Back to work.

Thursday in the greenhouse.

 A day spent on the P2 dagger boards, made by Neal, with knotting fluid.

 

 

Neal has been very busy cutting out P2 dagger boards for the canopy. Here they are, in the raw.

Now starts the lengthy process of treating and painting them. 

The first process is the application of knotting fluid. There are two piles like this, plus another of sundries. They were all done during the day. 

 

 

Next would be the application of a fluid to prevent (slow down) decay of the wood. For budget reasons we have had to go for raw pinewood, so we will do our best to protect it as best as possible. The same process was used on the staircases.

 

 

It was a long day, but we got there.

In between, we had a look at the action on the station. It was 2807 first thing, with the blue class 47 hovering (as it were) on P2.

 

 2807 was looking good, seen here just prior to setting off.

 On the unloading road was coach W5023 - not sure what it was doing there. It looks recently outshopped

 

 

 

Friday in the greenhouse.

 A second day, facing the quivering pile of dagger boards that Neal has cut for Broadway.

 

 

On arrival first thing at Toddington, we found W5023 from the unloading road about to be transported somewhere by Allelys.

The where was easy to ascertain - we asked the driver. It's Quainton Road.

The why came from a correspondent - it's going to be used for a filming job, and should be back with us in a fortnight or so.

It's all go around here....  

 

 

Then on to the day's task, which was the follow up to the knotting of the dagger boards.

 

 

We had a lively discussion with Neal whether it's 180 units, or nearer 400. 

Whatever the answer, it's an awful lot of them. 

So now the job is to apply fungicide, to prevent rotting. This treatment should make the pine boards last longer. 

 

 

There are always a lot of comings and goings at Toddington, so we don't pay too much attention, but a Mk1 on a long trailer did make us look. 

We spent a whole day on this pile of 184 boards. Painting them is a lot slower than knotting them, but we got through it at the end. Sadly, there is a second pile... There was also talk of a second coat, even a third one. Eek ! 

We had the pleasure of the company of Neal during the day. He's still drilling holes.... 84 holes the other day in the purlins. Doing the holes at the manufacturing stage will save time during the assembly part.

In the picture he is drilling different holes - these are in sets of junction plates that he made. They will join the purlins together, a bit like fishplates.

In other news, it is becoming apparent that we won't be ready to assemble the canopy on site at Broadway this year. That's a bit of a blow, but there are positive elements to the change as well. The reason for the delay is that we are simply not quite ready yet. We had pencilled it in for November, and that is only just over a month away. We still have to paint the whole structure in undercoat, complete the manufacture of the three supporting columns (chiefly galvanising them) and complete the pit for the foundations at the bottom of the stairs, and fill it with concrete.

It now looks like the assembly on site will start next September. Bear with !

On the bricks front there is some progress. There is renewed contact, and we have been promised a quote, based on the sample bricks we took down to the works. 

 

 

Sunday in the greenhouse.

Same job as Friday, treatment of countless dagger boards, now into their second coat.

Any excuse for a little break from the job is a good one, so we walked over to the platform when we heard what sounded like one of the Sulzer engined diesels arrive. 

 

Foremarke Hall was getting ready to head out, and the driver was enjoying a quick, last cup of tea from his can.

This view along the tracks is one of our favourite ones. The line seems to go on forever.....

Walking round Foremarke Hall, it became apparent that it was more that just the class 24, it was the class 20 as well. According to a correspondent, these two used to be allocated together at Eastfield, Glasgow.

 

Once the steamer had left, the pair ran round, and prepared to set off for Broadway. One spluttering, the other whistling.

 

 

 

After both trains had cleared the section, the yard shunter came to collect a rake of wagons, ready for next weekend's event.

A while later it came back with one wagon.

This picture shows it returning from that job. 

 

 

 

 

We went back to the painting job. We've always got our ears tuned for unusual sounds (A400s, old Bentley, Norton cafe racers etc...) and on Sunday it was a sound we hadn't heard before. 

