Splendid route this!! Only 30 years ago these lines would of been loaded with 37's on coal and steel traffic. Plenty of dis-used pointwork to disused industrial locations. For those interested, some locations, mostly closed now: @10:37 Port Talbot Parkway, @15:30 Briton Ferry yard for Baglan Bay/Norbit Wharf on the left, @16:25 takes left onto freight only line then joining the 'up' dive-under, @18:55 Dynevor Jnc and @20:30 Jersey Marine North Jnc, the branch serving Swansea docks etc, joining former colliery lines from Blaenant, Banwen, Onllywyn and Aberpergwm. @21:45 former connections (somewhere!) to Llandarcy BP oil refinery. Then into Lonlas tunnel. @24:30 former connection to Clydach nickel works. @27:30 Llangyfelach tunnel, @38:40 Morlais East Jnc then Morlais Jnc, end of the freight only section joining the heart of Wales line. @43.50 Genwen Junc for Trostre steelworks, then Llandeilo Junc and sidings on left, having joined the S. Wales mainline. @49.00 Llanelli station. @1:05:40 Line from Coedbach, Cwmmawr and Deep Navigation collieries. Hope that is of some help :) Also, my money is on a 60 hauling 26 TEA empties hehe. I remember an ex girlfriend telling me how much 60's shake in the cab, evidentely by the looks of it, coz all my vids by her were in 59's and 66's lol.
I have, for all my life, enjoyed travelling by train. This ride has beautiful countryside along the way, a view of the historical swing bridge, passing through the little stations. Thank you for the journey Ray Evans
Thank you Ray for posting this railway video. In the description of this video you mention the journey's origin and destination but it would be nice if possible if captions could be added so that viewers can follow the course of the journey through the intermediate railway stations. Cheers.
Superb video, love the sound of the Class 60's and great to see the Swansea District line from a drivers point of view (I've only been along it as a passenger on the boat train to Fishguard Harbour).
I worked on the S&T in swansea area from 91 till 2011 so worked on this line from the start of the journey right up until llanelli area... Looked at your ride to onllwyn yesterday, and the men working on the point at 30 mins in are some i used to work with... Excellent videos ray!
Many thanks for this trip down memory lane, Ray. I was a freight guard at Canton in the 70s, and often worked tanks to Llanelli, and occasionally Carmarthen, via the Swansea District line. It's frightening how much I've forgotten!
Up until Llanelli, most of this route was foreign to me>from Llanelli to the Carmarthen turn-off was as familiar as my own street.I have been there many times over the past thirty years,tho I will be the first to admit that it is the first time I have done the route from the cab of a diesel loco. Thanks for the lack of comment,and I hope they will fix the sea wall near Llanelli which has taken a hammering and that the remaining lower quadrants on that line are there for another thirty years.
What a nice journey..very scenic area indeed...also you are riding my " Favorite " type of Freight here...i.e " Roundie's "..Excellent mate....have always liked them..!!! ,,very nice video indeed...will certainly look forward to seeing the return journey...when you post it..!!! :) ~
A spectacular route... different from the run of the mill route on the main line. Pity about the windscreen and sun glare... like looking through net curtains! (Not that I do such things!)
As somebody from the States, I have to say it's a bit odd to see semaphore signals on such a recent video of a main-line railway. But then again, as long as they still work, why rush to replace them?
I pressed the wrong key before I had finished typing! I was surprised how close to water's edge the track is and how poorly the weedkiller application must have been. Keep up the good work on our behalf. Best wishes.Rob
What station was at about 59.30 ? Any particular reason why the video stops where it does ? Was presuming the video would end at the arrival at Carmarthen station. Just asking.
For us USA viewers, I wish the videographers would explain once during the video, what the various combinations of line-side signals mean. For instance, a yellow usually means an approach at reduced speed: What speed and a possible reason for an approach. Also, what do the various signals mean inside the cab. Is it against the railroad or government policy to show some of the driver's actions during the trip. Thanks for sharing your efforts to entertain us "train nuts".
