Tidenham station, re-done in 2005. A Southern Region Motor Luggage Van, a Class 20 diesel locomotive and a West Coast Class 87 electric sit in the platform of the derelict station with brambles removed from the platform edge.

This picture merely assumes that, in the early years of reconstruction by an informal group, various pieces of kit would find their way to the railway when looking for a place to live. A few Class 20s have actually operated on the Wye Valley line, mostly on specials, but the electric-powered MLV and Class 87 are somewhat off the beaten track.

A revised image of Tidenham station, from the south looking north, assuming that this is the terminus of the line. The platform is occupied by a terminating British Rail Class 150/1 Sprinter unit which has just run through from Cardiff. The 150/1 fleet was the first of the production build of Sprinter sets and (in contrast to the 150/0 prototypes) only had two coaches per train, due to Treasury financial constraints. In the event passenger levels rose dramatically when the Sprinters were introduced and the two-car sets proved to be inadequate. After 20 years of running around Birmingham, the North West and London, replacement is starting to be considered and possible new homes for the Birmingham and London fleets are being examined. Two ex-Silverlink Trains sets from London are currently working for First Great Western around South Wales and the West Country and so it would be possible for one of these trains to find itself in the Wye Valley, if it weren't for the lack of suitable railway to run them on.

Tidenham is not the station which most people would think of as a possible terminus of the line. However, if Chepstow were to get a hourly shuttle service from Cardiff then Tidenham would provide a suitable turn-back siding where the train would not interfere with mainline traffic. It would also provide access to Tidenham village, be a possible location for a park-and-ride facility (albeit not a very good one, as such services are normally turn-up-and-go) and allow people to reach the National Diving and Activity Centre without using a car. If Sustrans ran a cycleway from here to Tintern it would eliminate the parking problem. This could all be done for the cost of reinstating the junction and clearing half a mile of track.

Aside from the business case aspect, the station actually featured here is Truro, with the Falmouth branch train sitting quietly in the platform (hence the large "1" - single platform stations do not normally have platform numbers). The track through platform 2 and the associated roof were removed in the making of this image. In Truro station the buffers are actually behind the camera, rather than at the other end of the train.

Netherhope Halt opened in 1932, closed in 1959 and was demolished in the final years of traffic to Tintern Quarry. Like Tidenham, Netherhope would be a good northern terminus of a line built on the cheap, although Netherhope would require Bishton Bridge to be rebuilt. However, Netherhope is sort of convenient for the north end of Tidenham (indeed, it is rather more convenient for Tidenham than Tidenham station) and takes up all available track south of Tidenham Tunnel. The last passenger train to this spot terminated here in 1980 without heading on through the ensuing 1180 yards of darkness.

The platform is platform 1 of Truro station (again). This time it has been cut away from its original location and planted on the other side of the bufferstop. The roof has also been removed properly. The First Great Western Class 153 has just arrived from Falmouth Docks. The bufferstop now has to be protected, in this case by a sand drag and some little red lights on a silly post.

The two-car Class 155 Super Sprinter multiple units were built by Leyland in 1988 but did not perform very well, rapidly having to be withdrawn from traffic due to the doors developing a habit of opening while the train was on the move (they were the first time that a production passenger train had automatic doors which were flush with the bodyside rather than inset and sliding into the bodyshell). After one or two reliability improvements it was decided that BR had rather over-ordered on two-car units anyway and 35 of the 42 155s were taken into the workshops and sliced in half to produce 70 single-car Class 153 units for lines where traffic was lighter. Seven were owned by the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority, who declined to have their sets chopped in half and so said sets are the only survivors of Class 155. This picture shows the newer cab; the original cab has a fringe, lower and inset light clusters and a cab which is more than 18 inches deep. BR expressed some pleasure at the time about the fact that the rebuild did not involve moving any external doors, so the later cab was only squeezed in by extending into the vestible area.

Tintern Tunnel is the second and shorter of the line's two tunnels at 189 yards long, bypassing Tintern as it connected the station with the junction with the freight-only Wireworks Branch. Oddly, it never dawned on the Great Western or its successor, the Western Region of British Railways, to provide a halt at the junction end of the branchline, which was lifted during the Second World War.

