|
The Wye Valley Railway Passenger Services: 1st November 1876 to 5th January 1959 Main Goods services: 1st November 1876 to 6th January 1964 Stone from Tintern Quarry until December 1981; from Dayhouse Quarry until March 1990.
The Wye Valley Railway was opened on the 1st November 1876 from Wye Valley Junction (near Chepstow, south-east Wales) to Monmouth Troy (east Wales) for a total distance of 14 ¾ miles. Trains stopped at stations called, from the south, Tidenham, Tintern, Bigsweir, Redbrook, and terminated at Monmouth Troy. Here passengers could change for Ross-on-Wye (a few miles further north), Pontypool (15 miles to the south-west), and, from 1883, Coleford, in the Dean Forest. Ultimately it lost large sums of money and closed to passengers in 1959. Freight followed in 1964. Since the miniature gauge line at Tintern fell out of regular use the entire trackbed has been out of use by rail transport, with all the sections still carrying track being proposed for conversion to a new cycleway. The line was inaugurated by an Act of Parliament in 1866 at the end of the Second Railway Mania (the first occurred in the 1840s). The act permitted a line to be built from Wyesham Junction to Wye Valley Junction, at single track. There were initial worries that the line would be built to broad gauge (7ft) but this opposition to the line was withdrawn when it was confirmed that standard gauge (4ft 8 ½ inches) would be used. One passing loop would be installed at Tintern, but trains would be able to pass at Wye Valley Junction and Wyesham as well, and freight trains could be held, if necessary, in loops at Tidenham, Bigsweir, and Redbrook. Two tunnels would be built, one to 282 yards, and one to 712 yards. The line would be operated by the Great Western Railway (paying 50% of income to the WVR), and no damage would be done to Tintern Abbey or the surrounding grounds. Initial plans put the railway on the west bank of the river, especially through Tintern, but this was cut back to a stretch between Tintern station and Penallt viaduct, where the railway crossed back over the river; the remainder of the line being built along another route along the east bank. Neither route is really easier - the Wye Valley at this point is somewhat narrow and it is difficult to build anything of any size along it. The bill received its second reading on Tuesday, 27th of February 1866 and reported on page 6 of The Times the next day. It then was passed on its third reading on Monday July 23rd 1866 and reported in The Times the following day again, although this time on page 5. On Monday May 11th The Times reported, now on page 4, that the shares were being issued to raise capital, and that "It will further open up a new and much shorter route from Liverpool and the North, Birmingham and the Midland districts, to Newport, Cardiff, Bristol and the West of England, and this through route will be very materially improved by the completion of the Severn Tunnel now in the course of construction. ... The railway will command a very large traffic to and from the Forest of Dean and the ports of Newport and Cardiff, as well as a considerable through traffic of passsengers and goods between the districts of England and Wales north and south of the line. ... A very great traffic is anticipated from tourists visiting Tintern Abbey and the far-famed valley of the Wye, and also both in goods and passengers from the resident population as well as from the quarries [near Tintern], wireworks [Tintern], papermills [Whitebrook], tinplate works [Redbrook], foundries [Tintern and Redbrook], and other manufactories" which mostly shows that, despite vast increases in speed, single track branch lines do not carry nearly as much as they used to. In fact, only the local traffic was to prosper with some tourists in summer. Also,"they estimated to pay a dividend of 7% per annum on the share capital". So much for the prospectus, which was mostly wrong - there was no through traffic, there are few records of intensive paper traffic (not aided by the Whitebrook paperworks having to use St Briavels, a mile away, as their railhead), and no dividend is recorded as having being paid at any time, let alone 7% (which was being paid at this time by the very profitable South Welsh Rhymney Railway, which was short, double track, lacking in major structures, and carried intensive coal traffic). The shares were sold for £20 each, in batches of 5, so £100 per batch. By 1904 the report to the shareholders revealed that this had fallen to £12 10s 0d for the £100 of shares, or £2 10s 0d per share. At the end of 1866 the then reputable and well-known bankers, Overley and Gurnley, went bankrupt owing to too many railway companies taking out loans and not paying them back. The result was the end of the Second Railway Mania and a