It was a US army truck, a 'deuce and a half'. What prickled our ears was the sound of its turbocharged 7.8L six in line engine, with a characteristic whistle from the exhaust.

 

We managed to catch it on film as it left, so here goes:

We stopped the film at the top of the drive. That gives a shorter film that Blogger will upload; longer ones can't be posted and have to go via a link to YouTube.

Had we filmed a little longer, you would have heard it loudly belting along Stow Road and up the hill to the Cotswolds Edge. 

 

 

Near the end of the day we took this shot of Foremarke Hall arriving from Broadway. What a lovely scene, and one that we have created entirely by ourselves over the years since 1981: Platforms, tracks, footbridge, GWR Hall, water tower and waiting room rebuilt.

Hats off to the members of the GWSR ! 

 

 

Tuesday in the greenhouse

Treatment with fungicide of the dagger boards completed, about 400 boards, coated twice. Phew!

Next will be a coat of primer for them all. 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A full complement of three, and Paul was raring to go. We don't know what pills he's on, but he just could not wait to get the driveway lamp post up.

We humoured him, arranged for a Telehandler, Dave D as driver, and some slings.

 

 

After some wriggling past the tower scaffold in the background, we managed to extract the lamp post from its resting place beside the signal box. 

This one was one of a pair donated by a supporter, from the Frome area. It's twin is already up, at the bottom of the P2 steps. Now this one will go on the island by the station entrance, where one used to stand. 

 

 

Dave carefully manoeuvered the post up the drive, over to the little traffic island between our two gates.

In 1905 there was a pair of wooden gates behind the Telehandler (the cast iron gate posts are still in situ) and these closed off the goods yard.

The right hand side was actually open (we have fenced it off) and led to a fenced area around the entrance to the station. A lamp post stood in the middle. 

 

 

The lamp post went down without too much trouble. The post is a No.2, so 8ft high, with a ladder arm. It is unusual in that it has no casting below ground (usually a 2ft extension) but sits on a concrete pad with 4 bolts. This was a later design alteration, but the above ground look, with the Acanthus leaves, is unchanged. 

 Here it is, in place. It still has to be adjusted to be perfectly vertical.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After being lifted on to its bolts, Dave and Paul inserted shims underneath until it was vertical. Then they filled the space under it with a thin mix. 

 

 

 

The next item of interest is the area around the foot of the post. We took out a full 2x3ft slab to cast the base, so now we have to cover the remaining area with smaller slabs, cut to size.

 

 

 

 

 

This was more difficult than we first thought, because the surrounding kerb stones had moved, and were not parallel. We will sort that next time.

Why put a lamp post at this precise spot? Because we saw that there was one, in this old photograph of the Winchcombe station approach. 

 

It's right in the middle there. You can see how the gates (open) on the right gave access to the goods yard, while the station approach was always open (albeit fenced off from the yard). On the right is the weighbridge hut (with chimney) with coal merchants and acetylene hut adjacent.

There is another lamp post in the foreground, outside the stationmaster's house. We've got no plans for that though.

If you have a GWR lamp post and want to donate it, we'd be happy to come and collect it. You can see that we really use them!

At the end of the day Paul and Dave decided to fetch Maxie the Usk hut petrol mixer, and store it by the weighbridge. Dave hopes to sell the mixer on eBay, unless someone reading this can use it?

We also caught sight of Andy, seen here preparing rail end cut offs for sale. This, and donations to our tool fund by kind readers, have allowed us to buy the Milwaukee electric tools, which have been incredibly popular.

Sales of these rail end cut offs continue briskly, and one can be yours for £25.  Other lengths are available. Door stops, anvils, book ends, there are lots of potential purposes, and you'd be helping the railway.

Then, what do we do at the end of every Wednesday? Join the PWay gang for their end of day cuppa. 

 Atmosphere aplenty. Or did you say orange?

 

 

Broadway on Wednesday.

We called in to arrange the next volunteering days, and see how John and Neal had done.

John's been on forced leave of absence for a couple of weeks recently, so that explains the lack of visible progress.

Now he's back with a vengeance. 

They've been laying bricks both along the second half of the back, as well as, more recently, along the northern facade. This is the one that will have two large poster boards on it. We haven't made those yet, nor found suitable contemporary posters for it. Pressure !

This is a little snapshot of John on the north end. He's used up all the headers we cut in half for him, so that's another job for later this week. 

 

 

 

A look over the fence - Northern Italy.

Not exactly a preserved railway, but readers might be interested in what we saw, in railway terms, during our 14 days away. It's always interesting to compare.

We have seen the three big lakes, so went to stay near two other, smaller ones. The first was Lago di Santa Giustina in the Trentino, and the second was Lake Iseo, in Lombardy, both at the foothills of the Alps. 

Our knowledge of modern stock is somewhat limited, so bear with us if we have limited information .

 

 

The first is an Alsthom TT class ETI 400 set, very modern.

As it happens, both lakes were near a railway line - what a coincidence! 

This line is metre gauge, and runs from Trento up one valley, then along another, to Mezzano.

This is it in our 'home station' of Cles. 

 

 

 

 

 

Your blogger was quite keen to have a go on one, either direction would do, so Mrs. Blogger opted for a day in the town of Trento. We will spare you the tourist snaps, but it's certainly pretty, and as always in Italy, we ate particularly well.

Worth seeing on the station was this 2-6-0 with outside valve chests, a class 625 known as Signorinas, as they are rather elegant.  

 

 

 

 

The narrow gauge terminus is next to the standard gauge one, so you get to see interesting main line stuff too.

 This is a doubled headed freight train crossing the Alps from Austria, loaded with lorry trailers. Innsbruck is the nearest big town in Austria for this train, then Muenchen in Germany, as to possible provenance. The route is known as the Brenner line (from the pass). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our return journey on the narrow gauge line we stopped here at Mezzolombardo. We are about to leave the valley of the Adige river, and cross to the next one, of the river Noce. This one has been dammed, to form Lake Santa Giustina. The line crosses the deep gorge of the river right in front of the dam (see below).

 

 

 

 

The next day we took the line in the other direction, further up the line. The scenery here is stunning, as you can see. A bunch of white water rafts floated by here, just before the train appeared.

This line used to run from Trento to Male, and was actually extended in 2002 further up the same valley to the Marilleva ski resort, where we took the picture. Then, in 2016, it was extended again to Mezzana, and there are plans to extend it further to Fucine. 

 

 

This shot shows the start of the 2016 extension, at Marilleva.

Fucine, the proposed new terminus, is at the foot of the mountain in the distance.

We were impressed by the modernity of it all. There has clearly been a lot of investment in the region.

 

 

 

 

 

We had a handy pocket timetable with us, which helped some of the photo opportunities, but sometimes it surprised us.

This previous generation unit was not programmed at all. It stopped, the door opened to reveal a family standing in the vestibule, then the doors closed again and it moved on. Strange.

 

 

The same pocket timetable was consulted for this picture at Mostizzolo, taken just after a heavy thunderstorm had passed over. The expected unit was supposed to come out of a long tunnel from Cles in the trees on the right, but it never. 

Strange as well. Lovely colours though.

As this used to be border country with Austria (which was given to Italy after WW1) there were many castles in the area. 

 

 

The intended castle visit near this station was frustrated by a sign we met at the end of its approach road. It said something like: Did you book a private visit? If not, we're closed. And don't park here, drive back down to the village, and walk up !

All part of the fun. We parked Mrs Blogger at Tassullo, and sought permission to penetrate an apple grove for an attempt at a viaduct picture. 

 

 

Permission granted ! Here it is, taken at great personal risk, as we tetered on the very edge of this enormous, deep gorge, blocked off by the dam (just visible behind the LH pier of the bridge).

The hole in the rock below is the exit of the overflow spillway. 

At the end of an adventurous week we drove our hire car beyond Mezzana up the Passo del Tonale, and back down the other side to Iseo, which is in Lombardy.

