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Stenlake Publishing - The Wye Valley Railway and the Coleford Branch


The Wye Valley Railway and the Coleford Branch



Author : B. M. Handley & R. Dingwall
ISBN : 9780853616658
Cover : paperback
Price : £19.95

The Wye Valley Railway linked Monmouth with Chepstow and an through the idyllic countryside along the Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire border. It is an area rich in industrial archaeology. The coming of the railway vastly increased the popularity of the region with daytrippers, giving much easier access for those who came to appreciate this area of outstanding natural beauty. The most popular trains during the line’s history were those organised as special excursions to see Tintern Abbey on the night of the harvest moon. Each September crowds between 1,000 and 1,300 people came by train from Gloucester, Cheltenham, Newport and Cardiff to glimpse the full moon shining through the abbey’s rose window. In the 1950s the quiet routine of the railway was interrupted by the rare excitement of a twice-yearly double-headed, seven-coach excursion from London. This certainly enlivened the serenity of a peaceful Monmouth Sunday afternoon.

Oakwood Press first published a history of the line in 1982. A second enlarged edition was published in 1998 and this saw the addition of a series of fond memories and reminiscences of a number of people which captured the atmosphere of this delightful country railway backwater. The Wye Valley Railway and the Coleford Branch has been expanded, enlarged and updated once again for this, the third edition, with more reminiscences and the inclusion of some interesting new photographs that have come to light.

Passenger trains on the Coleford branch, which fed into the Wye Valley Railway, were short-lived, but part of this branch managed to survive into the diesel era. The story of this line and its forerunner, the Monmouth Tramroad, are also included, as well as that of the short branch across the river at Tintern for the Wireworks traffic.

A5 format, 176 pages, 220 illustrations.

The Wye Valley Railway and the Coleford Branch
£19.95