Nonetheless, any scheme to re-develop the route involves a station of some sort here. Here we see what the tunnel would look like if it was opened out again (currently a 7 foot high unclimable gate blocks the portal) and a platform squeezed in between the tunnel portal and the southern end of the junction. Track, platform and signage are all from the new extension to Penryn station on the Falmouth branch in Cornwall, although the nameboard has been changed to read "Tintern Junction for Tintern Abbey" with an appropriate sketch of the Abbey at the bottom. The speed limits at the end of the platform indicate that most trains are limited to 30 miles per hour through the tunnel, although multiple units can do 50. On the Falmouth branch the differential feels a little odd as all trains are now multiple units, while on the Wye Valley line the maximum speed would probably remain 35 through the tunnel, as it was before the line closed.

Just for some general variety (and because we don't have a suitable picture to hand) no train is featured and so you will just have to imagine that you're sitting on the platform waiting for it.

The bridge over the River Wye at Tintern station was mentioned in the 1959 newspaper report on the closure of the line as being in worrying condition and has been attributed as a reason for closure. Once the line was dismantled eight years later the bridge was demolished. As at the time it went from nowhere to nowhere demolition to keep people out of the tunnel was unnecessary (besides, it wasn't walled up until the 1980s). Few pictures seem to have been taken of it before demolition and its absence means that it can no longer be photographed.

With this in mind we have arranged a series of pictures showing the bridge as it would look if it were still intact. The upper picture features a suitably cleaned southern abutment with an unsupported girder stretching across the river. The girder sections were taken from an image of the viaduct across the Wye at Lydbrook, on the Ross and Monmouth Railway, with the supports being omitted as the picture is intended to show how the structure would look in its most basic form. At the time we had nothing else available to put the image together with. The smaller of the two viaducts at Lydbrook (the larger one, on the Severn and Wye line, spanned the Lydbrook valley rather than the Wye), the girder structure built by the Ross and Monmouth Railway is retained in as-closed form with walkers being able to cross the bridge on the main structure - at least, when the bridge isn't falling down enough to prompt Gloucestershire County Council to close it. It bears certain similarities to the later bridges at Redbrook and Tintern, except the supports are more flimsy. The northern abutment of the Tintern bridge is out of shot to the left, and probably not quite where the direction of the bridge suggests it should be.

The middle picture uses a view from the northern abutment of the bridge and a shot along Penallt viaduct, further up the line, to illustrate how it would look if a footbridge had been slung along the side, possibly connecting the station to Tintern via the riverbank and the Wireworks bridge. As the viaduct at Penallt was also built for the Wye Valley Railway it would be logical for the bridges to be virtually identical, although they were not quite built to the same radius curve - the bridge kindly hides the fact that it is not actually pointing directly at the southern abutment.

The bottom picture was inspired by Wye Valley Cycle's ideas, which cleared up some worries by the design team that trains would have to cross a flimsy jungle bridge painted to blend into the background if they were to get past the environmental lobby. The cycleway proposals included a suspension bridge with a 50ft high support post on the northern abutment or a slightly more lightweight bowstring bridge. This bowstring structure is one which we can confirm is a) fairly attractive, b) capable of carrying trains and c) able to span the gap; it is carefully lifted from a picture of the one which carried the Ross and Monmouth Railway over the Wye between the stations at Monmouth. That bridge, which is still there at the age of 135, is a total of 99 yards long including approach girders - take those off and it is around the 67 yards required to span the Wye here. It does not require supports in the river and doesn't intrude too much into the landscape. The only disadvantage is that the Monmouth structure is straight whereas the Tintern one was on a slight curve.

Meanwhile, why was the bridge at Tintern demolished while the one at Penallt survives? One major reason is that Penallt viaduct did - and does - have a public footpath attached to it and it is cheaper to keep the bridge up than arrange a new river crossing for the footpath; the Tintern bridge had no such addition and so there was no need to retain it. Tintern station was also used as the run-around loop for stone trains, which therefore had to cross this bridge twice; no such traffic was present at Penallt, which therefore saw greatly reduced loads crossing it and was therefore in better condition. The Wye is tidal until Brockweir and so the bridge at Tintern will have been subjected to the force of the tides and the unpleasant effects which salt water has on anything, while the viaduct at Penallt will have benefitted from fresh water consistently approaching from one direction, building up sediment around the supports over the years and providing it with protection which would be denied by the swirling waters around the Tintern bridge. The conspiracy theorist will simply say that the bridge was demolished to ensure that the line could never reopen; demolishing Penallt viaduct would not prevent reopening to Tintern, Brockweir and Llandogo - or even to a terminus on the opposite bank of the river to Redbrook, and potentially to Monmouth if the line followed the western bank of the Wye from Redbrook to a new terminus.