short period of financial depression in Britain, not aided by the ongoing Crimean War. It also saw the construction of the Wye Valley line held off for a few years, until work began in 1874. The prospectus was repeated on Saturday, October 3rd 1874 in The Times, presumably just before construction began. A half-yearly General Meeting was held on Friday 20th August 1875 when a vote of confidence was passed in favour of Mr William Hawes, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, by the shareholders - little did the poor people know what was coming to them. At this point construction was proceeding according to plan, but stations would have to be enlarged as they were for passengers only and not suitable for the projected goods traffic (which had been planned to travel over the line nine years prevoiusly but evidently no plans had been made to actually accommodate it). The line was £64,115 in pocket - riches which would never be achieved again. A few sidings would have to be laid to benefit the railway - probably mostly in goods yards - but this next one was of particular interest, partly for the great difficulty which it gave its bigger sister, and it would be difficult to say that it was ever of benefit to the railway - and, as the companies which used this long siding of about half a mile in length all went bankrupt, it can not exactly be said to have benefitted them either. During construction, complaints were made by the owners of Tintern Wireworks and the people of Tintern that the line was due to bypass their village. The result was another bill, with some rather ferocious (for the railway) clauses in it. The Tintern (or Wireworks) branch would run from Tintern (or Wireworks) junction to the Wireworks in the valley above Tintern. The railway was to be for freight only, with no gradients of any kind until the railway crossed the then rather quiet A466. A viaduct had to be installed over the river with sufficent space for vessels to pass under at high water. £500 (then) had to be paid for each tree taken out to make way for the railway. To top it all, the WVR was not allowed to charge for use of the branch (except for use of a now demolished weighbridge) but the railway company did have to supply all stock to run the branch and keep it in a good condition. There was still annoyance, as the locals would still have to use the official station, about a mile away. The Wireworks branch was completed in August 1875 to a proud announcement from the engineers that it was now ready to commence operations. This was just a tad optimistic to say the least, as the main WVR was not to be completed for another thirteen months. On Thursday November 18th 1875 the WVR was given another hurdle to cross - which hit the weather column of The Times - when a landslide near Redbrook blocked the nearly finished line. This was lighter than the finished Ross and Monmouth railway to the north got however, as there part of the embankment was removed by the Wye south of Symonds Yat - fortunately the next train stopped before following the removed embankment down the Wye to Chepstow. Upon opening of the WVR on the 1st of November 1876, a train loaded with delegates went from Chepstow to Monmouth and back, stopping off at Tintern for lunch with the Duke of Beaufort on the outward journey. The return journey took place in the evening and from Tintern to Tidenham Tunnel (the Shorn Cliff section) the rocky hillside alongside the railway was lit by flashing lights. The Wireworks branch was opened shortly afterwards to an opening ceremony that was "a little deflated" (Brian Handley) owing to the owners of the Wireworks having gone out of business. The Wireworks was eventually reopened and two locomotives were acquired from the Taff Vale Railway (between Cardiff and Merthyr) in the form of Nos 33 and 34. One was used to assist with spare parts to keep the other running. The complete locomotive was named "Tintern". Later locos came in the form of a small vertical-boilered loco nicknamed "Coffee Pot" owing to the shape of the boiler, and a group of horses which worked along the trackbed to a local sawmill after the Wireworks closed for good. In 1877 The Times for Saturday August 25th reported the receipts on page 7, which were quite good, offering a profit of £26,955, resulting in a decision to begin developing the wharves at Chepstow "moderately and in conjunction with the Great Western Railway". In the meantime, "as regarded the main line and stations, the works were practically finished, and before their next half-yearly meeting they believed that the construction and maintenance would be completed." We may hope that two things inferred here were not actually the case - the line should have been finished (it had been open for nine - nearly ten - months by this point) and