Class 116 diesel multiple units

[TheSignalEngineer]

Yes. Interesting to note that in the welsh photos all the whiskers are essentially horizontally for a short distance before they reach the sides of the vehicle - whereas the whiskers in the photo at Newton Abbot have a continuous curve.

Green DMU trimmings seem to be a bigger minefield than unit formations.

No lining, Thick top and bottom, Thin top/thick bottom, different shapes of curves round the ends to match different heights.

Whiskers meet in the middle or spaced to the width of the buffer beam pipes, finishing short of the corners or continuing round them.........

 

Reminds me of my time on the DC Lines when there were about 12 Class 313 units in NSE livery and Harlequin branding. I logged at least 20 variations in how it was applied.

[chrisf]

What an interesting point about whiskers!  Well spotted, Pteremy.  It is opportune here to thank Robert Carroll for doing what I was not clever enough to achieve and post the picture of 50869+50922 from his Flickr site, and to everyone else who has made useful and interesting contributions to this thread.

 

Three different batches of power cars are represented in the images quoted.  The set at Newton Abbot comprises two power cars from the second batch and will have been one of the two power twins photographed at Barry in August 1958 showing both side by side and minus whiskers.  Many of the second batch ran without whiskers for over six months and I have yet to learn why.  The first of the Peter Brabham/John Wiltshire pics that Andy supplied shows a power car of the first batch a matter of days before being moved to Laira.  The first batch power cars had no headcode panels and four marker lights, so the points of the V were able to meet.  Two of the other three sets have power cars from the third batch, ordered for Bristol and formed with second class only trailers from the first batch.  That would be a good explanation for the trailers being not quite the same shade of green as the power cars, the trailers being a year or so older.   I won't swear to this but the set shown in the fourth Brabham/Wiltshire pic, at Blaenavon LL, may be a Cathays set from the second batch.  One which the late Hugh Ballantyne photographed there at much the same time certainly was, and mis-forned as well.

 

Chris  

[philip-griffiths]

You have to look at these pictures of DMUs at Bleanavon, Abertilliery, etc, and wonder if the track beds had not been protected, they could have been reused now as the Ebbw Vale line has.  I was in South Wales for a funeral in December and getting back from Pontllanfraith to Abergavenny was murder - Hafodyrynys, I now know why it is the most polluted spot outside London (exempting the mountain roads and lanes between Risca and Cwmbran) there are three routes between the Ebbw and Usk - Newport M4 (Argh), Hafodyrynys - now a nightmare and the A465 - building site nightmare.  Talk about pinch points.

 

Yes, the closures at that time made logical economic sense.  When they closed Govilon station the village was small, now it has a substantial population who commute out, same at Goytre (acknowledge that these were not valleys stations but it makes the point).  Buses were more flexible and the traffic flows we have now were not then evident or could you have predicted them - well you could have if you recognised that coal was a finite resource and that sooner or later it would not be profitable to take it out of the small faulted seams in South Wales.  

 

I remember an interview with an industrialist who the WDA were trying to persuade to build their factory in the valleys, the interviewer citing the brand new roads up the valleys giving access. He said it would build his factory at the M4 and the roads can provide the commuter route for the workers.  Gone are the days when the majority of work in the valleys is within walking or a short car journey.  

[The Johnster]

You have just very succinctly summarised the transport infrastructure of the Gwent valleys!  Hafodyrynys is a nightmare, and nobody wants to provide employment actually in the area because of the traffic situation, which also effectively prevents locals from working in the places employment is provided, i.e. next to the motorway.

 

The 1960s promise of the 'cheaper, more flexible, and more convenient' bus services to replace the closed railways has never been realised.  Buses are slow and take diversions though housing estates (this includes the Cardiff-Brynmawr-Abergavenny-Hereford 'express' X4) and serve localities well, but do not connect them very well.  Ebbw Vale has managed to have it's passenger trains re-instated, but speed restrictions on the Western Valley line make the service painfully slow; it's popularity and success nonetheless is a measure of how useless buses are at getting to Cardiff or Newport.  We are talking about 1 hour 45 minutes from Ebbw Vale by 'express' bus to Cardiff, 24 miles away (alright, 34 via Merthyr and the long stop at Pontypridd); even I could cycle it in that time...

 

Compare (or contrast) the wealthy Vale of Glamorgan and the re-opening of it's railway; Llantwit Major had a population of just over 3,000 when the station closed in the early 60s, mostly working locally on the airbase, power station, or cement works nearby, and this had increased to 12.500 when the station re-opened, nearly all of the newcomers being Cardiff commuters who needed relief from the traffic befouled western approaches to the city.  A token minibus connects Rhoose to Cardiff Airport, a major argument for the re-opening but not a great traffic generator, but the train is much faster than any road journey, car or bus.

