Identifying a location from the 1980s in Wales

[Jenny Emily]

Back in the early 1980s I remember going on walks with my Father in South Wales. We were staying with my Grandparents in Ystradgynlais, and I remember one of the locations we walked was a disused railway line.

 

My memory was of a line that must have only just been lifted as the ballast was clear of vegetation and there were rail fixings littering it as if the track had been pulled up in haste. I remember a road over rail bridge that was a steel girder type bridge which we gained access to the trackbed from, and we walked the line which was on a curve and went from being in a cutting to being on an embankment before we could go no further by a bridge that had recently been removed. We can't have walked far because I would have been very young. To this day I don't know where it was, but it cannot have been very far from Ystradgynlais. I have scoured old maps and Google Earth but cannot pinpoint the location - the nearest I got turned out to still have a railway present near Garnant.

 

From the poor description I have given, could anyone suggest where this might have been? The track looked to have been single track, and I can only assume it went to a colliery. The walk would have taken place some time between 1982 and 1986.

[tractionman]

I've just had a look at the online historic maps on the National Library of Scotland website. Just enter the placename you mention and a series of historic OS maps come up showing the numerous old lines in that area. They look like mineral lines, but are very close to the location you describe. You can switch to Bing aerial imagery to see what's left of the lines there today.

 

Cheers

 

Keith

[Jenny Emily]

Thanks, but I've had little joy. The problem is knowing which lines closed when, as it seens that quite a few lines disappear quickly into landscaping from coal mining activity including landscaping of spoil heaps. Of course, my young memories might be way out in what I remember being there!

[Downendian]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swansea_Vale_Railway

 

Might give some clues?

Neil

[Rivercider]

Looking at my old Baker Rail atlases and the National Library of Scotland website there appears to be one or two likely candidates.

 

To the west the lines to collieries at Abernant and G-C-G (Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen) I think were still active until the mid 1980s, and connected at the Pantyffynnon end, so not them.

 

To the east the route up to Onllwyn was still active, so not that, and there was a short colliery branch south from Onllwyn to Banwen which I think closed around then, so a possibilty.

 

My suggestion was the line north from Onllwyn through Coelbren to the Hobbs quarry at Craig-y-Nos which I think closed in the early 1980s,

 

edit - the line north from Clydach up the Swansea valley through Alltwen and Ystalyfera and Ystradgynlais to Coelbren had closed some time earlier so was probably already removed.

 

cheers (but I am only guessing)

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Jenny,

I think the only line that closed in the mid 1980s in that area was the quarry branch from Onllwyn to Craig-y-Nos. This being about 5-6 miles NE of Ystradgynlais.

 

Might be somewhere around Coelbren.

 

Don't know if that helps.....

 

Edit - Posted this without reading Rivercider's post above. We seem to have come up with the same line.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Possibly you walked from SN858118 to SN856122 if I've got my OS grid references correct. The bridge you walked to might've been the one over the Nant-llech-pellaf, though I think that is still in situ.

[Fat Controller]

The line towards Brecon from Colbren was closed in the mid-1960s, and the section north of Hobb's Quarry removed (including many structures, including bridge abutements) very soon after. Hobb's quarry was used as one of several sources of limestone boulders for the breakwater protecting the deep-water ore terminal at Port Talbot, and despatched large hunks of rock on Plate wagons and similar- this was between 1966 and 1970. When this traffic finished, the line then served as a film set for 'The Young Winston'; it was used for sequences involving an 'armoured train' which was based around a heavily disguised 14xx tank and some wagons. I believe the quarry had a brief 'Indian Summer' after this, sending roadstone traffic south for the extension of the M4 west from Port Talbot.

The line from Clydach up the Swansea Valley towards Colbren Junction closed in the 1960s, and was very quickly removed; some of the 'trace' was used in road improvements.

[Jenny Emily]

Many thanks. I believe I have identified the location based on the above information and a search on Google. It appears that it could well have been this route north of Onllwyn to Craig-y-Nos. I have found a section of the line that fits the bill, though the girder road over rail bridge is now gone and infilled.

 

Many thanks.