maintenance should have continued to be carried out after completion. It was agreed that the Great Western made a good operating company and that traffic was improving, the decision was taken to change the dates of future meetings (to March and September rather than February and August) and the meeting closed. Monday June 28th 1880 (page 16) saw The Times print proof that there were paper mills at Whitebrook - the Fernside Paper Mills were advertised as being up for sale, with a supply of water that was "constant and pure", along with 12 acres of land. The Wye Valley Railway was available to provide transport of raw materials and manufactured goods, it was added. This would have generated 14 tons of traffic per week for the railway - good backup business, albeit only about two wagonloads per week, but there are no records of the WVR getting in on it - however, as the mill was up for sale again two years later it can be assumed that it sold this time round. However, on Thursday October 28th 1880 a section of the classified advertising on page 14 of The Times suggests that the railway had hit serious money problems, as there is mention of it in connection with Edwin Waterhouse, a London receiver. Apparently, the WVR, of Act passed in 1866 and Amendment Acts passed in 1871, 1875 and 1876 had spent its money and whatever profits it had actually made and now was having problems with its debenture creditors, which was not at all good for it. Debenture creditors have a little bit of paper called a debenture which says that in the event of the company going bankrupt they get paid before anyone else (including those poor shareholders, who come at the bottom of a very long list including various people who might appear to have no claim to any money from the sale of assets) and such people were probably popular following the 1866 financial crisis, being safer than banks, and useful for borrowing money from for a short time - basically, they were just a smaller version of a bank. Being a debenture creditor isn't much different from being a shareholder, except that it's much safer - interest is paid regularly and you are going to get your money back whatever - and this breed is likely to have been taken on in about 1874 to pay for the Wireworks Branch, but now a George Frederick Hinsbelwood had pulled the plug and 17 days short of the fourth anniversary of opening the WVR had entered receivership, on October 14th 1880. The case, after beginning in September 1879 (when presumably Hinsbelwood's interest had taken too long to get too him and evidently hadn't been sent) had properly got going twelve months later and taken about a month to go through to appointing a receiver. A request had gone out for all debenture creditors to appear and prove that they were debenture creditors so that they could get their money. By March 25th 1881 The Times reported on page 4 that a case started at the same time, probably also on debenture payments, by a Thomas Buckmaster was still running, but being a railway company in court was obviously the done thing, as someone called Easterbrook had the Midland Railway Company in court later in the day over something - and the Midland owned most of the railways in the industrial Midlands of England. Around this time the original Board of Directors of the Wye Valley Railway were sacked and another five were hired to replace them. These included a local vicar, possibly with hopes that he would encourage God to look down on them more kindly. It must be remembered that the Wye Valley has, for several hundred years, been a local centre of religion. A few weeks later the WVR was still busy getting its publicity in The Times law notices, now against a person called Hawes, and as only one Hawes is believed to have been involved in the WVR's affairs it is presumably our old friend the first Chairman of the Board of Directors, referred to on Thursday April 28th 1881, page 4. However, the law notice gets no more specific on who the case involves, but if it is Mr. Hawes of the WVR he is presumably being charged with something like financial mismanagement. The following day the case was still going, now in the High Court of Justice rather than the Chancery Division. By 1882 a page 16 advertisment had come up in the Saturday July 1st issue of The Times, with the Clearwater Mill, "about a mile and a half from Bigsweir station" up for auction. As there is no reference to a private siding anywhere closer presumably the mills were finding transport a bit annoying. This time, 34 acres were up for sale, but there is no reference to production, although the water power was "valuable" (the motor from the waterwheel generated 75 horsepower). By June 9th 1882 The Times had an advert up for the sale of the Fernside Paper Mills at Whitebrook again, still on 14 tons of paper