South Wales Valleys in the 50s

[The Johnster]

B2 has arrived!  Not run it yet but all looks good, no steps broked off or anything.  Can't complain at £84.99 brand new in box, from Gaugemaster; worth foregoing beer til next pension day!  Came packed in an inner box made of very good quality stiff cardboard as well, which will possibly be used as the shell of a building. thinking colliery screens.  The wasp stripe buffer beams look great but are probably inappropriate for a pre-1958 layout, so I'll be painting them red.  Lovely looking loco, nice heft, and the cab detail is totally convincing.  New crew and industrial lamps from Modelu on pension day!

 

Pecketts have generously sized cabs which I think improves the appearance and 'balance' of the loco.  On this one the cab is nearly a third of the length of the running plate, and I remember climbing into the massive cab of the Maerdy Monster when it was still in service and thinking that you could hold the next union meeting in it (and everybody turned up to union meetings in Maerdy, not known as Little Moscow for nothing!).  It's not just an enlarged W4, though, the proportions are different, less chunky and, for an industrial, rather elegant.  It's nice to have models of engines you actually remember in service, like an old friend, and this one ticks that box.

[The Johnster]

 

 

Dull day at Dimbath Navigation No.1 Pit, and the lights have been left on, as Brynlliw B2 1426 , looking completely at home and as if she’s been there since god were a lad, couples to the rake of empties that 5633, bunker sneaking into shot centre right, left on the loader road a few minutes ago.  5633 has, in the meantime, backed on to the toad it attached to the loaded earlier and is waiting for the guard to examine the train before drawing it out to regain BR metals.  Once she has left the premises with her train, 1426 will draw the empties out over the weighbridge for taring, and W4 ‘Forest No.1’ will draw them back off the weighbridge to begin the loading process, so that no loco has to be on the bridge while it is in operation.  BR locos are only permitted on to no.3 and no.4 (loader), but not under the loader according to instructions in the Sectional Appendix.  Outside cylinder locos are prohibited on the NCB tracks. 
 

B2 running well straight out of the box, and will be superb when it’s run in a bit!  

Edited October 17, 2022 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

The nice cardboard box the B2 came in is probably not a good shape for the screens, but a modern (1950s) structure such as pithead baths and/or a canteen would be good.  Need to make more scenified level ground around the pithead cluster; mountain may be a bit close to put it north of this cluster but that’s where it should be because that’s the direction the men approach from from the village or the station if they’ve come up on the workman’s.   Shell of building complete but fitting out still in progress; scaffolding and staging formwork, cement mixers, stacked bricks, timber, pipes, plumbing, drains, general building site mess.  Some sort of felt or asphalt flat roof that will give trouble with leaks in the next few years, not at all suitable for the Valleys climate!

[The Johnster]

Ok, here’s a shot of 5797 (note the topfeed that isn’t there and the lamp bracket mounted on the front rather than the top of the smokebox), just over the top of the bank and running past the colliery with the new miner’s workman’s, 2 thirds and a brake third.
 

 

 The leading third is not long out of a shopping at Caerphilly, and has the ‘clean’ compartments (for clerical staff, retaining upholstered seats) but the others are in the highly distressed and filthy state I associate with these coaches on the Glyncorrwg miner’s a couple of valleys over to the northwest. As the Glyncorrwg 4-wheelers lasted until 1953, the last such BR coaches in service anywhere in the UK, I’m reckoning these last until late 52.  Decided not to put interior detail in beyond the compartment dividers as the older crimson liveried coach would have to match and I didn’t want to damage it breaking the roof off.  The interior surfaces of these coaches was probably originally varnished wood, and I have painted them the same dark brown as the outside; the old crimson coach, built IIRC in about 1981 or 2, matches this.  
 

This is still the rough end of the layout, perhaps not really surprising as it’s less than a year old, and much work remains to be done.  

[The Johnster]

In case anyone thinks I'm exaggerating the appearance of these 4-wheeled miner's coaches in early BR days, have a look at this photo...

 

 

 

Absolutely filthy, but brown and not black.  You cannot even see the coach numbers never mind read them.

