The Order of the Bed Planning: WVR 1

Part 1: Ready-made Railway

Warning - The Order of the Bed Planning Department does not draw basic plans to scale.

This is Part 1 of the Order of the Bed's plans for reopening the Wye Valley Railway.

Throughout the four principle articles of this section we will feature three ways to re-open the line. Option 1 is a simple system of four steps, around which these webpages were orientated. Option 2 is a simple case of re-opening the entire line in one go, which is merely provided in stages to fit in with the page format. Option 3 is a confused mess made worse by our decision not to restructure the pages for it. These are example plans which anyone trying to re-open the Wye Valley Railway is welcome to nick providing you let us join in the fun. They are not by any means on the verge of being implemented.

Part 1 is simply the section of the railway which still has track on it. It is therefore the obvious starting point. The basic tasks are clearing the line, rebuilding stations, filling in gaps, "making good" in Tidenham Tunnel and demolishing a collapsing bridge halfway between Tidenham and Netherhope.

Option 1: The line between Wye Valley Junction and Tintern Quarry is still in situ. This can be reopened first with a short platform being built adjacent to the Northern portal of Tidenham Tunnel, with a footpath being provided up the hill to the Offa's Dyke Path. This will enable users to go for walks of varied lengths in the Wye Valley (from this halt, to be called Tintern Quarry South Halt) and also in the Severn Valley (from Netherhope Halt). Meanwhile work could then begin on extending north towards Tintern. Due to the section from this halt to Tintern Quarry being required by the railway for storage space and engineer's trains, it will not be possible for the general public to walk on it willy-nilly.

Option 2: Tidenham would be set up as a general base with extra sidings, some track relaying and a headquarter block. Netherhope would be rebuilt as an example stopping place. Tidenham Tunnel would be refurbished. Work could then begin on extending north towards Tintern

Option 3: Tidenham would be set up as a general base with extra sidings, some track relaying and a headquarter block. Netherhope would be rebuilt as an example stopping place. Tidenham Tunnel would be refurbished. Work would then begin at Tintern Old Station to provide a public face to the works and familiarise people to trains being present. This would have the added benefit that, once an extension to Brockweir Halt had been organised, passenger carrying trains could be operated (summer only, with a shunter and coach or an old diesel train) to provide extra funds.

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This is Wye Valley Junction. The first rails arrived here in the 1850 with the arrival of the South Wales Railway. They built two railways, one linking Gloucester with here, and one linking Chepstow with Swansea. Between the two was a large rocky outcrop and the deep swirling waters of the River Wye beyond that, followed by the muddy Welsh shore of the river. It was well known as to how bridges could be built from rock to rock and even across an expanse of mud would probably not have unduly worried engineers - but here both had to be spanned along with a broad, deep and fast river with a high tidal range and large ships using it regularly, so it created an alarming challenge.

The result was an interim decision while plans were produced, and this resulted in the construction of two stations, Chepstow East and Chepstow West. Trains arrived at Chepstow East, the passengers transferred to horse-drawn vans or their feet, and went across the local road bridge (still there) to Chepstow, where they continued to Chepstow West. This left a lot to be desired, as although journey times from London to Swansea were greatly reduced, passenger comfort was not tremendously improved.

In 1851 Isambard Kingdom Brunel arrived on the scene. Brunel was well-known as an engineer who could build a railway almost anywhere and generally did it with his own 7 foot broad gauge. He designed and had built a bridge over the Wye, which was effectively two bridges which met in the middle. It was opened shortly after, and Chepstow East was closed.

1876 saw the arrival of another set of rails. This time they arrived in the form of the single track Wye Valley Railway from Monmouth. The line saw the creation of Wye Valley Junction at the south end of the line and a 1 in 66 gradient was created to get trains from the junction to Tidenham station. 1 in 66 means that the line rose one unit for every 66 units it went along - quite hideous in railway terms. The junction was made double track, but this was rapidly changed to one line and a crossover. The crossover was removed following closure of the local box, and is now down at Chepstow.

A new halt was opened on the other side of the bridge from which this photograph was taken in later years - Tutshill Halt.

The Wye Valley Railway closed to passengers on 5th January 1959, and the halt went with it. Freight services ceased on 6th Janary 1964 but the line south of Tintern Quarry would be given a reprieve for stone traffic. The signal box was closed when the junction came under the control of the new Newport power box which covered a much larger area, but the branch itself was allowed to retain a small box of sorts in the form of a groundframe. In the meantime, 1962 saw the rebuilding of Brunel's bridge over the Wye as a special celebration of its 110th anniversary, with the result that the original strutting on top is now underneath and the bridge looks much more open and in keeping with the modern road bridge alongside. The original was probably suffering severely from the weight of the heavy steel trains which had just started passing overhead as British Rail (and the steel industry) modernised, providing more frequent and heavier trains. The new bridge has been built to be the main line from South Wales to the Midlands, and unlike many other such constructions, it got 20 years of working life before the steel works and coal mines really started to close - although two steel works and one colliery remain open today.

Since the 1960s the junction changed little despite the abandoning of of first Tintern Quarry and then Dayhouse Quarry, by Tidenham station. The railway does not appear to have ever been officially abandoned along this stretch - indeed, abandonment more seems to have come about though a requirement to rebuild parts of the line to take traffic for much longer. For some time there were no alterations at the junction, but by April 2007 the section where the rails cross at the end of the points had been replaced with a plain rail. This prevents any train from going up the line (not that it was possible anyway) and effectively is a statement of closure. The future of signal N163 (in the foreground; it is controlled from Newport) is probably still quite secure, however, as it will be needed for normal signalling on the mainline.

NOTE: SAFETY WARNING:- DO NOT TRY TO WALK THE WYE VALLEY RAILWAY IF THERE IS NO PUBLIC FOOTPATH ALONG IT AND ESPECIALLY IF IT IS MARKED ON THE MAP AS "Railway (Disused)"/ "Rly (Dis)" AS IT MAY BE OVERGROWN BY VICIOUS BRAMBLES UNLESS A DEFINITE PATH IS VISIBLE. ALSO DO NOT IGNORE SAFETY WARNINGS ALONG THE ROUTE.

The taking of this picture on the 2nd of October 2005 completed our collection of Wye Valley Railway stations, although shots may still change occasionally. Tidenham station holds the honour of being the longest-used station on the Wye Valley Railway, with trains passing through it or stopping for just over 113 years - November 1876 until March 1990. However, this record is not continuous, as the station was closed from 1917 until early 1918, but for this little station, a mile from the village it served, 112 years of use is not bad. After the end of passenger services, the station remained disused until from about 1964 onwards when it was used by the adjacent quarry to remove limestone. While the line to the north was abandoned in 1981, Tidenham idled on until the departure of the last train 9 years later, now with a concrete floor owing to cement dust. The rails are still there, buried by buddleia, and the main line and loop are no longer really passable. This photo was taken from the site of the station building. An idyllic and quiet spot in the picture, it hasn't yet been abandoned for two decades and quarry equipment is believed to have still been in situ 15 years ago. Also the A48 Gloucester to West Wales trunk road is at the bottom of the access road, which leaves down a slope on the left and also gives access to the National Diving Centre in the former quarry. In both directions the line is blocked to all but the most desperate, like our researchers who took this picture without sustaining major injury.

Would you believe that this was Netherhope Halt? Would you believe that there is still a railway here? This picture looks North from the south end of the halt towards Tidenham Tunnel back in 2005. Rails were still just about visible from under the creepers and there are a large number of trees lining the cutting which are a very good sun-block in summer. The railway was slightly less blocked than normal here but this was about the furthest south that could be easily accessed at the time. The halt platform has been cleared away back into the cutting side although the access path is still there. From here it was (just) about possible to walk, scramble and crawl northwards to a place on the north side of the road bridge (which you can see amongst the trees if you look closely) where the brambles disappear and reveal the south portal of Tidenham Tunnel, which is actually only about 30 - 40yards away. The cutting is slightly obstructed by trees which have fallen over onto the line - possibly not accidently.

Since this picture was taken the site has got even more overgrown and anyone looking south from the tunnel is confronted with a brief mossy space between them and the south side of the overbridge, beyond which is a green wall. Netherhope Halt is now buried beneath several tons of overgrowth and general plant, so retaking this photograph is currently impossible. But the rails are still there.

The northern end of Tidenham Tunnel is hard to access - the quarry owners have done their best to prevent people from coming in from the north and the southern end is hidden behind a pile of brambles at the other end of a 1,188 yard long hole. Despite being last used in 1981, the tunnel is generally in good shape, although quite damp. Following the sale of the tunnel by British Rail Residuary Body to Sustrans, the tunnel has been fenced off at each end with pallisade fencing. While pallisade fencing is one of the least secure ways of encouraging people not to go through a tunnel (running trains through it frequently is far more effective), it will make the insurance company feel better. There is a possibility that a halt could be installed on the right with an access path up to the road (about quarter of a mile away) if trains initially only ran this far. However, a halt around the location of the original short-lived Tintern Quarry halt, just north of Tintern Quarry and adjacent to some public footpaths, would probably be cheaper to arrange access to.