+Jack Kreighbaum hopefully this should clear a few things up and i'l try not to confuse you. Firstly the basic function of signals is to keep trains apart, so the line between each signal is known as a section. the colour on each signal indicates what the situation is ahead. green means the next section is clear (ie no obstructions or other trains ahead) yellow means proceed with caution as you should expect the next signal to be red which means stop. The general system is green-yellow-red though in some places where the gap between signals is short or where the line speed is quite fast it goes green-double yellow-single yellow-red. the double yellow it basically an instruction to slow down as may need to stop further ahead. possibly slightly off topic here but one reason why this may happen is a way of slowing the train down for a junction even if the route is set beyond the junction. some signals will not come off red until a certain time has passed for a train to be between a yellow and the red signal which after the time has elapsed will change to yellow, double yellow where provided, or green. this is known as approach control. in some other cases for junctions where the speed needs to be reduced to come off a junction where the current line speed is in excess of 100mph the route is normally set beyond the junction and when it is, the double yellow and single yellow will flash at a steady pace to tell the driver to slow down to the required speed for the junction As a train ahead progresses along, the signals it has passed often change by them self to indicate for the next train what is going on ahead. in some places though, this is still done manually by someone pulling a lever! (a system slowly being phased out) In order to help the driver with what the signal is displaying, there is a bizarre shaped yellow box on the track at a set distance on the approach to a signal. if the signal is green a ping (or on some older trains a bell) will sound in the drivers cab when the train passes over it (6:18) , however if if the signal is on Double yellow a single yellow or red a bleep will sound (2:30), and the driver has to press a button within a certain time to acknowledge it or else the trains emergency brakes will apply automatically and it can not be overridden. in addition when the signal is showing 2 or 1 yellow or red and the bleep is acknowledged, what's known as a sunflower will light up in the cab as a visual reminder of the signal. when the signal is green again the sunflower will disappear. this is a safety system known as AWS (Automatic Warning System) this system main purpose is to help the driver during 'poor visibility (fog /falling snow) although it is used in all weathers all year On the approach to junctions such as at 4:00, above the colour shown there is a black box. this box tells you the route that has been set for your train when the signal is showing yellow or green. in most cases it will show either D for the Down line or U for the Up Line. where there are just 2 tracks its down main and up main, but where there are 4 its often down slow, down fast, up fast, and up slow. however in some places the box can display a number. this is for the platform you are going on at a big station. at a place elsewhere where there is many route options a letter(or 2 at some places) for a line which is named after a destination may be shown to help determine which one you are going to end up on. say for example UL for Up London line or D for Dover line. on some signals where there is only a couple of route options at a junction, a series of white lights appear above the signal(known as a feather) to indicate the direction your taking. there is normally 5 of them at an angle and always start near the top and head downwards. a bit of common sense here but if its angled to the left your making a left at the junction, and dependant on which one is lit up if there is more than one should indicate how far your going over and the same applies to the right. an additional way you can determine which way your going is normally a Down line is heading away from London and up line is heading towards London. the same applies no matter if you are heading north south east or west. also at the 4:00 you might have noticed the 2 little red lights near the right hand track. this is also a signal (known as a ground signal and i'l let you guess why) On this signal when a route has been set, 2 white lights appear and you are allowed to proceed however its similar to before where you must assume the next signal is at red until you know differently. 2 white lights can also appear if you are going into a siding (indicated on a route box as SDG) or if you are going into the next section say at a station which already has a train in it. (this is known as 'calling on') these 2 white lights can appear either from the ground signal where there is one and also off a main signal where there is a need for one. next there is the bleeping sound which happens a few times during this cab ride. This is a driver vigilance device and is a result of the driver not moving a lever or pressing a button for 30 seconds. to prove he is still alert this noise will sound and when it does, the driver must take his foot/feet of a pedal on the floor then put them back on again to cancel it. if he fails to do this within i believe 2.3 seconds when asked to the emergency brakes will automatically apply and again it can not be overridden. this is similar to a more famous dead man's handle which you may have heard of. and finally the bleeping sound at 3 55, is a new signalling system which will eventually control all trains and works from the drivers cab. its known as E.R.T.M.S (European Rail Traffic Management System) and there are i believe 3 levels to it. as its still a fairly new system i'm not familiar yet with what it all means however a search on-line if your interested should explain it better than i can. i know its rather long and i've probably waffled on a bit as i've covered some stuff not in this video but think of it as extra stuff in case you were wondering what it meant. hope all this helps and if i've confused you i'm sorry.
In case anyone was wondering, the 'W' stands for 'whistle', a hangover from steam days. It requires the loco to whistle; it'd be just silly if the driver whistled...