 

This photo is from July 1951, with the coaches having 2 more years left in service; they were never overhauled in that time.  The loco propelled the train up the valley to the collieries from Glyncorrwg station, as shown by the head lamp on the leading coach, having hauled it from Cwmmer Corrwg Halt a mile down the valley where it joins the Afan valley, because there was no run around and all the shunting had to be done with the loco at the 'downhill' end of the train.  Hence the window cut in the brake van end for the guard to keep a lookout and stop the train if he had to with the brake setter in the van.  You can see how necessary this was; the line was at the bottom of the very steep and narrow valley, the curves were sharp and the gradients were precipitous.  This is North Rhondda pit, nothing to do with the valley but named for the Rhondda coal seam that was mined here, South Rhondda was about half a mile down the valley.  The railway ended here, and there was nothing beyond but the mountains and the sheep; this is the sort of place isolated places think is a bit out of the way...

 

These are not the same as the Ratio coaches, though similar.  The brake 3rds have 3 compartments while the Ratio has 2, though the 3rd next to the loco looks very similar to the Ratio.  The leading BT/T/BT is a close coupled set with no buffers between coaches within the set, and the T next the loco is a strengthener, but the train seems to have run in this form exclusively during it's final years.  Loco number not recorded but it was a Dyffryn Yard turn, and I've never seen photos of anything but 8750s on it or any other train in the Corrwg in BR days.  The fireman (looks too young to be the driver) has come forward for some reason, maybe to collect the lamp; the guard will have a red one in the van for the run back down the valley.

 

When the 4-wheelers were scrapped in '53, they were replaced by 8-compartment clerestories, every bit as disgraceful in appearance as the 4-wheelers, which had a cab cut into the leading compartment with a brake setter for the guard and 3 big windows cut in the end, like a sort of ersatz auto train.  The impression was enhanced by an auto type bell, operated as on an auto trailer by foot pedal, for him to frighten the sheep with.  When the clerestories were scrapped in 1957, a 3-coach set of Main Line & City coaches replaced them.  The guard rode in a proper brake van with this set, and 3 smaller window, more like a slip coach in appearance, were cut in the end, but the bell remained.  These coaches, in plain maroon livery, were much better looked after; there were pithead baths up there by this time and the men came home clean.  You could even read the coach numbers...

 

Improvements to the colliery access road, not much more than a mountain track, allowed a bus service to replace the workmen's train in 1960, but the pits remained open until 1971, when they were connected underground to the famous Tower Colliery over at Hirwaun about 4 miles away northeast as the crow flew, and over the Craig y Llyn mountain, the highest point in Glamorganshire just 21 feet short of 2,000 above sea level.  After that the Corrwg pits closed and the coal was moved underground by conveyor belt to be raised at Tower, the men taking redundancy settlements or transferring to other pits, mostly Tower.  Notwithstanding the space limitations of the sites, they'd raised prodigious amounts of coal, all taken away by rail, and were one of the most cost-effective in the area.

 

It would make a fascinating model, the only drawback being that the biodiversity of locos is a bit limited in post-war years, 8750s or 8750s, with the occasional 8750, worked all the trains, both the miner's and the coal trips.  Glyncorrwg had a goods yard served by a pickup run 'as required' until 1963 I think, and at one time had an engine shed which survived into BR days, intact but out of use.  It was originally the terminus of the South Wales Mineral Railway, a slightly mad enterprise which would have been run on a shoestring if they could have borrowed the money for one; it even made the Brecon & Merthyr look wealthy!  This started with a rope incline out of Neath to Tonmawr, then ran around the top of the Croeserw valley and through the Gylchfi Tunnel to access the Afan Valley just south of Cwmmer Corrwg. 

 