This photo shows a rather overgrown loop which was installed for Tintern Quarry some years back as a siding. Later on after the line closed north of here to all traffic the siding was turned into a loop for diesels to run around their trains of stone here. The existence of a loop would make it only natural to terminate all trains here until Tintern and Brockweir could be accessed. However, that would probably be around £500,000 - £1,000,000 away as a bridge span of some 207 feet over the Wye needs replacing, walls need rebuilding, and a viaduct would need major engineering work. Compared with all this, the jobs on this bit of the line appear easy, just involving checking the old track (and relaying a few bits), removing trees (although some charitable person is doing that already in places), getting rubbish out of the cutting, reinstating Netherhope Halt and tidying up the 1,188 yard long Tidenham Tunnel, once the 20th longest tunnel on the Great Western Railway and actually rather deceptive, given that it would be one of the longest tunnels to be reopened since the 1960s. Unfortunately this section of the line has been noticed, and several hundred other people with big bulldozers would probably also lay claim to it. North of Tintern, we would have a monopoly on excessive use of bulldozers.

The area of light brown covered in trees in the centre of this view has another track running under it. On the right is the WVR main line towards Tidenham Tunnel, and the pointwork is at the southern end of the loop for the quarry. The line down the centre is just a siding, ending at a buffer stop some ¼ of a mile before the extremely cold draughts of air blowing out of the north portal of Tidenham Tunnel.

