Britain From The Rails

A welcome in the Valleys

The geography of the Welsh valleys north of Cardiff and Newport was such that made the landowners, and the railways, very rich – if not the poor beggars digging the coal at great risk way underground.

The valleys run north-south, cut into much higher ground by erosion, and gave access to rich coal seams. At first canals tried to get up these valleys to carry out the black harvest, then railways snaked in during the 19th century from the Great Western Main Line running along the coast, although the original aim was get coal simply down to the docks. Just about everything in Britain was coal-powered then – railways, ships, gas works, factories, electricity generation when that started, and almost every home’s heating or hot water. The demand was immense.

Iron and steelworks also boomed in South Wales, bringing in more rail traffic. When the passenger services declined after World War II, many routes were closed, but luckily a few stayed open, some just for heavy freight.

This included the Ebbw Vale line, running north from Newport, which follows:

Film stars and a phoenix

Typical of the Valley Lines that extend north of Cardiff and Newport in Wales is the Ebbw Vale line, in that it was created to serve heavy industry – and was saved by freight traffic too. That miraculous survival means today it is still there to take passengers to the beautiful valleys and hill tops once wreathed in pollution from heavy industry. Now the mines and steelworks have gone – and their jobs too, sadly – but flowers grow and sheep graze where slag heaps once were a sterile moonscape, and the rust-red dust that covered everything around the steelworks is a thing of the past too.

The cracking country walks are all the better for the clean air and now unpolluted rivers.

I say the Ebbw Vale branch was saved. In fact it closed for passengers in 1962, the heavy freight continuing for long enough to mean the track was maintained and not ripped up for scrap. Then on one glorious day in 2008 it was reborn like a phoenix. It was a great example of local people-power working with county, Welsh, British and European authorities to get things done. Nor was it done on the cheap – all the stations have new shelters and the signalling is up-to-the-minute LED stuff. (Not for the first time one wonders why English branches, if they are kept open at all, have to make do with inflexible services caused by a one-engine-in-steam policy, and no signals. Every expense spared!)

Here it’s been done properly, no doubt as a boost to the local economy devastated by the loss of mining and steelworks jobs, and the service is quick and efficient. At the time of writing trains from Ebbw Vale in the hills run south down towards Newport but then swerve west along the Great Western Main Line to Cardiff. Being the capital and having jobs and shops galore and – if you’re Welsh – the best rugby stadium in the world, Cardiff is probably where the commuters in the new housing estates that have replaced the industrial dereliction at several stations up this line want to go. But Newport, always in nearby Cardiff’s shadow, feels slighted by this and is likely to get a direct service off the line too, if a bit more track doubling allows a train to each direction each hour. Certainly the passenger usage in the first year beat all targets, so the scheme must be judged a great success.

The route described, from the south

The Ebbw Vale line makes a good excursion from Cardiff, in less than an hour.

Once you turn off the GWML, from whichever city you start, you soon reach Rogerstone, with fine views of the hills ahead and the typical neat new suburban housing which has replaced those perhaps grim (but friendly at the same time) two-up-two-down terraces, with the front room opening straight on to the street, that comes to mind when you think Welsh Valleys.

Joe Calzaghe

The next station serves two villages, Risca and Pontymister, and starts a double-track section. Then we cross the valley to follow the River Ebbw upwards. Next comes Crosskeys, the station-less village of Abercarn, and Newbridge. Newbridge was and is home to the great boxer Joe Calzaghe who retired unbeaten in 2009, having won 46 games, including one where he broke his hand – so he fought on with the other one!

Talking about sport, note how little flat land there is in each community and how they devote it first and foremost to a rugby pitch. Houses, schools and chapels can perch on the hills.

The next community, Crumlin, had the luxury of two stations. One of them, Crumlin Low Level, was on this line, originally the Monmouthshire Railway. But the other soared way overhead on a now vanished viaduct, made of cast and wrought iron, linking with a railway across the tops of these hills.

Arabesque (1966) starred Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren

I wouldn’t normally go on about something you can’t see (although the stone abutments are still there, high on the hillside) but this one was utterly extraordinary. It was the highest viaduct in Britain, and almost unbelievably, starred in a film Arabesque with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren.

The little trains of the east-west Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway would cross the valley so high they seemed like aircraft.

The viaduct was the third highest in the world. Some described its lattice construction as effortlessly elegant, or ugly to others, and it had a certain beauty from the hills up top, because it and its almost adjoining viaduct, like Miss Loren, had very attractive curves.

At the viaduct’s opening a character from Pontypool called, of course, Mad Jack, was persuaded to drive the test train, loaded with lead and pig iron, to test the high girders for deflection. He was said to have visited every pub in the district to get up his courage, then took the train at a fair lick instead of the officially recommended crawl for the test. The shaken engineer who accompanied him asked ‘Why the **** did you go at that speed?’ Mad Jack replied: ‘When eternity looks you straight in the face, you may as well go at full speed to meet it!’

Trains were then put on both tracks weighing a total of 380 tons and onlookers in the valley far below were startled to see the engineer climb over the handrail to examine the girders for deflection. It was within the limits.

The Crumlin Viaduct was completed in 1855, and it should be remembered this was before steel became cheaply available, so it was made of cast iron and wrought iron, a startling achievement. The same stuff as the ill-fated Tay Bridge, but much better done.

The passenger route up above closed in 1964, under the Beeching cuts, and although the viaduct was a listed structure, British Railways said it had to come down, citing maintenance costs. In fact it had been the cheapest viaduct to build and had little spent on it apart from painting every seven years, but it was an unsentimental age it was doomed and down it came over the next two years.

But not before it starred in that Hollywood film.

Next station is Llanhilleth, where buses for Abetertillery link up. The rail link to that that town, however, came next at the closed station of Aberbeeg, where the track taking off right can clearly be seen, with its platform intact, although it closed in 1962. The optimistic Welsh are even talking about reopening that line, making this a junction again.

The next station up that closed line reminds us of the terrible cost of the coal boom that created these railways and towns. The Six Bells colliery disaster came in 1960 –  late on in the mining era, although the mine didn’t finally close until the 1980s. The toll of the gas explosion was 45 dead, the cost to local families incalculable, particularly when you recall the fatalities included two fathers each with two sons.

Then it’s a short run up to Ebbw Vale Parkway, a bit of a hike from the town centre. That terminus, too, may be extended in the near future, but you have to admit they’ve done a fair job of the reopening and looking at the number of passengers, it’s a cracking success.

One last thing before we leave the valleys. You know those satirical nicknames passengers gave to railway company initials? In the coal boom years there was line running across the tops of the valleys called the B&M for Brecon and Merthyr. After a few runaways on its steep inclines, it was thereafter known as the Breakneck and Murder…

There’s lots more history of the Crumlin Viaduct and loads of photos at: www.crumlinviaduct.co.uk