The Disused Welsh Railway Ready to Be Restored
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ค. 2022
- Join me on a whistle-stop walk of Anglesey Central Railway - a 17.5-mile branch line that served the important town of Amlwch, the nearby copper mines at Parys Mountain, and then the 20th-century chemical plant on the coast. Closed in the 1990s, it's been sitting waiting for nearly 30 years for someone to come along and open it up again, and breathe fresh life into Anglesey's quiet tourist trade.
I also have a nosy around the ancient Parys Mountain open cast mine, and the abandoned, dystopian site of the old bromine chemical plant.
Update:
Anglesey Central Railway Ltd have recently obtained a 99 year lease from Network Rail to open the line with the view to opening it as a community railway.
For more information:
Website: leinamlwch.co.uk/
Facebook page: / lein-amlwch-of-anglese...
Instagram: @leinamlwchswyddogol.
Please contact company secretary David Rogers for information about how to support the process:
d.l.rogers@btinternet.com
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I last went along that line in 1991 when I was assistant driver at Llandudno Junction depot, Ollie. We used to go with a class 47 diesel loco with the tanks to Amlwch that had come from Ellesmere Port. There was a return working out of that chemical plant. A lovely old railway that would be great to be opened again . Many thanks for presenting this program.
Great stuff, thanks Ffranc!
Greetings Ffranc form an old Stoke Gifford, and Pz Shunter.
Lived here since the late 80s. Could be a great tourist attraction. Amlwch is now a desperately dismal town. The old branch to Red Wharf Bay could easily become a cracking tourist line with Benllech and Traeth Coch at the end. Compared to the restoration of the other railways in Wales, this one could be done so cheaply, if there was a will from the Welsh Government and Anglesey Council.
That's the problem - it's like trying to push a mountain (of slate?) with a feather!
There's nothing left of the Red Wharf line and it goes through nowhere.
By the time this is ready for paying public it will need to be an electric railway. Fossil fuel bans on the way😢
If Sustrans get their hooks in then it's game over for a railway returning. Great video.
yalls rail trailers
As has been said previously Lein Amlwch have signed a 99year lease with Network Rail for the full length of the line
Oh a really delightful run in a brake van behind class 24,25,40,47s the sulphur trains made my uniform stink!! But given the chance to do it again, absolutely 💯!! I was a guard at Llandudno junction from early 1974 to September 1989.
That railway would make for a gorgeous heritage line.
Disused railway still in situ plus industrial archeology with the Parys Mountain copper mine! Wonderful stuff!
I drove the penultimate day of freight traffic. Sad to see it overgrown now, but have heard it's very positive for reopening as a community line with both heritage and main line trains. Wish them all the best. Great video, and your Welsh name pronunciations aren't to bad haha.
Beeching was the fall guy for the real villain, who was Ernie Marples, Minister of Transport at the time. Marples was an out and out crook and eventually feld to France to avoid being prosecuted for tax evasion. He made a fortune out building roads through his involvement with Marples-Ridgway. Poor old Richard Beeching was only the fall guy and eveyrone remembers him instead of the real villain.
Beeching was a genius. The railways were losing £300,000 a day in the early 1960s. He recommended closure of duplicate lines and low use lines. He recommended development of some lines like the Oxford Cambridge line which were later closed against his report advicr and now they are going to reopen that line. In fact he got almost everything right.
Beeching gets a bad press from railfan foamers who start from the premise that any piece of track is a good piece of track. They think branch lines with 12 passengers a day should be kept open at vast expense to the nation for their own personal titillation. That was never going to happen. Infrastructure needs to work for the nation not a small group of railfan foamers.
@@PreservationEnthusiast He was wrong about the Great Central Main Line.
@@johnm2012 No, he was right about that. Duplicate line with no traffic.
And it is not suitable for HS2 as it does not pass through Birmingham it follows a switch back route to Manchester. The chosen alignment is the best. Almost straight route to Birmingham, Liverpool/Manchester, and on to Glasgow. That's where it needs to go.
