November 2007 in South Wales

grumbeast

Member
Hi All,

after a long absence from the gauge I'm back. I haven't done much railfanning but was home in South Wales for a while so got a lovely day out along the mainline between Cardiff and Magor in beautiful weather.

Here are some of the shots
 

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grumbeast

Member
Yep, although actually nothing too local, basically regional and intercity stuff. This is the London -> South Wales mainline and has been four tracked, well since I don't know when, at least early 20th Century. Its basically up slow, up fast, down fast, down slow. So its more about capacity and speed. I think the limit at this point is 100mph (hence the HSTs (the pointy trains)) would be running pretty fast. Its only a few miles from Newport station however so they may be getting ready to decelerate.

The up and down slow lines are often used for freight, but this has diminished in recent years.

Graham
 

Bob Collins

Active Member
The various elevations of the rails makes it look like there are actually three sets of tracks, a double main down the middle, with a single on each side.

I'm trying to recall from several years ago riding some of the locals into London from Oxford or Cambridge that were the diesels...extremely slow acceleration and I don't think they ever really got out onto the main, always running on a parallel track on the station side of the main.

Maybe my memory is faulty, but it at least seemed that way!

Bob
 

60103

Pooh Bah
Bob: when we did day trips to Oxford and Cambridge from London (maybe 10 years ago or more) the lines were really speeded up -- I know Cambridge was electrified -- and we sped through the intermediate stations too fast to read the names.
 

grumbeast

Member
They do zip through here pretty quickly. Bob, you were probably riding in one of the old DMU's the 110s or something, they weren't exactly quick off the mark. Even though they're over 25 yrs old now the HSTs still accelerate very quickly (I think they hold the current diesel speed record too.. around 150mph or so)

Bob, Yes I know Stellarton (not too well but a bit) its about 40 minutes away from Truro and my College (Nova Scotia Community College) has a campus there!
 

Bob Collins

Active Member
David;

As I recall, we also rode electrified from London outbound, but for whatever reason rode the local puddlejumper back to the big city. That is the one I recall being diesel. That was in 2000, so things may well have changed.
 

Bob Collins

Active Member
I thought I was going to London the end of June for a function, but the airfare costs have become too prohibitive and I can't justify spending that kind of money. I would have had the opportunity to ride the Picidilly Line all the way from Heathrow to the other end of the line at Cockfoster!
 

Ralph

Remember...it's for fun!
Graham,
Good to hear from you! Nice photos. Looks like it was a pretty day to railfan that attractive equipment!
Ralph
 
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