a week. Evidently the last 2 years had seen few improvements. In 1883 things changed a bit (though there is no evidence of increases in profit) when Coleford and Monmouth were linked by a railway, as opposed to the tramway which had been in use since 1806. The Coleford Branch opened on December 1st with a short, uncomfortable, but regular journey ahead of it (like the WVR, it made little profit); a journey which would see it transporting passengers and goods until the darkest days of the First World War shortly after the Somme. Its life was not aided by the fact that it was practically a branch from Monmouth to Coleford, not a through route to the Forest of Dean and the industries within - the link to the main Forest of Dean network was made with several reversals in restricted space at Coleford - not that the shortage of space was a problem, as both lines from Coleford were steeply graded and trains will never have been long anyway. Friday, September 25th, 1885 (page 11), saw The Times report on the half-year general meeting, which had occured the previous day. The chairman appears to be a Mr. C. C. Ferard, although one of these Cs could equally be an O - the type is small. The railway had made some profits, at £1,347, but the debenture creditors were still lurking behind the new company as the Great Western was going to have to put a further £567 on top to pay interest (assuming 5% interest rates this makes a sizable loan of £38,280, which appears to now be out of the limited financial range of the company - this suggests some exaggeration to the shareholders by Mr. Hawes in 1877, when the railway apparently made over two-thirds of that in six months). The Severn Tunnel was nearly complete (at last) and shares had been sold to people apparently on the grounds that this would benefit the railway and share values would shoot up - however, such hopes were dashed by Ferard, who commented that this was a statement "which no-one who had taken any part in the working of the company would be justified in making". Apparently the Great Western was expected to do something sooner or later about taking over the company for a reasonable sum but there was felt to be a need to have enough money to fight the larger company if efforts were made to force a purchase through Parliament for a sum which the WVR felt was "unsatisfactory". The action against "William Hawes and others" had apparently been profitable at £5,700 being taken, showing that you cannot easily get away with leading innocent shareholders into receivership, and this meant that, along with general assets in June for £7,400, the company could also feel proud that it knew it had a good future income from action against Messrs. Reed for £2000, and a further £3000 from Baron Grant (sadly not to be as profitable as first thought). It appears that the railway was, by this point, making most of its money from legal cases. Presumably these unfortunates had ommitted to pay their bills at some point. Twelve months later, Ferard was being pessimistic for the half-annual general meeting, which was reported on page 11 of The Times on Wednesday September 29 1886. September 1st had seen the Severn Tunnel open to goods and mineral traffic, but not passengers as yet, and there was no expectation of massive increase in profit for the WVR. He was still hoping that the WVR would be bought out be the Great Western, on the grounds that both would benefit, but understood that the outlay on the tunnel meant that the Great Western were tempted to "hang back a little at present". The remainder of the report, though, would not encourage anyone to buy out the route - traffic was falling away and business in the valley was poor. On March 18th 1887 The Times published what appeared to be a "sneak preview" of the report for the ordinary general meeting, which was not due for 8 days. There is no reference to who the directors were at this point, although it sounds like the WVR was celebrating its tenth year of existence by moving onto its third set, as action was being taken against "the two parties who are now in default" who may have been embezzling money (which is not actually technically a crime for which someone can be prosecuted) or just being done for mis-managing the company. The Severn Tunnel had finally opened to passengers on December 1st, but this had not saved WVR profits for 1886 being down £337 from 1885 - the report blaming this partly on the Great Western reducing the amount of line which earned the WVR money (possibly by cutting it back to Wye Valley Junction - Wyesham Junction from Chepstow - Monmouth Troy). £24 had come from other sources (trespassers?) and interest ran to £1,914, of which £507 was being paid by the GWR. At 5% interest, the debenture creditors are again owed £38,280, so no efforts had been made