Fishguard Trains

by Rob Phillips, Gwili Railway

Less than a week before Fishguard and Goodwick station re-opened, on Friday 11th May, Aberayron Signalbox was moved from Fishguard to the Gwili Railway. How did it ever come to Fishguard, and how come it’s gone again?

The signalbox was commissioned with the opening of the Lampeter, Aberayron & New Quay Light Railway in 1911 to control access to the small goods yard and engine shed at Aberayron. The station closed to passengers in 1951, and to goods in 1964 when the Aberayron branch was cut back to the milk factory at Felin-fach.

The station buildings remained in situ following complete site closure in 1965; however, photographic evidence taken in 1967 shows that the signal box had been removed.  It was thought that the signal box had been demolished during the removal of the disused section of the branch but fortunately it had been purchased by the late Mr. William ‘Bill’ Fowler of Aberaeron. He dismantled it into ‘flat-pack’ form and stored at his mother’s house until he moved to Fishguard to take up a teaching post. Then wanting to “take a piece of Aberaeron with him”, he removed the box from storage and loaded it onto a Fishguard Fruit flatbed lorry, and headed south.

Mr. Fowler and a group of friends from the Fishguard and Goodwick Rugby team, family and neighbours reconstructed the box in his back garden. Although he wasn’t a railway enthusiast, he wanted to preserve this part of Aberaeron’s history. He looked after it until he died in 2002.

In 2011 Aberaeron celebrated the centenary of the opening of the station. Mrs Fowler approached Cymdeithas Aberaeron to see if they would be interested in returning the signalbox to the town. Unfortunately no suitable location could be found. Thomas Spain, a Gwili Railway volunteer from the Fishguard area approached Mrs Fowler with the idea of moving the signalbox to the Gwili Railway. In January 2012 all was agreed.

So it was that on May 5th, a small group jacked the signalbox up from the garden that had been home for nearly 50 years, and moved it on a temporary railway across Mrs Fowler’s lawn, ready for the crane to lift it onto a lorry for the move to Bronwydd Arms on May 11th.

The move was complicated by the presence of low power and telephone cables, so the box was initially loaded onto a low trailer to move out onto the main road. There it was loaded onto a lorry by crane. At this moment it is on a well wagon at Bronwydd Arms, ready to be tripped to Llwyfan Cerrig for unloading, so some repair work can take place this week.

Our eventual plan is to install it near Llwyfan Cerrig Ground Frame where it will be in the company of the booking office from Felin-fach, also at Llwyfan Cerrig.

An appeal, for funds to transport, repair and permanently install the box has so far raised £1,000 was launched (including generous donations from the Aeron Valley Railway Society and Cymdeithas Aberaeron), and Davies Crane Hire of Carmarthen agreed to provide their services at cost. We do still need to raise additional funds however, so if you’d like to send a donation, we’d be very grateful. Please make a cheque payable to “GRPS”, with ‘Aberayron Signal Box Project’ clearly marked on the back. Send it to Dave Johnson, GRPS Treasurer, 54 Church Road, Gorslas, Llanelli , Carmarthenshire, SA14 7NF.

We’d really like to thank Mrs Fowler for donating the signalbox, and to all those involved in raising funds and organising the move, especially Thomas Spain who acted as project manager.

If you are interested in finding out more, please drop me  line on rob.phillips@phonecoop.coop

Fishguard Trains says: Thrilled at your initiative in rescuing and re-using our railway heritage. Now it’s up to us to put the restored station buildings at Fishguard and Goodwick to good use.

Yesterday was memorable for many good reasons: the sun shone on the crowds gathered to welcome the first day of passenger services at Fishguard and Goodwick for 48 years. The band played, the plaque was unveiled and we greeted the many partners, official and unofficial, who made this all come true in less time than anyone dared imagine. It was a fine send-off for our new station.

Today was the first serious test. After all the celebrations, how would the service do on its first ordinary working day?

 

Fishguard Trains took the 9:59 to Carmarthen.

The train sign on the platform displays the next three trains, and a digital speaker announces the imminent train. (Guess what Clunderwen is in Digital?)