The GW was having none of this nonsense, and closed the SWMR southwest of Cwmmer Corrwg as soon as it could after the grouping.  It had already connected to it from it's Llynfi Valley line with a junction and a viaduct at the northern entrance to the Caerau Tunnel, so traffic from the Corrwg pits reversed into the junction yard between this and Cwmmer Afan station, where it accessed the Rhondda & Swansea Bay line down the Afan Valley.  From the northern end of the GW viaduct to the southern end of Caerau Tunnel was a straight line, and you could stand at the northern end of the viaduct and look straight through the tunnel to see daylight at the Llynfi Valley end (unless the view was blocked by a train, of course.  When the R&SB closed north of Port Talbot in 1964, the traffic ran via the Llynfi Valley line and Tondu, the R&SB line remaining in use to connect to Dyffryn Rhondda pit (that seam again) a short distance down the Afan Valley; trains from this also reversed at Cwmmer Afan and ran via the Llynfi Valley.  From 1961 when Margam hump yard opened, the trains ran through Tondu and along the Ogmore Valley Extension line.  The R&SB services from Swansea to Cwmmer Afan, and Neath to Treherbert, were replaced by a bubble car between Bridgend and Treherbert via Tondu, Cwmmer Afan, and the Blaenrhondda Tunnel. which was closed 'temporarily' for safety reasons in February 1968 because of earth movements which put the bore of the tunnel out of alignment.  The bubble car terminated at Cwmmer Afan and a replacement bus service ran over the mountain road to Treorchy and Treherbert.  The Llynfi Valley Line, and the connecting replacement bus service, closed in it's entirety in December of 1970. 

 

 

 

 

 

[1466]

6 hours ago, The Johnster said:

In case anyone thinks I'm exaggerating the appearance of these 4-wheeled miner's coaches in early BR days, have a look at this photo...

 

 

 

Absolutely filthy, but brown and not black.  You cannot even see the coach numbers never mind read them.

 

This photo is from July 1951, with the coaches having 2 more years left in service; they were never overhauled in that time.  The loco propelled the train up the valley to the collieries from Glyncorrwg station, as shown by the head lamp on the leading coach, having hauled it from Cwmmer Corrwg Halt a mile down the valley where it joins the Afan valley, because there was no run around and all the shunting had to be done with the loco at the 'downhill' end of the train.  Hence the window cut in the brake van end for the guard to keep a lookout and stop the train if he had to with the brake setter in the van.  You can see how necessary this was; the line was at the bottom of the very steep and narrow valley, the curves were sharp and the gradients were precipitous.  This is North Rhondda pit, nothing to do with the valley but named for the Rhondda coal seam that was mined here, South Rhondda was about half a mile down the valley.  The railway ended here, and there was nothing beyond but the mountains and the sheep; this is the sort of place isolated places think is a bit out of the way...

 

These are not the same as the Ratio coaches, though similar.  The brake 3rds have 3 compartments while the Ratio has 2, though the 3rd next to the loco looks very similar to the Ratio.  The leading BT/T/BT is a close coupled set with no buffers between coaches within the set, and the T next the loco is a strengthener, but the train seems to have run in this form exclusively during it's final years.  Loco number not recorded but it was a Dyffryn Yard turn, and I've never seen photos of anything but 8750s on it or any other train in the Corrwg in BR days.  The fireman (looks too young to be the driver) has come forward for some reason, maybe to collect the lamp; the guard will have a red one in the van for the run back down the valley.

 

When the 4-wheelers were scrapped in '53, they were replaced by 8-compartment clerestories, every bit as disgraceful in appearance as the 4-wheelers, which had a cab cut into the leading compartment with a brake setter for the guard and 3 big windows cut in the end, like a sort of ersatz auto train.  The impression was enhanced by an auto type bell, operated as on an auto trailer by foot pedal, for him to frighten the sheep with.  When the clerestories were scrapped in 1957, a 3-coach set of Main Line & City coaches replaced them.  The guard rode in a proper brake van with this set, and 3 smaller window, more like a slip coach in appearance, were cut in the end, but the bell remained.  These coaches, in plain maroon livery, were much better looked after; there were pithead baths up there by this time and the men came home clean.  You could even read the coach numbers...

 

Improvements to the colliery access road, not much more than a mountain track, allowed a bus service to replace the workmen's train in 1960, but the pits remained open until 1971, when they were connected underground to the famous Tower Colliery over at Hirwaun about 4 miles away northeast as the crow flew, and over the Craig y Llyn mountain, the highest point in Glamorganshire just 21 feet short of 2,000 above sea level.  After that the Corrwg pits closed and the coal was moved underground by conveyor belt to be raised at Tower, the men taking redundancy settlements or transferring to other pits, mostly Tower.  Notwithstanding the space limitations of the sites, they'd raised prodigious amounts of coal, all taken away by rail, and were one of the most cost-effective in the area.