A more interesting question is why the Ross and Monmouth's river crossing at Kerne Bridge, about half a mile north of that at Lydbrook, has been demolished despite both bridges being in non-tidal water, sans public footpaths and carrying identical levels of traffic.

What is certain is that the absence of this bridge does mean that a new bridge built in a tidal river (or across 200ft without supports) would be needed in order to access Tintern station with the result that the cost/benefit ratios for re-opening the line may well preclude any commercial reconstruction (i.e. replacing the bridge would cost more than the line would make in 50 years).

A modified version of an earlier image, this picture differs from the original re-hash in three respects. Firstly, track has been provided at the end of the platform; secondly, the locomotive has been repainted and re-numbered; thirdly, it has been positioned slightly differently in relation to the platform. The original engine was West Coast Class 87 electric No. 87010 in Virgin livery - the modified image shows 87004 in OB livery. The rather loud colour scheme matches the lines of the loco but would ruin the lines of the train if matched up to any coaches, which would have the green/blue dividing line about 18 inches further down the bodyshell, in order to match up with their windows.

Class 87s, introduced to the West Coast Mainline in 1973, are AC electrics which draw power from overhead wires, hence the piece of equipment rising up from the roof of the loco into the tree. It is therefore unlikely that one would find itself in the Wye Valley. The locomotive in question was photographed at London Euston - its "home" London terminus and a place where there is no shortage of overhead wires - shortly before the first demise of intercity loco-hauled trains on the WCML in 2005.

Llandogo Halt actually last saw a passenger train in the snow of January 1959. The halt platform was on a curve and on the other side of the track. This view looks north as a Class 150/1 Sprinter unit prepares to depart for Monmouth

The shot without the train can be found elsewhere on the website. The train itself was actually pictured at Penryn station in Cornwall. It has the same number as the one shown at Tidenham - 150121 - because it is the same train. Penryn is on the Truro-Falmouth branch; the 150 was actually bound for Falmouth.

This photo shows our first remodelling effort, with Great Western Railway Class 6400 pannier tank No. 6412 sitting at the end of the line at Whitebrook. Suitably faded out and blown up, the image forms the background picture for the main history page of the Wye Valley Railway.

There never has been a bufferstop at Whitebrook and, as it is a singularly illogical spot to end a railway, there probably never will be one located where the one in the picture is. Being a background image, the quality never had to be all that great (the ideal image size is actually 275x231 pixels and it's best not to look too closely at the track gauge) and it is here purely for general academic interest.

6412 has some historic connections with the Wye Valley - it worked the last train along the branch along with now-scrapped classmate 6439 - but has not been back since it was withdrawn. After working successfully on the West Somerset Railway for several years it was found to be too small for regular use and began to go on tour to other railways. It was actually photographed at Toddington station on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. The railway is also now home to Monmouth Troy station building, although sadly we didn't manage to photograph the two together. Coincidentally, the Class 87s seen at Tintern and Tidenham are currently being overhauled for export at Long Marston, 30 miles further up the former Great Western line. Also curious is that all three preserved 6400 tanks can claim to have worked the Wye Valley line.

 The attractive location of Penallt Viaduct is the setting for a Great Western Small Prairie tank engine clanking across the Wye light engine on its way to Monmouth. "Prairie" is the technical word (originated in the USA and adopted as a nickname here) for a locomotive with two little wheels at the front, six big wheels in the middle and two little wheels at the back, otherwise known as a 2-6-2. This nicely balanced design works very well whichever direction the locomotive is travelling in, so is useful for GWR tank engines. They should not be confused with a small area of wide, sweeping, grass-covered plain in the centre of the North American continent.

