Tintern Monmouthshire - Photos and trackplans wanted!

[Barry Ten]

On 30/12/2023 at 19:24, Captain Kernow said:

I can only echo this comment and would have made it myself, had Welchester not beat me to it. This book is absolutely excellent and if you live in Tintern, I would have thought that - once you have checked it out - that a copy should occupy a permanent place on your bookshelf!

 

 

That double-page colour photo of the whole station is, in my view, one of the very best railway photographs ever taken.

[Michael Hodgson]

7 minutes ago, Welchester said:

When the Diocese of Monmouth was created in 1921, one of the madder schemes for a cathedral (before St Woolos, Newport was chosen) was to put a roof on Tintern Abbey.

 

 

 

Yes, it'll be nice when its finished

 

[Barry Ten]

I did a painting based on the 1937 photo, which should give an idea of the setting:

 

[Michael Hodgson]

That's an interesting angle to view the station from.  Is that a camping coach at the bottom of the yard?  

No doubt it would be a popular location for one.

That train appears to be shunting the yard - which would be a lot easier to do from a train going the other way.

Edited January 1 by Michael Hodgson

[Barry Ten]

It's a camping coach, yes.

[Welchester]

1 hour ago, Barry Ten said:

It's a camping coach, yes.

 

And the photograph is the only colour shot I've ever seen of one in Great Western days.

Edited January 1 by Welchester
Clarified time period.

[KeithMacdonald]

Based on the same map as mentioned by @Fair Oak Junction

 

[KeithMacdonald]

On 31/12/2023 at 14:13, DCB said:

The Village was made famous by the Tintern Net system of communication invented by Peter Kay and used extensively in Yorkshire.

 

Also featured in the news report by Alan Deadlycoat (Voice of the balls), from when he was on a bus going past the famous ruin, sitting behind a couple of Northern Ladies (eh oop). The two ladies were arguing whether it was a church, abbey or cathedral. One was adamant it was an abbey, but was't sure what it was called. Alan Deadlycoat, trying to be helpful, lent forward and said "Tintern Abbey". The woman turned round, sharpish-like, and indignantly huffed "Tis!"

[Miss Prism]

The runround in the old goods shed plan is unusual.

 

[The Johnster]

6 hours ago, Welchester said:

When the Diocese of Monmouth was created in 1921, one of the madder schemes for a cathedral (before St Woolos, Newport was chosen) was to put a roof on Tintern Abbey.

 

'Yeah, coz that's all it needs, right, chuck a bit of a roof on it and we're ready to go, services next Sunday, baptisms, weddings, & funerals by appointment.  They'd still be patching it up now, more than a century later!  Cheaper to build a new one; they made two in Liverpool and one isn't finished yet.  As mad ideas go, this one's up there with the Manchester & Milford...

 

Is it even owned by the Diocese?; my understanding (which might be wrong) is that Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and appropriated the properties to the Crown (himself, how convenient) and, now, to whoever he sold 'em off to and whatever has happend to them since.  The Franciscan friary in Cardiff was bought by the locally powerful Herbert family and rebuilt as a posh house, still remaining in a ruined state in my childhood, now the site of the Pearl Assurance office block but I've no idea who owns the land; the Dominicans' edifice a few hundred yards away was demolished, but the wall foundations and footprint are visible, and the herb garden has been restored (Castle Grounds).  The land is owned by the Butes, but ceded to Cardiff City Council in 1948 for public leisure usage in perpetuity. 

 

We're drifting, but I think that's permissible at the end of a holiday period over which time has blurred a little and reality is an increasingly vague concept.  Tintern will make a fine model, surprise nobody's though of it before, scenic breaks have to be invented though the southern end can be the tunnel if you've a bit of space. 

 

Newport Division had a fine selection of auto trailers to work it in the early BR period, and the A31 (K's kit but capable of being worked up) is viable, including the plated toplight version.  Not sure about Diagram N but not impossible.  Both types of railcar worked over the branch as well.

 

 

Edited January 1 by The Johnster

[KeithMacdonald]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

Yeah, coz that's all it needs, right, chuck a bit of a roof on it and we're ready to go, services next Sunday, baptisms, weddings, & funerals by appointment. 

 

Maybe get a local double-glazing company to be the main sponsor and fit new windows?

The green carpet might need mowing.

[Nearholmer]

A few years after the line had completely closed, maybe 1969, I went on a school outdoor pursuits week, based at a hostel in Llandogo, doing walks all about the area. At that stage the station was simply abandoned, but one of our check sheets of questions to be answered at each ‘point of interest’ on each walk required that we ask the station master what unusual type of train worked on the line. Half a century and more on, I still don’t know the answer!

 

 

Edited January 1 by Nearholmer

[Michael Hodgson]

48 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Maybe get a local double-glazing company to be the main sponsor and fit new windows?

The green carpet might need mowing.

It does get mowed regularly.  I think it's the Ministry of Works, or whatever it's called these days; probably the Welsh government now.

For years it had scaffolding up so it did look as though they were planning to put a roof on!  However my photo was taken in 2010 after they'd finished the repointing or whatever they were doing to make it safe.  I seem to recall archaeologists poking about in the grounds too.

