Confessions of a Canton goods guard

[The Johnster]

Thanks for those excellent photos, Kev.  Lawrence Hill was a proper goods yard, something that was rare in post-Beeching days, and always interesting.  IIRC the 03 worked trips up to Filton coal yard as well.  It's all very modellable, and I have always thought that it would make an excellent club exhibition layout, set around 1960 with the Midland still running; you could run pretty much anything from the WR and a good bit of LMR, with a smattering of Southern.

[Michael Hodgson]

7 hours ago, The Johnster said:

There was another Freightliner robbery story, but I couldn't verify the truth of it; the Royal Mint at Llantrisant used to send out containers of new coins for circulation, by road to Pengam where they were loaded onto trains.  One of these containers (they were ordinary containers in Freightliner livery, hiding in plain sight) full of £2million worth of 50p coins allegedly went walkabout from the Pengam-Stratford train while it was somewhere on the North London section; somebody had a pretty greedy gas meter to feed... 

 

Afraid I think there has to be some exaggeration there.  I know from my time working as a bank cashier just how heavy coins can be.  Because of a miscalculation in our forecasting I once had to fetch £200 in 1p and 2p and a similar value in silver from another branch.  Copper coins came in £20 bags about the size of a bag of spuds from the supermarket, so they easily fit in the boot of my mini, but the weight of that lot at the back made the steering very light!  Even paper money is pretty heavy in bulk.

 

A 50p coin (original size) weighed 13.5g, so £2m of them would have weighed 54 metric tons; the current smaller ones would be 32 tonnes.  A single container is limited to 25/28 tonnes (although 40' containers carry twice as much bulk as the 20' ones, they can only carry slightly more by weight).  You would also need a special tri-axle trailer to carry more than about 18 tonnes by road.  So you would certainly need more than one container to carry that much dosh in coin.

 

Did the man who emptied your gas meter have an HGV licence?  I remember watching them empty parking meters in central London - the blokes with the keys were followed by a bullion van and they tipped the collection through hatch into the van after each meter otherwise they would have had a problem carrying it!  Anybody stealing a large amount in coin would find it rather difficult and time-consuming to launder the money, as people would be immediately suspicious of a sum much bigger than what the pub drew out on Friday for change over the weekend and the vicar would bring back on Monday morning from the collection plate.  Small change (even in bulk) is not worth the bother if you're planning a heist.

[The Johnster]

Well, it was a story wot I 'erd, and might well have been exaggerated, if it ever happened in the first place.  Even in the 70s, when 50p was the largest value coin, it would have taken some getting rid of in container-full quantities, though our theory was that it might have been got rid of through dodgy gambling machine operators, who consumed such coins in large quantities.  Even then the operation would have to have taken some time to avoid raising suspicion, but London's organised criminals probably had the network and outlets to do it.

[pH]

2 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Anybody stealing a large amount in coin would find it rather difficult and time-consuming to launder the money, as people would be immediately suspicious of a sum much bigger than what the pub drew out on Friday for change over the weekend and the vicar would bring back on Monday morning from the collection plate. 

Pre-decimal, two kids lifted a bag of old thrupenny pieces from the cash office in the local bus garage. Later, in town, they tried to buy a toy costing something like 3 pounds with some of the coins. They were invited to explain to a policeman how they came into possession of these coins.

[Wickham Green too]

4 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

... You would also need a special tri-axle trailer to carry more than about 18 tonnes by road.  ...

Well, you would if you were to do it legally ................................ ! .................

[Michael Hodgson]

7 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

Well, you would if you were to do it legally ................................ ! .................

 

I think the Royal Mint observes the law of the land - even the one at Llantrisant, better known as the hole with the mint.

[Nick C]

5 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Small change (even in bulk) is not worth the bother if you're planning a heist.

Are you talking from experience there? 🕵️‍♂️

[billy_anorak59]

Thought of you and this thread @The Johnster when I came across a short YouTube vid that you might like:

 

Barry, Cadoxton, Pontypool Road and what looks like the Severn Tunnel. Plus the Hymeks - what's not to like!

 

[Michael Hodgson]

4 minutes ago, Nick C said:

Are you talking from experience there? 🕵️‍♂️

No, none of the banks I worked at suffered a robbery whilst I was there, though I did work later on the liquidation of a bank that was put into insolvency as a result of its corrupt management.  I had to tell depositors "No sorry, you can't draw your money out of your account, la banque est sous gestion contrôlée et sursis de paiement"  though most of them did eventually get at least some of their money back, not helped by the destruction of the London office in the provisional IRA's attack on the Baltic Exchange.