to reduce the money owed to people. By the next meeting six months later it was two years since the previous problems with Messrs. Reed and Baron Grant, and neither had paid up. Page 9 of The Times for Friday September 23rd 1887 revealed that some minor benefits might be coming from the Severn Tunnel, but it had been decided that using the route as a through line was not an option as the gradients were steep. Not mentioned is the fact that traffic from Bristol would have to have the engine run around at Severn Tunnel Junction before proceeding to Monmouth Troy, where it would have to run around again in a short platform, and then go onto Ross-on-Wye, where it would join the line to Hereford - and only at Hereford would the train return to a double track railway which could cope with intensive traffic (about four to five hours later). Despite intense efforts and increasing profits, the attempt to sell up to the Great Western could not be described as going well. By this stage the Duke of Beaufort, formerly a good friend of the WVR, wanted money out of it, a Mr Gumbley was grumbling about how badly the Great Western was working the line (ten years previously it was being done well, according to the WVR) and Mr. A. B. Joyner had replaced Ferard as chairman of the board, although the exact date of this change is unclear. What with expensive earthworks to keep up and the fact that this is Britain and it rains a lot, putting off tourists, the line continued to make a loss. The first offer to buy out the line was finally, after much courtship by the WVR, made by the GWR in the late 1880s. On Monday May 6th 1889 The Times reported on a meeting which had been held the previous day, and was called to announce the Great Western's offer to buy the line, which Joyner reccommended accepting, adding that all the directors were planning to resign anyway. Not much time was given - a decision had to be made that day. Apparently Mr R. A. Read junior, also on the Board, had also sent a circular around, this one offering to buy shares for more than the Great Western, at £1. 3s. 0d each. After being questioned who his backers were and what he was up to (questions which Read declined to answer) the matter was discussed and put to the vote, with a three-quarters majority needed to authorise sale. Six shareholders authorised sale - the other seven voted for Read to be allowed to take the company if the shares were to be sold. Then a poll was taken based on how much of a share in the company each shareholder had, with £88,570 going towards the sale to the Great Western, and £45,770 vetoing the idea (total share value rated at £134,340). To sell the line, £100,755 worth of shares were needed to say that the line should be sold - the Great Western, after all the WVR's courtship, must have been very surprised at the announcement that there would be no sale after all. Despite Read's efforts to keep the company going though, the other directors do not appear to have remained for long, resigning as promised, although the company was to last a further 15 years. On Friday July 29th 1892 the WVR was back in the Law Notices of The Times, being prosecuted by someone named Cook. The next report, on Tuesday August 9th 1892, announced a change of judge from an Order of the Court. No further details have emerged. In December 1904 another offer was made by the GWR to buy out the railway, which was accepted unanimously by the shareholders. On 1st July 1905 the Wye Valley Railway Company ceased to exist. Backlogged maintenance which hadn't been done was completed and the service was improved from three to four trains each way each day. However, the poor condition of the line saw the only accident involving damage to a loco when GWR '1076' class No. 1274 derailed near Whitebrook. The '1076' class had six wheels, a large saddle tank, and a dome. In 1907 the WVR hit The Times with a lengthy article on Monday, November 11th (page 3) when a ferry owner who operated a ferry, charging 1d per person for a service which had been provided "since time immemorial" across the Wye at Brockweir took the WVR to court (originally just before the company was sold) and charged the Company with building a bridge which might flood his house and ruin his business. It was ruled that having the ferry did not mean that someone else could not open up in competion, in this case by building a bridge, and that it had been agreed by large numbers of people (including the Board of Trade) that his house would not be flooded by the bridge, so his case was thrown out. This case reached the Supreme Court of Judicature and the Court of Appeal. While the Great Western attempted to improve the service, it still wasn't brilliant. Flora Klickmann, then editor of various London magazines, commented in The Flower Patch Among the Hills (based in First World War), that "Everybody that is going away scrambles into the train with precipitate haste, as though they were trying to catch a train on the tube or a sprinting motorbus in the Strand! although they know quite well that the peaceful old engine - already twenty-five minutes behind time - won't think of stirring again until it has had a ten minutes nap!" Such reliability was typical of branch lines, which today are looked back on with such fondness. On the 1st of January, 1917, the Coleford branch closed. The rails were shipped to France, and sunk in the English Channel. The sleepers are still in situ, half buried in mud, and heavily rotted. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Great Western Railway added several Halts along the line. Trains then stopped at Tidenham, Netherhope Halt, Tintern, Brockweir Halt, Llandogo Halt, St Briavels, Whitebrook Halt, Penallt Halt, Redbrook, Wyesham Halt, and Monmouth Troy. Wyesham Halt was built on the site of Wyesham Junction, where the lines for Chepstow and Coleford divided. In 1935 a very hot summer saw the demise of the Wireworks Branch when the rails buckled. The line had never made any profit so it was not reopened, and there was no use for buckled rails so they stayed where they were. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, a use for the rails finally appeared, with the line going in 1940 and the junction being lifted in 1945. Next came the unfortunate announcement from British Railways in 1955. The railway from Monmouth to Pontypool was to close on the 14th of June. British Rail had wanted to close it a year previously but they were persuaded by the local residents to build a new halt and improve the service instead. For six months 11 trains each way each day were provided, nearly triple the normal 4 for such a remote branch line, but for this two sets and crews had to be deployed, doubling operating costs. As revenue was only doubled, BR declared that the line was still unremunerative and revived the closure proposals, much to the complaints of residents who just wanted a better timed service with possibly 6 trains each way each day. This had no effect on the decision, with a solid Transport Users Consultation Commitee (TUCC) decision to close the line with 10 votes to 2. ASLEF, the footplate men's union, went on strike on the 28th of May. The union reached a settlement on the 14th of June, meaning that this railway was closed 17 days early. Following this, the single track line was used for wagon storage. It was not until the 12th of November 1957 that a special train traversed the branch, celebrating 100 years since the railway was opened and, more importantly, 100 years since the first train to Monmouth. The line was dismantled shortly afterwards, and parts of the trackbed have now been obliterated by the A449 dual carridgeway. The final appearance of the Wye Valley Railway in The Times came on 19th September 1959. It was a short letter from the Monmouth Town Clerk, pleading for support for the railway. There were plans to close it, and all the local councils and most of the locals were against it. Two major issues emerged: firstly, this time Monmouth would be losing its rail service; secondly, the lines could be made to make more money by improving the service. The response from BR to the first one was that Monmouth wasn't using the trains anyway, while the second point probably got "we've heard that one before" and the closure process continued. The TUCC decision was that the only two places which could not be served easily by buses were Whitebook on the Wye Valley and Hadnock on the Ross and Monmouth. Both places - especially Whitebrook - are now exceedingly remote and hard to get to, but as the combined populations probably amount to less than 100 people even today, 25 miles of otherwise unprofitable railway could not be justified, especially with separate working on both lines and a reversal with a possible long wait for connections at Monmouth (one of the major points of contention - the two lines, with stock provided from different sheds, had never produced a timetable where connections were possible at Troy all through the day). BR refused to reverse their decision, and Monmouth lost its passenger rail service, along with many other beautiful, romantic places in the lower Wye Valley. Goods services were withdrawn a little later from Tintern, Redbrook and Monmouth, which retained them for a short while after closure. It is believed that only one train actually ever ran direct from Chepstow to Ross-on-Wye via Monmouth - it was provided by the Stephenson Locomotive Society on the 4th of January 1959 as the closure special. There seems to be little which had prevented starting such a service in 1955 following the closure of the line to Pontypool, but the Ross-on-Wye trains instead just terminated at Troy, more or less on the same timetable for the half still operated as when they had gone all the way to Pontypool. The special was hauled by 6412 and 6439, a pair of pannier tanks of a design in the picture below, and while 6439 was broken up for scrap many years ago, 6412 is now operating on the West Somerset Railway near Taunton, West Somerset, with occasional excursions elsewhere. It was on one of these adventures that it was finally tracked down and photographed by the WVR research team, and is seen below at Toddington in 2003.