 

 

Quite by accident this location also had a railway line.... It ran from Brescia, alongside Lake Iseo and up to Edolo in the foothills of the Alps.

This line was standard gauge, and was also equipped with impressive, new rolling stock. These are Stadler built and diesel powered, what some call 'two rooms and a bath', with two driving trailers separated by a small twin engine unit in the middle.

The station is Sale Marasino, on the lake.

 

 

A little S&T curiosity we noticed is that stations are equipped with three bells. Top right is the classic telephone system bell, while the two lower ones announce the arrival of the train, from two directions. For this there are two shapes of bells: on the left, a sort of cow bell (sphere with a slit in it) and on the right, half a sphere, rather like our block bells. Sadly, we did not hear them ring - possibly an abandoned idea? The stations were by now unmanned, and tickets were sold in a nearby cafe. You had to know that of course, and which one !

 

 

Here too we had the idea of taking a train each way.

Edolo, the terminus up the valley did not appeal, as the flat valley bottom was full of industrial units. However, a short trip to Pisogne at the northern end of the lake was great. We arrived in the ATR 125, and just had the time to snap an example of the previous generation DMU leave the station. 

 

 

 

 

A bit of local industrial archaeology was this ramp, which allowed loaded wagons to be taken across the lake by boat.

The only reason we could imagine was an enormous cement plant on the other shore, which did not have a railway line along it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What really appealed to your blogger at Pisogne was the up close and personal nature of the line through the town.

Here it is running along the lakeside promenade.

£1000 trespass warnings? Not here.... 

 

 

 

At the end of the promenade the line dived in between two houses. One was a bar.

Idea ! 

 

Shouldn't we set out some tables and chairs so close to our railway line? Some Aperols beside the portal of Greet tunnel would be very popular.

Our intended journey along the other direction of the line, to its terminus at Brescia, was foiled. A week long festival on Iseo island meant that almost all of the parking spaces near our railway station were out of use, and in the end we had to resort to taking the car to Brescia.  

 

 

 

Here we parked up in the citadel on a hill, and to our surprise, found this plinthed locomotive near the top.

It's marked SNFT No.1, and actually used to run on the Brescia-Edolo line until the 1960s, when it was replaced by rail cars.

It was then dragged up the hill to Brescia citadel, where it is described as its 'prisoner'. 

 

A day meandering through Iseo town offered this excellent vantage point from a footbridge across Iseo station:

 

 

It got rather busy below us, as not only did the up and down trains cross here, but a third one arrived, to sow a little confusion among the passengers.

This used to be a junction to Rovato, but the service (according to Google) was suspended in 2018. 

 

 

 

 

People quite happily crossed from one line to another, right in front of the trains. These even left without the familiar warning toot, to which we are accustomed here. It all rather gelled in an easy going manner. No passengers were hurt in the taking of this photograph!

 

 

After all the passengers had sorted themselves out, one unit headed north, and the other, a double Stadler, headed south, to Brescia. 

Where the third one went to was not clear to your correspondent.

 

Once again tickets were sold at a nearby cafe. It seemed that the owners of the cafe were about as well informed about the train movements as we were!

We loved it. 

And another cultural observation: During our two week stay we saw no wheelchairs anywhere (other than at the religious festival on the island), and not a single mobility scooter. 

And no potholes, nor road closures, nor roadside traffic lights for 'safety zones'.

It's another world. 

 

Back from hols.

A day with the Friday gang.

Friday is a good day for special little PWay projects - Walt, one of our RRV operators, is free on Fridays, and Friday is also often a non-running day. That is a useful combination.

Friday 29th August then saw Walt, David and Yours Truly on the former garden centre site, working with STEVIE to move a number of rails ex MOD Bicester over to the Parlour Road.

 

 

 

We've got quite a big pile here, in temporary storage. 

So on the Friday we made a start in reducing that pile. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After walking each rail through the car park, this is where we put the stack. Just inside the fence by the Parlour Road, ready for loading on a flat wagon. That still has to come, but then it should be quick. 