[Wickham Green too]

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I think the Royal Mint observes the law of the land - even the one at Llantrisant, better known as the hole with the mint.

Sorry, I thought we were still talking about £2 million quid's worth of fifty pees that - allegedly - went walkies somewhere round the North London Line.

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, billy_anorak59 said:

Thought of you and this thread @The Johnster when I came across a short YouTube vid that you might like:

 

Barry, Cadoxton, Pontypool Road and what looks like the Severn Tunnel. Plus the Hymeks - what's not to like!

 

 

Not the Severn Tunnel, Billy; the train was routed via Pontypool Road, Hereford, Malvern, and Worcester, so turned  left at Maindy Jc once it had crossed the river bridge at Newport.  Even had it run via Gloucester, in which case it would have passed through STJ, it would not have gone through the Severn Tunnel.  The tunnel you are confusing it with is Gaer Tunnel, just to the west of Newport High Street though the filming is done from the Cardiff end.  There are in fact two parallel tunnels here, the original, which 80079 is hauled through, on the relief roads, and a later one built when the line was quadrupled, used by the mains.

 

But tx, a nice little film, with much of interest and many memories stirred.  The cutting with the pipe bridge is between Little Mill and Nantyderry IIRC, and the shot with the short tunnel is Pontrilas.  I also identified the rock cutting at Biglis, and a shot of the train running through Dinas Powys station when it still had a station building.  I think I'd have been tempted to light a fire in the firebox to keep warm if I were riding on the loco!  The speed of the train is probably the reason for the routing, as it would possibly cause issues on the busy line north of Gloucester.

[SM42]

Possibly Ledbury viaduct in there too as well as two of my old boxes, sadly demolished less than 10 years ago. 

 

Andy

[Rivercider]

20 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Thanks for those excellent photos, Kev.  Lawrence Hill was a proper goods yard, something that was rare in post-Beeching days, and always interesting.  IIRC the 03 worked trips up to Filton coal yard as well.  It's all very modellable, and I have always thought that it would make an excellent club exhibition layout, set around 1960 with the Midland still running; you could run pretty much anything from the WR and a good bit of LMR, with a smattering of Southern.

Thanks. I am enjoying learning about train services, like the bricks,  I knew of but never saw myself. 

 

The Lawrence Hill pilot duty did not go as far as Filton (which I think had been shunted from Stoke Gifford), but the 03 did make a weekday trip as far as Stapleton Road where there was a scrap yard on the up side north of the station, Birds and Pugsleys each had a siding and loaded 16t mins of scrap - Llanelli was the destination I remember. The scrap was weighed at Lawrence Hill where there was a weighbridge, also occasionally used by the civil engineers to weigh things like wagon loads of scrap chairs.

The pilot also worked daily trips to Avonside Wharf, with presflos of cement for the Blue Circle depot on Avonside Wharf, and seasonal trains of molasses for Distillers. The main traffic at Lawrence Hill yard was cement from Aberthaw in presflos, but also bagged and loaded in vans, heavy dirty work to unload I imagine,

 

cheers

Edited May 5, 2023 by Rivercider
Additional info

[billy_anorak59]

13 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Not the Severn Tunnel, Billy; the train was routed via Pontypool Road, Hereford, Malvern, and Worcester, so turned  left at Maindy Jc once it had crossed the river bridge at Newport.  Even had it run via Gloucester, in which case it would have passed through STJ, it would not have gone through the Severn Tunnel.  The tunnel you are confusing it with is Gaer Tunnel, just to the west of Newport High Street though the filming is done from the Cardiff end.

Glad you liked it @The Johnster and thanks for the correction - I just guessed I'm afraid and missed by mile! I'm not too familiar with the areas you (and others) descibe here on the thead, but I'm certainly finding out about the various locations and enjoying your writings as I learn where and how things were done.

Please keep the confessions coming as and when you can - it's all great stuff!