 

It would make a fascinating model, the only drawback being that the biodiversity of locos is a bit limited in post-war years, 8750s or 8750s, with the occasional 8750, worked all the trains, both the miner's and the coal trips.  Glyncorrwg had a goods yard served by a pickup run 'as required' until 1963 I think, and at one time had an engine shed which survived into BR days, intact but out of use.  It was originally the terminus of the South Wales Mineral Railway, a slightly mad enterprise which would have been run on a shoestring if they could have borrowed the money for one; it even made the Brecon & Merthyr look wealthy!  This started with a rope incline out of Neath to Tonmawr, then ran around the top of the Croeserw valley and through the Gylchfi Tunnel to access the Afan Valley just south of Cwmmer Corrwg. 

 

The GW was having none of this nonsense, and closed the SWMR southwest of Cwmmer Corrwg as soon as it could after the grouping.  It had already connected to it from it's Llynfi Valley line with a junction and a viaduct at the northern entrance to the Caerau Tunnel, so traffic from the Corrwg pits reversed into the junction yard between this and Cwmmer Afan station, where it accessed the Rhondda & Swansea Bay line down the Afan Valley.  From the northern end of the GW viaduct to the southern end of Caerau Tunnel was a straight line, and you could stand at the northern end of the viaduct and look straight through the tunnel to see daylight at the Llynfi Valley end (unless the view was blocked by a train, of course.  When the R&SB closed north of Port Talbot in 1964, the traffic ran via the Llynfi Valley line and Tondu, the R&SB line remaining in use to connect to Dyffryn Rhondda pit (that seam again) a short distance down the Afan Valley; trains from this also reversed at Cwmmer Afan and ran via the Llynfi Valley.  From 1961 when Margam hump yard opened, the trains ran through Tondu and along the Ogmore Valley Extension line.  The R&SB services from Swansea to Cwmmer Afan, and Neath to Treherbert, were replaced by a bubble car between Bridgend and Treherbert via Tondu, Cwmmer Afan, and the Blaenrhondda Tunnel. which was closed 'temporarily' for safety reasons in February 1968 because of earth movements which put the bore of the tunnel out of alignment.  The bubble car terminated at Cwmmer Afan and a replacement bus service ran over the mountain road to Treorchy and Treherbert.  The Llynfi Valley Line, and the connecting replacement bus service, closed in it's entirety in December of 1970. 

 

 

 

 

 

You are on a roll , Johnster with your modelling !

Thanks for your detailed and fascinating insights into the geography and history of the  area . So valuable,  as is your knowledge and insights into the workings of the lines .

Your reference to “clean” coaches reminded me of working on a heavy engineering site where the canteen had sections for men in their boiler suits and another for white collar workers. 50 years ago and another epoch away . 

Keep ‘em coming , please .

Ken 

[The Johnster]

Atmospheric railway!
 

A glint of copper chimney caps as the yard lights catch a pair of Pecketts working the bottom yard on a mild but drizzly winter evening; typical valleys weather, what Max Boyce was on about when he wrote ‘Rhondda Grey’.  Not long now before they can cut off and head for the shed, drop fire, and leave it to the night fitter to maintain light steam ready for the morning shift tomorrow.  The Forge is beckoning and coal and water can wait until the morning!  The W4 is propelling empties through the washery loader, no.4 road, and 1426 has started to make up the consist for the morning’s outgoing loaded, collecting loaded wagons from the top yard end of the loader and taking them over the weighbridge before depositing them on no.3 road.  The empties in the foreground on no.2 have been tared and are waiting their turn under the loader; the LNER 21ton 8-planker on 5 in the background is a cripple  (that’s the word we used, no offence was intended) awaiting attention. The shunters and the weighbridge clerk are looking forward to a pint as well. 

Edited October 18, 2022 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

Apropos the washery; it’s sprouted a rather rusty grey water tank from it’s roof.  Nobody’s quite sure how it happened, it just turned up this afternoon, and nobody’s asked how those working underneath feel about 60 or so thousand gallons of water on top of them!  
 

Edited October 18, 2022 by The Johnster

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

nobody’s asked how those working underneath feel about 20 or so thousand gallons of water on top of them!  
 

In that part of South Wales there's always 20 or so thousand gallons above your head and it all reaches the ground before too long.....

[The Johnster]

And there’s always more behind it!