I'm afraid all this "GCR could have been used for HS2" rubbish is a myth perpetuated by misty eyed foamer fanboys desperate to find a reason the GCR could have been kept open. It's a bit like the nonsense about how steam locos would be useful after a nuclear war yada yada.
@@PreservationEnthusiast No one can look at what Beeching did in isolation. Beeching was in effect nothing more than a functionary being asked to turn an unprofitable national railway into a profitable one. However, Beeching would never able to fulfil that brief because the network he’d been asked to turn around had already been failed by the 1955 BR Modernisation Plan.
I’d ask anyone who’s not familiar with what was in that plan to read it as it illustrates why Beeching had to eventually cut as much of the network as he did. Of course, it’s also true that the Modernisation Plan was doomed to failure itself because there were so many restrictions on how BR could implement it. Just like today previous governments haven’t had a clue of how to go about designing a transport policy which utilises our road, rail and waterways.
At the end of the day Beeching accepted a job he probably already knew was doomed to failure. Whilst it’s invariably true that if he hadn’t accepted the job then someone else would of it should also be remembered that he was very well remunerated for his efforts and he also received a Peerage. To my mind anyone responsible for putting so many men out of work is always going to be labelled a villain. As he never stated that he regretted how many men had lost their jobs due to his report I don’t believe he deserves too much sympathy.
@@PreservationEnthusiast HS2 is a waste of money we allready have trains to birmingham they are just a bit slower millions of pounds of taxpayers money is wasted on it.
Should be restored to railway, it’s a no brainier. It would be amazing. Thankyou.
Thank you for attracting attention to this lovely line. It's about time the Welsh Government encouraged the enthusiasts to get on with restoring the line and it's the kind of thing that gives communities hope for the future.
I live in amlwch right on the end of the train track and I know the locals would love for the line to be opened up again .we don't have enough jobs so alot of us have to move away .my brother's being 2 . Thanks for the video
It was officially mothballed in 2009 classed as out of use, ACR recently gained a 99 year lease on the whole line so its looking super good it reopening with EWS keen to use the freight capacity and an alternative crude oil landing point at the old branch, only fly in ointment is the bridge that got condemned when a lorry whacked it but NR have a whole ton of bridges from other replacements and closures so not a hard job.
Cracking video, mate. I'm an Anglesey resident, man and boy, 46 years. It looks like you really enjoyed making it. Keep up the great work. I've only come across you, and going through your back catalogue daily 👍
That chemical works at Amlwch was the Associated Octel plant that manufactured Bromine from sea water. The Bromine was used to make Hydrobromic acid which was used as a catalyst by the petrochemical industry.
I worked as a development engineer for a company who made equipment for this plant. The railway was used to transport chlorine tankers from Cheshire. If you contact me I will explain how it was done.
Just a little clue for Welsh pronunciation, 1 x 'F' in Welsh is pronounced as the 'V' English equivalent - while a double 'FF' is the Welsh equivalent of the English 'F'.
It's nice because there's volunteers have been maintaining and working onn the line between it closing and the current day, because alot of people want it reopening but it will cost alot to get the dream a reality
17 miles is a good run but even the Llangollen has struggled over the pandemic, certainly would be a plus point for Anglesey though
Of course it struggled if governments shut everything down!
I love the dingle walk where you can go on the track
There are volunteers currently clearing the line and network rail have handed ownership over to a charity who want to restore the line for passengers
Preserve, preserve, preserve please. PLEASE.
We are regular visitors to North Wales and to Anglesey and I have always known of the Amlwch branch but we didn't 'find' this until this year when we went on a short tour of nature reserves on Anglesey, The Dingle being one of those. We didn't walk on the line but the path through The Dingle follows it very closely between Llangefni and Cefn reservoir so as a rail nut I kept an eye on the line whenever it was in view. One thing I noticed was that not only was the line not overgrown along that stretch, but someone has been actively keeping the tree growth under control to keep the line clear - big thumbs up to whoever is doing that. I think it would do very well as a standard gauge heritage line as it passes through some very picturesque countryside. The main thing is to protect the formation, don't allow any building on it, get the line back open while the formation remains intact. This could easily become the setting for a Welsh 'Jacobite', regular modern train services interleaved with Heritage steam.