[The Stationmaster]

17 hours ago, The Johnster said:

 

Not the Severn Tunnel, Billy; the train was routed via Pontypool Road, Hereford, Malvern, and Worcester, so turned  left at Maindy Jc once it had crossed the river bridge at Newport.  Even had it run via Gloucester, in which case it would have passed through STJ, it would not have gone through the Severn Tunnel.  The tunnel you are confusing it with is Gaer Tunnel, just to the west of Newport High Street though the filming is done from the Cardiff end.  There are in fact two parallel tunnels here, the original, which 80079 is hauled through, on the relief roads, and a later one built when the line was quadrupled, used by the mains.

 

 

Hmm so according to you it made its way up towards Radyr passing Maindy Bridge - just north of Cathays works then somehow ran between Park Jcn on the Westertn Valley) and Gaer jcn  on the mainline west of Newport,

 

The tunnel mouth is actually the western portal of Hillfield Tunnel which lines on the SWML west of Newport Station.  And the train then turned left towards Hereford at Maindee West Jcn which lies just across the river bridge east of Newport Station.  

 

Simple check - Maindy is in Cardiff, Maindee is in Newport and there was no such  location as Maindy Jcn on the GWR/WR.   Gaer Tunnel is on the line between Gaer Jcn and Park Jcn - not on the SWML; itt was originally double line but was singled quite a while back so could hardly be mistaken for the tunnel in the film.

Edited May 5, 2023 by The Stationmaster
typos

[The Johnster]

Tx Billy and Kenny; good to know you're enjoying my ramblings.  I always thought the Filton coal traffic was worked from Lawrence Hill because I'd seen 03s there and I can't recall these little beauties at Stoke Gifford, but now you come to mention it Stoke Gifford is nearer and a more logical place to work trips from.  The advantage of 03s was that they could manage higher speeds on running lines, but of course this would be negated somewhat by the 25mph nature of the unfitted traffic anyway. 

 

I was also familiar with them at Llanelli, where they worked the BPGV and Mynydd Mawr trips, and were stabled under cover in the old goods shed, which was the traincrew signing-on point and location of the messroom in those days.  I went out with a young lady employed as a clerical officer there briefly, meeting up at Swansea as a sort of half-way.  The locos were allox Landore but outstationed here, eventually replaced by 08s with cut-down cabs for the limited clearances on the bridges under the SWML on these branches; IIRC the 08 cabs were altered in-house at Landore.  There were three of them, and all three were sometimes used triple-headed on the heavier trips. 

 

Llanelli was usually a back-cab job, with TEAs or 60mph 4-wheeled vacuum tanks.  These included the Waterston-Albion 1600ton double-headed 37 trains, which I also worked on the Hereford road, and which were great fun; blasting up Stormy or Llanvihangel with the loaded would see me with the window open and listening to that glorious noise!!!  Never worked the triple-headed Port Talbot-Llanwern iron ore trains which must have been even more fun, these were Margam jobs, but we were trained in the use of the heavy-duty buckeye couplings the 100ton iron ore wagons used.  One on each wagon swivelled so that they could be tippled for unloading at Llanwern, the end being denoted by the orange livery.  These wagons are still in service in Mauretania. 

 

I'd made a point of learning Llanelli, and later Carmarthen, in a brake van, which stood me in good stead when, during the summer of 1974, I was booked out on a rest day to work a train of CWR, continously welded lengths of flat-bottomed rail, from Cardiff to Carmarthen Jc.  The traffic originated in the CWR depot in Cheshire, can't remember the name now just, and was ultimately headed for a relaying job at St.Clears.  This was enormous fun, a brake van over the route, a very pleasant summer evening, and the odd sight of the load bending and flexing as the train moved through curves and shunts.  It had come down via the North & West. 

 

Limited to 20mph, and booked in for examination at 15 mile intervals, progress was was going to be leisurely.  Loco was a 37, and we relieved Hereford men at Cardiff Central.  I'd brought extra tea and makings, and double sarnies, knowing we were in for a long haul.  First thing noticed when I boarded the van was that we were low on stove coal, but the fire was lit; it was going to be cool when the sun went down.  We were booked 'inside' for examination at Miskin Down Loop, and as there was a good bit of faster traffic to get past us before a path could be secured to the next examination at Margam Moors, I took the opportunity to beg some coal off the crossing keeper in the old signal box there.  While having a cuppa in the box with him (it was that sort of socially relaxed working), a bloke in an MG Midget open-top came whizzing over the crossing, lost it on the bumps, and inserted himself neatly in the ditch on the other side.  He'd apparently just bought the car and picked it up from a farm at Pendoylan.  Not much damage to him or the car, so with the locomen assisting, we managed to get him out of the ditch and on his way, an entertaining little interlude.