The justification of the retention of the line for goods traffic basically amounted to the fact that there were a few businesses near Troy station, and Monmouth gasworks just up the Ross and Monmouth line next to Monmouth (May Hill) station, Redbrook was home to a tinplate works, and Tintern was a handy marshalling yard with plenty of track and a few industries nearby, and Tintern Quarry just down the line. In 1961 the line north of Tintern Quarry was finally placed under the threat of a finishing blow, with the closure of Redbrook tinplate works, an end to a long history of tinplate working in lower Redbrook, and the closure of the last manufacturing facility in the Lower Wye Valley. The site has been steadily cleared since, and not much now remains. The axe finally fell on 6th January 1964 when goods facilities were withdrawn north of Tintern Quarry. A requirement of the 'closure to passengers' bill was that the line had to be left in place for three years after abandonment. BR honoured this promise, and then started dismantling at the end of the period in 1967. The Ross and Monmouth line had closed slowly in bits, the first section to be closed completely shutting down with the end of passenger services. The result was that the line was severed with the lifting of about four miles of track in 1962. Once dismantling here had commenced, the Wye Valley line gained a slightly dubious honour - the last railway serving Monmouth which it was still possible to run a train right along to Monmouth Troy station. After closure, the stations all had very different histories. The halts were demolished shortly after closure, excepting Llandogo, which remained as a large platform-shaped object in the middle of a field. The area for the track was filled in during the 1970s and the halt site is now much harder to spot. Monmouth was abandoned, and the building taken to Winchcombe station on the preserved Gloucestershire & Warwickshire in 1986. The goods shed was demolished in 2002 to make way for a small housing estate. However, the two platforms remain abandoned with the gap for the tracks filled in. The only identification features are the tunnel at the west end of the station, and some of the ramp at the east end. The two viaducts cross the Wye to the east. Redbrook station was demolished in the late 1960s and now two back gardens lie across the station site. The site is crossed about half way up its length by the English-Welsh border, so the Northern half is in Monmouthshire, Wales, and the Southern half in Gloucestershire, England. St Briavels is still in situ and in use for other purposes. The building was identical to the one at Redbrook. Tintern was derelict for many years, before being preserved as a tourist attraction. Here there are an exhibition, facilities, and a minature railway, making it an excellent place to break a journey. There is also a shop in the old signal box. Tidenham has a rather more interesting history. After being closed as a halt in 1959, the station was converted into a stone loading area for Dayhouse Quarry, with a new loop being constructed. Stone trains also ran through to Tintern Quarry, just north of Tidenham Tunnel, until bricks started falling from the tunnel lining. The route was mothballed, the line being left in situ but the services being withdrawn. Today Tidenham is overgrown with various trees, as is the line to the north. It is very difficult to walk along it, and will shortly become impossible. Sunday 13th August 1978 was an important day in WVR history - it was, to date, the last working of a passenger train onto WVR metals when the Tintern Totter railtour worked from Worcester to Tintern Quarry, in the control of a single-cab 1000hp locomotive with a long nose which is technically known as a Class 20. This machine could still operate a repeat as it is now owned by the Type One Locomotive Company (and doesn't weigh much), but the WVR would not be capable of taking it and the three coach train now unless major clearance and refurbishment was done. In 1993 the national rail network was mostly privatised. Along with many other section of abandoned railway, the Wye Valley Railway was not included. It instead remained in full public ownership with