I have yet to travel on this narrow gauge tourist railway, though my wife & sons did so in the late 80’s on the first section to be opened to the public. However, I travelled on the last gasps of steam passenger traffic on a journey through the Brecon Beacons, into Torpantau tunnel (near the recreated Torpantau station feature in your film). It stirred memories of a trip with the Scouts in 1961 to attend the Welsh Jamboree, at Gwernyfed, near Hay-on-Wye. The most exciting part of the journey from Somerset was to travel up into the welsh mountains by BR steam train, complete with smuts billowing into the compartment in the tunnels. Torpantau tunnel was the highest standard gauge tunnel regularly used in GB at that time. Once we got down to Talyllyn Junction, the train chugged towards Glasbury-on-Wye, where we alighted to march in file, to Gwernyfed Park, Three Cocks, where the Jamboree was held.
Sounds absolutely fantastic Peter as it closed back in 1964. That tunnel was something really special, even higher than Blea Moor. You were very fortunate to have that experience and it is obviously well engrained in your memory. I can't see the BMR every opening the tunnel but it is quite a bleak place where the present line finishes. The only obvious survivor from the standard gauge line is the signal box. I do hope you get an opportunity to revisit the line in it's narrow gauge form.
Graham, at the time (1961) there was little sign for the travelling public that the publication of the eventual Beeching Report would have such seismic effects on what had developed over most of the 1st Industrial Age. Little junctions, such as Talybont-on-Usk, giving access to other lines & triangular junctions, built for shipping ‘king coal’ north from Welsh coalfields, would be converted into cycle tracks. Hey Ho, the progress of urbanisation and disintegration of the past continues unabated…. Sleep well
@@Pjs75 Well the world is now such a different place. All that railway engineering in the Brecons you mentioned has disappeared. The siting of the current Torpantau station BEFORE the tunnel says it all and that seems as far as the BMR can go. The Beeching cuts were certainly felt in Bath and apart from Green Park Station the former S&D/Midland routes only exist as cycleways. At least the Avon Valley Railway has recreated a fragment of the Midland line. Thanks for sharing your knowledge about the Welsh lines.
@@thefakewasp503 In my ramblings, last night, I was mistaken about the siting of the original Torpantau station. I found an old OS map 1” from 1957-1960 that clearly shows the round red blob adjacent to a twist in the road, and immediately prior to the cutting on approach to the tunnel portal on the Merthyr side of the tunnel, a good few yards beyond the present BMR reconstruction. Those NLS ‘side by side’ maps are brilliant.
The L&B owned a Baldwin NG loco, named Lyn, so American steam locos do not look entirely out of place in the British countryside.... lovely railway, maybe Lydd could pay a visit soon..??
Hi Lorraine and thanks for your comment. The American steam locomotives do fit in to the landscape and the BMR narrow gauge makes good use of the old standard gauge track bed. I am not sure if Lyd or Lyn could work the line as the L&B gauge is 1 foot 11 and 1/2 inches whereas the BMR is 1 foot 11 and 3/4 inches?
It is in South Wales just north of Merthyr Tydfil. It is quite difficult to find when we went there as the tourist signs were removed due to extensive roadworks.