 

At Miskin, I was to examine the train, but not 100% sure of what was required of me.  The main issue with these trains was load shifting, but it looked ok to me and I checked the bottle screws on the securing chains, which also looked ok to me but my understanding of what was and wasn't 'ok' was not a particularly full one.  When we got the road, eventually, and I threw the borrowed bucket out by the box as we left the loop, the sun had set and it was getting dark, and I was grateful for the coal.  The train had been on the move for some 18 hours by that time.  Inside to let traffic past again at Tremains, and at Stormy, and I'd already been on duty for seven hours, so it looked as if this was going to be a nice little overtime earner...  Inside at Margam Moors for a proper exam with a C & W man, who was able to give the train a much more thorough and knowledgeable going over than I had, but seemed happy enough with the state of play, to my considerable relief.  After 22.00 now, and still not really half way.

 

But progress became a little steadier west of Margam, especially after Briton Ferry when we were on the Swansea District line and the requirement to keep us out of the way of faster traffic was eased.  We went inside at Felin Fran for a while and after that ran all the way to Llandeilo Jc in one movement.  C & W attention at Llandeilo Jc, and it was getting on for 02.00 now, but the run to Carmarthen Jc. was going to be easy enough.  Lovely moonlit run around the shoreline from Kidwelly and up the estuary, out on the veranda and rather enjoying myself, warmed up a pie on the stove and ate it in this section. 

 

We'd been expecting Carmarthen men to relieve us at Carmarthen Jc, but there were none, although they'd sent out a minibus to bring us in to the messroom at Carmarthern station.  We shut the loco down, I banked the van stove, and left the load sheet clipped to the first wagon.  Getting on for 4am, and no cushions back for a couple of hours, and I'd already been on duty for thirteen hours at Rest Day rates, and was tired but by no means exhausted.  By the time we'd changed cushions at Swansea H.S, it was about 09.00 when I booked off, 20 hours at time and a half plus full night rate and a nice bit of mileage.  As I've said before, shame to take the money but I didn't give any of it back...

 

The only time I'd ever run out of coal on a brake van, and it wasn't a problem given that we were stopping everywhere and there was still plenty of coal 'about' to be had in those days.  A lovely job, though I was on my own for a bit and happy to regain contact with humanity, or at least as close as you can get to it with a pair of Canton locomen. at Carmarthen. 

 

Not the longest time I was on duty continuously for either, that was on a Per.Way Sunday relaying job between Aberthaw and Gileston on the Vale of Glamorgan line, booked on at 20.00 Saturday evening to pick up the train, Grampus (Grampi?) for the spoil and spent ballast, on site for 22.00 when the occupation came into force.  It was supposed to be finished by 06.00 and the line handed back to traffic, but there were several other jobs on at the same time at various locations over the Vale line, and two of them had overrun, badly, with the result that we were isolated.  At midday, the PW supervisor told us to get lunch from the pub up the road at Llancarfan on his tab, and took us there in his car, and joined us.  It was an awful job but somebody had to do it... 

 

They sent a minivan out with sandwiches at 18.00 on the Sunday evening, but no relief, and we were being fed in the mess coach by this time.  The occupation was handed back at 05.00 and something on the Monday morning, but there were other PW trains to clear before we could escape, and we still had to work a class 9 train back to North Curve.  IIRC I booked off duty at 08.30 on the Monday morning, 24 hours and 30 minutes, all at various enhanced rates and 16 and a half hours of it on overtime, food (and beer) provided by the Per.Way Department, fully slept in the mess coach, showered, clean, refreshed, and ready for anything.  'Missed' my booked job on the Monday afternoon (there was a requirement of a minumum 12 hours rest between booking off and booking on duty in those days, something that had been brought in following the 1892 Thirsk disaster), and was told not to come in until Tuesday pm, paid for bare duty on the Monday.

[The Johnster]

8 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Hmm so according to you it made its way up towards Radyr passing Maindy Bridge - just north of Cathays works then somehow ran between Park Jcn on the Westertn Valley) and Gaer jcn  on the mainline west of Newport,

 

The tunnel mouth is actually the western portal of Hillfield Tunnel which lines on the SWML west of Newport Station.  And the train then turned left towards Hereford at Maindee West Jcn which lies just across the river bridge east of Newport Station.  

