Since the start of 2020, I have not been able to tick off any new route due to Coronavirus lockdowns and not feeling ready to travel on the trains. This changed today! For the first time this year, I was able to cross off the first bit of new route which was two of the Transport for Wales “Valley Lines”. It felt so good to be able to cross off a bit more route which means I am one step closer to travelling all the railway lines in the country.
Today I woke up early (by my standards anyway) to catch 2L49 the 08:58 Cheltenham Spa to Maesteg, I caught it from Gloucester and took it as far as Cardiff Central. This service is operated by Transport for Wales (TfW) . We arrived at the station and bought our first tickets from Gloucester to Cardiff Central. Heading through the gateline we went and stood down towards the end of platform 2. We stood there because the platform was actually quite busy as there was a train heading up towards Birmingham eventually going to Nottingham so a lot of passengers were waiting to board that service. I don’t like busy places so I always like to stand away from the crowds. As the Nottingham train pulled in it soaked up probably just over half of the passengers which left a reasonable number of passengers waiting for our train. As the service to Cardiff was pulling in, we stood up from our seats and got on board to embark on our journey down the River Severn. There was something else special about today’s adventure, it wasn’t just my mum and me, we had company. We managed to get a table seat which was really nice so we had a good view out of the window.
We left Gloucester bang on time. Luckily the train wasn’t too busy because the service had only started at Cheltenham Spa so had only stopped at Gloucester. I love the journey out of Gloucester, you travel along a raised section of track after you leave the station and you get some great views of the city; then a few minutes later you come alongside the River Severn. From here you get some great views over the river towards Sharpness and then Berkeley. You can even see the old Nuclear Power Station! The tide was out so the sand (or should I say mud) looked very inviting. If you actually attempted to walk on it you would end up sinking as it is sinking mud/sand! I spotted some foot crossings which looked really good for taking photos with the river in the background. After about 15 minutes, we were on approach to Lydney. As the train pulls into Lydney station you get some great views of the disused rolling stock for the Dean Forest Railway. Lydney station was surprisingly busy but I guess a lot of people want to travel from towns into the big cities of Newport and Cardiff. We still kept the table to ourselves which was nice.
After Lydney is Chepstow which has pretty similar scenery as before. The train line winds its way closer and further away from the river. At Chepstow you are now in Wales! Chepstow station was pretty busy again but not quite as busy as Lydney. Next was Caldicot, which on approach to the station you got a great view of both road bridges that connect Wales with England.
Then it is Severn Tunnel Junction, the station has got a very elaborate footbridge with ramps that wind in and out as the bridge has to be of a decent height because of the overhead line equipment (OHLE). The OHLE starts just before Severn Tunnel Junction on our line and on the Bristol/London line it is now electrified all the way from London to Cardiff with no breaks. Very impressive! I wonder if they will electrify the line from Gloucester to Severn Tunnel Junction?
A few weeks before this trip I visited Lydney, Chepstow and Severn Tunnel Junction stations by car. All were lovely in their own ways, with Lydney and Chepstow being very quaint and Severn Tunnel Junction being good for the variety of trains I saw.
After we left Severn Tunnel Junction, I kept an eye out for the CAF depot where they are building the new class 196’s for West Midlands Railway and the class 197’s for TfW. Pretty cool to be able to see the shells of the new trains before they have even finished being built. Before we knew it, we were approaching Newport. The approach to Newport is lovely as you cross over the River Usk and you can see all of the different bridges including the “Transporter Bridge”, there are only about 10 transporter bridges that remain in use worldwide! So a bit of history. At Newport, we saw the new TfW Mark 4 coaches with a DVT and a class 67 locomotive! This is the first time I have seen the Gerald of Wales train, which runs between Holyhead and Cardiff on weekdays. I was very excited to see it at long last. It left just before our train so we were chasing it all the way to Cardiff. Sadly I couldn’t get a photo but it was still very nice to see it.
We sat outside Cardiff Central for about 5 minutes awaiting a platform as all of them were occupied. After a few minutes, we arrived on platform 3 and got off the train. I took a quick photo of the train (170272) and headed towards the ticket office. Before that, I spent about 5 minutes taking photos at Cardiff Central. I saw my first class 769 working 2D10 the 10:07 Penarth to Bargoed and a TfW class 150 in the new livery. While we were on board the train I took a look at train times and found there was a TfW service to Ebbw Vale which was 2N11 the 10:34 Cardiff Central to Ebbw Vale Town. This was going to be a brand new route for me! At the ticket office, we bought a return ticket to Ebbw Vale Town. The Valley Lines are surprisingly low-cost for the distance you cover, so I would recommend them on pure value for money but there is another reason I would suggest you try them which I will reveal in a minute!
We ended up going to the Unpaid fares area but they sold us the ticket so there was no issue there but it did mean we were on the wrong side of the gateline for platform 0 which is where most of the Ebbw Vale trains depart from.
