The Welsh Marches Main Line

When I first travelled this line in 1963 it was a major route between the north of England and the south west. Much of this traffic was later rerouted via Birmingham, which became the hub for cross-country trains, a position it still holds today. On 27/7/63, the first day of our family summer holiday to the Blackdown Hills south of Taunton, our train from Liverpool Lime Street via Crewe was hauled south from Shrewsbury by Castle Class No. 4087 Cardigan Castle as far as Bristol and on from there by Hymek No. D7017. The return journey was also behind a Hymek, first of the class No. D7000, before Warship Class No. D845 Sprightly took over from Temple Meads. The prevalence of the diesels at the head of these expresses was certainly a sign of things to come. Former GWR main lines in the south west were amongst the first to embrace this change by going for diesel hydraulic transmission in a big way from the start.

Locomotive types may have changed but the scenery of Shropshire and Herefordshire is still much the same. It is a very attractive part of the country, yet somewhat overlooked as a tourist destination. The valleys that thread their way west and up into the Welsh hills take you off the beaten track, and it seems almost into a less hurried time zone, whereas the busy major north – south routeway and the local town service centres between Shrewsbury, Hereford and Newport are still dominated by the railway and the A49 trunk road. They run side by side for much of the time.

We spent time a little time at Craven Arms station, junction for the Heart of Wales line to Llanelli, and at Church Stretton. Both have lost all their original station buildings to the ubiquitous modern shelters. Nevertheless, this route is still busy with passenger traffic, run today by Transport for Wales, in spite of the fact that much of the track is in England. Not only that but it is actually one of the few stretches of main line railway where locomotive hauled passenger trains still operate regularly on the national system. A handful of Class 67s push and pull 5-coach trains linking Cardiff with Holyhead and Manchester. Three such services came past Stokesay Castle during the time it took us to walk round the medieval site and all 3 locomotives were in different liveries.

The sun shone on the Shropshire hills and the Welsh Marches main line gave every impression of being in good health, too, with plenty of recent additions to the rolling stock, mostly in the form of clean, bright Class 195 units, most of which were being well used. I’m sure that I must have made a mental note of this scenic route in the summer of 1963, so much so that I have been drawn back since on many occasions. We may have swapped Cardigan Castle for Stokesay, but I still have the memories, and we still have these unchanging and beautiful rural landscapes to enjoy. The Shropshire hills are a delight, especially when viewed from the top of the Long Mynd on a lovely summer’s day.