 

Simple check - Maindy is in Cardiff, Maindee is in Newport and there was no such  location as Maindy Jcn on the GWR/WR.   Gaer Tunnel is on the line between Gaer Jcn and Park Jcn - not on the SWML; itt was originally double line but was singled quite a while back so could hardly be mistaken for the tunnel in the film.

 

Yes, quite right Mike, Maindee not Maindy.  Hillfield is the correct name for the tunnel I referred to as Gaer, which is what we always called it, rightly or wrongly.  The 'proper' Gaer Tunnel was what we referred to as Park Tunnel.  I must make the point of distinguishing between the correct names and the vernacular we used in these posts.  We distinguished between the 'old' tunnel on the relief lines and the 'new' tunnel on the mains.

 

Time was when the train could have theoretically been routed via Maindy in Cardiff, on the TVR, there was once a halt there as well as the North Road bridge, then through Radyr, up the Big Hill to Penrhos, through Caerphilly and on to the Brecon & Merthyr to Machen and Bassaleg Jc, thence via Park Jc and the 'proper' Gaer Tunnel, though why anybody would want to engage in such a tour is another question.  Maindy Halt, and Woodville Road Halt, were served by the 'Maindy Flyer', an auto service, and the kiddies' cycling club at neaby Maindy Stadium which I was a member of in my own childhood took the name.  It's best known alumnus is Gareth Thomas, Olympic Gold Medallist and Tour de France winner, and a bit faster than me...

 

Maindy, a corruption of Maendy, Welsh for 'stone house', is a fairly common place name in South Wales, and as such demands more attention than I paid to it's correct spelling in order to narrow down the candidates to the one you are trying to specifically describe.

 

The North & West is not the obvious choice for routing a loco from Woodham's in Barry to the SVR, as it is a fairly long way around and there are single track sections on the Colwall Jc-Worester section of this routing should anything go wrong, like a hotbox; Gloucester/Worcester seems easier, but no doubt the route was chosen for pathing reasons due to the slow progress of the train. 

[Rivercider]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

 

Yes, quite right Mike, Maindee not Maindy.  Hillfield is the correct name for the tunnel I referred to as Gaer, which is what we always called it, rightly or wrongly.  The 'proper' Gaer Tunnel was what we referred to as Park Tunnel.  I must make the point of distinguishing between the correct names and the vernacular we used in these posts.  We distinguished between the 'old' tunnel on the relief lines and the 'new' tunnel on the mains.

 

 

I enjoyed my trips over to the Newport area taking photos in the late 1970s and early 1980s. There was always plenty of activity.

 

Looking west off the end of the platform at Newport. Stratford silver roof 47363 approaches on the up relief line with a loaded petroleum train, the east end of the two tunnel can be seen in the background. 17/7/80.

 

The west end of the two tunnel at Gaer Junction where I spent happy hours taking photos. 45034 emerges from the old tunnel on the down relief line with a vacuum braked freight service. 1/12/81

 

On a few occasions I also walked over the Usk to take photos from the multi-storey car park adjacent to Maindee West Junction.

 

 

One of the named WR 47s 47088 Samson heads west at Maindee West Junction with a tank train. probably fuel tanks for Canton. 10/2/82 

 

 

cheers

 

 

[Siberian Snooper]

I caught up with this amazing thread, when I was on holiday, on the wrong side of the pond  and I have now caught up again.

 

It's amazing how much working practices have changed in the last 50 years, not all for the good, but most have been.

 

Thanks Johnster, for your amazing thread.

 

 

[The Johnster]

Tx for your encouraging comments, Siberian, glad you are enjoying it!

 

The west end of Newport station, looking towards the tunnels, is particularly photogenic and against-the-light shots in the afternoon or evening sun are always worth the effort.  I agree that the 45ton tanks at Maindee look like the Canton fuel supply, but of course it is difficult to be certain; looks like a really uninspiring day weather-wise!  The up tanks behind the silver-roofed 47 could be the Kingsbury, which ran via Gloucester, or the West Drayton, which carried Avgas for the dwindling number of piston-engined aircraft using Heathrow, but in my time still loaded to ten x TEAs.  We worked this train to Swindon for relief, and on one occasion were held up at Patchway while the Bristol Fire Brigade put out a grass fire on the embankment, 1975 or 6, both were hot dry summers.  Avgas is probably not what you'd want to haul through a proximate conflagration, but it didn't warrant barrier wagons so couldn't have been all that scary...

