NINETEEN SIXTY TWO – PART 87
An Evening Trip from Brecon to Hereford
Michael L. Roach
Despite being 3½ minutes late at one stage (Llangorse Lake Halt) the 4.10pm reached Hereford just before 5.52pm more than 7 minutes early, and despite a signal check at Brecon Curve. The same engine and set of coaches took me back to Brecon at 7.35pm which was the last train of the day Monday to Friday. 3706 ran bunker-first on the return trip and reached Brecon at 9.11pm. I never left the platform at Hereford other than to have a cup of tea in the refreshment room; 6d from memory, or 2½p in decimal. The 7.35pm left Hereford with 20 passengers aboard in the four coaches. Two passengers alighted at Kinnersley, the first stop, and two boarded. After that nobody boarded the train and passengers alighted at most stations to Talgarth but from there for the last 9 miles there were just two of us left on the train to alight at Brecon.
During my travels I would pass through, board, leave and change trains at Hereford several times in the next five years before the end of steam. The accompanying photographs show the interesting steam engines to be seen along the Welsh Marches line at the time. The former LMS locos were regular sights at Hereford heading south as far as Pontypool Road, Cardiff or Bristol depending what type of train they were hauling. Loco-hauled trains are still a regular sight at Hereford on freight trains carrying such commodities as cement, logs, steel and stone along the Welsh Marches line, past mechanical boxes and signalling – including two of the most historic boxes on the network which will celebrate their 150th birthday next year in 2025.
Trevor Tremethick
A bit out of area and a bit late I know, but this was last Saturday on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway. The newly completed 'Grange', No. 6880 Betton Grange, waits to leave Toddington with the 1055 Broadway-Cheltenham Racecourse on June 1st 2024.
I am not normally a great lover of 'new-build' locomotives, but this 'Grange' ticks the boxes for me, being constructed from parts of withdrawn locomotives (as the originals were on the GWR) and given the next name on the sequence had any more been built back in the day. The main thing is, have they got the dimensions of the steam chest correct - critical for the 'Grange'? I believe so. Anyway, she looks and sounds wonderful, and takes me back to 1959 with 6800, 6805, 23, 24 etc.....
Best wishes
Trevor T
The Granges bring back many memories for us living in Cornwall
Sunday Services
Jon Hird
Saturdays Specials
Clive Smith
Okehampton and Meldon
Paul Barlow
A few shots from Okehampton area today. The line to Meldon is now in a shocking state.
Kind regards
Paul