 

Rail connection to Creigiau, northwest of Cardiff and another major growth area for dormitory housing, is also mooted in connection with the 'Cardiff Metro' scheme.  I cannot ever remember hearing of any scheme to revive the Tredegar branch, or the Eastern Valley route to Blaenafon from Pontypool, the core of the areas that need proper transport infrastructure, and as for Ebbw Vale, if ever a town was a basket case...   One cannot escape the conclusion that the investment is going where the rich people live and the poorer Valleys communities are being abandoned to rot.  This is the inevitable result of capitalism red in tooth and claw, but dismisses without consideration any social responsibility on the part of local or national government, and by extension society as a whole, to the entire area north and east of the Rhymney valley and the 'top towns'.  The articulate and educated control society, to their own benefit at the expense of everyone else.

 

A fair bit of track bed in some of the places mentioned has been used for road improvements which really haven't returned much benefit for the area despite the intention.  I am thinking particularly of the Sirhowy and Llwyd (Eastern) valleys, and Hafodyrynys, where the money ran out at the top of the hill from Pontypool.  This spot desperately needs connecting with a bypass to the Newbridge bypass, but it ain't gonna happen any time soon.

Edited May 11, 2018 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

Sorry, that turned into a bit of an OT rant.

[chrisf]

Johnster, there is nothing wrong with feeling strongly about something, especially when others agree with you.  You and Philip have pointed to a very common and regrettable state of affairs in which a complete lack of joined-up thinking causes transport infrastructure to be discarded ahead of large scale development.  Consider Cwmbran, where not only the station but the railway was removed with what might be called indecent haste and then along came the New Town.  I am mindful, as no doubt are you, that here on RMweb we are not supposed to stray into politics.

 

Something on which you might like to ponder [giving me more time to write the next bit of the 116 story!] is whether the 116 was the right solution when dieselisation took place.  Apart from the Cross-Country sets they were all there was but they were not able to improve on the journey times as compared with steam.  Many must have been the time when those making a painfully slow ascent towards Aberbeeg and beyond would have beeen envious of the iron ore and the 9F giving it rear-end assistance. 

[Huw Griffiths]

Cwmbran is a classic example of this sort of stuff - with the A4051 "Cwmbran Drive" being built on two different rail alignments.

 

Although the alignment between Malpas and Old Cwmbran had long since ceased to be used by through trains (and even the last part of that bit, between Ty Coch and Old Cwmbran had last been used for industrial purposes - then lifted - long before I moved to Cwmbran in 1967), road bridges were built to clear it.

 

From Old Cwmbran to Pontyhydyrun, the Eastern Valley line was only lifted in the 1980s - after 6 bus passengers had been killed, when a "double decker" went under the low bridge at Grove Park.

 

 

The stretch of the Eastern Valley line between Pontypool and Blaenafon ended up being converted into the A4043 - but I believe the former station site near the Clarence was used for a Tesco hypermarket.

 

Of course, I'm not 100% sure about some of this stuff - but then I've never been an expert on history.

 

 

Huw

[TheSignalEngineer]

Not only Cwmbran. On my old patch the local services and stations on the Tamworth and Nuneaton lines out of New Street were decimated just as Castle Vale was being built to house an extra 10,000 people. Since then there have been many more houses built close to the railways in the area.

 

Redditch services were decimated shortly after it was designated a New Town with the population expanding by 50,000. This was rectified by the Cross City line and subsequent electrification. Bromsgrove suffered a similar fate in the 1960s and although it gained stops in the hourly semi-fasts a few years ago it is only now getting a frequent local service.

[St Enodoc]

Not only Cwmbran. On my old patch the local services and stations on the Tamworth and Nuneaton lines out of New Street were decimated just as Castle Vale was being built to house an extra 10,000 people. Since then there have been many more houses built close to the railways in the area.

 

Redditch services were decimated shortly after it was designated a New Town with the population expanding by 50,000. This was rectified by the Cross City line and subsequent electrification. Bromsgrove suffered a similar fate in the 1960s and although it gained stops in the hourly semi-fasts a few years ago it is only now getting a frequent local service.

At least the lines are still there, even if some of the stations aren't.

 

Former Polesworth resident.

[The Johnster]

There seen less excuses in Cwmbran, the Valley Of The Crows, than in some other places, though, and people said so at the time.  The New Town was built specifically to house workers from the new RTB steelworks at Llanwern, and a train service to deal with this traffic would have spared not only the New Town's bus and car commuters but the residents of Malpas and the northern suburbs of Newport many years of traffic misery and pollution.  Various road building efforts to solve this have ultimately failed to deliver; most of it still routes through Malpas Hill.  

 

Much was made at the time of the concept that rail traffic from the Gwent Valleys had to be curtailed in order to supply coal and coke to the new steelworks, but I don't buy it; a new track layout and MAS signalling at Newport should have coped with this, along with the Bishton flyover.