We waited a couple of minutes and then our train pulled in from “Cardiff West” which consisted of 170203, a 3-car unit. We boarded the train. We had the whole carriage to ourselves which was very nice! We left two minutes late but it didn’t really matter. After we left Cardiff we made our way out back towards Newport. Before we got to Newport we “turned” off of the mainline and headed out to the Ebbw Vale branch line. We crawled up and then stopped at a signal which was protecting the branch line as the previous service from Ebbw Vale was delayed by about 30 minutes so we waited for that train (2F12) and then we carried on our journey towards Ebbw Vale. Our first stop was Pye Conner and then stopped at all stations to Ebbw Vale. It was an absolutely beautiful journey up passing babbling brooks, leafy trees and purple heathered topped hills. It was quite possibly one of the nicest train journeys I have taken so far! So I would highly recommend it! Even the stations were kept very nicely, sadly I didn’t have time to get out at any of them and explore the villages they served. There were some very interesting old, collapsed buildings which we tried to figure out what they were once used for.
On approach to Ebbw Vale, there was a lovely nature reserve and we said we must visit again and go for a walk! After almost exactly an hour we arrived at Ebbw Vale Town. We decided to go back on the same train but unknown to me the train only had a 4-minute turnaround. We got off the train and I took a quick photo but before I knew it the doors were locked. Luckily, I noticed and tried to press the door release button and found it didn’t work so our lovely guard reopened them for us so we could get back on and carry on with our journey. Before the driver even sat down in the cab the doors had been locked shut so I had no way of knowing that they were going to lock.
We sat back down, a bit flustered about what just happened, and watched all the stunning scenery roll past us again. In what felt like no time at all we were back on the mainline approaching Cardiff Central once again. When we arrived, I took another photo of the train and then walked down towards the gateline and exited the station completely. It was now about 12:30 so we thought we would have a quick bite to eat. We bought our own sandwiches so we sat outside of the station and ate those.
It was now about 13:00 and it was time to head back into the station and decide where we could go next. We decided on Maesteg as there was a direct train back from Maesteg to Gloucester so we decided to do that. I have never done the line to Maesteg before so that was going to be another new bit of line I could tick off too. Buying some more tickets our train appeared on the departure boards, 2L55 the 13:16 Cardiff Central to Maesteg. We walked up to platform 3 to catch the train to Maesteg. I took a quick photo of the train (170201), checked with the driver that the train was going to Maesteg and then hopped on board. We found a seat in the ex-first-class section. These trains had a previous life with Greater Anglia, which had first-class I believe, and on TfW there is no first class on the majority of their services so you sit there freely. The bonus of sitting there is you get much bigger seats, curtains and most of the time a compartment to yourself as there are only about 8 seats in the compartment.
We left Cardiff on time and headed down to Maesteg. Passing Cardiff Canton Depot we saw a class 08 shunter, which I assume is “08499” as that is the only one I can see stabled there, and a few 769’s. The track between Cardiff and Bridgend is not new to me. It’s an okay bit of line not much to see but there are a few quite nice trees and hills. Just before Pencoed, we stopped and because we were sitting right at the front of the train I could hear the signaller on the call with the driver on the in-cab phone through the GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway). This did worry me a little as I didn’t really know what was going on. After a bit of investigation I assume it had something to do with the level crossing as I could see on my map there is a crossing on approach to Pencoed westbound platform. The platforms are staggered at Pencoed with one being before the level crossing and one after. After Pencoed is Bridgend which is where the line to Maesteg veers off. I noticed at Bridgend there are two bay platforms with one heading down towards Barry via the loop. That is another bit of line I need to do so I’m looking forward to coming back soon!
Going off the junction you are back in a kind of countryside but also a city/town like area. I quite fancied living in one of the houses that back onto the train line. I could get a great view of the trains! We brushed up against some overgrown trees and then stopped at Wildmill. Carrying on towards Maesteg our next station was Sarn. Then we were at Tondu after the station and something interesting happened! There was a token exchange, I haven’t seen one of these for ages, probably the last time I saw one was on my trip to Fishguard Harbour last year! I was very excited to see it. Most, if not all, of the signals on the line are the old semaphore signals which is one of the reasons you physically need a metal token. A token means that only one train can be on a section of line at a time as the signaller needs the token to be returned before they can let another train through. This is very important for single track lines to maintain safety. After a few more station stops we arrived at Maesteg. We stopped at the station on time at 14:07.
I got off and took a quick couple of photos then got back on the train, sat back in the same seats and the train was off, now working 2G62 the 14:15 Maesteg to Cheltenham Spa. It was just a repeat of what I saw before but it was still a pleasant journey home.
We arrived back at Gloucester station one minute late and I spotted someone I know who works at the station so thought I would go and say hello. After that, I headed back out of the gateline and my dad came and picked us up from the station.
Thank you very much to James from TfW for advising me on the best Valley Lines to do and to all the staff I encountered for making my journey special. I discovered that having someone else with me, who shares my passion for the railways, made a big difference to my enjoyment of the day and not being quite as anxious.
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