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The Wye Valley Railway

Introduction bits Welcome to the Wye Valley Railway Full History Abridged History Location Maps   How would we re-open it? Main Scheme Part 1: Wye Valley Junction to Netherhope Part 2: Tidenham Tunnel Part 3: Tintern Quarry to Tintern Part 4: Tintern Station Part 5: Brockweir to St Briavels Part 6: St Briavels to Redbrook Part 7: Wyesham to Monmouth Part 8: Signalling Part 9: Rolling Stock Part 10: Imagine the Journey Appendices Local Entertainment Does that picture really show that? From Rags to Power Other pages on this topic Of Roads, Railways and Cycleways Frequently Asked Questions   The Railway Interesting snippets of history The originally proposed alignment Getting money off ex-directors Completing the Railway Social and economic effect of building culverts Later Wye Valley Railtours Remains of the route It really is 50 years ago... It's now 60 years ago... The Abandoned Wye Valley Railways Figures Tables   The Area Locations Wye Valley Journey Brockweir Bridge: Dibden v Skirrow   Order of the Bed Home

Passenger Services: 1st November 1876 to 5th January 1959 Main Goods services: 1st November 1876 to 6th January 1964 Stone from Tintern Quarry (½-mile north of Tidenham Tunnel) until December 1981; from Dayhouse Quarry (at Tidenham station) until March 1990.   The Wye Valley Railway opened on the 1st November 1876, linking the south-east Welsh towns of Chepstow and Monmouth (then both in England) via stations serving the villages of Tidenham, Tintern, St Briavels and Redbrook. The line was 14¾ miles long. At Monmouth Troy station passengers could change for trains serving the towns of Pontypool (15 miles south-west), Ross-on-Wye (10 miles further north) and, from 1883, the town of Coleford, 5 miles to the east in the Forest of Dean. Ultimately it lost large sums of money and closed to passengers in 1959. Freight followed in 1964. The continued occasional use of a miniature gauge railway at Tintern station means that the line has not quite been abandoned by rail transport but all the sections still carrying track are currently being proposed for conversion to a new cycleway. This website looks at the possibilities of re-instating it without actually being in a position to do so. >>>Welcome to the Wye Valley Railway>>> A brief explanation of the layout of this website and what it is about. >>>Full History>>> This full history is around 15,000 words long and often extremely detailed. If you want to know about main points in 30 seconds stick to the introduction to this page - if you want to know a bit we have a 2,000 word: >>>Abridged History>>> >>>Location Maps>>> A handy couple of maps to provide some help with placing where exactly the line is >>>How To Comment on a Planning Application>>> Currently of some minor relevance to the route. Please note that the cycleway going ahead will downgrade the liklihood of re-opening from "Highly unlikely" to "Pigs might fly". How would we re-open it? The main scheme Part 1: Wye Valley Jcn to Netherhope Part 2: Tidenham Tunnel Part 3: Tintern Quarry to Tintern Part 4: Tintern Station Part 5: Brockweir to St Briavels Part 6: St Briavels to Redbrook Part 7: Wyesham to Monmouth Part 8: Signalling and Timetabling Part 9: Rolling stock Plan 10: Imagine the Journey Appendices Local Entertainment Does that picture really show that? From Rags to Power Other pages on this topic Of Roads, Railways and Cycleways Frequently Asked Questions  The Railway Interesting snippets of history The originally proposed alignment Getting money off ex-directors: Wye Valley Railway v Hawes Completing the Railway: A Turntable and a Bridge The Social and Economic Effect of Building Culverts Later Wye Valley Railtours Remains of the route It really is 50 years ago... It's now 60 years ago... The Abandoned Wye Valley Railway Figures Tables The Area Locations Wye Valley Journey Brockweir Bridge: Dibden v Skirrow The Adjacent Railways The Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway The Monmouth to Pontrilas Railway The Ross and Monmouth Railway The Coleford Branch The Monmouth railways as a whole The Main Line The Forest of Dean Central Railway Great Western Railway Tunnels Other Internal Links Railways Department Planning Department Order of the Bed Home Page Contact Us The delights of running this section Copyright External Links The proposed new cycleway at Tintern Unassociated Facebook group in favour of reopening railway Old Station Tintern Monmouth Troy Tidenham Tunnel Tidenham Parish Council Dayhouse Quarry today Monmouthshire Beacon Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Review  This area was written by one Gawain Nicholson, who once had too much time on his hands. He is now engaged in an evil nationwide plague called "University" but still tries to answer reasonable questions directed to him by the Contact link if they are not already covered by FAQs. Bibliography for Wye Valley Railway feature (Specific sources for the other railways can be found on the relevant pages) Cooke, R. A. Track Layout Diagrams of the GWR and BR (WR) Section 36: Ross, Monmouth & Chepstow (Third edition) (Self-published)   Elliott, Geoffrey (2006), The Mystery of Overend and Gurney (Methuen)   Glover, Mark and Glover, Celia (1994), The Ross and Monmouth Railway (Brewin Books)   Handley, Brian M. (1988), The Wye Valley Railway (Oakwood Press No. 137, 1988) Handley, Brian M. and Dingwall, R. (1998), The Wye Valley Railway and the Coleford Branch. (Oakwood Press No. 209) [There is now a more recent edition available with additional photographs and text]   Jenkins, Stanley C. (2002) The Ross, Monmouth and Pontypool Road Line by (Oakwood Press No. 220, 2002) [There is now a more recent edition available with additional photographs and text]   Klickmann, Flora, The Flower Patch Among The Hills. (Now out of print, our copy published by Lutterworth Press in 1943)   Mitchell, Vic and Smith, Keith (2008), Branch Lines around Ross-on-Wye (Middleton Press) Mitchell, Vic and Smith, Keith (2008), Branch Lines to Monmouth (Middleton Press) Mitchell, Vic and Smith, Keith (2005), Gloucester to Newport (Middleton Press)   Rawlins, Eric T., (2009), Wye Valley Railway Story Volume 1 1855-1995 (Melrose Books)   Six Bells Junction, purveyors of helpful information on railtours   The Times archives, made available through Cardiff Libraries   Plans, maps and other materials on the relevant railways available at the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth Diagrams and folios concerning the Wye Valley Railway held at the Public Record Office, Kew