Roger Burdett and Ken Jones went to South Wales in late October to travel on as many of the Valley Lines in daylight as possible. They drove to / from Cheltenham Spa station, as starting from there was significantly cheaper than catching a train from the West Midlands.
Obviously in summer you could do much more in daylight but shortages in crews and rolling stock together with work on the South Wales Metro may still cause problems.
The attached map produced by Arriva Trains Wales nicely shows the lines available. When planning our day we had already decided not to travel on the following services
The attached map produced by Arriva Trains Wales nicely shows the lines available. When planning our day we had already decided not to travel on the following services
Pontypridd to Merthyr – bus replacement service due to South Wales Metro construction work
Coryton Branch – no trains running on that line during our visit
Cardiff Bay Line – no convenient interchange with other trains
Barry Island line – we could have done this but connections were tight so a coffee break at Cardiff was more important.
Ebbw Vale line – insufficient time in daylight to include
Penarth Line - insufficient time in daylight to include
We wanted to see if we could travel on a 769 unit. These are converted 319 electric units running on diesel power. We saw 3 x 153/9 units at Canton depot but none in service. These have been renumbered from other class 153 units to distinguish them in terms of PRM [People with Reduced Mobility]
Transport for Wales are using certain units on certain routes.
Class 170 cascaded from East Anglia on Cheltenham Spa, Ebbw Vale, Maesteg routes
Class 769 on some Rhymney services
Class 175 on Hereford services
Class 150/2 on everything else
More new units are on order
They also have class 67 and coaching stock with DVT on Holyhead services
This is the planned day we had expected but we made a change at the end of the day.
Cheltenham 07.45-Cardiff 09.05
CC 9.35 - Radyr 9.50 via Danescourt
Radyr 9.56 - Aberdare 10.46
Aberdare 10.51 - Pontypridd 11.24
Pontypridd 11.35 - Treherbert 12.12
Treherbert 12.16 – CC 13.21
CC 13.40 - Bridgend 14.39 via Barry
Bridgend 14.45 - Maesteg 15.10
Maesteg 15.14 - CC 16.10 direct
CC 16.1 6- Rhymney 17.18
Rhymney 17.27 - CC 18.31
Cardiff 18.45-Cheltenham 19.58
CC = Cardiff Central
The service to Rhymey turned out to be a very crowded 2 car 150/2 unit – not what we were hoping for, so we got out at Caerphilly and luckily caught a 769 unit going south to Penarth.
So, we did the Penarth Branch and returned to Cardiff which enabled us to catch an earlier Cross-Country service to Cheltenham as we had open day return tickets.
Several things to see in the valleys including the old station at Pontypridd, new footbridges and platforms. signal boxes of which Tondu is still manned, and at Cardiff you can see class 166, 800 and castle class HST from GWR as well as various Cross-Country services.
Several things to see in the valleys including the old station at Pontypridd, new footbridges and platforms. signal boxes of which Tondu is still manned, and at Cardiff you can see class 166, 800 and castle class HST from GWR as well as various Cross-Country services.
Planning ahead is advisable – we had the map and printed timetables downloaded from the internet.
Pictures by Ken Jones
Pictures by Ken Jones
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| 170208 seen arriving at Cheltenham. This would form our service to Cardiff |
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| 150227 arriving at Cardiff – typical of older ATW units in service |
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| 769421 is seen arriving at Cardiff |
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| 150250 seen arriving at Radyr – the orange bands on top of the station sign are the interim South Wales Metro |
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| 150285 at Aberdare |
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| 150285 at the old ornate platform at Pontypridd |
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| Part of the historic Pontypridd station |
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| The new footbridge and platform at Pontypridd |
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| Refurbished 150253 is seen entering Pontypridd |
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| 150253 at Treherbert where disused sidings are still in situ |
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| Modern way of using single line tokens but the equipment is definitely not new |
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| 150236 at Bridgend |
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| 170271 seen arriving at Bridgend |
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| 170206 at Maesteg |
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| Tondu signal box |
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| 150208 is seen departing Caerphilly for Rhymney |
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| Interior shot of 769 unit |
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| 769002 at Penarth |
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| 67014 and 153913 seen at Canton depot |
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| 170208 seen at platform 0 at Cardiff with a service to Ebbw Vale |
All photos © Ken Jones
Ken Jones