In 1966/67 I was working for English Electric, building the nuclear power station at Wylfa. We stayed in digs in Amlwch until the landlady caught us with two bars on the electric fire and kicked us out, when we moved into the camp at the power station. The weather was wild and I remember a major rescue by the lifeboats of a large ship adrift in hurricane force winds
The RNLI in Anglesey are amazing. And they have to be......
Amlwch was my hometown until I was 22, when I left to join the RAF. I just remember the last passenger trains, but do remember the Associated Octel chemical trains right up until their demise. As a kid, we used to put coins on the rails and have the trains squash them flat! Anyway, as a preserved railway volunteer, I would love to see the railway put back into service, which would bring loads of income to the island.
I was raised in Llannerchymedd, my home backed onto a field that backed onto the railway, I used to hear the train in the morning and watch it go past from my bedroom window, it's sad to see the state of the railway in your video but hopeful for the future. But a decision really does need to be made soon.
I wonder how people would feel if roads and public paths would start closing due to being "unprofitable"...
It just goes to show the ideological nature of these closures; roads are allowed to make a loss, but railways must make a profit. Double standards abound in this profit-driven world of ours.
An excellent observation. Roads are subsidised by petrol tax and income taxes, not so railways.
Ah yes the Amlwch branch line. Legendary locally for ending the hopes of prospective Conservative MP Roger Evans. In 1987 the prospective candidate harped on about being a 'local boy' (despite being a former MP for a constituency in the West Midlands) and no-one ever having heard of him. And, after being asked about the 'future of the Amlwch line' at a public meeting (there were concerns the line was to be closed and chemicals transported by country road) "Passenger services on the line will continue" was his proud claim... A passenger train hadn't run on the line since the Beeching reforms.
Thanks so much for your video I absolutely appreciate looking at old English Welsh and Scottish railway infrastructure
The Branch line to Red Whalf Bay is still there, Yes the scrap yard is now on the site of the branch line and engine sheds, but a few yards down the lane from the bridge you were standing on, is another much more impressive arched brick road bridge over the line, again it is overgrown in the cutting that remains, as the scrap yard side that meets one edge of the bridge has been filled in since around 1974 when it opened. Also on the Field on the left was a mine shaft, one of several now filled in and covered but the mound can be seen where it was, I have friends that live on the lane, and that own the scrap yard so know the area well. enjoyed the video,
Sad to see it disused. I can remember being on holiday in my late teens in the early 1980s in North Wales. I remember the trains of chlorine and bromine tank wagons and goods vans from the Amlwch plant usually hauled by a Class 31.
Open for a heritage railway fantastic views nice long run on classic trains, shame to waste it.
Great tourist idea... heritage rail and cycle track...
Most of your content is good
BUT!!!!!!!
Some of it is EXCELLENT.
Really enjoyed this vlog. Many thanks for making and sharing.
Used to holiday on a farm right next to the railway tracks on the outskirts of Llangefni and explore the tracks over the reservoir to find slow worms (legless lizards) and lizards also trying to look for adders aswel
That would be a stunning tourist attraction.
What an opportunity for a group of local people to get together and have their own heritage railway and what a boost it would be to the local economy and for not much investment. Somebody is missing a trick here
That was a most entertaining video and nicely presented.
Love your videos, keep up the great exploring, I'm from Liverpool but spent most of my life in Wales. Got to go to the copper mines once in North Anglesey, beautiful place. I've went exploring around abandoned places in the UK with mates of mine, of course respecting the environment and the historical background of it, unlike most people in my generation who go there to graffiti and litter. Your videos inspire me to go out and explore more. Thank you.
