South Wales Mainline

Now off-lease 43175 leads a Swansea - Cardiff HST for Great Western Railway through Undy - 07/09/2018

70810 has recently emerged from the Severn Tunnel with the Moorswater -
Aberthaw cement working- 07/09/2018

The South Wales Mainline is one of those places I had thought about coming to for years- Back in the mid-noughties when I was coming to sample rugby specials to Cardiff, and or course the 37's on the Rhymney valley it always looked as though there were some good spots with a good variety of traffic. Like so many things though the distance just meant it never happened. By 2018 the views should all have been impossible as the Great Western electrification program would have brought poles and wires to all of the classic locations. Of course we all know now how late that project has run, and amazingly while travelling up to a wedding in Wales in September 2018 my opportunity finally came to check out a couple of the spots.

Arriva Trains Wales 158822 heads west at Magor - 07/09/2018

Traffic has changed somewhat from when I first eyed up these locations more than 10 years ago. EWS has gone through several incarnations and is now DB Cargo- it's class 60's which were once common in South Wales now number only a few examples and oil traffic between Roberston and Westerleigh is now the only reliable traffic to feature the class. Colas Rail has also entered the scene with a regular flow of cement between Aberthaw and Moorswater- usually handled by it's class 70 locomotives. In freight terms one of the most notable losses of traffic is coal- some traffic still exists in South Wales, but as with most of the UK the traffic has declined to only a tiny percentage of what existed only a few years ago.

Still a good bet for a class 60 - the Westrleigh - Robeston empty tanks is in the hands of 60091 at Undy. 07/09/2018

The face of the future - GWR IEP 800020 'Elizabeth Ralph' speeds towards
Newport and Cardiff. These trains will make full use of the electrification
once works are finally completed sometime in 2019. - 07/09/2018

On the passenger front the most notable change is the almost elimination of the HST fleet over the last 12 months as the much delayed InterCity Express trains have finally started to be deployed in large numbers on their former Great Western routes. At the time of this trip only a handful of HST's reached Cardiff - My joy at capturing one of them in full sun conditions felt quite strange given these trains were two-a-penny just a few months earlier! Further changes will be evident in the passenger fleet in the coming years as Transport for Wales have now taken on what was previously the Arriva Trains Wales franchise- promising a new livery and many new trains.

43018 leads only the second HST in a long stint on the South Wales Mainline.
Sadly not a complete set in the new GWR Green. The location at Magor is
still free from OHLE equipment- but for how much longer? 07/09/2018

As can be seen from the photos electrification is continuing here, and it is only a matter of time until many of these photo spots are lost for ever- however there are still some clear views, and with electrification of the South Wales Mainline now not expected to be completed until the second half of 2019 there may be a little bit of time left still - but you will have to be quick!