The Prairie designs, of which there were several, evolved between 1900 and 1950 into a variety of locomotive types for heavier branch work and lightweight mainline work. Nearly 20 examples of the various varieties exist today in preservation, with notable examples including the last British steam locomotive to be saved for preservation and one which has spent the last couple of years pootling around Poland. None are recorded as having ever found their way onto the Wye Valley branch. Instead this example was photographed at Bodmin Parkway while running around its train.

Penallt Viaduct survives in comparatively good condition, apart from some trees which have taken to calling it home. Five spans, originally painted black, carry the railway across the river to Redbrook. Most of the black paint has long since disappeared and the structure is now a tatty rust red, but still appears to be structurally sound.

This image is set on the Coleford Branch rather than the Wye Valley Railway. It shows Standard Class 2MT No. 78019, currently based on the Great Central Railway, descending the hillside between Redbrook and Coleford with a rake of goods vans. In reality, this section of the Coleford Branch closed in 1917 and the loco was built around 45 years later. The Standard Class steam locomotives consisted of 999 locomotives built to easy-to-maintain designs with several common parts across the entire fleet. They are easily recognisable by their large cylinders and high running boards. No Standards survived more than 17 years in traffic - the first were introduced in 1950 and only one survived into 1968. The shortest-lived examples managed less than 5 years before scrapping. Had they served their projected lifespan, the last examples would have been withdrawn in the 1990s - how times change.

The background image was taken in late afternoon in November while the locomotive was photographed at Rothley station one morning some six months previously. Therefore the lighting isn't quite right for this combination. The ballast doesn't merge into the landscape awfully well and the train is probably too small in relation to the trees. However, it makes a good background picture, as can be seen with this page.

 Wyesham Junction was the point where the Coleford Branch and the Wye Valley Railway merged for the final descent into Monmouth. After the Coleford Branch closed in 1917, the boarded up signal box remained for some years before formal abolition (i.e. it was now officially not allowed to have two trains between Monmouth and Redbrook rather than just how it worked out in practice) and demolition in the 1920s. Wyesham fell off the map for the next few years before a halt opened there in 1931. This of course closed in 1959 and once again the spot is completely irrelevant to current railway operations. It was never visited by the standard Great Western 5700 pannier tank fleet, one of which is shown here, as the Wye Valley Railway was deemed to be unsuited to them and instead only got the lightweight 6400 variety. 6400 pannier tanks have the tank slightly higher up than their 5700 cousins so the tank top is smooth across the top of the boiler. This difference, almost indistinguishable unless the two varieties are standing side by side, is one of only two immediately visible differences between them, the other being that the four-digit numbers on 6400 tanks all begin with "64".

Wyesham was photographed in late March 2008 with the sun behind the camera in mid-afternoon. The pannier tank was photographed at Bodmin Parkway in mid-March 2009 with the sun behind the camera in mid-afternoon. This is very helpful for getting the two images to match nicely. The train is pulling away from the re-sited preserved halt on its way into Monmouth Troy, with a tumble-down fence and new housing estate in the background.

Featured at the bottom of the Futures page is another Class 87. The doyen of the fleet, once known as Royal Scot, is one of nine Class 87s due to be spared the fate of export to Bulgaria. Instead, it is one of three which is preserved - in this case by the National Railway Museum, where it can be seen on display. It is in full working order, but lacks some modern safety equipment and is an electric, and so will probably never run again. Of the six 87s not going to Bulgaria and not preserved, one is to be used for apprentice training, four have been scrapped and the other (unfortunately the Founder's favourite) is to be cut up when export of the remainder of the fleet is completed. This fine example of the outwardly unexciting breed was photographed at a Crewe Works open day in June 2003, when Virgin West Coast was hoping to be rid of the fleet in around a year. In the event it resigned from service in February 2005 when it blew its transformer. The expensive process of repairing the engine for further service was deemed to be pointless when the six remaining 87s had four months left in traffic, and so it was repaired in September 2005, after another Crewe Works open day, to allow it to run under its own power from London to York for static preservation.

The picture is set at Monmouth Troy, showing the tunnel at the western end of the station. It is currently bricked up and covered in ivy, but opening it up was not too much of a challenge. Tintern Tunnel and Tidenham Tunnel were then both rather too overgrown for similar treatment, but Tidenham Tunnel may now be a possibility.