[DCB]

5 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

The runround in the old goods shed plan is unusual.

 

Very practical saves pulling everything back through the goods shed after loading / unloading. Wouldn't mind betting locos were not permitted to enter the goods shed. Cinderford had such a notice and the only run round in later days was through the goods shed.  Lack of joined up thinking is not exclusively a 21st century phenomenon.    Like many small goods shed I suspect most shunting was done by a couple of burly porters pushing the wagons.

2 hours ago, The Johnster said:

 

'Yeah, coz that's all it needs, right, chuck a bit of a roof on it and we're ready to go, services next Sunday, baptisms, weddings, & funerals by appointment. 

Same with Stone Henge, That just needs new double glazing panels and a new wooden roof and the Druids would be back in business

[Michael Hodgson]

7 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

A few years after the line had completely closed, maybe 1969, I went on a school outdoor pursuits week, based at a hostel in Llandogo, doing walks all about the area. At that stage the station was simply abandoned, but one of our check sheets of questions to be answered at each ‘point of interest’ on each walk required that we ask the station master what unusual type of train worked on the line. Half a century and more on, I still don’t know the answer!

 

 

Probably depends what you mean by unusual - flying bananas?

[The Johnster]

3 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

t does get mowed regularly.  I think it's the Ministry of Works, or whatever it's called these days; probably the Welsh government now.

Sheep, I think, but looking at some of our AMs I can understand the confusion…

[Izzy]

I’ve enjoyed my couple of visits to Tintern over the years, a nice place to visit. The station would make a nice model, but I’m just wondering why there was felt the need to have three platform faces as you might for a small junction station. Perhaps for the tourist specials they apparently ran which stayed in it, hence the trapping at both ends re the SRS plan.

 

Bob

[Caterham7]

Thanks for all the replies - and suggestions. Most helpful.

 

My working area is 3.8m x 2.6m.

 

The plan is to have Tintern Station on one long side, compressed a bit to use the Brockweir bridge and the Tintern Tunnel as 'scenic breaks'.

 

Then on the two shorter lengths I plan to build Tintern Quarry on one board and the Wireworks on the other.

 

As far as traffic is concerned my thoughts are that - taking liberty with time periods, I have two industrial sites to generate traffic plus the draw of the tourism to generate many train movements in the 'Summer' which is when the layout will be set. If I wanted to really stretch fact to fiction I could introduce LMS trains as they operated in the adjacent valley (Blaenavon) and could possibly have secured running rights to Tintern for northbound traffic.

 

Once I've worked out the track plan I'll post it here.

 

 

[Michael Hodgson]

3 hours ago, Caterham7 said:

The plan is to have Tintern Station on one long side, compressed a bit to use the Brockweir bridge and the Tintern Tunnel as 'scenic breaks'.

 

Then on the two shorter lengths I plan to build Tintern Quarry on one board and the Wireworks on the other.

 

I wouldn't fancy trying to model the Abbey!

 

I think I'd look at taking rather more liberties with compression, omitting the Quarry and Brockweir Bridge (and a few stops) in order to try and squeeze in Penallt Halt/Penallt Viaduct/Redbrook Station (two of the very closest stations in the country, so very compact) and the nearby narrow-gauge inclined tramroad.

https://forestofdeanhistory.org.uk/learn-about-the-forest/redbrook-incline/

[The Johnster]

Blaenavon is a bit further over than 'the next valley'; the Vale of Usk and the Wentwood hills lie between; the Midland influence in the Forest of Dean, the Wye's eastern flank, was much nearer.  LMS stock is certainly likely to have turned up on excursions, but hauled by GW locos.

 

The abbey certainly needs to have a presence, how could you not include it on a model of Tintern, but it would be a major task to model and take a good bit of space; it probably needs to feature on a photographic backscene.

[GRASinBothell]

Penallt Halt and Redbrook must be one of the very few pairs of stations that were actually closer together than the scale distance between stations on most model railways!. In 1958 (the last Summer of the line), we spent a couple of weeks in a cottage in Penallt. At the end of the holiday, my mother and sister went home (to Bath) by train, which they caught at Penallt Halt. I, unfortunately, went home with my father in the car. Can't have been too many people after that catching a train there!

Gordon

[Caterham7]

Thanks for the replies - I've managed to adjust the space available to just over 6 metres, so hopefully less compression.

 

I won't be including the Abbey - thankfully the Station is far enough away from the Abbey and Tintern itself that it won't have to feature.

[GRASinBothell]

I guess that's a positive side of the railway builders' habit of siting stations well outside the town they purport to serve, that we don't have to model too many buildings beside our stations! Of course, if they'd built them nearer (or, heaven forfend, actually in) those towns, more of them might have stayed open!

Gordon

[CEINEWYDD]

I guess that the colour photo in the latest GWS Echo (no.244) is the same one as referred to in the Black Dwarf/lightmoor book.  If that is the quality of pics in the book, then I will have a good look at that book when I am at Doncy next weekend. 

[ekrafsur]

Brilliant idea to model this, and also to include the quarry and wire works. Please provide updates on your progress.