 

45 034 is on what looks like a class 7, and has probably come down from the Gloucester direction.  Not certain but I think she's possibly just entering the 40mph shunt to access the down main, in which case she'll have had the top set of 'feathers' on the tunnel exit signal, routed to the up main.  You read these signals 'top to bottom = left to right', so a plain aspect took you to the down relief, the top took you to the down main through the 40mph 'ladder' shunt, the horizantal middle took you to the down main through the 25mph shunt which starts beneath the first van, and the bottom feathers took you through that and then on to the Park Jc line through Gaer Tunnel proper, and thence the Western Valley or B & M to Machen Quarry.  If she's not, and is heading to the down relief, the destination is most likely Alexandra Dock or Cardiff Tidal, though 'Peaks' were increasiingly common downline from Cardiff on Margam and even Briton Ferry traffic in the 80s, having been unusual in my time.  Control didn't like sending them down there as west of Canton nobody traction signed them.

 

Note the two-way working through the 'new' tunnel on the up & down mains.  The feathers on the Maindee Jc signal behind the train in the last photo read, top to bottom left to right, to the up N,A,&H main and the up Maindee loop respectively, an aspect without feathers indicating the up SWML main. 

 

Newport Panel, my favourite signalmen (!), had to be concious of pathing through High Street and the tunnel on the reliefs or any traffic routed to them, as 90 wagon length trains were allowed on the up and down reliefs between STJ and Alex. Dock, and these had to have a clear run through High Street and the tunnel in order to avoid fouling junctions and sections in the Maindee, High Street, and Gaer Jc areas, but had to be brought to a stand at the next signal along to the one at the tunnel mouth, which held the calling on signal for entering AD yard.

 

The Newport Tunnels required lit lamps 24/7, and the majority of my work needed lamps to be lit somewhere along their route; these on the up side of Cardiff, Porthkerry on the Vale of Glamorgan, or Llangyfelach on the Swansea District, and Caerphilly.  'The Tunnel' (Severn Tunnel itself, named in the same way as the Forth Bridge is 'The Bridge'), Patchway, Sodbury, and Alderton needed lamps lit as well, as did Box, and IIRC Oldfield in Bath.  Box was particularly interesting, not only for the alleged sunrise sightline on Brunel's birthday* but for the bare rock faces; it was only brick lined for a relatively short distance in from either portal, a detail that Doctor Dionysius Lardner failed to pick up on in his criticisms of it.  Of course it made just as much difference to the safety of the tunnel as the gradient did, Lardner was an idiot...

 

 

*I never saw this, though met people who swore they had, but one Monday morning working the first Bristol through the Severn Tunnel, with no traffic for some hours previous, it was possible to see a tiny white dot in the distance as we cleared the bottom vertical curve, the English portal some two and a half miles away.  Had some discussion with the driver about whether or not it would get big enough for us to squeeze through when we got there (we managed, in the event).  Normally the tunnel, well enough ventilated, was too full of fumes to allow this sort of thing.

[Rivercider]

16 hours ago, The Johnster said:

 

 

45 034 is on what looks like a class 7, and has probably come down from the Gloucester direction.  Not certain but I think she's possibly just entering the 40mph shunt to access the down main, in which case she'll have had the top set of 'feathers' on the tunnel exit signal, routed to the up main.  You read these signals 'top to bottom = left to right', so a plain aspect took you to the down relief, the top took you to the down main through the 40mph 'ladder' shunt, the horizantal middle took you to the down main through the 25mph shunt which starts beneath the first van, and the bottom feathers took you through that and then on to the Park Jc line through Gaer Tunnel proper, and thence the Western Valley or B & M to Machen Quarry.  If she's not, and is heading to the down relief, the destination is most likely Alexandra Dock or Cardiff Tidal, though 'Peaks' were increasiingly common downline from Cardiff on Margam and even Briton Ferry traffic in the 80s, having been unusual in my time.  Control didn't like sending them down there as west of Canton nobody traction signed them.