 

 

At 9:58 and 28 seconds, the 9:59 appeared round the bend. Nice one. What a shame it couldn’t be this punctual for BBC Wales’ live cameras last night.

 

 

 

A ticket to keep in our scrapbook.  The first week for a half-century that you can buy tickets to and from Fishguard and Goodwick. (Sadly, someone in a back office has entered May 21 as the date to start selling F&G tickets, at booking offices and online. So if you can get hold of an F&G ticket dated for this week, you’ve beaten the system.)

 

A good day’s work in Carmarthen, and it’s time to head home.

The platform indicator still comes as a surprise – we really are a town with two stations.

 

 

 

The smiles say it all – people are getting off the train in Fishguard and Goodwick, and the sun’s still shining. All over Wales, Britain and the world, people are doing the same thing  this evening – another day’s work done, the shopping, the visiting and the busying. And now we’re back home again, off the train and (hopefully) time to unwind. What could be more normal?

And here’s the best sight of all. Six cars in the station car park to meet evening travellers. We have a Park and Ride station!

Fishguard Trains was particularly pleased to see a car driven by a good neighbour who only a year ago doubted that anyone would use the new services.

Welcome on board.

 

 

This is what change looks like.

And from today, May 14th 2012, we are all

part of

this change.

Welcome aboard!

In just thirteen days, Wales will have a new first: a reopened station on a rural railway line.

So far all the successful station openings have been in urban Wales – Ebbw Vale, Rhoose, Maesteg, Pyle. There has been nothing like the launch of a complete new service, and now a complete new station on a heritage site, all to serve a rural and coastal area, and one of the smallest towns in Wales.

 

Fishguard Trains has just come from a meeting with stakeholders where the talk could not have been more enthusiastic and confident. As you’d expect, all attention is on the reopened station. It will remove a huge barrier to use of the new service, and bring local and long-distance rail services to the heart of the twin towns, and an ideal access point for  Pembrokeshire’s world-famous Coast Path.

So with thirteen days to go, here is a sneak preview of final work to prepare our new station.

The timber-clad building receives attention before being painted – in cream, we’re told. We’ll continue to debate whether the restored building does justice to its historic predecessor, but the fact is to have these buildings at all is a big asset – now we should put heads together to make it a valuable destination in its own right, as is done at other rural stations.

This is the side of the station buildings facing the car park.

What would you like to find inside in future?

Tourist information?

Tea and buns?

Cycle hire?

Local craft stalls?

Railway heritage display?

Walkers’ gear for sale?

The time for ideas is now.

Along the platform stands the ‘bus shelter’.

At least this one doesn’t prevent you getting on the train, the way the new bus shelter on the opposite side of Station Hill blocks entrance to the bus. We hear that plans are in hand to move that shelter where it belongs.

This is one of the most welcome features of Fishguard and Goodwick: a station that is accessible for drivers, for Coast Path ramblers, for pedestrians from Goodwick and Fishguard, for bus users, and for disabled travellers.

And here’s what must be the most under-stated sign in Fishguard. If you’re heading to Fishguard Harbour, your real destination is going to be Wexford, Waterford, Dublin. If you’re heading via Clarbeston Road, you’ll be travelling to Swansea, Cardiff, Manchester, London.

So in thirteen days, just pick your destination, turn up, and travel!

The station works are nearing completion, and we’re starting to see the newly-timbered face of Fishguard and Goodwick Station. Here’s the side that faces you as you enter the car park.

And here’s the view from the bridge.

As Rhydgaled has noted, a less than welcome change is railings dividing the station building from the platform. An essential feature, or just to mark the boundary of Network Rail and Pembrokeshire County Council land?

Here for comparison are the original buildings, seen in 2007.

Yes, there are similarities and there are differences. For our money, the saddest loss is the chimney stack, which gave character and proportion to the original station house.

But perhaps that would have got in the way of the solar panels that Pembrokeshire’s going to mount on the new roof.

Aren’t they?

But to close on a positive note, here is a sight to welcome all park-and-ride drivers from May 14th: Free parking. Welcome!