Possible reopening of the Wye Valley Railway.

Returning to the original topic:-

I walked the trackbed of the Wye Valley with friends, as far as is possible, southbound from Monmouth in June.

Working back the other way, between Wye Valley Junction and Tidenham tunnel, the trackbed is completely overgrown. We gave up and took to the roads. The tunnel itself has been recently been fitted with stockade type fencing. At the northern end one of the panels has been removed which allows access. We worked our way through carefully(!) with a couple of flashlights. There was a couple of inches of water in the middle, and I seem to recall a small rock-fall near the ventilation shaft. When we got to the south portal we found the stockade fence totally intact..... PANIC! Fortunately one of the bolts at the top of one section was loose and we managed to undo it to get out.

If Sustrans are thinking of re-opening the tunnel for cyclists then it will be present quite a challenge. It is nearly 1200 yards long, unlined, curved and wet.

The furthest north you can get from Chepstow is Brockweir bridge, about 3/4 mile north of Tintern. Immediately beyond the bridge the A466 has been widened and has taken the formation which then passes through private land. I tried a few years ago to reach the formation north of Brockweir and wrecked a pair of waterproofs in the process.

 

Oops.... forgot about that..... ISTR reading seeing some artists impressions for a Sustrans sponsored replacement.....

 

Living in Talgarth, Powys for many years until recently and having to travel up to Anglesey regularly I became very familiar with the Mid Wales Railway. Absolutely stunning but sadly a difficult line to reinstate as a tourist attraction in any viable way due to too much redevelopment, lack of suitable locos etc. Someone could throw millions at it and find it would need an annual subsidy. If I could wave my magic wand I would want to reconnect with NR at Builth Road and head as far north or south as possible.

Regarding the New Radnor branch, more power to Titley Junction's elbow. I helped out there a couple of times during their private open days and they have a beautiful station there. New Radnor Station was abandoned with station building and goods shed still intact when I visited it about 5 years ago but planning permission was being sought to level it for a caravan site. Kington would still be an interesting proposition, if only as a diesel only feeder to the Marches line.

The Wye Valley is indeed beautiful but I think that too much has been removed to make it a worthwhile proposition. I'm still working out if I would want to cycle the length of Tidenham tunnel (which I have walked) and I'm an experienced cyclist. Anyway, let's not crowd out the Dean Forest Railway as they are achieving great things and deserve support.

If you want to throw money at something, buy out the Brecon Mountain Railway, convert to standard gauge, bridge the Heads of the Valleys road to link to the extant Taff-Bargoed branch and then head north down Glyn Collwyn to Talybont on Usk. That is probably as near to Brecon that any railway will get - unless you want to try and head north east from the remaining railhead on the Neath and Brecon line at Onllwyn. Or south west from Hereford.

Ah, I can dream.

 

Yes the tunnel could really do with a proper structural survey, which I feel would result in a goodly amount of drilling and bolting in the naked rock sections. Also the brickwork on the Wye end of the tunnel could really use a bit of work, as I seem to remember a fair bit of masonry being dislodged and on the trackbed.

Overgrown would definitely be the word I would use. With any luck it will be easier to get in and along this section to take pictures this winter when some of the vegetation has died back.

For anyone who has an interest, please get in contact at wyevalleyheritage@googlemail.com or join us at 'Rebuilding the Wye Valley Railway' on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=142634657218&ref=mf

Cheers!

Edward

 

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Good luck with that.

 

Who mentioned narrow gauge? Why are narrow gauge railways 'toy trains'? There are plenty of very successful narrow gauge railways around today, and plenty more were used for commuting in years gone by. Some of the current railways may even be used for commuting for all I (or you) know.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha - good luck with that....I GUARANTEE that you will NEVER receive a £100 million grant.

It's very easy to talk about compulsory purchase orders and Acts of Parliament, but do you actually know what's involved in these processes; the costs, the time involved and the professionals you would need to employ?


Keith

PS: Please do not type your messages in bold - it doesn't make them any more important and just makes it hard to read. I would also suggest that you get someone to proof read your messages/video captions before you make them public - you will never be taken seriously by any Government body if you submit plans with poor spelling and grammar.

 

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I think Chepstow to Monmouth would be pretty far down most peoples list of routes that would benefit from a £100,000,000 investment in terms of a cost/benefit analysis - taking traffic off roads, pressure off existing routes etc. But,as they say, God loves a tryer!

 

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Oh dear. I hardly think that this site is biased - almost everything on here is to do with railways and most of those discussions are regarding preserved railways.

I think it's more likely that you came here expecting applause and thousands of pounds of donations, but instead you got a short sharp shock in reality.
Welcome to the real world.

If you can't handle a few hard questions on an internet forum, do you really think you'll be able to cope with hours of intense grilling from councils/government bodies?
Maybe you could form a link with the L1/Southern L1/V3/J39 loco rebuild projects....I'm sure you'll have a fleet of locos running on the full line by Christmas....


Keith

PS: Regarding your absolute certainty that you will get a £100 million grant, you might not have noticed, but the country is in the middle of a period of austerity and there is absolutely no way that the government would give out that kind of money for what is (in UK terms) a relatively small project - as someone else mentioned, the cost/benefit ratio would simply not stack up. To the best of my knowledge the Welsh Highland Railway holds the record for the largest grant received to date, and that was nowhere near £100 million! (£5 million comes to mind, but I could be wrong).
Oh and you still didn't explain why narrow gauge railways can't be used for commuting or why they are 'toy trains'

 

I think the whole idea is pie in the sky ,or should it be "Wye in the sky " .


Keith

 

there is nothing wrong with the tunnel apart from a couple of bricks falling from the side and not the roof, in fact the tunnel is in really good condition, i have video footage taken the whole length of the tunnel, i have soken to the people who live nearby and NONE want pushbikes or toy trains such as narrow gauge but dont mnd standard gauge,if pushbikes start then they will blockade the tunnel, and sustrans DO NOT own bilson bridge either, sustrans are just a bunch of sqautters

 

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