Take hedgetrimmer with you Ray m8....lol...love to do that job... travel our great country and get paid for it...Cymru Am Byth btw what you carrying ? beats the m4 by a mile
wonder what was in the arches at 9:16 ish...bricked up doorways and windows ? just before tunnel in swansea whats with all the shit over track...fly tippers disgraceful
Splendid route this!! Only 30 years ago these lines would of been loaded with 37's on coal and steel traffic. Plenty of dis-used pointwork to disused industrial locations.
For those interested, some locations, mostly closed now:
@10:37 Port Talbot Parkway, @15:30 Briton Ferry yard for Baglan Bay/Norbit Wharf on the left, @16:25 takes left onto freight only line then joining the 'up' dive-under, @18:55 Dynevor Jnc and @20:30 Jersey Marine North Jnc, the branch serving Swansea docks etc, joining former colliery lines from Blaenant, Banwen, Onllywyn and Aberpergwm. @21:45 former connections (somewhere!) to Llandarcy BP oil refinery. Then into Lonlas tunnel. @24:30 former connection to Clydach nickel works. @27:30 Llangyfelach tunnel, @38:40 Morlais East Jnc then Morlais Jnc, end of the freight only section joining the heart of Wales line. @43.50 Genwen Junc for Trostre steelworks, then Llandeilo Junc and sidings on left, having joined the S. Wales mainline. @49.00 Llanelli station. @1:05:40 Line from Coedbach, Cwmmawr and Deep Navigation collieries.
Hope that is of some help :)
Also, my money is on a 60 hauling 26 TEA empties hehe. I remember an ex girlfriend telling me how much 60's shake in the cab, evidentely by the looks of it, coz all my vids by her were in 59's and 66's lol.
Thanks for the video on this class 60,Carmarthen Bay is so beautiful watched class 60 a few times go past the holiday park!!😎🐑🐑🐑🐑🇬🇧🇺🇦
Thank you Mike I really enjoyed that.... What a fantastic vidio 60s&37s dosent get much better. 👍👍👍👍
The journey over the Swansea District Line was superb. I hope one day stations along there will be opened to passenger traffic.
I live to the right hand side of where this starts, it’s great to see this area from another perspective............
I have, for all my life, enjoyed travelling by train. This ride has beautiful countryside along the way, a view of the historical swing bridge, passing through the little stations. Thank you for the journey Ray Evans
IT'S QUICKER BY POGO STICK YAWN
Thank you Ray for posting this railway video. In the description of this video you mention the journey's origin and destination but it would be nice if possible if captions could be added so that viewers can follow the course of the journey through the intermediate railway stations. Cheers.
Superb video, love the sound of the Class 60's and great to see the Swansea District line from a drivers point of view (I've only been along it as a passenger on the boat train to Fishguard Harbour).
I worked on the S&T in swansea area from 91 till 2011 so worked on this line from the start of the journey right up until llanelli area...
Looked at your ride to onllwyn yesterday, and the men working on the point at 30 mins in are some i used to work with...
Excellent videos ray!
Many thanks for this trip down memory lane, Ray. I was a freight guard at Canton in the 70s, and often worked tanks to Llanelli, and occasionally Carmarthen, via the Swansea District line. It's frightening how much I've forgotten!
I was a guard at Llanelli at the same time.
I'm amazed to see you still have the old style speed boards up there in Wales!
All ours in Cornwall are gone now.
What a fabulous video. I liked the trip along the Swansea District Line. Am looking forward to part two. (Stephen - Carmarthen)
great video,, the buzzas and bells would be driving me nuts,,nice break work,,the loco seams to have the power to pull the load,,,nice all around,,
i have driven old steamers back in the day with my dad,,but none of that stuff was around pluss it was on a branch line in Wales,,,haha
THE BUZZERS AND BELLS ARE TO KEEP THE AUDIENCE AWAKE
Up until Llanelli, most of this route was foreign to me>from Llanelli to the Carmarthen turn-off was as familiar as my own street.I have been there many times over the past thirty years,tho I will be the first to admit that it is the first time I have done the route from the cab of a diesel loco. Thanks for the lack of comment,and I hope they will fix the sea wall near Llanelli which has taken a hammering and that the remaining lower quadrants on that line are there for another thirty years.