 

 

While there were no trains on the Friday (as per usual) the cafe was open, and its gamble paid off - quite a few people dropped in, including a large group of cyclists.

Earlier in the week it was the WI. Advice from their leader was - better move to another table, it's going to get noisy here.

It wasn't so bad, just a bit of banter then. 

 

 

 

 

This was the situation at the end of the job - 12 rails walked across, and neatly stacked.

 

 

 

 

 

In the afternoon of the Friday we worked with Neal in the greenhouse. There were heavy showers at times, resulting in drips in places that we did not expect, i.e. the very middle. Leaking valley gutters, it seems.

 

Neal has stopped drilling steel (finished at last?) and has started on cutting T&G board for dagger boards at Broadway.

 

This is only the start of the job, the cutting to length. The longest bits go on the end, the short bits along the platform edge. A point still needs to be cut on each one, then holes drilled as per original.

Then the paint preparation - knotting fluid, timber preservative, primer, undercoat, topcoat. Will we make it before the start of the closed season in 3 months time? 

 

 

 

Saturday, out with the gang.

Nine of us on Saturday 29th, a good turnout. Enough to split us into two teams. 

Team two went directly to CRC for some packing by the signal box, while team 1 stopped at Bishops Cleeve to change a clip, and deal with a badly dipped joint, reported by the infilled bridge. 

 

 

The clip needing to be changed was unusual, as it was encrusted with rust.

As you can see from the orange colour on the ballast, rusty water has been dripping off Two Hedges bridge for some time. This has formed some sort of a stalagmite behind the clip, making it rather difficult to remove.

Some hits with a large hammer worked wonders on it.  

 

 

 

Then it was on to the infilled bridge, which, as you can see is not so infilled after all. There is a clear crawl space underneath. This is for inspection purposes.

 

 

 

We let the train pass first... the weather was a lot damper, with straight rain in the afternoon, so steam was safe.

 

The issue by the filled in bridge was a strongly pumping joint. The ballast on the sleeper ends in the foreground was seen to be dancing around as the train passed. A video of this phenomenon would have been nice, so maybe next time.

We lifted the joint back to normal, but the underlying cause is for another day. The end of the rail top right is bent down wards, causing the wheels of the passing trains to bang on it. The rail also has two squats nearby, so we will be replacing it shortly. 

As there is no way of passing under Southam Lane bridge (the track changes sides here, and there is no crossing place for vehicles) we reversed back up the track to Bishops Cleeve, where we were met by an audience.

We thought these people wanted to cross, but it turned out that they were just waiting for a train, to watch it pass. They were not disappointed, as P&O soon hove into sight.

 So this is what they came to see. We didn't realise how popular the railway is with some here.

 

 

 

 

Getting out of the railway gate was unexpectedly difficult. It was jammed tight, and wouldn't budge

As Bert Ferrule watched, Jim gave it some special treatment with a keying hammer. 

We eventually got out, but the issue remains. It is extremely tight against the latch, and there is no adjustment possible, as the nuts on the hinge bolts were welded shut, probably in the early days when some residents here were against the return of the railway. 

 

 

 

 

Team 1 then joined team 2 at CRC, where they were lifting and packing the track outside the signal box.

 

 

 

We had a line block from the signalman in place.

With his help we were able to follow the progress of the next train right down the line towards us, and complete the job before it arrived.

As we were walking on to the next one, P&O drifted in. 

There was a dip on the Malvern side. We decided that packing the next joint would probably do it. A fishplate discovered last time to be lifting too much was also replaced with a slightly more modest example.

Incidentaly, although we claimed last time to have only two tie bars along the course of our 14 mile railway, we have in fact got none at all at the moment. We did have 5 or 6 at Didbrook, when the economy sleepers started to fail a couple of years ago, but now we have none. A reason to be proud of our crew.

This quite daunting picture was made possible by the proximity of the fence to the line. Nick and Dave are in fact standing outside the line, despite the fact that the lumbering hulk of P&O is only 3 feet away. The loco was running round at this point.

Usketeers Wednesday 10th.

Dave and Paul had a day together, mainly on pointing the setts in front of the hut. Pictures by Dave, with thanks.

 

 

 

The initial session was directed at the setts that were still in place, where the mortar between them had largely failed, leaving them proud. 

Paul had a go at this. 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was Dave's turn to tidy up, make it all neat, and indeed waterproof.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later they checked out the base of the lamp post in the centre of the double entrance - seems to fit OK.

Of course lifting on the actual lamp post will prove us right - or wrong. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's also been a small development with the 'secondary Usk hut', the little corrugated iron lamp hut the Usketeers were using during the winter weather. 

Of course the stone built Usk hut is complete now, and two other departments showed an interest in the lamp hut. It wasn't even destined for the Usk hut project, but was supposed to act as a lawnmower store at Hayles, and Stevie Warren with his JCB  took it to the PWay yard instead. 

The first to ask us was the C&W dept, where it will be used as an oil store. 

 

 

This picture, by Paul, shows the lamp hut on its way. We hope that it will still be in the public eye, somewhere.

It was recovered from a field near Bredon 10 years ago, and was painted red oxide at Broadway, where it was the cement store for the platform build. The Broadway gang also fitted it with these handy lifting eyes.

 

 

 

 

Broadway P2.

Due to holidays there's been less work done. John's been twice to lay bricks along the rear, while Neal has been making dagger boards at Toddington. Help is needed with painting them.  

 

Wednesday, without Usketeers.

Paul called in sick, and Dave is on holiday, so no work on the weighbridge today.

We did manage to take a complementary photograph, which shows that both cobbled areas have in fact been pointed, so that job is also done.

There remains the tarmac area (formerly concrete) in front of the door. That will be filled in some time in November. Professional tarmaccers are coming in to deal with a sunken part of P1 at Winchcombe, after the start of the non-running season. At the same time they will give this area a little professional love. So it should look really good.

Paul may also be able to do something about the lower half of the large window, which is rotting. Secondly, we have a lamp post to place.

A quick visit to Toddington then followed, for a round up chat with Neal. He still has another 80 holes to drill, where do they all come from? 

Neal's been very busy with making daggerboards for the P2 canopy. The woodwork is now ready, but that is only the starting point for an extended painting and preparation session. Knotting, wood preservation, primering, undercoat and topcoat all need applying, both sides. We are gathering the necessary materials together, to make an early start.

 

 

We understand that P&O has gone for a visit to the SVR, so the shed felt quite airy. On the other hand, we are expecting a longer visit from a standard tank. That should be fun.

Next year will also see two railwayana car boot sales at Toddington - that should also be fun. There is a good feeling in the air these days. 

 

 

 

The dates are for the railwayana car boot days are:

Sunday 26th April 2026, and 

Sunday, 20th September, 2026. 

Come and sell, or just browse and buy, all welcome. 

 

 

The previous picture shows the parapets being repaired, with a 'before' picture, and this one, a 'during'.

 

Finally, Neal has also made 4 brackets for the re-installation of the Winchcombe entrance canopy.

That project has taken a long time, but is now expected to go ahead during the next non - running season. We just need 4 holes drilling in the new castings, then they can be put up, as soon as there are no more passengers about.

A few people have been asking, why no blog update for 2 weeks? The answer is simple - we all like to take a summer holiday.

The destination was northern Italy, and next time we'll take a look at a few railway aspects that we found there. 

 

 

 

 

A look over the fence - Gwendraeth Valley Railway. 

This is a relatively unknown railway, in its earliest start up phase. The oldies in the GWSR will remember that feeling. The GVR is located near the south western Wales coast, at Kidwelly. 

