The Valley Venture

Bangor to Rhymney

It was the Monday before Easter and our last chance to travel loco hauled on a normal passenger service between Cardiff and Rhymney before their scheduled end date. We took the 10:48 from Holyhead, boarding at Bangor, which today was in the care of 37 429 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol. A small group of railfans were in the front coach and the train was commendably clean with the lavatories in working order.

429 was in fine voice as we sprinted to Llandudno Junction, passing 60 044 fully laden with ballast in the siding at Penmaenmawr and waiting for the road. The seascapes were dramatic, with enormous grey foamy waves punishing the sea wall. Railtrack's inherited steam locomotive, the Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T, had been sitting near the site of the recently demolished signalbox at Colwyn Bay on Saturday afternoon but had since been removed. As usual, this train was busy with few spare seats after Rhyl but fairly quiet after Crewe.

We arrived at Crewe on time, passing preserved steam locomotives 60532, 34027 and 70000. During our short time at Crewe the latter day Britannia, 87 004, flashed past on a London-bound non-stopper, then we boarded the Wales and West Cardiff service. This was just as busy but felt more cramped being only a two-coach 158. First stop was the faded grandeur of Shrewsbury station with its massive signalboxes, forests of semaphores, rows of tracks and long platforms, now used almost exclusively by one and two coach sprinters. Then on through the attractive countryside of the Welsh Marches to Newport where a class 60 and a phalanx of sheds sat in the stabling area before the last dash along the main line to Cardiff Central. We had an hour here before the 16:48 to Rhymney, just time for a quick march up St Mary Street to the Pizza Express refuelling point.

At 16:35 we saw a Regional Railways liveried engine approach the station and guessed that it was our old favourite 37 420 The Scottish Hosteller, but had to wait for the pacers to clear platform 6 before we could be sure.

We just had time for a quick shot of 420 before moving down the line the short distance to Cardiff Queen Street where our train filled up with homeward bound commuters. Most were travelling only a short distance so there was plenty of room after Caerphilly. We enjoyed a great ride up the wooded valley - the curves preclude high speed running but there are plenty of station stops and restarts. There was no ticket inspection, the conductor being occupied with checking that all doors were closed before departures and ensuring that no-one alighted at the wrong place where the platform was short. Everyone apart from us seemed to be a regular passenger so this didn't seem to be much of a problem.