The first diesel-hauled locomotive excursion train since 1994 over the Cambrian Lines, the Cambrian Mountain Explorer travelled from Birmingham to Aberysytwyth on Sunday 15 May. This was organised by Eagle Railtours and the eight- coach train was hauled by two DRS Class 20 locomotives numbers. The two engines ran well on the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury section in both directions but once on the Cambrian were subject to many restrictions including virtually crawling from Dyfi Junction to Borth.. The 400 passengers managed to spend a considerable amount of money at both Aberystwyth and Devils Bridge (a packed special train was organised on the Vale of Rheidol Railway). If only those involved in tourism and trade could evaluate the economic benefits to a Cambrian Coast town on an off-peak Sunday when an excursion train arrives, then there would be a clamour to run more such trains which would benefit both the railway and towns concerned. The Vale of Rheidol Railway has had a considerable amount of money spent on it since its privatisation. An EEC grant has enabled the track formation to be considerably improved. The VoR coaches are well cleaned and on 15 May, the windows were immaculate!

Gobowen to Oswestry It is hoped some form of rail transport will be provided from Gobowen to Oswestry next year as the line has been bought from Railtrack by a local consortium for £200,000. Both steam and diesel passenger and freight trains are envisaged in future with hopefully stone traffic from the quarries near Blodwell Junction being passed on to the main system at Gobowen.

North Cheshire Rail Users Group The NCRUG has been encouraged in its efforts to provide a Liverpool-North Wales rail service by organisations concerned with promoting Liverpool Airport which wish to see a service to and from the airport from North Wales. The 20.13 Saturdays only Chester to Runcorn Main Line Sprinter train, the only service over the Frodsham Junction to Halton Junction link line, has already suffered from cancellations this summer which is frustrating for NCRUG which is determined to promote its use with a view to having a 'proper' two-way service restored. Helsby station looks in superb condition and the gardens and flower beds are well worth a visit. Railtrack has improved the platforms and on a recent visit the car parks were full. NCRUG has display boards at both the station and station driveway which give details of trains and fares from the Helsby area. The NCRUG is very concerned about the Ellesmere Port line on which, because of the poor train service, patronage is not very good.

Conwy Valley Line All those concerned deserve credit for the excellent Discover the Conwy Valley and Snowdonia colour folder produced to support the line and surrounding Snowdonia area this summer. Local bus services are included including the Snowdon Sherpa service which links the rail routes of the area including the Cambrian Coast line. Pictures in the folder include one of a MetCam 'heritage unit' which despite their age still work some of the Holyhead to Llandudno local services. In fact the North Wales Coast line is in someways a timewarp with loco-hauled express trains consisting of class 37s and Mk1 coaches, some in chocolate and cream livery as well as heritage diesel multiple units. All is about to change with the introduction of new diesel railcars in 2000. On Saturday 24 July the original class 37 number D6700, in its original green livery, worked an afternoon Crewe to Bangor train.

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