 

As for 116s being the right solution to the challenge of replacing steam on these services, well, as ChrisF says, there really wasn't anything else available in those days; what was needed was a high density dmu.  There may have been an argument for power twins or motorising the trailer to keep a decent power/weight ratio, given that this would only have been an extension of the GW admission that they had to make a smaller wheeled 54xx, the 64xx, to cope with South Walian conditions and BR (WR)'s that 4575's had to be auto fitted to do the work that 64xx couldn't handle.  The performance of the 117 sets was identical, but there is a world of difference between hopping between suburban stations on the London Division's main lines at 61xx timings and slogging up the banks of the South Wales Valleys on a wet morning, and there are a lot of wet mornings in South Wales.  Higher powered dmu engines were not available in 1958.

 

In the end they put in longer service lives than any other stock ever used in the area, and (except for the hot summer of 1976) coped reasonably well.

[TheSignalEngineer]

At least the lines are still there, even if some of the stations aren't.

 

Former Polesworth resident.

That one is a stealth closure. Still a station but one train calling in one direction at a time when nobody wants it.

[robertcwp]

116 for Maerdy:

 

116_Ferndale by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

[chrisf]

Thanks, Robert.   A friend told me that this image was on eBay recently, described as 1966.  That cannt be right as the branch lost its passenger service in 1964.  Caveat emptor!

 

Chris

[robertcwp]

Thanks, Robert.   A friend told me that this image was on eBay recently, described as 1966.  That cannt be right as the branch lost its passenger service in 1964.  Caveat emptor!

 

Chris

Only information on slide mount is "MU Ferndale". I wonder if it's last day or just before.

[The Johnster]

It's an almost stereotypical Valleys scene, though, full of atmosphere.  All those chimneys and no satellite dishes.

[philip-griffiths]

The lack of trees, that is a big difference between today and my memories of childhood in the valleys. Also, Z. The fact that you got neckache looking at the land-sky horizon.

[The Johnster]

The buckets, constantly clanking and squeaking, and the sudden realisation that if had being going on un-noticed for hours when it stopped.  The buckets were the overhead system that carried colliery waste to the tips on the mountainside or top.  These, once prominent black cones that dominated the landscape and drew your eye wherever you looked, have been either removed post Aberfan or landscaped, and have to be looked for as they are grassed over.  They indicated that the colliery was actually lifting coal to the pithead, where it was screened from this waste, then for size, then to the washery for outward loading.  The buckets themselves stood against the skyline in silhouette and could be seen moving about like ants crawling through the sky from miles away; Ynsddu's in the Sirhowy valley could be seen from Monthermer Road bridge over the Rhymney Railway in Cardiff near my childhood home, about 7 or 8 miles away to the north at the top of a 1,600 foot mountain.

Edited May 13, 2018 by The Johnster

[Coryton]

been either removed post Aberfan or landscaped, and have to be looked for as they are grassed over.  They indicated that the colliery was actually lifting coal to the pithead, where it was 

 

 

Not all of them, I can assure you.

[chrisf]

Chaps, I'm as nostalgic as the next man but we do seem to be straying just a bit from the subject of the 116s.

 

Chris

[br2975]

Chaps, I'm as nostalgic as the next man ..................

 

Nostalgia.............it's a thing of the past.

[The Johnster]

And the past isn't what it used to be.  It's been later than this before now...

[The Johnster]

Sorry, Chris, couldn't resist.  I'll behave now; the nurse has just brought the nice medication...

[philip-griffiths]

what really gets me about the DMUs is that they did not introduce them on the Sirhowy. By the time the DMUs were introduced BR(WR) had reduced the Tredegar service to Risca. I mean, who wants to get half-way to the destination.  Looking back on it though we never as kids caught the bus to Newport - I was born in the late 60s so grew up with West Mon and Red and White.  If my mates and I were going off somewhere it was to Cardiff on the Orange double decker from the Bird-in-Hand at Pontllanfraith.  A trip down the valley was unusual.  Even when I went shopping with my parents it was to Cardiff not Newport.  Maybe it is something about the upper Sirhowy in that it tended to look to Cardiff and not to Newport?  Which would suggest to me that if they had trialled a rail service from Cardiff-Ystrad-Pont-Tredegar, would it have done better than Newport/Risca services?  If I was ever at my grandparents place in Aberbargoed you never thought about the bus to Cardiff - it was down Bedwelty Road and up past the entrance to Bargoed Colliery and the builder's merchant to catch the Cl116 to Cardiff Queen St.  

 

I know that one of the reasons for closing the Sirhowy was the need for a signal upgrade, but you get the sense that they just did not care to try something different. At least they had a go with DMUs on the Western and Eastern Valleys. I was surprised to read in Chris's notes how far reaching the DMU services actually were, but why didn't try trial a cross country unit on the Neath-Pontypool line?

