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My
last steam journey on the Cambrian had been in 1966, and there was an 18
year gap before I ventured west of Shrewsbury by rail, again. In June 1984
I decided to have a Saturday trip on a pair of 25's to Aberystwyth. And I enjoyed it so much, that
thereafter, particularly when the coast line re-opened to locomotive
haulage in 1986, I became a regular. And the "Cambrian Day
Rover", at £6, certainly helped. Class 37's, both singly and in
pairs, were the usual motive power, but class 31's took over from 1991.
Sadly it came to an end in the early summer of 1992, when I arrived at Porthmadog station to have a class 31 trip down the coast, a class 150 dmu
turned up instead. And that was that.
Several
of my journeys were "out and back" from the Midlands, and many
others commenced at Porthmadog with a trip down the coast to Machynlleth.
There I would change from a "single 37", to a
"double 37" on the following service from Aberystwyth. At
Shrewsbury I would return west on a another "double 37" on a
Euston to Aberystwyth, returning to Machynlleth on the return working,
before heading back up the coast on a dmu.
Below is a listing of my Cambrian Class 37 journeys. |
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| In 1986, the out and back trip between Shrewsbury and Pwllheli was a popular outing for so called "enthusiasts" who hung from the windows, shouting abusive comments at passengers, and causing general uproar. When bare backsides started appearing at the windows B.R decided enough was enough, and withdrew the £6 Cambrian Day Rover for the duration of the Summer Saturday timetable. However, since I was a regular traveller up and down the coast, I was known by the usual ticket inspector (who was also a Ffestiniog Railway driver) on 8.00am from Pwllheli. He produced, with some ingenuity on his Portis ticketing machine, a £6 day return from Porthmadog to Shrewsbury, via Aberystwyth. And so I was able to continue my trips at a reasonable cost. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line speeds on the Coast line were another interesting matter. The limit was 55 mph. Whilst it might just have been possible with DMU's to keep to schedule without exceeding 55 mph, with a pair of 37,s on 11, or a single 37 on 6, it certainly was not. In practice, 65 mph was normal, and with one particular driver, 76 or 77 mph was quite frequent. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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