[The Johnster]

Just past 10.55 on a bright winter morning and 8497 is getting away on time with the daily pickup; unusual, as 94xx were regarded as passenger locos at Tondu and I’ve never seen a photo of a TDU 94xx working anything other than a passenger train, which is a bit off-message as Hawksworth designed them mostly to replace pre-grouping 0-6-2 tanks on shorter distance coal trips!  Perhaps because the Tondu Valleys had been part of the GW long before the grouping and pre-grouping 0-6-2Ts were unknown here (in fact even the 56xx didn’t make inroads until the mid-30s), the message was received and interpreted differently!

 

The GPV, now empty, has come from the colliery and the Shocvan has a load of delicate electroplated scientific instruments actually headed for Porton Down, but if I told you what for I’d have to kill you…

 

Note the pitprops in the hyfit in the background, arrived at Ogmore Jc via Pontyrhyl from Lletty Brongu yesterday, and came up this morning with the pickup

[The Johnster]

Made a tentative start on the High Level pug chassis earlier.  I’ll start a blog to chronicle the saga for anyone interested. 

[The Johnster]

I’ve also made a start on a miners’ platform for the workman’s to stop at.  Nothing much yet, piece of stiff cardboard cut to a tapering shape to fit between the running line and the stone colliery boundary wall underneath the road bridge.  The other side of said road bridge is the scenic divide for the fiddle yard, so the platform sort of disappears off stage and may be assumed to be around. twice as long; about 35’ of it is visible.  The tapering piece will be supported to a platformish height by timber post legs (cocktail sticks or kebab sticks), and given an ash surface with timber edging (coffee stirrers again).  A lamp will be positioned under the bridge, the only shelter from the rain; no seats, no buildings, not even posters, these places were pretty basic and in any case the train will be there as the men come off shift, so nobody hangs around much.  

 

[The Johnster]

 

 

Well, you weren’t expecting Clapham Jc, were you.  Miner’s platform disappearing under road bridge, with the fy turnout just in sight, Dai Flatbed still arguing with that sheep, and the dividing wall, a survivor from the days before railways and collieries, or road bridges.  The platform is narrow getting narrower at this end, hemmed between the running line and the old wall.  Miners exit stage right, off-scene.   Support posts are steel pipe (cotton buds painted rusty), and the platform, edged with timber baulks (coffee stirrers) and concrete surfaced (masking tape painted creamy-grey, is the piece of cardboard box I cut  yesterday, braced underneath for rigidity and support at the back with more bits of cardboard box.  Overgrown more at the end where there is less footfall, and the white stripe at the edge is fading with age.  You can see the pool of light from the under-bridge lamp. 
 

Job done, pretty much. 
 

[The Johnster]

Sunday evening; photo time.  In the afterglow of a fine Summer evening, Barry’s 82001, in the charge of a Tondu crew while the Barry men have their meal break back at Tondu, pauses to brim the tanks while running around the ‘meat & veg’ for Ogmore Valley Foods down at Glynogwr on the remaining stump of the old Hendreforgan line.  It’s 21.45, and the miners’ is due in 10 minutes, so the signalman is pointedly looking at his fob watch to hurry them along, but they’ll be ok…

 

[The Johnster]

And here’s the miners’, bang on time, behind the backfeed 5797, light fading fast now.  There is no production nightshift at Dimbath No.1 Navigation at the moment, so only a few maintenance and inspectors will work the night shift, along with a loco fitter who’ll keep the engines in light steam for the morning as well as fixing anything that came up during the day, who got off at the miners’ platform, and sometimes one or two locomen who have finished their duties at TDU will get off at the terminus. 
 

 

But the train will be busier on the return journey, TDU traincrew booking on for the main line night duties and the afternoon shift punters from the colliery, picked up at their platform.  As soon as the business with the electric staff is concluded in the signal box, the ‘meat and veg’ will be on it’s way, and the up miners’ will follow as soon as 82001 has locked itself and it’s train in at Glynogwr Jc Ground frame. 
 

I’ve enjoyed my operating session this evening, no problems and all very satisfying and relaxing.  