British Rail until 1999, when some 200 miles of railway were partially sold by BR in a 50:50 split with Sustrans for a token £1. This leaves them open to reopening but also opens up the option of converting them to a cycleway in the future. However, most of the trackbeds involved appear to have remained disused. The suggestion from Sustrans is to turn the route into a cycleway, involving the re-opening of both tunnels, the reinstation of the bridge across the river at Tintern, and sticking a cycleway through Tintern station. This began with tidying up the section between Tintern village and Tintern Quarry and the installation of a hard surface some years ago. Tintern Quarry to Tidenham presented problems and no further work took place, with the trees and track remaining intact. Although the tunnel and "rare life" around the quarries presented difficulties, the scheme was approved by Monmouthshire (but not Gloucestershire) in 2006 - however, just to add interest to the future of the railway, a judicial review was sought in August 2007. Monmouthshire responded by settling "out of court" and the proposal was quashed - instead, a new 12" gauge line was authorised for Tintern station. With Monmouthshire County Council reported to be on the verge of bankruptcy, the idea of providing funding probably didn't appeal anyway. Despite this setback, Sustrans (ever game for a go) has had another attempt at getting a cycleway through what was once the 21st longest tunnel on the GWR, with its lengthy rugged unlined section and alleged bat population. Gloucestershire had little difficulty in justifying rejection. Monmouthshire rejected a new miniature gauge railway at Tintern station again to make way for the cycleway and is now dithering over what to say about the scheme. Rejecting it is presumably felt to be unfair, while there is little point in passing it when the bulk of the route is in Gloucestershire. The Order of the Bed made a brief approach suggesting that a railway to Monmouth should be built instead with the proposed cycleways to link into it, eradicating most of the issues with the tunnel and capitalising on affection for the railway to get a sustainable transport link into the valley, but this proposal has been ignored to date. It would help if Sustrans had an email address for sending suggestions to; the current set-up suggests that they don't want them. Meanwhile the possibility of a cycleway being driven through Tintern station means that re-vitalising the current miniature railway or replacing it with a new one is off the agenda until the cycleway goes away again. Currently the railway itself almost seems to have had a curse put on it to prevent anyone from clearing away the last track. It doesn't make them come out in spots or turn into a frog, it just means that they give up fairly rapidly and leave people to continue destroying clothing in their bids to reach Tidenham station and Netherhope Halt. From early November until late March can probably be considered to be the closed season for the Railway as the weather is wet and cold, and the brambles are more annoying when they're covered in water. The line is officially still available for reopening; unofficially, it doesn't look like another national rail network train will ever use the line again. Plans for reopening >>>The Social and Economic Effect of Building Culverts>>> >>>Future services & Why the WVR>>> >>>The Abandoned Wye Valley Railway>>> >>>The Monmouth to Pontrilas Railway>>> >>>Frequently Asked Questions>>> >>>Monmouth Troy (External)>>> >>>Wye Valley Tunnels (External)>>> >>>Dayhouse Quarry today (External)>>> >>>Monmouthshire Beacon (External)>>> This article was written by one Gawain Nicholson, who once had too much time on his hands. He is now engaged in an evil nationwide plague called "University" but still tries to answer reasonable questions directed to him by the Contact link if they are not already covered by FAQs. Bibliography for Wye Valley and Monmouth and Pontrilas Railways: The Wye Valley Railway and the Coleford Branch by Brian M. Handley and Rod Dingwall (Oakwood Press No. 209, 1982, 1998) The Wye Valley Railway by Brian M. Handley (Oakwood Press No. 137, 1982, 1988) The Ross, Monmouth and Pontypool Road Line by Stanley C. Jenkins (Oakwood Press No. 220, 2002) The Ross and Monmouth Railway by Mark and Celia Glover (Brewin Books, 1994) The Flower Patch Among The Hills by Flora Klickmann (Now out of print, our copy published by Lutterworth Press in 1943) The Times archives, made available through Cardiff Libraries Background Picture: GWR No. 6412 at Whitebrook Halt. Locomotive superimposed on Corel PhotoPaint 8. Pictures taken by founder: Whitebrook Halt on 06/03/04 and 6412 at Toddington on the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway on 17/08/03. 26/09/08 |
