Track bash May 2022

Day 5 (Thursday 26th May)

Wrexham to Ebbw Vale

Last updated 2022-06-08

Planning started with today as a day that would finish off Liverpool if necessary, then head to Cardiff to do the Ebbw Vale branch, fitting in the various Midlands lines on the way that I wanted to use. After planning the days either side, it turned out I could do even better.

After last night's excitement, I woke up this morning after nowhere near enough sleep. Even aspirin, caffeine, and a full breakfast hasn't helped.

The first stage is Wrexham to Rugeley to Birmingham, picking up one new line on the way. At Crewe, where there's an almost 40 minute wait with the next train already in the bay platform, it's only two minutes before departure that they announce that passengers for Rugeley need to be in the front half. So I find myself walking through the inter-unit join with staff waving through the cab window for me to not dawdle.

At Birmingham New Street I notice that 390129, in the next platform, has "Brett" on (at least) the north end. I've not noticed anything similar on any other 390, but I wasn't looking for such a thing. And, of course, this is my last chance to see one on this trip. (A couple of weeks later I read that this was a tribute to a former member of the train operator's staff who died of cancer earlier this year.)

Birmingham New Street is the first point today where anyone checks my ticket. Even that is only because platforms 1-5 are behind one set of barriers and 6 upwards behind a different set. My ticket didn't work either set, but it was only the staff at the second one that actually looked at it before letting me through. The first actual active ticket check was between Gloucester and Bristol. The train to Gloucester was chaos as people tried to find their seats or empty ones, not helped by the display saying "Not in service" above a flashing "Please alight" (it was still doing it when I got off at Gloucester). My seat was a window one with a table but turned out to be occupied and facing backwards. I found another one facing the right way ... who on earth reserves a seat from New Street to University (2 miles 49 chains, booked for 6 minutes)? Whoever it was, they didn't claim it.

Bromsgrove station has changed a lot from when I used to catch the train from there, followed by my old stamping grounds of Sugarbrook Pumping Station. This will also be the first time I've stopped at, or even seen, the new Worcestershire Parkway station. This is also my first trip through the Severn Tunnel in far too long, certainly the first since it's been wired up. While I could have got to Cardiff just by staying on the train at Gloucester, going via Bristol means I can pick up the English side of the "Great Way Round", which I missed last year because of problems requiring re-planning.

Once in Cardiff, I had time to do the run from Central station via Queen Street to Cardiff Bay. This is another line that's lost its glory: it looks from Google Maps as if the single track was originally 3 or 4. I thought about walking down to the bay itself, but from a map it wasn't near enough to risk not getting back to Central in time.

And now for another go at the Swansea District Line: as well as the three eastbound passenger trains each day that used the line last year, there's now a westbound at a convenient time of the afternoon. And, yes, it turns out that this driver has learnt the route! Going westbound isn't quite as good because you don't get the climb round the back of Briton Ferry station, but I'll take what I can get. One thing I saw (but didn't photograph) was an old-style "cutout" speed limit sign where the "20" had been made by turning a "5" upside-down. Much of the line was in cutting or surrounded by trees, so not great views. There was a lot of trees banging on the left side of the train; obvious the 175s are wider than the usual stuff that comes along this line. At the western end we join the Heart of Wales line to Shrewsbury, which I took last year, and as you approach the junction there are views of the very wide River Loughor; these continue to be visible through the occasional gaps in the trees for some time. There are also a couple of stations on the common bit. And thence to Llanelli.

The same train heads back again, this time via Swansea. It fills completely by Bridgend and empties at Cardiff (the train I took from Cardiff to Llanelli had emptied out at Cardiff as well) and I follow the crowd. I had planned to do a quick bit of shopping and then eat at the Wetherspoons by the station, but the whole are was absolutely crowded, it was drizzling steadily, and the only places open were bars and restaurants. Apparently there is an "Ed Sheridan" (?) concert tonight. So I took a train to Newport and ate there instead.

The final bit of the day is to do the Ebbw Vale branch, ending at a hotel near the far end. One benefit of doing the branch this year is that it now has a service to and from Newport; last year it only served Cardiff, five times as far from the start of the branch. So I'll return to Cardiff tomorrow to finish off the branch. The branch is single-line beyond Crosskeys and it takes a train 58 minutes to go up there, turn around, and come back. Clearly it's not possible to have an hourly service for each of Cardiff and Newport. Instead, the Newport train only goes to Crosskeys and reverses on the first bit of the single line; the Cardiff will be on its way down at the time. (The Newport service arrives 38 minutes after the Cardiff on its way up and departs 10 minutes before it gets back, meaning the down service has a 50-10 spacing and making trips from Ebbw Vale to Newport particularly slow.) There's an up signal a little way up the branch to protect the Cardiff train from the reversing move and a down one a little further to protect the reversing train (normally a branch like this would just have one signal at the station to let a train on to it and one just before the single-to-double points to let it off again).

And now I've ticked off every passenger line in Wales with a regular service, plus a few bits without one.

Today's trains table

Today's route table

New lines today

• Rugeley to Walsall
• Great Way Round (English side)
• Cardiff Bay branch
• Swansea District line
• Newport to Ebbw Vale

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