By Afterbrunel - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50414319

The original railway layout was a bit complicated, but essentially ran from Burry Port (a big coal loading harbour) to Kidwelly, and then up the Gwendraeth valley, the westernmost of the Welsh coalmining valleys. In recent years the railway was noted for its cut down locomotives, required to pass under several low overbridges. These were too low, because the railway was built in 1869 by converting a canal on the same route. Mostly the rails were laid on the towpath, but on some sections road bridges had to be passed under, and there the rails were laid on the canal bed, leading to interesting variations in levels, and a very low height restriction. The canal also had a number of inclined planes, which later affected the gradients of the railway laid along its route. The railway also had a number of wet beds along its course - you can imagine that.

This was essentially a mineral line, but it was taken over by the GWR in 1922. Cut down steam locomotives were used along the line for coal and limestone traffic, and in later years cut down 03 shunters. The final closure was relatively recently, in 1998.
 

Today the line is heavily overgrown, but several stretches of track are still in place, albeit quite unuseable. There were no passenger stations.

So what is there to see today? While in the area we had a look around. At Burry Port the line has been turned into a cycle path for a couple of miles. The actual starting point of the GVR project is the junction with the GWR main line at Kidwelly, and then the 9 mile section to the top of the valley at Cwm Mawr. The GVR have obtained a 99 year lease from Network Rail, and are currently relaying a short section to create an unloading point for their first vehicles, 03 119 and Leyland railbus RB3, repatriated from Ireland.

 Source: GVR Facebook

 Source: GVR Facebook.

 Source: GVR Facebook.

Source: GVR Facebook.

As we were unable to talk to anyone on site, we trust the GVR won't mind if we show these pictures of activity at Kidwelly, borrowed from their public Facebook site.

While still at Burry Port, we couldn't resist taking a photograph of this original builder's plate, very similar in style and era to our own builders, E. Finch &Co of Chepstow:
 

This one was spotted on an overbridge at the station, with a steep slope up on each side, so it no doubt replaced a busy but awkward level crossing at the spot.

The remaining pictures below were taken during a trip up the Gwendraeth valley to the former terminus at Cwm Mawr. 

The first four pictures were taken off two bridges in the lower half of the valley, by local correspondent Alan, for which our thanks. We owe you a pint in the Portobello. ( a drinker's pub in Burry Port, highly recommended)

This is looking up the valley, with former coal mines in the hills in the background, once served by the line.

 

From the same bridge, and here there seem to be no tracks present any more.

 

 But, looking over the next bridge, into the canal bed as it were, there are rails still present.

 The trackbed here is somewhat overgrown, and littered with debris thrown from the bridge.

 

 

 

 

About half way up the branch, now well away from the coast and into the valley, is the village of Pontyates.

This has a rather attractive level crossing still in place, with tracks present as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the view along the tracks, back down the valley towards Kidwelly. The locals use the trackbed as a narrow footpath, but it's otherwise clear.

 

 

 

Next up the valley is the village of Pontyberem, which also has an attractive level crossing, with tracks still in situ.

It's all rather rusty and overgrown, but still there.

This is the view back down the line. 

 

The B4317 follows the line up the valley, and on a bend by a layby the two almost touch. 

This looks rather sylvan and pretty, but remember that it was once a canal and is probably rather damp in the winter. This is the downhill view, not far from Cwm Mawr terminus.

Looking in the uphill direction, it's a lot gloomier:

 

 

 

Can you see the mossy rails? Alongside is a footpath.

Presumably the line here was once the towpath, and the footpath the bottom of the canal. A long time ago. 

 

 

 

 

We had a little bit of trouble finding the terminus, or site thereof. There are no station buildings of course, as this was a mineral line (with a sneaky bit of workers trains, not really authorised in the day).

Coming down a hill, we passed a diagonal derelict site, which with hindsight, was possibly the end of a short extension to the coal mine. No trace of that now. 

The actual site of the branch line terminus was here. As there were no station buildings, it's not easy working it all out. The road on the right had the rather oblique name of 'Station View'. Some hope !

Today the end of the rails, still in situ, is in the trees in the distance, where there was a run round loop and a siding.

We wish the GVR the best of luck with their endeavours, this could be a very pretty line, and will do a lot of good for the communities alongside it, if it opens as a heritage line.