 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

 

Still half-light at about half 7 on a mid November morning, with the sun not yet peeping over the skyline of Mynydd Maendy, and it’s behind overcast and drizzle anyway, as Brynlliw brings the first drag of loaded for today up to go over the weighbridge; the clerk is already in the office ready to go do that voodoo that he do so well! The loco will draw them over and clear, then the bridge will be unlocked for her to push them over one by one to be weighed; the clerk will note the loaded weight against that wagon number’s tare, empty, weight and the difference will be the basis for invoicing, both to customers and to calculate BR’s fee. 
 

With the last wagon on the bridge, Brynlliw will hook off and Forest no.1 will couple on at the other end of the drag and draw the wagons clear if the weighbridge, which will then be locked out of use for Brynlliw to run back over it, and position the train ready for the BR loco, 8497 today, to collect.  She is already on her way up from Ogmore Jc with some empties.  

[The Johnster]

Meanwhile, back up the mountain next to the pithead cluster, the pithead baths and canteen are taking shape.  The cardboard box building has been abandoned, and I’ve bodged up a structure out of a Dapol Kitmaster shop & flat plastic kit, which gives the late 40s/early 50s look I’m after, rendered outer finish with metal framed windows.  As bodged it is a single story flat roof affair, the shower block close to completion but the canteen not so far advanced.  
 

There is 3D printed scaffolding, from 3D pluss on eBay, and painting is nearly finished. The shower block is painted cream but the canteen is still in brown-red unfinished render, with no doors or windows.  It is all mounted on a piece of card and once the painting is done and the thing has been blended in to it’s base scenically, there’ll be a photo, possibly tomorrow evening.  And it fits north of the pithead, which makes more sense as that is the village side.  A booking on office cum lamproom building of some sort will sit nicely behind it, eventually. 

 

 

[Northroader]

The pithead baths is a supermarket now....

[The Johnster]

I doubt you could make money on a supermarket in a place like Cwmdimbath once the pit closed.  These places become ghost towns where you can’t exist without a car because the basic facilities are gone.   They eventually become dormitory villages for people who can’t afford houses closer to the M4.  
 

Anyway, I finished up the painting and a bit of detailing, and tried it in position to see what it looked like.  One thing led to another and it’s now mounted on a base plate,  blended in scenically, and has been installed. 
 

I believe I mentioned something about a photo…

 

 

 

The roof of the canteen part is actually one of the kit sides, and where it protrudes over the end of the building I’ve used a piece of 3D packing that I had to hand to make a lattice support; the area will be a veranda when the canteen opens.  The holes in the ‘roof’ are where windows are supposed to go but I’ve covered one with a ventilator for the kitchen and the other with wooden planks.  One of the wooden scaffolding

platforms is being used as an access to the roof, where there will eventually be crawling boards. 
 

It all shows up that I really need to sort out the mountainside on this board.  It needs ripping out and doing properly. 

 

Edited November 6, 2022 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

Except of course it can't go there, or at least if it does the pithead has to move or be turned around. You have all been very kind in refraining from pointing out this rookie mistake!  In it's current position it is where the winding house should be, so the whole area needs a rethink.  The main building is the Faller 'Old Mine', and this is pretty much fixed and immovable because of how it relates to the colliery yard trackplan, and I'm not minded to rip all that up again!  The headframe needs to be the same level as the floor of the Faller building, quite high up, or higher even.   I'll have a play around later; the baths/canteen and the pithead group are on bases so can be moved about fairly easily, and I'd like to keep the baths/canteen at the village end, seems more logical especially in a steep and narrow valley where an access road or even a footpath around the back of the colliery might prove difficult.

 

I am a little susceptible to what I think of as Mental Shibboleths, ideas I had ages ago that have become set in stone, fixed and immutable as the courses of the stars in the havens in my mind, but in reality the colliery board is only a year old and is still really in the stage of settling down to it's final form, so everything's up for debate and possible change, I just have to stop thinking in Shibboleth mode.  I think the headframe probably needs to be turned around to 'face' the other way, which means removal and repositioning of the boiler house and chimney, and of course I need to leave room for the winding house when it is eventually built.  Boiler and winding machinery could go in the same building, of course.  The scenic treatment of the mountainside needs re-doing anyway, so it's going to be 'rip it all out, go and have a cup of tea to think about it, and start again as if you'd never done it before'! 

 

I don't like change at my age...