Thanks Daniel! It's great round there and it's nice to look at things without changing them. Happy hunting!
I'm two minutes in, the "Holland Arms" station is actually very accessible and its in your satellite photo, but local knowledge always trumps. The building is still there.
Excellent video, i`ve lived in North Wales all my life and didn`t know about that line, thanks for sharing
In the US we have a thing called Rail Explorers, which are vehicles powered like a bike but instead you are riding on old rail lines. A line like this would be perfect for that all the scenery and history
we hope to put our nuclear waste onto the island, into a large hole, and the rail will be ideal to trans it
Lived in Llangefni, walked that railway 100's of times....
Anglesey and wind are not strangers to one another. A special island and have spent many an hour on the great Copper mountain near Amlwch and in the port town itself. Last time I was in the area there was talk of getting some work going again there but that was 6 or 7 years ago. Enjoyable vlog.
Cracking video 👍 all on my doorstep. Fair play for attempting the welsh names 👍
Yes I liked the way he did them!
Thank you 0llie for all the hard work you put in your documentaries very professional.. far better than most of the rubbish that is put on the crap t.v
Really enjoyed your video - when at University I had a summer job at Octel in Amlwch in July & August 1990, when the trains were still running, and this brought back some great memories.
Bless you for this post. Conceived in the North of Scotland, born in Cornwall, I spent my formative years on Anglesey (Sir Fon) when my late father was posted to RAF Valley. Speaking fluent Welsh as a toddler and infant, I lost the lot over the years, except for pronunciation. Gogledd Cymru is still a land I love: and Llandudno has to be the finest resort town in the UK. I hope the islanders manage to get their old line re-opened as a heritage line. Who needs the Costas? What is disgusting, in your clip, is that the Company which used to operate the Bromine plant, was allowed to walk away, and leave it in that ruinous state, without penalty. Surely the successor to that Company should be required to restore the area to how it was before they abandoned it to the elements?
Your background is truly Celtic. It would be nice to get this line open again even if just for passenger traffic. It was used for freight in the 1980s. Ynys Mon is a great island.
In never ceases to amaze me that places like this are allowed to exist and decay. They are buildings that can be repurposed.
Into what? Nobody's going to want to use it commercially, can't live there either. Renovation can be 10x as expensive as new construction.
@@nvelsen1975 if I had the money, I could make thst summut special and would happily live there.
Really good video, in every respect, interesting, informative, and nicely presented. Great!
grew up in holyhead in the late 80s... never knew till recently about the other train line to amlwch, very interesting
Thanks Ollie! I enjoyed watching your video- Brilliant work!
I walked an old branch line near there today, Bethesda branch line on the outskirts and you can walk it all the way, half is just a regular disused railway (but clear enough to walk) and the rest is an actual path, I would recommend it
Excellent informative enjoyable video. Thanks 👍🇨🇦
A cycle track and railway is a fantastic idea. Great vlog.
Very cool if the the line were to be saved, too many rail lines fall into abandonment and are lost forever around the world
Superb video. You have an excellent narrative style. Great shots of the line and stations. Plus an industrial archaeology aspect at the end. Keep up the good work - we need more people like you 😊
Grew up in Llangefni and surprised to see that it looks recoverable as a heritage railway.
I am a Manc originally and only lived in Wales for 7 years, but I am impressed with your pronunciation of Cymraeg. I sailed into Amlwch in a yacht and kayaked past the chemical plant when it still was operating in '95. The 'swimming pool' smell was unmistakable.
The chlorine smell??
This would be a perfect candidate for a tourist line on the island. I was on Anglesey on the same week you were filming this and Anglesey does need some extra tourist attractions to help its economy. On the island there is another old diesel locomotive ideal for restoring back into action other than the one you spotted which is located at a transport museum on the island.
Thankyou for sharing.
Brilliant video as always.
Great Video The Mine was incredible..
Cracking episode!