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17/07/09

	This is Wye Valley Junction. The first rails arrived here in the 1850 with the arrival of the South Wales Railway. They built two railways, one linking Gloucester with here, and one linking Chepstow with Swansea. Between the two was a large rocky outcrop and the deep swirling waters of the River Wye beyond that, followed by the muddy Welsh shore of the river. It was well known as to how bridges could be built from rock to rock and even across an expanse of mud would probably not have unduly worried engineers - but here both had to be spanned along with a broad, deep and fast river with a high tidal range and large ships using it regularly, so it created an alarming challenge. The result was an interim decision while plans were produced, and this resulted in the construction of two stations, Chepstow East and Chepstow West. Trains arrived at Chepstow East, the passengers transferred to horse-drawn vans or their feet, and went across the local road bridge (still there) to Chepstow, where they continued to Chepstow West. This left a lot to be desired, as although journey times from London to Swansea were greatly reduced, passenger comfort was not tremendously improved. In 1851 Isambard Kingdom Brunel arrived on the scene. Brunel was well-known as an engineer who could build a railway almost anywhere and generally did it with his own 7 foot broad gauge. He designed and had built a bridge over the Wye, which was effectively two bridges which met in the middle. It was opened shortly after, and Chepstow East was closed. 1876 saw the arrival of another set of rails. This time they arrived in the form of the single track Wye Valley Railway from Monmouth. The line saw the creation of Wye Valley Junction at the south end of the line and a 1 in 66 gradient was created to get trains from the junction to Tidenham station. 1 in 66 means that the line rose one unit for every 66 units it went along - quite hideous in railway terms. The junction was made double track, but this was rapidly changed to one line and a crossover. The crossover was removed following closure of the local box, and is now down at Chepstow. A new halt was opened on the other side of the bridge from which this photograph was taken in later years - Tutshill Halt. The Wye Valley Railway closed to passengers on 5th January 1959, and the halt went with it. Freight services ceased on 6th Janary 1964 but the line south of Tintern Quarry would be given a reprieve for stone traffic. The signal box was closed when the junction came under the control of the new Newport power box which covered a much larger area, but the branch itself was allowed to retain a small box of sorts in the form of a groundframe. In the meantime, 1962 saw the rebuilding of Brunel's bridge over the Wye as a special celebration of its 110th anniversary, with the result that the original strutting on top is now underneath and the bridge looks much more open and in keeping with the modern road bridge alongside. The original was probably suffering severely from the weight of the heavy steel trains which had just started passing overhead as British Rail (and the steel industry) modernised, providing more frequent and heavier trains. The new bridge has been built to be the main line from South Wales to the Midlands, and unlike many other such constructions, it got 20 years of working life before the steel works and coal mines really started to close - although two steel works and one colliery remain open today. Since the 1960s the junction changed little despite the abandoning of of first Tintern Quarry and then Dayhouse Quarry, by Tidenham station. The railway does not appear to have ever been officially abandoned along this stretch - indeed, abandonment more seems to have come about though a requirement to rebuild parts of the line to take traffic for much longer. For some time there were no alterations at the junction, but by April 2007 the section where the rails cross at the end of the points had been replaced with a plain rail. This prevents any train from going up the line (not that it was possible anyway) and effectively is a statement of closure. The future of signal N163 (in the foreground; it is controlled from Newport) is probably still quite secure, however, as it will be needed for normal signalling on the mainline. NOTE: SAFETY WARNING:- DO NOT TRY TO WALK THE WYE VALLEY RAILWAY IF THERE IS NO PUBLIC FOOTPATH ALONG IT AND ESPECIALLY IF IT IS MARKED ON THE MAP AS "Railway (Disused)"/ "Rly (Dis)" AS IT MAY BE OVERGROWN BY VICIOUS BRAMBLES UNLESS A DEFINITE PATH IS VISIBLE. ALSO DO NOT IGNORE SAFETY WARNINGS ALONG THE ROUTE.
	The taking of this picture on the 2nd of October 2005 completed our collection of Wye Valley Railway stations, although shots may still change occasionally. Tidenham station holds the honour of being the longest-used station on the Wye Valley Railway, with trains passing through it or stopping for just over 113 years - November 1876 until March 1990. However, this record is not continuous, as the station was closed from 1917 until early 1918, but for this little station, a mile from the village it served, 112 years of use is not bad. After the end of passenger services, the station remained disused until from about 1964 onwards when it was used by the adjacent quarry to remove limestone. While the line to the north was abandoned in 1981, Tidenham idled on until the departure of the last train 9 years later, now with a concrete floor owing to cement dust. The rails are still there, buried by buddleia, and the main line and loop are no longer really passable. This photo was taken from the site of the station building. An idyllic and quiet spot in the picture, it hasn't yet been abandoned for two decades and quarry equipment is believed to have still been in situ 15 years ago. Also the A48 Gloucester to West Wales trunk road is at the bottom of the access road, which leaves down a slope on the left and also gives access to the National Diving Centre in the former quarry. In both directions the line is blocked to all but the most desperate, like our researchers who took this picture without sustaining major injury.
	Would you believe that this was Netherhope Halt? Would you believe that there is still a railway here? This picture looks North from the south end of the halt towards Tidenham Tunnel back in 2005. Rails were still just about visible from under the creepers and there are a large number of trees lining the cutting which are a very good sun-block in summer. The railway was slightly less blocked than normal here but this was about the furthest south that could be easily accessed at the time. The halt platform has been cleared away back into the cutting side although the access path is still there. From here it was (just) about possible to walk, scramble and crawl northwards to a place on the north side of the road bridge (which you can see amongst the trees if you look closely) where the brambles disappear and reveal the south portal of Tidenham Tunnel, which is actually only about 30 - 40yards away. The cutting is slightly obstructed by trees which have fallen over onto the line - possibly not accidently. Since this picture was taken the site has got even more overgrown and anyone looking south from the tunnel is confronted with a brief mossy space between them and the south side of the overbridge, beyond which is a green wall. Netherhope Halt is now buried beneath several tons of overgrowth and general plant, so retaking this photograph is currently impossible. But the rails are still there.
	The northern end of Tidenham Tunnel is hard to access - the quarry owners have done their best to prevent people from coming in from the north and the southern end is hidden behind a pile of brambles at the other end of a 1,188 yard long hole. Despite being last used in 1981, the tunnel is generally in good shape, although quite damp. Following the sale of the tunnel by British Rail Residuary Body to Sustrans, the tunnel has been fenced off at each end with pallisade fencing. While pallisade fencing is one of the least secure ways of encouraging people not to go through a tunnel (running trains through it frequently is far more effective), it will make the insurance company feel better. There is a possibility that a halt could be installed on the right with an access path up to the road (about quarter of a mile away) if trains initially only ran this far. However, a halt around the location of the original short-lived Tintern Quarry halt, just north of Tintern Quarry and adjacent to some public footpaths, would probably be cheaper to arrange access to.
	This photo shows a rather overgrown loop which was installed for Tintern Quarry some years back as a siding. Later on after the line closed north of here to all traffic the siding was turned into a loop for diesels to run around their trains of stone here. The existence of a loop would make it only natural to terminate all trains here until Tintern and Brockweir could be accessed. However, that would probably be around £500,000 - £1,000,000 away as a bridge span of some 207 feet over the Wye needs replacing, walls need rebuilding, and a viaduct would need major engineering work. Compared with all this, the jobs on this bit of the line appear easy, just involving checking the old track (and relaying a few bits), removing trees (although some charitable person is doing that already in places), getting rubbish out of the cutting, reinstating Netherhope Halt and tidying up the 1,188 yard long Tidenham Tunnel, once the 20th longest tunnel on the Great Western Railway and actually rather deceptive, given that it would be one of the longest tunnels to be reopened since the 1960s. Unfortunately this section of the line has been noticed, and several hundred other people with big bulldozers would probably also lay claim to it. North of Tintern, we would have a monopoly on excessive use of bulldozers. The area of light brown covered in trees in the centre of this view has another track running under it. On the right is the WVR main line towards Tidenham Tunnel, and the pointwork is at the southern end of the loop for the quarry. The line down the centre is just a siding, ending at a buffer stop some ¼ of a mile before the extremely cold draughts of air blowing out of the north portal of Tidenham Tunnel.