A long weekend in South Wales 2010

Following Yorkshire in 2008 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/68537-a-long-weekend-in-yorkshire-2008/ and Lancashire 2009 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/68611-a-long-weekend-in-lancashire-2009/ we decided upon South Wales for 2010, most of us had not 'done' the branches to the far West, and a couplke of us wanted to visit the Gwilli and Teffi railways.

Day one 21st May 2010 (alas no photos) was Paddington via Swindon and Kemble to Gloucester where we switched to day one of our 'Explore South Wales Flexi Rover (4in8), to take the trip along the Severn to Chepstow for a late lunch at the Ship Inn by the river. Refreshed we progressed (via another change of train at Swansea) to our base for the next 4 nights, Carmarthen.

Day two saw us heading to the wild west, visiting Milford Haven

and Fishguard Harbour

a stop for Lunch at Whitland allowed me to watch the token handover from a train that had come from Pembroke Dock,

which is where we headed next

Day three saw us heading for the Valley Lines around Cardiff - here the group split as we all wanted to visit different lines (or go shopping in Cardiff)

I went to Merthyr Tydfil

then back to Abercyon

and up to Aberdare

I then decended to kock off Cardiff Bay

and Penarth

before catching a train to Barry, where I could inspect this standard 4 looking rather sorry for itself, whilst I waited for a train around to Barry Island

I didn't get off the train at Barry Island - the platform was heaving with people wanting to get back to Cardiff, so no photo there.

Day 4 was a Sunday, which meant limited trains on the mainline, and therefore the choices were limited, 2 of us wanted to visit Gwilli and Teffi, and we had deliberately chosen a weekend when both were running, the others chose to try at get a train to Cardiff, then Lydney for the Dean Forrest railway - alas their train was delayed, so they missed the only connection that would have got them to Lydney - I *think* they ended up in Hereford, but I forget... the two remaining members of the party piled into a taxi, and headed for the Teffi Railway

which is modest, but has a short run along a former standard guage trackbed, and has a couple of stuffed & Mounted standard guage locos, including this Sentinal

We then called the taxi again to get us back to the Gwilli railway (note if you every try this yourselves - pre-agree a price - the Teffi is a fair old way from Carmarthen!

We only just made it in time, but the staff saw us arrive and held the train - it was a lunchtime dining service which was quite well filled, but we doubled the number of non-dining passengers crammed into a mk1 SK attached to the rear of the train.

We didn't have very high expectations of ether of these preserved railways, but were pleasently surprised by both. On our return to Bronwydd Arms we were invited into the singnal box for a look around, and then escorted to look at the rolling stock stored on the extention, whist discussing their plans for Carmarthen. If you get a chance - visit.

Even having crammed two preaerved railways in, we still had the end of the afternoon free, I chose to take a short trip down to Burry Port

to have a look at the harbour, and wander along the beach

Our final day saw us take the train to Llanelli, to change trains for the 'Heart of Wales' lin via Llandrindod to Cranen Arms, before changing trains again to reach Ludlow in time for a late lunch.

Having had lunch, a short stroll around town, we returned to the station to catch a train to Hereford, and from there to Worcester and home via the Cotswolds and Oxford

Jon

I wonder how often the 'portable' end-loading ramp at Pembroke Dock is used? It was put there to offload Army vehicles for Castlemartin Ranges, I believe.

Glad to see the dredger still operates out of Llanelli dock; the last 'proper' boat to work out of that estuary for almost fifty years.