The construction of a line from Monmouth to Pontrilas will be pretty much unique amongst OB railway plans as there is no infrastructure to build it on.

Nearly 130 years ago, in 1876, the Wye Valley Railway had just been opened and construction had commenced on a line from Pontrilas to Hay-on-Wye. The Monmouthshire Beacon announced that there was "every possibility" of a railway from Monmouth to Pontrilas being built and opened. The new line would serve Rockwood, Skenfrith and Grosmont, and it would make it possible for someone holidaying in Tintern and looking at its abbey to pop along to Hay-on-Wye very easily. Today it would be a good and useful link.

Construction had commenced on the line and a tunnel had begun to be bored adjacent to Monmouth (Troy) station when the contractor, Thomas Savin, went bankrupt. The scheme died, but the single real reminder, the tunnel, remained. It later proved very useful as it could be used as a store.

In 2002 the goods shed at Monmouth was finally demolished to make way for a small housing estate. It was the last station building to go, as the main station building was taken to Winchcombe on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire railway in 1986. The tunnel mouth is still be serving the only purpose it ended up serving: as a store which is now in someone's back garden.

The OB plan involves taking a rather more logical and cheaper route, which is through the now bricked-up tunnel at the west end of Monmouth (Troy) station. Troy has managed to avoid being built on, and hopefully the town planners will be aware that it was a railway station, and is now the deciding factor on at whether or not Monmouth gets a rail link back.

The new line would then continue on to a junction off the dismantled Coleford, Monmouth Usk and Pontypool railway, which closed in 1955, and head northwest.

The railway would continue on to Rockfield, the first stop, before continuing to Skenfrith. The small but solid castle of Skenfrith will be nearby, and hopefully it will get more visitors as a result of this new line. The railway will then continue along the banks of the River Monnow, until it reaches Grosmont. Grosmont and Grosmont castle will hopefully profit by this new station. The next halt will be at the terminus Pontrilas, which has been without a station for many years. Beyond here, hopes are high that it will be possible to extend up the dismantled 18 mile line to Hay-on-Wye, the town of books, as the line closed in 1941. Hay is now without a railway and is very congested. A station would help to ease this problem considerably.

All the stations on the map above are not presently there. Gaps in the rivers mark bridges. Garway is marked as it is the most important place near the valley which would not be directly served by the railway (a halt may be in order). It is noted for its Templar connections - a group who have been heavily researched by Dr. Helen Nicholson (please say if you bought one of her books after visiting this site so we can claim advertising fees) and the History Department at the University of Surrealism, who have concluded that both the Department and the Templars never existed.

Kilpeck would possibly gain a halt if trains were to be run from Pontrilas onto Hereford. It is home to a church with some very odd carvings.

Abbeydore was the first station on the railway to Hay on Wye - the Golden Valley route. If this railway were to be re-opened, Abbeydore (and its very unusual church) would regain the station.

Italics mark the locations of towns some distance from the stations purporting to serve them. Consequently a station at Monmouth West might be in order. Grosmont is, unfortunately, 200 feet up a cliff from the river, and so building a station there is not really an option. "Grosmont (for Kentchurch)" is a display of a now lost way of naming stations - name them after a town, and then mention the village which they actually serve.

Darker splodges are woodland. Roads, rivers and railways all follow standard Ordnance Survey procedures.

Unfortunately this railway would plough through the proposed maintenance depot at the western end of Monmouth Troy (to be built in connection with the Wye Valley scheme). So it is unlikely that this would go ahead - partly because it would entail moving the terminus to Hereford, and partly because it's a terrible route anyway. By contrast, the Wye Valley Railway (visible at the bottom right running into Monmouth Troy) is a mainline.

	Monmouth Troy station opened in 1857 with the line from Pontypool, some twenty miles away to the South-west. Additional lines rapidly emerged and linked it to Ross-on-Wye, Chepstow and finally Coleford. The subject of this section, however, is not on the list - Pontrilas, 14 miles to the North-west, but around 30 by rail. Troy remained open through the closure of the lines to Coleford (1917) and Pontypool (1955) but finally shut when the Ross-on-Wye and Chepstow lines closed in 1959. The withdrawal of freight facilities in 1964 saw the closure of the station to rail traffic, though lorries delivered coal to the goods yard for some time afterwards. However, reopening Monmouth Troy is an option under our Wye Valley Railway scheme, which aims to restore trains between Chepstow and Monmouth.
	Skenfrith is a delightful village located on the riverbank and would be the second stop on the route (we are yet to visit Rockfield). A passing loop would probably be installed here. There is one small problem - where to put the station. Three options are available. The first, and second most likely to be adopted, involves putting the station on the northern bank of the river, on the other side from the village. This would involve a level croosing on the road through the village and would provide a large amount of room for the station (see further picture). It would also entail crossing the Monnow twice in about quarter of a mile.
	Option 2 for Skenfrith station is probably the best. It would pass along a slight ledge at the bottom of the large hedge across the middle of the far picture. This would take it around the back of the Bell pub, before leaving plenty of room for a station in the field in the near picture, before having the railway cutting through the background hedge. There would be adequate room for the railway with rather less in the way of bridges, which are always expensive. Option 3 is to carve across the front of the pub on the riverbank, bulldozing the cars in the far picture, cutting across the end of the road bridge, and pulling down part of the castle. This would not be a popular option.
	Grosmont is at the top of a hill, and the road does not reach the bottom of the valley again until 1 ¼ miles away at the small village of Kentchurch. To save on the hillclimbing, which trains detest, the station will be placed here at Kentchurch, as Grosmont and Kentchurch station. Starting in the near picture, the line will come up from Skenfrith around the trees on the left, and pass through the gate in the foreground. A car park can be placed in the small triangle of land on the left. The line will cross the road and then proceed through the double gates in the far picture, splitting the field in two for the small station, before the line proceeds on through the trees to Pontrilas. The alternative option is to use the other bank of the river. This would involve property demolition totalling 3 houses. This would leave approx. 4 houses, thereby causing considerable devastation. Subsequently we will probably stick to the south bank of the river.
	Pontrilas station, the end of the line. Pontrilas is on the main "North and West" route from Newport to Crewe, via Pontypool, Abergavenny, Hereford and Shrewsbury (it is about halfway between Abergavenny and Hereford). As the crow flies, it would now be Monmouth's nearest railhead (but Newport is easier to get to) and is in the heart of the Black Mountains. This did not save it from closure in 1958 as part of a massive rationalisation of services in the area, although the branch line from here to Hay-on-Wye had already closed in 1941. For the sake of the curious, it was possible to get from Ross-on-Wye to Hay-on-Wye by rail, but it was a lengthy journey with a change at Hereford (and, for some years, a change of station at Hereford). Both lines are now closed, and both towns are off the rail network. Pontrilas station building is now a holiday cottage. See http://www.railwayholidays.co.uk/ for more details and to book accomodation. We do not recommend reopening the station building to rail travellers. While it would be nice, it would seriously cut profits, as staff would have to be employed.