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John Hodge

Whitland to Pembroke Dock is the latest book in the West Wales Railways series which continues the previous South Wales Main Line series covering the line from the Severn Tunnel through to ends of the main line in West Wales. This volume covers the section from Whitland to Pembroke Dock, a largely agricultural and holiday line, centring on Tenby and Pembroke. The line was worked by Whitland depot which was a steam sub-shed of Neyland, with its own allocation, mainly of tank engines. These worked the Cardigan and Pembroke Dock branches until the former was closed under the Beeching closures of the mid-1960s, when the engine shed was closed under dieselisation in 1964. The volume of freight traffic was radically affected by the withdrawal of goods sundries and parcels traffic, but especially by the withdrawal of wagon load freight traffic in 1976, which had brought much Animal Feed and Farming traffic to the line. Like much of South Wales, the traffic is now purely passenger with DMUs though Summer Saturdays still sees a through train now with IETs to and from Paddington, carrying on the service from HSTs. The previous Pembroke Coast Express in steam and early diesel days was the prime train on the branch running to and from Paddington and is still reproduced in the modern preserved steam special workings.

Pen & Sword Transport

West Wales Railways

Whitland to Pembroke Dock

A pictorial survey of the 20 miles of railway line between the junction station at Llanelly and the county town of Carmarthen in West Wales.

 Railway historian John Hodge looks at the development of the lines in West Wales, between these locations, taking in the history of the local industry that was once a feature in this area.

 This book covers each station and main location along the route, with good photographic coverage and interesting long captions explaining the location’s significance. Additional text is provided for several locations, giving more historical detail and anecdotal information: • Llanelly West/Old Castle Crossing
 • Pembrey & Burry Port
 • Carmarthen Bay Power Station
 • Lando Halt
 • Kidwelly Flats Halt
 • Kidwelly
 • Ferryside
 • Carmarthen
 • Carmarthen Junction
 • Carmarthen New Station
 • Carmarthen Junction Shed
 • Carmarthen Shed

 The work is of interest to railway historians and those who accurately model railways, having a good coverage of the subject throughout its pages.

“Narrative summaries of each of the major locations are provided, but the real strength of the book lies in the several hundred photographs which the author has brought together. These include the huge and diverse range of steam motive power to be found at Carmarthen shed over the years, a fine selection of views of Carmarthen station itself, everyday and special trains passing through rural and often highly scenic locations, and useful views of the intermediate stations and signal boxes which will be particularly valuable to the modeller and historian.” —West Somerset Railway Association

Llanelly West to Camarthen

West Wales Railways

West Wales Railways

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