Ivo's Adventures 2: The West of Wales

[TGVDUDE]

The train was full of Swansea City fans celebrating their win over Leeds United in a Championship promotion six-pointer.

oh god please don't remind me of that game! although they showed a worse performance against palace yesterday, Swansea are the best in the league from my view. Anyway! glad you enjoyed your day and effort on the ending! I enjoy reading of other enthusiasts travels from time to time, especially local so i see what others find to do around here!

 

[Rhydgaled]

The 150 to Fishguard was relatively quiet. Slow out of Cardiff and on the Swansea avoiding line, the journey was otherwise unremarkable. The trolley guy was a good character to talk to; he mentioned the problems with using 150s on the route, the adventures of Michael Portillo, and also the effects of a certain strike (which caused the return journey to be quite busy). I actually lost my seat on the return trip to Carmarthen, which the service avoids on the outbound journey, to a photography session at Fishguard. The service is booked to arrive at 13:17; it arrived at 13:04. Whoops.

By problems with 150s on the route, does he mean technical problems (ie. trobble with gradients or being slower than the 90/100mph limits between Cardiff and Briton Ferry) or just the fact that 150s with their inner suburban door type and door layout are woefully unsuited for what is the most 'express' working in west Wales? (I think no other service misses out Port Talbot, Bridgend or Pembrey & Burry Port). The day Fishguard should be 158 operated in my opinion, and extended to run every 2 hours. Also, by Swansea avoiding line do you mean you traveled over the Swansea District Line or the Landore Avoider?

If its the Landore Avoider you're after, you'll need to do it on a Saturday as its runs via the District during the week.
But yes it is reliable and very slack from Llanelli onwards. You'll be into Cardiff around 1550.

The day Fishguard is booked via the Swansea district in both directions. If there is an engineering block on the district the train travels by the back curve at Landore. You have to know when the engineering is going to take place as this does not make any difference to the stops.

Which is correct, does it run via the District Sun-Fri and the Landore avoider on Saturdays or does it always use the district line unless that route is shut? Both times I used the service (once from Whitland, when I changed at CDF for the WAG express and then from Fishguard, just traveling to Cardiff) it was early at Cardiff, though the second time we had to wait outside the platform for a while meaning we were not actually as early as we were the first time. Now, by using the District Line the service should by rights (and judging by the fact it always seems to arrive early) be at least 15mins faster than the normal service but the timetable only shows it saving about the amount of time missing the stations out does. Is this because it may have to be re-routed via the Landore avoider at short notice or because somebody is trying to cover up the fact that west Wales is missing out on a 15min journey time saving?

I have caught the day Fishguard from Cardiff to llanelli, and from Llanelli to Fishguard and Carmarthen. One ach occasion it has been a 158 with a trolley service, maybe I was just lucky to avoid a 150!

I have never known the night Fishguard be anything but a 153 or 150. Long gone are the days of a HST with a full buffet service providing plenty of alcohol to weary travellers!

Did British Rail run 125s to Fishguard, or was that something that Great Western Trains started? Also, was the day Fishguard ever a 125 all year round rather than just selected days of the year as I heard it was towards the end?

The ATW website gallery pages at one point included a picture of a 37 at Fishguard with a caption 'this service is now booked for a 158'. The picture has gone now, but it shows they did have a suitable unit booked at one time, and perhaps that was when you used the service, or perhaps you were lucky. Fishguard's always been a 150 when I've seen it as far as I know. I've seen 2x 153 at Whitland before but I think (not 100% sure) that was on a Pembroke service. I think I've never seen a 158 at Whitland or in Pembrokeshire.

A video (not by me) which includes 3x 150 on the Fishguard at once (I'm guessing that was for the volcanic ash cloud incident, I heard that also resulted in a FGW 125 on the night service but that's only a rumor) and also 2x 3-car 175!! Any idea what prompted that?

 

[4SRKT]

Did British Rail run 125s to Fishguard, or was that something that Great Western Trains started? Also, was the day Fishguard ever a 125 all year round rather than just selected days of the year as I heard it was towards the end?

I first caught a train at Fishguard in 1984 and it was an HST on the Paddington overnight. Caught it as far as Swansea where followed nearly two and a half cold and uncomfortable hours trying to kip in a platform waiting room before the 05:40 to Shrewsbury. Nice for a 13 year old!

The 1985 timetable (oldest I possess in the HST era) has the 01:50 HST to Paddington via Swansea, a seasonal 13:05 loco-hauled to Paddington avoiding Swansea, a 15:10 train (I guess a DMU but it's given 10 minutes at Carmarthen so could be a loco) to Swansea that is WFO outside the height of summer, and a 22:10 HST to Swansea that is the stock of the down train from Paddington.

The 1969 timetable has a train at 04:35 to Paddington via Swansea. This is MSX throughout most of the year, but WFO from October to March. There is a 15:45 to Paddington avoiding Swansea (covering Llanelli to Cardiff in a creditable 68 minutes) which runs in July and August only. Lastly there is a 16:30 Motorail service to Kensington Olympia, non-stop to Reading in 4 hrs 30, which runs May to September. Basically at some times of the year there were no trains on the branch some days of the week.

 

[Greenback]

Indeed, BR ran HST's to Fishguard all year, at least from 1987, which is my earliest recollection of Fishguard services. I did travel through on a day trip in 1973, when I was seven! That must have been a trip back on the afternoon London service that avoided Swansea, as we had to change at Llanelli into a DMU for Swansea! Little did I eveer think at that age that I would be living a short stagger from Llanelli station!

On the matter of stock, I have been on a 158 on several occasions to Fishguard Harbour. However, the night train is usually a 150 or 153, as it is formed from the Pembroke Dock arrival at around 2325. This is the train I frequently catch back after a Friday night out playing darts in Swansea!