What a nice journey..very scenic area indeed...also you are riding my " Favorite " type of Freight here...i.e " Roundie's "..Excellent mate....have always liked them..!!! ,,very nice video indeed...will certainly look forward to seeing the return journey...when you post it..!!! :) ~
Nice Ray, did this a few times to Trostre with Leighton from MG
Absolutely magical Ray, you pass the bottom of my garden at 1:01:19.....Thanks very much for sharing this very special footage...Bob
Thanks Bob, stay tuned for the return journey.
Ray Evans
I'm tuned in and waiting Ray...Best wishes...Bob
Is there a video for the return journey?
Fantastic video this!
Fantastic video. There are some amazing engineering features on that route. Many thanks.
What a journey fabulous thanks. More please
awesome. its amazing to think that the tug can lift the train so quick! top marks.
I love these videos they help me to get to sleep
Many thanks Ray...very interesting. I've never travelled that route over the entire length
Nice atmospheric cab ride.
Lovely ride. That line is in surprisingly good condition for freight only and should be opened for passengers.
A spectacular route... different from the run of the mill route on the main line. Pity about the windscreen and sun glare... like looking through net curtains! (Not that I do such things!)
Working on the new signalling now, never knew there was so much track out there still
Thanks Ray. I wonder if they will ever replace the semaphore signals at Burry Port and Ferryside? I hope they don't, they're a nice bit of history.
All going soon, replaced with axle counters 😢
Excellent thanks for posting this one Ray
As somebody from the States, I have to say it's a bit odd to see semaphore signals on such a recent video of a main-line railway. But then again, as long as they still work, why rush to replace them?
Nice ride! Thank you for uploading :)
I pressed the wrong key before I had finished typing! I was surprised how close to water's edge the track is and how poorly the weedkiller application must have been. Keep up the good work on our behalf. Best wishes.Rob
An interesting ride, which would have been even better with captions showing the names of stations and junctions as we went past.
Great stuff Ray!
Class 60 my favourite diesel locomotive :)
What station was at about 59.30 ? Any particular reason why the video stops where it does ? Was presuming the video would end at the arrival at Carmarthen station. Just asking.
my favourite of yours, did you ever record the return please
Superb footage, i would love to be a freight driver 5*
good thrash
were the cab windows open to hear it this loud ?
Much appreciated, thank you. Pity about the filthy wnidscreen though. Were your wipers not working?
My local station, Llangennech at 40:20
How much longer is it going to take Transport for Wales to open this line for passengers and new stations what a waste
needs to use the windscreen washers more often.
Thanks ray I make the tea weller
Do locos have a journey recorder like a lorry tachograph?
All trains now have Data Recorders, the driver enters his pin number.
Great video - what was the working please???
Many thanks Lewis
For us USA viewers, I wish the videographers would explain once during the video, what the various combinations of line-side signals mean. For instance, a yellow usually means an approach at reduced speed: What speed and a possible reason for an approach. Also, what do the various signals mean inside the cab. Is it against the railroad or government policy to show some of the driver's actions during the trip. Thanks for sharing your efforts to entertain us "train nuts".
+Jack Kreighbaum hopefully this should clear a few things up and i'l try not to confuse you.
Firstly the basic function of signals is to keep trains apart, so the line between each signal is known as a section. the colour on each signal indicates what the situation is ahead. green means the next section is clear (ie no obstructions or other trains ahead) yellow means proceed with caution as you should expect the next signal to be red which means stop. The general system is green-yellow-red though in some places where the gap between signals is short or where the line speed is quite fast it goes green-double yellow-single yellow-red. the double yellow it basically an instruction to slow down as may need to stop further ahead.
