Great stuff. Hard to believe that during those days all those lovely working beasts were taken for granted and just looked upon as everyday regular modes of transport. Looking back we can appreciate just how amazing those locos were. Sad.
You've got to wonder if there was green GWR paint underneath all that lovely grime 3:00! You can just see the logo! At least the variety was still there in the 90s. Now all trains look the same! Bring back loco-hauled passenger traffic! You forget just how 80s, the 90s were
My Grandfather was born in Abertillerty, and won the MM in WW1, he worked at Cwm pit. Grand Parents on my Mother's side were from Frome, in Somerset, and came to Blaina to find work, though they didn't all work down the pit, one was a Cabinet Maker, and had a furniture shop in Blaina.
No- but I was there. Age 4 with my Mam & Dad. My Dad took a picture of me stood in front of Sophia Loren with her hands on my shoulders. Gregory Peck is in the background chatting to people. My Mam's family were from Treowen, my Dad's were Roma so I don't know much about where they came from but they bought a farm in Wattsville but when my grandfather got killed in the pit they settled in Treowen. I remember the viaduct because it was condemned but us kids used to dare each other. Most of the walkways were rotted by then so you could walk on the 6" wide iron on the spans that held the wood. I never made it more than 1/3rd of the way but some kids crossed it.
Just look at the comments here - the British are wedded to their cars almost as bad as the Americans - yet when it comes to railways (they hardly ever use) they go all weak at the knees !
This structure should have been preserved as a listed monument - even if trains were no longer using it. It would have been perfect to walk/cycle over. It is criminal that the powers that be have just been allowed to demolish it.
Its the breathtaking audacity of the Victorians that always amazes me! The Crumlin Viaduct is just...well....just the sheer imagination and guts they had: There's a gap we need filled for our trains; "Build a Viaduct!!" and they bloody Did!! lol.
wonderful film, thanks for sharing. As a Welshman now living in S.E Asia, always nice to see my old hometown of Swansea. At 10.00 or so, there was the comment "It is now a Wasteland..." which for me, sadly, sums up a great deal of what was once the United Kingdom. Perhaps if we, the British, stopped electing people to run our country simply on the basis that they have a posh voice and a First from Oxbridge, in Greats, then maybe we might get somewhere....
J.B. JONES. Corn and feed Merchant just below viaduct, Used to deliver to our farm at Manmoel. Always popped down to their depot if we ran short of anything. Happy times. Lyndon Isaac.
Thank you very much Martin., I moved to crumlin in 1974 ,heard a lot about the filming, didn't see the film until the eighties. Have tried for some time to work out the film shots.no longer live in wales
Lived near there, where they were running I and others walked across on numerous occasions 1 old penny was the cost to catch the train When watching notice the colour change of the river 😊
Junior production clerk my first job leaving school as a 15 year old in 1970 at Black Clawsons, £4-19 -6p my first wage, everone said they could of made it a fiver.😂
Its true that there were deliberate policies in place to make sure these railways did not pay. However, there was a mixture of the public who increasingly didnt travel by train or were discouraged. The car was king and there was a terrible lack of foresight by the politicians
I live in the village today. The only thing that has really changed is that the railways are gone, the mining places hace been replaced with schools and there are way more trees.
The view from the train going over the viaduct must of been amazing .anyone rem member going over the viaduct so sad 😢to see it all gone the roads are a mess now should of kept the the trains .full respect for the men who built .and took the viaduct down must of been a lot of hard work ❤👍
