• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

South Wales freight branches - info please

Status
Not open for further replies.

Chris Butler

Member
Joined
23 May 2010
Messages
275
I was looking at the longer freight branches in south Wales and checking on RTT to see what traffic they had. For a few (see below) I could find (almost) no traffic. Does anyone know if they are effectively disused ?
  1. Machen Quarry - Newport (or Cardiff) via Park Jnc.: Found nothing
  2. Aberdare - Aberthaw: There are paths, but no trains actually seem to run. Is Aberthaw just running down stocks of coal before it closes ? Does any other traffic use the route ?
  3. Swansea - Onllwyn Washery: There are a lot of paths, but only one train I could find for the last week. Do the open cast pits that the washery serves still operate ?
  4. Swansea - Cwmgwrach: Found nothing.
  5. Pantyffynnon - Gwaun-cae-gurwen: Daily paths, but no trains.
Thanks for any info.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Tomos y Tanc

Member
Joined
1 Jul 2019
Messages
640
I was looking at the longer freight branches in south Wales and checking on RTT to see what traffic they had. For a few (see below) I could find (almost) no traffic. Does anyone know if they are effectively disused ?
  1. Machen Quarry - Newport (or Cardiff) via Park Jnc.: Found nothing
  2. Aberdare - Aberthaw: There are paths, but no trains actually seem to run. Is Aberthaw just running down stocks of coal before it closes ? Does any other traffic use the route ?
  3. Swansea - Onllwyn Washery: There are a lot of paths, but only one train I could find for the last week. Do the open cast pits that the washery serves still operate ?
  4. Swansea - Cwmgwrach: Found nothing.
  5. Pantyffynnon - Gwaun-cae-gurwen: Daily paths, but no trains.
Thanks for any info.

I can't offer definitive anwers on any of them but here goes anyway!

2. There's still open cast mining taking place at the old Tower Colliery site in Hirwaun. Whether any of the coal produced there is shipped to Aberthaw is another matter. Aberthaw traditionally held huge stocks so it could well be that they have enough to see them through to closure.

3. Onllwyn washery is still in occasional use and the line will remain even after it closes. The proposed Rail Testing Centre is due to be located at the top end of the Dulais valley line.

4. Open cast mining has ceased at GCG so I shouldn't imagine there's any traffic on the line which appears to be in a very sorry state. Certainly the level-crossing gates don't appear to be usable.
 

Freightmaster

Established Member
Joined
7 Jul 2009
Messages
3,471

Legolash2o

Member
Joined
27 Sep 2018
Messages
601
Some info that may be relevant.

The loading gauge for the area isn't that great with W7 being the best one from Swansea. A report a while ago suggested that over way over 50% (some people suggest >70%) of freight is now being carried on high-cube containers; which requires at least need W10 (or W8 with certain wagons).

Not sure if that is a factor of not having a lot freight.
 

Attachments

  • SouthWales-Gauge.png
    SouthWales-Gauge.png
    566.2 KB · Views: 33

w blocker

Member
Joined
19 May 2009
Messages
11
The line to Tower is now blocked off just past Aberdare station. Those paths should really be used now for the missing Aberdare passenger services.
 

Chris Butler

Member
Joined
23 May 2010
Messages
275
I can't offer definitive anwers on any of them but here goes anyway!

2. There's still open cast mining taking place at the old Tower Colliery site in Hirwaun. Whether any of the coal produced there is shipped to Aberthaw is another matter. Aberthaw traditionally held huge stocks so it could well be that they have enough to see them through to closure.

3. Onllwyn washery is still in occasional use and the line will remain even after it closes. The proposed Rail Testing Centre is due to be located at the top end of the Dulais valley line.

4. Open cast mining has ceased at GCG so I shouldn't imagine there's any traffic on the line which appears to be in a very sorry state. Certainly the level-crossing gates don't appear to be usable.

The only branches with regular traffic these days are Cwmbargoed and Onllwyn.


There was a train to Immingham four weeks ago:

6E09 - http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/H19504/2019/07/11/advanced




MARK

The line to Tower is now blocked off just past Aberdare station. Those paths should really be used now for the missing Aberdare passenger services.

Thanks all. Info appreciated.
 

tiptoptaff

Established Member
Joined
15 Feb 2013
Messages
2,983
Some info that may be relevant.

The loading gauge for the area isn't that great with W7 being the best one from Swansea. A report a while ago suggested that over way over 50% (some people suggest >70%) of freight is now being carried on high-cube containers; which requires at least need W10 (or W8 with certain wagons).

Not sure if that is a factor of not having a lot freight.
The traffic on these routes is/was bulk minerals carried in hoppers. So the loading gauge required for hi-cube containers has no bearing on traffic levels
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top