[1466]

15 hours ago, The Johnster said:

I doubt you could make money on a supermarket in a place like Cwmdimbath once the pit closed.  These places become ghost towns where you can’t exist without a car because the basic facilities are gone.   They eventually become dormitory villages for people who can’t afford houses closer to the M4.  
 

Anyway, I finished up the painting and a bit of detailing, and tried it in position to see what it looked like.  One thing led to another and it’s now mounted on a base plate,  blended in scenically, and has been installed. 
 

I believe I mentioned something about a photo…

 

 

 

The roof of the canteen part is actually one of the kit sides, and where it protrudes over the end of the building I’ve used a piece of 3D packing that I had to hand to make a lattice support; the area will be a veranda when the canteen opens.  The holes in the ‘roof’ are where windows are supposed to go but I’ve covered one with a ventilator for the kitchen and the other with wooden planks.  One of the wooden scaffolding

platforms is being used as an access to the roof, where there will eventually be crawling boards. 
 

It all shows up that I really need to sort out the mountainside on this board.  It needs ripping out and doing properly. 

 

I was saddened to learn of the demise of places such as Cwmdibath . It has a melancholia  of “How green was my valley”.

[The Johnster]

Parts of the Valleys are now among the most deprived and economically depressed places in the UK, with the worst public health to go with it, and lack the facilities and support networks of the big problem estates of Sarf Lunnun or Mosside (or even Cardiff).  Isolated, poverty ridden, their communites destroyed because nothing replaced the coal and all the supporting trades and industries got out as well, drug addicted, uneconomic to serve by public transport, and probably irredeemable; it is immensely sad, especially for those who are old enough to remember the vibrancy, sense of being part of Something Useful and Valuable to Society as a Whole, and community spirit (I was taken up there most Sundays visiting mum's rellys as a child, and it is heartbreaking to see what has happened).  The destruction of the deep mining coal industry in the 80s affected many other areas as well, and you can find similar problems in the Northeast, South Yorkshire, the East Midlands and so on, but few of these areas have the added curse of South Wales' beautiful but not economically viable geography, in which the very Valleys that facilitated the removal of coal now isolate and condemn the communities that are surviving to a slow and agonising death by lack of investment which is not economically viable.  The councils can't afford to keep these places going because they don't generate any income that can be used for the purpose. 

 

The melancholia is of 'how black was my Valley', the coal tips and colliery sites now being flattened, sorry, I mean landscaped, and greened.  New forestry on the mountainsides has replaced the bare grass left after the old trees were all cut for pitprops, and is wall to wall fir trees; the old glory of autumn in the deciduous woodlands is not economically viable, a phrase we are very familiar with in South Wales and know what it really means, too difficult to waste money on, and biodiversity beneath the evergreen canopy is minimal, and blocks the magificent views that might have attracted tourists if they weren't already scared off by the crime rate and the drugs; they go to the overcrowded Beacons instead.  The upper part of the Afan and Corrwg have managed to rebrand themselves as a world-class mountain biking area, but this has not been repeated in other places.

 

The question of 'what to do about all this' has been around for half a century now, and seems unlikely to be answered.  The real Cwmdimbath has survived it all reasonably well, because there was never really a colliery or village here; it retains the pre-coal boom farmland and deciduously forested mountainsides in it's lower reaches and the tramroad bed that 200 years ago served a little waterwheel powered forge (the inspiration for my pub, The Forge, built on what would have been it's site) serves as a footpath for enjoyment of the clear stream, brown trout and dippers, and wonderful autumn display that must have characterised all of these Valleys before industry destroyed them.  Further north, about half a mile along the banks of Nant Lechyd, where my layout would have been, all is fir trees and the desert of benighted acidic ground under the needles beneath them; no bird sings, no squirrel gathers non-existent nuts, no dormouse digs, and no pine marten can find food beneath the closely, economically viably, planted Douglas Firs.  Death Rules and all is silent; it stands as symbolic of the area in general.

 

It's being so cheerful as keeps me going...

[1466]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

Parts of the Valleys are now among the most deprived and economically depressed places in the UK, with the worst public health to go with it, and lack the facilities and support networks of the big problem estates of Sarf Lunnun or Mosside (or even Cardiff).  Isolated, poverty ridden, their communites destroyed because nothing replaced the coal and all the supporting trades and industries got out as well, drug addicted, uneconomic to serve by public transport, and probably irredeemable; it is immensely sad, especially for those who are old enough to remember the vibrancy, sense of being part of Something Useful and Valuable to Society as a Whole, and community spirit (I was taken up there most Sundays visiting mum's rellys as a child, and it is heartbreaking to see what has happened).  The destruction of the deep mining coal industry in the 80s affected many other areas as well, and you can find similar problems in the Northeast, South Yorkshire, the East Midlands and so on, but few of these areas have the added curse of South Wales' beautiful but not economically viable geography, in which the very Valleys that facilitated the removal of coal now isolate and condemn the communities that are surviving to a slow and agonising death by lack of investment which is not economically viable.  The councils can't afford to keep these places going because they don't generate any income that can be used for the purpose. 

 

The melancholia is of 'how black was my Valley', the coal tips and colliery sites now being flattened, sorry, I mean landscaped, and greened.  New forestry on the mountainsides has replaced the bare grass left after the old trees were all cut for pitprops, and is wall to wall fir trees; the old glory of autumn in the deciduous woodlands is not economically viable, a phrase we are very familiar with in South Wales and know what it really means, too difficult to waste money on, and biodiversity beneath the evergreen canopy is minimal, and blocks the magificent views that might have attracted tourists if they weren't already scared off by the crime rate and the drugs; they go to the overcrowded Beacons instead.  The upper part of the Afan and Corrwg have managed to rebrand themselves as a world-class mountain biking area, but this has not been repeated in other places.

 

The question of 'what to do about all this' has been around for half a century now, and seems unlikely to be answered.  The real Cwmdimbath has survived it all reasonably well, because there was never really a colliery or village here; it retains the pre-coal boom farmland and deciduously forested mountainsides in it's lower reaches and the tramroad bed that 200 years ago served a little waterwheel powered forge (the inspiration for my pub, The Forge, built on what would have been it's site) serves as a footpath for enjoyment of the clear stream, brown trout and dippers, and wonderful autumn display that must have characterised all of these Valleys before industry destroyed them.  Further north, about half a mile along the banks of Nant Lechyd, where my layout would have been, all is fir trees and the desert of benighted acidic ground under the needles beneath them; no bird sings, no squirrel gathers non-existent nuts, no dormouse digs, and no pine marten can find food beneath the closely, economically viably, planted Douglas Firs.  Death Rules and all is silent; it stands as symbolic of the area in general.

 

It's being so cheerful as keeps me going...

Thanks for this , Johnster  , although it is saddening. Your insights and knowledge of local history are always interesting and arresting.

As to the blight after the loss of the mining industry , we (Mrs L , close friends and I ) dropped into parts of Retford and Worksop . It’s a similar situation there . You are lucky if there’s a plaque or a winding wheel as a memory.

Ken 

 

[The Johnster]

The newer generations have grown to associate coal mining with anger, failure, and loss, and don’t ‘get’ the community, the spirit, the culture, and the rich cultural life that was the bathwater thrown out with the economically unviable baby, so they understandably want to forget it and move on.  But there is no moving on, nothing in the area to move on to, and unless you can buck the odds and manage to ejumakate yourself, no point in moving out either, you don’t look right and we don’t like your accent, or your attitude, you behave as if you were unjustly deprived of something, so you’re left to rot.  You’re stuck, and your elder rellys keep banging on about the old days under the NUM lodge banners in the club, constantly reminding you, as if the lack of jobs, ‘landscaped’ tips, Douglas firs, and grinding constant inescapable poverty weren’t enough.  And we wonder why they use drugs…

 

It is difficult for them to visuslise what it was like, even as late as the 70s though the rot was setting in by then.  My childhood and steam-chasing memories are of an intensely lively scene, plenty going on all the time, headstock wheels spinning, housewives out on doorsteps, shunting trains moving everywhere, and the constant squealing and rattling of the buckets on the aerial ropeways carrying the spoil up the mountain, busy village and town centres with shops, pubs, cinemas, clubs, theatres, Italian cafes and frequent buses.  All gone, as the snows of yesteryear.  Some of the towns still have a bit of life in them; Pontypridd, Merthyr, Aberdare, but the cancer of short-lease shops and boarded up premises is spreading.  The chapels are closed, even god gave up on you. 
 

Not economically viable, see. 

Edited November 6, 2022 by The Johnster