 

Note the two-way working through the 'new' tunnel on the up & down mains.  The feathers on the Maindee Jc signal behind the train in the last photo read, top to bottom left to right, to the up N,A,&H main and the up Maindee loop respectively, an aspect without feathers indicating the up SWML main. 

 

Newport Panel, my favourite signalmen (!), had to be concious of pathing through High Street and the tunnel on the reliefs or any traffic routed to them, as 90 wagon length trains were allowed on the up and down reliefs between STJ and Alex. Dock, and these had to have a clear run through High Street and the tunnel in order to avoid fouling junctions and sections in the Maindee, High Street, and Gaer Jc areas, but had to be brought to a stand at the next signal along to the one at the tunnel mouth, which held the calling on signal for entering AD yard.

 

T

 

 

Yes it does look like 45034 is starting to cross from the relief to the main line. Here are a few more photos taken from  my visits to Gaer Junction, this time looking west towards Cardiff in the down direction.

 

A general view looking west. The relief lines are on the left. On the up main 33005 approaches with a Cardiff Central to Crewe service. On the right the line up through Gaer Tunnel towards Park Junction and Ebbw Vale had recently been singled. 19/5/82

 

When I spent time at Gaer JUnction it was not unusual for a freight service to be held on the down relief waiting access into A D Junction Yard, or the docks. 

A short distance haul of export coil from BSC Llanwern to Newport Docks for export is on the down relief at Gaer Junction behind 37176. This was one of the last revenue earning traffic flows to be conveyed in unfitted vehicles, these were coil C and coil J (TOPS code KCO or KJO). In the background the rear of a train of coal in 21t minfits (TOPS MDV) is coming down from Park Junction, probably coking coal for BSC Llanwern.1/12/81

 

The steel coil  train was held waiting to go into the docks, and I was able to walk to the next bridge, which I think is the Cardiff Road bridge,  to photograph it again.  

 

Waiting access into either A D Junction yard or Newport Docks 37176 stands on the down relief at Gaer Junction. 1/12/81.

 

Happy days.

cheers

[Welchester]

On 05/05/2023 at 21:33, The Johnster said:

Box was particularly interesting, not only for the alleged sunrise sightline on Brunel's birthday* but for the bare rock faces; it was only brick lined for a relatively short distance in from either portal, a detail that Doctor Dionysius Lardner failed to pick up on in his criticisms of it.  Of course it made just as much difference to the safety of the tunnel as the gradient did, Lardner was an idiot...

 

 

*I never saw this, though met people who swore they had, but one Monday morning working the first Bristol through the Severn Tunnel, with no traffic for some hours previous, it was possible to see a tiny white dot in the distance as we cleared the bottom vertical curve, the English portal some two and a half miles away.  Had some discussion with the driver about whether or not it would get big enough for us to squeeze through when we got there (we managed, in the event).  Normally the tunnel, well enough ventilated, was too full of fumes to allow this sort of thing.

 

The Grauniad, in typically even handed fashion concludes that either it does or it doesn't.

[The Johnster]

Hooray, we've just discovered Schroedinger's Tunnel!

[Wickham Green too]

12 hours ago, Welchester said:

The Grauniad, in typically even handed fashion concludes that either it does or it doesn't.

Let's face it - the sun shines through the tunnel on SOMEBODY's birthday .................................... as, no doubt, it does through other tunnels with a similar alignment. ( Maybe IKB chose to build a railway from London in the east to Bristol in the west so he could dig a tunnel in that direction.)

[The Johnster]

The usual explanation is that it is rooted in Brunel’s interest in Egyptology, which was shared with his father.  Egyptian monuments have stellar and solar alignments and the pyramids feature shafts aligned to stars such as Sirius, presumably

intended as conduits to the afterlife for the Pharoah’s spirit.  
 

It would be typical of his character and sense of showmanship to pull something like this off; cf  the stunt at Maidenhead Bridge, the arches of which Lardner reckoned were too flat and would collapse when the support of the wooden scaffolding was removed.  At the official opening, in front of the gathered crowd and reporters (and Lardner) the mooring ropes holding this scaffolding were cut and the framework allowed to drift downstream on the current, having only ever been put there for show with a small gap between it and the underside of the arches and never having supported anything. 
 

This bridge is still in use on the relief lines and carries traffic with up to 25ton axle loads in each direction.  So much for Dr. Dionysius Lardner!

Edited May 9, 2023 by The Johnster