Brilliant video use to live in Anglesey know the line well many thanks 👍
Transport For Wales put forward plans to reuse the track as a new corridor to access the beauty of eastern Ynys Mon!
...it'll never get done: the only line that's likely to get attention is the Carmarthen-Aberystwyrh line that closed almost 60 years ago, and that's no longer there: it would need a complete rebuild at today's HS2 costings (meaning it's got a fat chance of being reopened).
So good to see you amassing subscribers Ollie..well deserved mate you make great content Thankyou again mate
Excellent vlog. Thanks for posting. Fabulous 👌 👏
If you get chance, have a look at the Blaenau Ffestiniog to Trawsfynydd line that another group is trying to reopen. The track is still there, although it would need re-laying, as it was on wood sleepers, and due to lack of maintenance, they have rotted in places, due to standing water because the cess hasn't been cleared. The hope was to connect with the four foot at Blaenau and connect with the narrow-gauge that shares the platforms, thus opening up somewhere else to go other than the old slate quarries.
Yes Network Rail had given permission for a group to do maintenance on the Trawsfynydd line. However I believe they brought in some unauthorized mechanical plant which damaged an over bridge and NR ordered them off-site. I don't know if they have resolved the matter...
Last time I was at Blaenau Ffestiniog I was half tempted to wander the opposite way down the station tracks and follow it. Great suggestion, thank you! I'll take a look.
@@grahamladeda8495 I'm a (distant) member, and the last I heard, negotiations were in hand with NetRail.
Maybe onwards to Bala, that would be great too.
Fascinating. Thank you.
Fascinating video,ticks all the boxes for me.
Correction. Holland Arms station still exists. You can yet at it from the main road. It's in great order and the chap there let me look around it. Strongly suggest you go back and check it out. Its one of the highlights.
Oh no, I didn't realise. That's a shame. I just couldn't get anywhere near it...
I looked through the windows once and I'm sure that the interior was pretty much how parts of it must have looked when it closed to passengers in 1950 when the Red Wharf Bay branch shut.
I think it was still in LMS colours. Fascinating.
great video program, beautifully produced and informative, thanks
Abandoned rail lines are just depressing. Restoring, expanding and electrifying the railways should be at the forefront of reducing carbon emissions and improving transport across the country. Yet nobody will ever do anything about it, they'll just continue to complain about blocked motorways and cars clogging up every single street.
As usual very interesting and informative, I enjoy the history and fantastic views as well as your delivery, thank you.
Thank you!
Amazing. I love your videos... I'm going to walk this line. Keep it up dude!
Fabulous and informative vlog as always. Thank you 😊
Great video & hope your dreams can come true for all of us.
great walk
Another great and interesting vid Ollie ! Really loved it and another reason for me to get over to the land of my fathers...very impressed!
Excellent film, and up to date - shot in 2022. The Amlwch line has been leased for 99 years by Network Rail (in effect the Department for Transport as Network Rail is wholly owned by the DfT) to Lein Amlwch - see David Rogers's response below. The future of the line will be bright if a decision is made to build a new nuclear power plant at Wylfa, which is four miles west of Amlwch and it is determined that construction material should be brought by rail not road to it.. All but the last 2 miles of the Gaerwen-Amlwch line could be used as access to the Wylfa site with a short section of new line built through the former oil storage site east of Boedwyrd (once rail-served) to Wylfa. One must hope that unlike the proposal for a new Wylfa power plant put forward by a Japanese company a few years ago, which was going to use all greenfield land, the next Wylfa station will use much of the land area and the infrastructure of the now-closed station.
Since Wylfa power stations (in common with many others) are on the coast materials could be brought in by sea. For some reason this never happens. I proposed it could be done for the "B" station at Hinckley Point but it was dismissed on cost grounds and yet new roads are routinely built disrupting the local area.
Was the line ever used to carry new and spent fuel rods between Wylfa and Sellafield?
