Penarth Penardd…

After three trips to Penarth now, since Mum moved at the end of the summer I’ve become somewhat taken by the short branch from the Barry line, just west of Cardiff…

James Hilton illustration, photos as credited from Flickr.

This is a new discovery to me and my first trip was aboard a wonderful Class 150/2; it sounded incredible climbing up to Penarth from  - and when I get around to it will form another ‘rail scape’ on my YouTube channel. Sadly, for me, in the visits since it has been Stadler units. These are wonderfully smooth and exceptionally quiet on battery power up the same gradient - a massive plus for those who love nearby. I’m glad I experienced the diesel power though, it was incredible.

The station at Penarth is almost a Mosslanda in reality, a rationalised through station with truncated line creating a terminus. A road overbridge, small brick ‘modern’ station building surrounded by ‘town’. Over the years it has seen first generation DMU, loco hauled specials (and regular Rhymney ones) and more recently the 769s, 150s and now the Battery Electric Stadler Flirts.

A play on how Penarth sounds creates Penardd which translates, rather beautifully to ‘poet’. This seems quite apt in this creative interpretation of a new but already familiar friend… of course the forthcoming Farish 150/2 will certainly help this project move up from ‘nice to have’ to ‘will fit that Mosslanda nicely’ in the coming months. For now, it was nice to research somewhere new and sketch, once more on my iPad. Until next time, more soon…

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