possibly slightly off topic here but one reason why this may happen is a way of slowing the train down for a junction even if the route is set beyond the junction. some signals will not come off red until a certain time has passed for a train to be between a yellow and the red signal which after the time has elapsed will change to yellow, double yellow where provided, or green. this is known as approach control. in some other cases for junctions where the speed needs to be reduced to come off a junction where the current line speed is in excess of 100mph the route is normally set beyond the junction and when it is, the double yellow and single yellow will flash at a steady pace to tell the driver to slow down to the required speed for the junction
As a train ahead progresses along, the signals it has passed often change by them self to indicate for the next train what is going on ahead. in some places though, this is still done manually by someone pulling a lever! (a system slowly being phased out) In order to help the driver with what the signal is displaying, there is a bizarre shaped yellow box on the track at a set distance on the approach to a signal. if the signal is green a ping (or on some older trains a bell) will sound in the drivers cab when the train passes over it (6:18) , however if if the signal is on Double yellow a single yellow or red a bleep will sound (2:30), and the driver has to press a button within a certain time to acknowledge it or else the trains emergency brakes will apply automatically and it can not be overridden. in addition when the signal is showing 2 or 1 yellow or red and the bleep is acknowledged, what's known as a sunflower will light up in the cab as a visual reminder of the signal. when the signal is green again the sunflower will disappear. this is a safety system known as AWS (Automatic Warning System) this system main purpose is to help the driver during 'poor visibility (fog /falling snow) although it is used in all weathers all year
On the approach to junctions such as at 4:00, above the colour shown there is a black box. this box tells you the route that has been set for your train when the signal is showing yellow or green. in most cases it will show either D for the Down line or U for the Up Line. where there are just 2 tracks its down main and up main, but where there are 4 its often down slow, down fast, up fast, and up slow. however in some places the box can display a number. this is for the platform you are going on at a big station. at a place elsewhere where there is many route options a letter(or 2 at some places) for a line which is named after a destination may be shown to help determine which one you are going to end up on. say for example UL for Up London line or D for Dover line. on some signals where there is only a couple of route options at a junction, a series of white lights appear above the signal(known as a feather) to indicate the direction your taking. there is normally 5 of them at an angle and always start near the top and head downwards. a bit of common sense here but if its angled to the left your making a left at the junction, and dependant on which one is lit up if there is more than one should indicate how far your going over and the same applies to the right. an additional way you can determine which way your going is normally a Down line is heading away from London and up line is heading towards London. the same applies no matter if you are heading north south east or west.
also at the 4:00 you might have noticed the 2 little red lights near the right hand track. this is also a signal (known as a ground signal and i'l let you guess why) On this signal when a route has been set, 2 white lights appear and you are allowed to proceed however its similar to before where you must assume the next signal is at red until you know differently. 2 white lights can also appear if you are going into a siding (indicated on a route box as SDG) or if you are going into the next section say at a station which already has a train in it. (this is known as 'calling on') these 2 white lights can appear either from the ground signal where there is one and also off a main signal where there is a need for one.
next there is the bleeping sound which happens a few times during this cab ride. This is a driver vigilance device and is a result of the driver not moving a lever or pressing a button for 30 seconds. to prove he is still alert this noise will sound and when it does, the driver must take his foot/feet of a pedal on the floor then put them back on again to cancel it. if he fails to do this within i believe 2.3 seconds when asked to the emergency brakes will automatically apply and again it can not be overridden. this is similar to a more famous dead man's handle which you may have heard of.
and finally the bleeping sound at 3 55, is a new signalling system which will eventually control all trains and works from the drivers cab. its known as E.R.T.M.S (European Rail Traffic Management System) and there are i believe 3 levels to it. as its still a fairly new system i'm not familiar yet with what it all means however a search on-line if your interested should explain it better than i can.
i know its rather long and i've probably waffled on a bit as i've covered some stuff not in this video but think of it as extra stuff in case you were wondering what it meant. hope all this helps and if i've confused you i'm sorry.
For our US friends on these lines it is route, not speed signalling. so the signal just advises the status of the block or blocks ahead.
In case anyone was wondering, the 'W' stands for 'whistle', a hangover from steam days. It requires the loco to whistle; it'd be just silly if the driver whistled...
What was it pulling?
56 15 best moment of the video!
What's the name of the long tunnel?
The three tunnels are Lonlas, Llangyfelach & Penllergaer.
@@RayEvans319 thanks!
Take hedgetrimmer with you Ray m8....lol...love to do that job... travel our great country and get paid for it...Cymru Am Byth btw what you carrying ? beats the m4 by a mile
is this a freight train or a passenger train??
freight train
wonder what was in the arches at 9:16 ish...bricked up doorways and windows ? just before tunnel in swansea whats with all the shit over track...fly tippers disgraceful
Clean the bleedin windscreen
But l Was Not Making Competition OF My FAMILY.
a nice shiny red DB Shenker Class 60?
What 60 was it
Better Speeded up
👎 A clean window would have made this much more enjoyable. 🐨🇦🇺