Bringing materials to nuclear power station sites under construction at coastal locations sounds the best way, but in practice it is usually not practicable as the sites have no port facilities and may not be on deep water where a quay can be built. Some nuclear stations in Britain are at or close to docks : Berkeley (Sharpness, Gloucs), Heysham, Hartlepool and Hunterston. The others are not (examples Dungeness, Bradwell, Sizewell). Hinkley Point is on a rocky shore with only minor roads as access - no wonder the construction process is so enervating for people in West Somerset.
The Wylfa nuclear fuel and waste was carried by road to/from a nuclear materials siding at Valley, Anglesey, the station before Holyhead on the Welsh North Coast line. The siding where the nuclear flasks were handled can be seen in aerial photos (use bing maps on-line). That still meant 15 miles of road haulage to/from the power station.
@@marc21091 Such facilities can be built.
@@johnm2012 : No, they were transported by road to a purpose built railhead at Valley and then by rail.
We made electrical equipment for this company ( Associated Octel ) in our factory in Rugby. The chemicals they made were very corrosive and our parts had to be made of special materials. It was my job to sort out these problems.
very informative, i have ridden that line in the past.
Brilliant video😊
Great video! Absolutely fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
Cheers Brian, thanks!
Nice bit of nostalgia there, I lived in Anglesey from 1988 to 1993 and remember trains along the track. Let's hope it does re open that would be brill. Great video.
An interesting video with a pleasant, informative narration.
Nice one..super interesting...
Ollie, Thanks for another enjoyable watch. What a fun walk you had that day, "just for us." The top of the Windmill, at Parys Mt, must have been blown off by all that wind. Ollie, you do some of the best "One man, one camera" videos, the narration sounds real and not scripted. Have a great day.....
Thank you Mike. Have a great day too!
I remember watching a TV show, possibly 'Time Team', where they investigated Parys Mountain. At one point, Dr. Alice Roberts ventured into the flooded tunnels in diving gear, with some other explorers. It was extremely dangerous down there.
A guidebook I have, warns visitors against going on the site, due to the polluted nature of the ground, and also the numerous uncapped shafts there. Happily, as can be seen from your video, serious remediation work has gone on there, and casual visitors are now safe and welcomed to this astonishing bit of industrial history.
@@brianartillery Time Team, what a great show, saw every season. What a cast from Tony to Francis (RIP Mick.) Always liked Carenza..............
@@BeeHereNowuk Stay strong, Bike safe.
I am amazed how clear the line is for the most part. The Stoke-on-Trent to Leek line, which closed to freight around the same time, is now covered in trees
This was really interesting.
Enjoyed that Ollie, thanks! Looked bloody cold with all that wind though.
I suspect that much of the trackwork would need renewing; The formation need some serious work to remedy the wet spots and vegetation roots; Each bridge and structure would need it's own survey. Unless there were serious money available even a feasibility study would be difficult to have it's needs met. That said, great video, thanks!
Wonderful video as always.
In the early 1950s my dad, Tom Spruce was a young teacher at City Road school in Manchester and took a group of pupils to an outward bound centre at Red Wharf Bay. After watching your video I realise he must have used the old RWB branch line you mentioned! Really interesting Ollie.
I really enjoyed that . Good stuff :)
I went to the bromine extraction plant several times when it supplied the ICI plant at Runcorn, Cheshire. Amazing to see it again many years later. Thank you.
Great video, but 2 things...
1) Llangefni is a town #pedant
2) just south of Llangefni station the railway crosses the main road in to Llangefni from the west on a bridge. Well, I say a bridge, it was, right up until someone managed to wedge a HGV under it & the only way to extract the HGV was to remove the bridge!
I do question the viability of reopening the line as a 'real' railway, but it has a lot of potential as a heritage railway & if Network Rail give permission it can join the main line at Gaerwen & carry on through to Bangor.
Thumbs up mate.
superb, thank you!
Thank you too!
Great vlog. 👍. Very informative 👏 👌