Rails Up the Tanat Valley

[rogerfarnworth]

Following on from a couple of articles about the Tanat Valley Light Railway written some years back, I was reading some older rather tatty magazines and found an article entitled “Rails up the Tanat Valley” in an issue of the Ian Allan publication ‘Railway World‘ – the June 1990 edition.

The featured image for this article is a photograph taken in August 1963 of an unidentified pannier tank crossing the A495 with a ballast train from Blodwell, heading for Llynclys Junction. One of the train crew is seeing the train across the crossing. An old gas lamp retains its red glass aspect to the road, GWR-style © Andrew Buckley.

In his article, Colin Ganley recounted the rise and decline of the minor lines running west from Oswestry, the last remnant of which by 1990 had been ‘mothballed’.

Rails up the Tanat Valley

Following on from a couple of articles about the Tanat Valley Light Railway written some years back, I was reading some older rather tatty magazines and found an article entitled “Rails up th…

rogerfarnworth.com

Earlier articles can be found on this thread:

The Tanat Valley Light Railway

In August 2019 my wife and I belatedly celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary by having a few days away. We chose to stay West of Llanymynech in the Welsh Borders. While we were there we travelled the length of the Tanat Valley, following as closely as we could the route of the old Light...

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[Merle Haggard]

There was regular revenue freight traffic to or from Blodwell in the early 1970s, though I can't remember the flow.

 

[6Gman]

There was regular revenue freight traffic to or from Blodwell in the early 1970s, though I can't remember the flow.

Ballast wasn't it?

 

[Merle Haggard]

Ballast wasn't it?

You're probably right. The name 'Blodwell' just sticks in my mind on a regular flow.
I wish I had 'souvenired' obsolete NFAAS print-outs instead of throwing them away. Some interesting flows along little used freight-only branches; Associated Octel, - Amlwch to Mostyn Dock for instance, which you probably will remember.
There was a song at the time about today being the good old days in the future. Seemed crazy, but it turned out to be true.