 

regards

[chrisf]

1964 – closures and cuts

 

The first closures of passenger services on the WR in 1964 were effected from 16^th March and took out the routes from Cardiff General to Clarence Road and Abercynon to Aberdare Low Level.  The WR had chipped away at the services on both lines at every opportunity since the cuts of June 1958.  At the end the Clarence Road service had become a spasmodic shuttle from Platforms 8 and 9 at Cardiff General but not so long before had hosted through trains from Penarth, Barry and the Vale of Glamorgan.  The Abercynon – Aberdare line may have suffered after the timetable recast of 1953 by being left as a shuttle save for certain through trains to Pontypridd, Cardiff and Barry.  Had it been revised to run through to Pontypridd once an hour with connections to Cardiff there it may well have done better business.  This point was not lost on those promoting the line’s reopening in the 1980s.

 

From 15^th June 1964 more closures were effected.  The line from Taunton to Yeovil Pen Mill via Durston had a service of four trains each way per day, latterly worked by Bristol-based 116s.   In South Wales the Vale of Glamorgan line from Barry to Bridgend lost what was left of its passenger service, which until the afterthought cuts of June 1962 had changed little since Barry Railway days.  That it was paralleled by a half-hourly Western Welsh bus service could not have helped.   The branches from Caerphilly to Senghenydd and Porth to Maerdy had become largely peak-hour shuttles.  In the former case, even a few through services to Cardiff made little difference and in any case were largely for operating convenience.  Running more Maerdy trains through to Pontypridd instead of having the clientele change at Porth could have made a difference but the real enemy was Rhondda Transport.

 

15^th June 1964 also saw the coming into operation of the Western Region’s first 12 month timetable.  Such was the extent of cuts and the number of supplements that the book had to be reissued in January 1965.  One such supplement showed timetable changes from 7^th September 1964.  Hot on its heels came one dated 28^th September.  It set out a long list of cancellations and alterations in the Cardiff Valleys.  For much of the day the service between Cardiff and Barry Island was reduced from half-hourly to hourly.   This was significant because the basis of the 1953 interval service had been an all-day half hourly service between Pontypridd, Cardiff and Barry Island – a timely response to bus competition.   The service between Cardiff, Penarth and Cadoxton was trimmed, having not been overly generous in the first place, but there was very little effect on the Rhymney line.

 

This, surely, must have saved some units.

 

Coming soon – a bit of an exodus

 

Chrris

 

[The Johnster]

what really gets me about the DMUs is that they did not introduce them on the Sirhowy. By the time the DMUs were introduced BR(WR) had reduced the Tredegar service to Risca. I mean, who wants to get half-way to the destination.  Looking back on it though we never as kids caught the bus to Newport - I was born in the late 60s so grew up with West Mon and Red and White.  If my mates and I were going off somewhere it was to Cardiff on the Orange double decker from the Bird-in-Hand at Pontllanfraith.  A trip down the valley was unusual.  Even when I went shopping with my parents it was to Cardiff not Newport.  Maybe it is something about the upper Sirhowy in that it tended to look to Cardiff and not to Newport?  Which would suggest to me that if they had trialled a rail service from Cardiff-Ystrad-Pont-Tredegar, would it have done better than Newport/Risca services?  If I was ever at my grandparents place in Aberbargoed you never thought about the bus to Cardiff - it was down Bedwelty Road and up past the entrance to Bargoed Colliery and the builder's merchant to catch the Cl116 to Cardiff Queen St.  

 

I know that one of the reasons for closing the Sirhowy was the need for a signal upgrade, but you get the sense that they just did not care to try something different. At least they had a go with DMUs on the Western and Eastern Valleys. I was surprised to read in Chris's notes how far reaching the DMU services actually were, but why didn't try trial a cross country unit on the Neath-Pontypool line?

 

regards

 

Preaching to the choir here, p-g.  I suspect that the Sirhowy Valley may have been a victim of the WR's bias against non GWR lines, as was the Somerset and Dorset a short time after; the attitude could be seen in action right up to the end of BR in respect of the LSWR west of Salisbury.  But another matter might have been traffic projections based on travel to Newport.  There had never been a through Tredegar-Cardiff service, but the traffic pattern was changing in that direction by the 60s as the area became more dominated by Cardiff commuters, who drove or used the long established bus.  As an aside, at one time the Cardiff no 36 bus which served Tredegar was a specially low geared vehicle in order to cope with Nantgarw Hill.

 

I take your point about Cross Country sets on the Pontypool-Neath route; they'd have been perfect for it (and the Somerset and Dorset for that matter), but I doubt that there were enough sets available and in any case the mood of the hour was to close depots at Pontypool Road and Court Sart; it just wouldn't have fitted with the zeitgeist (now there's a word I wasn't expecting to be using today!).