Exploring: The Kerry branch...

I recently picked up the Oakwood book on the Mawddwy, Van and Kerry branches, and on my way home from visiting Mum in Pembrokeshire I made a detour at Newtown to visit Kerry and see what I could find of the railway...

Surprisingly at least to me, the station is still in use as a farm house, but its actually half a mile outside the village! Now painted white, it's still obviously the station. The whole site appears to be in use by the farmer as a giant farm yard.

More surprising was the engine shed, not used since the 1930s, still standing! Seen here from the rear, the smoke vent has collapsed a little, but remarkable.

We headed north towards Abermule and found what I was looking for, a photo in the Oakwood book of Frongaith halt showed a very short, very narrow platform next to a mill, beside a river. This site has little changed, the trackbed intact, the mill in place as well as the siding. Now a residential property quite a lot is still visible from the road.

So there you go, what must rate up there as one of Britains' smallest stations! a very modellable scene, and one I'd love to include one day on a layout. The drive out of the valley showed how tight and twisty the line must have been, but really hammers home how daft a proposal it really was - a short branch through a tight gorge with quite a climb from all accounts to really only service the Kerry valley's agricultural needs... until one remembers the timber extraction before and after the first world war, and the Kerry Tramway. One for another day's exploring...