Vale of Rheidol Railway

Aberystwyth – Devil's Bridge
Locomotive No. 8 Llywelyn on the rise towards Devil's Bridge
Route length:	18.9 km
Gauge :	603 mm ( narrow gauge )
Maximum slope :	20  ‰
Legend Crossing the Cambrian Coast Line from Pwllheli Aberystwyth Llanbadarn A4120 Rheidol Glanyrafon Capel Bangor Nantyrones Aberffrwd Rheidol Falls Rhiwfron Devil's Bridge

The Vale of Rheidol Railway (Welsh: Rheilffordd Cwm Rheidol ) is a narrow-gauge museum railway (603 mm gauge) that runs 18.9 km between Aberystwyth and Devil's Bridge in Ceredigion , Wales .

When it was privatized in 1989, it was the only steam-powered route in the British Railways network , since steam traction had ended in 1968 everywhere else.

Unlike other railways in the UK, the Vale of Rheidol Railway has never been shut down; it was only temporarily closed during the Second World War . It served tourism from the beginning and celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2002.

history

The first proposals for a narrow-gauge railway in the Aberystwyth area came after the plans of the Manchester and Milford Railway for a railway line from Llanidloes to Aberystwyth via Devil's Bridge were first changed and then abandoned before construction began.

The original main purpose of the route was to transport timber and ore from the River Rheidol valley to the port and mainline of the railway in Aberystwyth. There were many lead mines here towards the end of the 19th century. After a parliamentary resolution in 1897, construction began in 1901. To save money, the incisions in the rock were made by hand instead of blasting.

The line was opened for goods transport in August 1902 and for passenger traffic on December 22, 1902. In the meantime, however, lead mining in Ceredigion was already in decline. At the same time, tourism increased and passenger transport soon became the main mode of transport for the railways.

As a branch of the Cambrian Railways

On July 1, 1913, the route lost its independence and was taken over by Cambrian Railways , but the beginning of the war in 1914 prevented major improvements from being made. Passenger traffic was reduced and the war-related increased demand for wood meant that freight traffic became the main source of income for a short time.

Under the control of the Great Western Railway

On January 1, 1922, the Vale of Rheidol Railway became part of the Great Western Railway (GWR). The GWR only continued passenger traffic and completely abandoned freight traffic. From 1931 the trains only ran during the summer months. With the beginning of World War II, the line was completely closed, but maintenance continued. The railway line was reopened in 1945.

nationalization

No. 8 Llywelyn with the BR logo (1980)

On January 1, 1948, the Great Western Railway became part of the Western Region of British Railways (BR), and the railway line continued to operate for tourism.

In 1968 the line was relocated in Aberystwyth; since then it has been running parallel to the standard-gauge main line of the BR in their terminus. A low central platform has been created for the narrow-gauge railway between the elevated platforms where the trains on the 1964 line to Carmarthen stopped . The existing standard-gauge locomotive shed was also rebuilt and adapted to the needs of the narrow-gauge railway. There is now a supermarket at the site of the former narrow-gauge train station.

privatization

The line was privatized in 1989 and sold to Peter Rampton and Tony Hills (who is now the owner and general manager of the Brecon Mountain Railway ). In 1996, Rampton and Hills separated: while Hills continued to control Brecon, Rheidol was sold to a company founded by Rampton, the Phyllis Rampton Narrow Gauge Railway Trust .

The railroad today

The railway continues to operate for tourism and generally runs from Easter to the end of October with special trips during the school holidays in February and St. Nicholas trips in December.

In 2011, the railway company developed the Rheidol Explorer , a GPS- controlled audio guide that provides passengers with comments during the journey.

The distance

There are four train stations and five stops along the route . While the trains generally stop at all stations for operational reasons, the other stations are on- demand stops . The journey takes about an hour in each direction. The route runs to Capel Bangor in the valley floor and then rises fairly steadily at 20 ‰ to the end point at 190 m altitude.

image	Surname	Remarks
	Aberystwyth location	The headquarters of the railway company is in Aberystwyth.
	Llanbadarn location	Need stop for the village of Llanbadarn Fawr
	Glanyrafon location	Need stop for the neighboring industrial park
	Capel Bangor location	The Capel Bangor train station is near the village of the same name. A replicated station building and new platforms were built in 2012.
	Nantyron location	Nantyrones is a necessity stop. Trains going uphill stop here briefly so that the locomotive can take water.
	Aberffrwd location	Aberffrwd train station is near the village of the same name. A replicated station building and new platforms are to be built soon.
	Rheidol Falls location	Needs stop
	Rhiwfron location	Needs stop
	Devil's Bridge location	Devil's Bridge is the eastern terminus on the line. From here, a short walk takes you to the Mynach waterfalls.

As long as the lead mines were in operation, there was a cable car connecting them to Rhiwfron. For freight traffic there was a branch line to the port of Aberystwyth. With the predominance of passenger traffic, this became superfluous and then dismantled. Today hardly anything can be seen of it.

business

There are three steam locomotives and one diesel locomotive, as well as 16 passenger cars and 4 two-axle brakeman's cars . The route is single-track with Dodge in Capel Bangor and Aberffrwd, which are operated by the train crew. The train protection is done by tokens that allow the train driver to drive on a single-track section. Tokens are available for

• Aberystwyth to Capel Bangor
• Capel Bangor to Aberffrwd
• Aberffrwd to Devil's Bridge

A dispatcher regulates the train traffic by allowing the trains to drive on the single-track sections, logging the train movements and ensuring that the trains are made up of an appropriate number of cars.

• 

  Locomotive number 8 in Rail Blue livery during the 1970s

• 

  A train with locomotive number 7 leaves Aberystwyth

• 

  Locomotive No. 9 Prince of Wales at Devil's Bridge

• 

  Front view of locomotive no.9

literature

• CC Green: The Vale of Rheidol Light Railway . Wild Swan, 1986, ISBN 0-906867-43-6 .
• Peter Johnson: Welsh Narrow Gauge: a view from the past . Ian Allan, 1999, ISBN 0-7110-2654-8 .
• Peter Johnson: An Illustrated History of the Great Western Narrow Gauge . OPC, 2011, ISBN 978-0-86093-636-7 .

Web links

Commons : Vale of Rheidol Railway  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Vale of Rheidol Railway (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Johnson 1999, p. 15
2. ^ Johnson 2011, p. 52
3. ^ Green 1986, p. 26
4. ↑ Green 1986, p. 28
5. ↑ Green 1986, p. 28
6. ↑ Green 1986, p. 28
7. ↑ Green 1986, p. 29
8. ^ Johnson 2011, p. 88
9. ^ Gary Boyd-Hope: Rheidol revival: 20 years of private enterprise . In: Steam Railway . 358, Jan 2009, pp. 91-95.

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap