My step-daughter and I took the chance to have a break in Cardiff this week - I had only ever passed through on trains many years ago, so had never visited…
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| Trains we actually travelled on 13/14th August 2024. |
We travelled down and back from Ruabon on the direct trains which were 197 hauled (158s on the Cambrian and the Holyhead Birmingham route now only I think). Quiet, efficient but a little uncomfortable we’re lucky to have had investment in the rolling stock but as an enthusiast of course it’s mixed emotions as the old order slowly disappear.
Whilst in Cardiff we also travelled from Queen St to Cardiff Bay, which was, I sadly reflected, perhaps my last journey on TfW 150/2s - I believe they’re slowly being retired this and next year and are concentrated out of Cardiff these days.
We also had a bit of a wait in Cardiff Central so an exciting time for me as I saw my first GWR livieried units including 158s, 166s (heading to Portsmouth I think) the Hitachi 5 (Penzance) and longer (London bound) sets. Other than TfW and GWR there were Cross Country 170s (Cardiff to Nottingham IIRC) as well as plenty of TfW variety. The 150/2s amd 153 on local services, the 197s on longer trains. 67s on Mk4s to Manchester and the Stadler articulated sets on local services. Down at the Bay we also saw work on a new station, presumably for the metro style tram trains? The only freight we saw was the Dee Marsh steel trains on the North and South route and a 66/6 on test running through Cardiff.
When I was younger I took the railway for granted. Yes it was changing but I didn’t take any photographs. Now I feel like it’s worth recording how things are now, as they won’t be like this forever. One day my photos of a 150/2 will be the study of some young person hoping to recreate one in model form who never experienced travel on one at mainline speed… so you’ll have to excuse todays photo heavy post if you’re more a modeller or not interested in trains today.
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| Queen Street, 14th August. Old and new. 231010 with 153/3 and 153/9 duo behind. |
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| 150283 at Cardiff Bay. The new ‘metro’ station in being built behind, so this was a single line terminus worth visiting whilst I was near enough to justify the 4 minutes from Queen Street! |
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| 153914 and 153/3 (with accessible toilet) pairing at Cardiff Central. |
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| 166201 at Platform 0 (!) at Cardiff Central with a service to Portsmouth IIRC. The first time I’d ever seen a 166 since they were built in the 1990s I think! |
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| IEP 800312 on a London train. |
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| Two generations of Turbo, the 166 departs for Portsmouth whilst the XC 170, 170639 waits to depart for Nottingham. |
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| The busy Manchester train with Mk4 set, DVT leading and 66012 in de-branded Wrexham and Shropshire on the tail end. These 66s are ugly and noisy but still a welcome change to the world of multiple u it’s! |
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| 66/6 number 66651 heads through Cardiff Central with a short test train (not even ten steel carriers) with another standard 66/0 on the rear. These 66/6 are new, re geared from the original EWS 66/0 sub type to lower maximum speed but increase tractive effort to allow DB to retire the Class 60. Rumour has it they’re still not quite up to the job, but it’s nice to see freight trains on the network even if most of them are run by foreign investment banks. |
A nice break in general, but topped off with the rail travel and chance to watch trains. Normal service won’t be resumed until September but I’ll keep up with the daily blogging even if you have to put up with ‘real trains’ instead of modelling sometimes. Until next time, more soon…
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I highly recommend a visit to St Fagans next time you head that way, you would find a lot of inspiration.
ReplyDeleteIf we had had longer it was on the list!
DeleteNice set of photos, James!
ReplyDeleteLast time I went to Cardiff was in about 2008, I think...and the run from Queen Street to Bay was in an absolutely immaculate, ex-works bubble car! The Arriva Trains Wales livery really suited it, as I think it did the various other BR-era units in use at the time.
Something I remember is going up the various Valley Lines in pacers, with one guard per unit, which must have been a bit heavy on manpower!
I must try to get up on the Cambrian Coast before the 158s go...they're really all I've known on that route.
Cheers,
Simon.
Yes, the 158s are on borrowed time - the 197s are already being tested on the coast.
DeleteFabulous stuff. Used to visit Cardiff regularly. Was a great place to spot 08s - even this year - around the steel terminal. Will be great to see how the Bay rail project develops - thankfully line was not ripped up years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt will be good for the area but light rail isn’t really my cup of tea… I haven’t had a chance to go further afield this time - perhaps I’ll visit again and do a few of the valley lines on the Stadler units.
DeleteI always enjoy seeing your photos James. These photos are excellent for modeling ideas for people like me are not familiar with trains in your part of the world. Details like the platforms, and catenary supports...(I see those castellated beams...). Inspiration for a cameo in N gauge maybe...?
ReplyDeleteThanks Tom, I have an N cameo on the sketch pad right now - but not anything in these images but something I saw from the train…
DeleteNostalgia is a funny old thing James. I remember sprinters replacing loco-hauled trains on the cross country Portsmouth to Cardiff route as a child, I was not impressed! The excitement of looking out our class 33 at Fratton depot fuelling point (occasionally it was a named one, although I never saw 33027 Earl Mountbatten of Burma sadly), then seeing the same 33 blast up through Portsmouth and Southsea higher level station on it's way to the harbour to pick up the coaches for our train. The pigeons roosting in the station rafters would all fly up in the air! The sprinters would typically be a two coach train replacing a five coach one and therefore they would be massively overcrowded. Sprinters I think saved many a branch line and cross country route and only the other day, I travelled on a 158 in Cornwall and thoroughly enjoyed the ride and will be sad to see them go! Thought provoking words as always James, thank you. Am looking forward to the new book too. Take care
ReplyDeleteEven 5 or 6 years into the Sprinter revolution we still had loco hauled trains on the North Wales coast, but their days we thought were numbered (they actually lasted for another decade!). You mention seating capacity, a 155 had 160, a Mk2 TSO was 64 - I had always assumed the Sprinters weren’t much of a reduction in seating as they were so squeezed in - but actually, it looks like they were - I think the argument up here was that they ran a 2 car Sprinter more frequently and that would cater for the traffic… but of course that doesn’t allow for popular times becoming much more over crowded.
DeleteI think the same argument was used down South. I think a two or three hourly loco-hauled train was replaced by an hourly one. Standing next to a 33 (we never called them Crompton's, not sure I heard the name before I was an adult) ticking over even now sends a shiver up the spine. The smell of oil and the diesel fumes too, reminds me that we were going west! To Somerset and a fortnight's holiday. Mind you, we still had a class 50 to look forward to at Salisbury to take us to Yeovil Junction! I love nostalgia! Any pics of the Llangollen diesel fleet always appreciated too..
DeleteHad that experience on the platform at Glyndyfrdwy a few weeks ago with the 31 ticking over. Transported to Chester station thirty years earlier… it’s a funny feeling, why do we yearn for such things, or at least the way their memory makes us feel!?
DeleteAlways nice coming back and reading about your thoughts on modern rail travel James, reminds me I really should go out and get some pictures of the branchlines in Cornwall! Still a hive of 150 action on the falmouth and St Ives branches, intact Penryn and falmouth docks would make wonderful N scale models. Perhaps penryn on a lack shelf as more operational and the docks as a canalog sequence single terminus... food for thought indeed!
ReplyDeleteJames, drop me an email sometime, I’d love to come down and do those branches if you’re game for a trip!
DeleteEmail in inbound shortly! Sounds good to me!
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