Barry Tourist Railway
| Barry Tourist Railway | |
|
Glamorgan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Barry Tourist Railway | |
| Gauge: | standard |
| No. of stations: | 4 |
| Track: | 1½ miles |
| Information | |
The Barry Tourist Railway (formerly the Barry Island Railway) is a railway developed to attract visitors to Barry, a seaside resort town in Glamorgan. It is a key element of the Barry Rail Centre which also includes engineering and training facilities.
An unusual aspect of the railway is that for several hundred yards across from Barry to Barry Island the trackbed used is directly alongside the Network Rail track which uses the original up line, with the Barry Tourist Railway using the down line. This continues across the Causeway Bridge where the lines diverge into separate platforms at Barry Island. The Railway does not consider itself a line but more of a network as it has two different routes. This is reflected in the map below, with Network Rail shown in red.
Services have been operated by IRIS II DMU (twin-set), Class 26 No. 26038, Class 73's 73118 & 73133 with GATEX set in push-pull mode, Class 20 20228, Class 08 08503, 0-6-0 Pannier Tank locomotive No. 9466, Great Western Steam Rail Motor No.93, Metropolitan Tank No. 1, Hunslet 0-6-0T Jessie and even an 8F tender loco.
History
In 1979, the Butetown Historic Railway Society was formed in Cardiff, running a service along a short piece of line from Butetown. Evicted by the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, the company was offered a lease by the Vale of Glamorgan Council on Barry Island railway station, with taxpayers' money, and from this was born the Vale of Glamorgan Railway.
In 2007 by landlord, the council, decided not to renew its funding of the Barry Island Railway, amounting to £65,000 a year. The put the site out to tender, and the railway is now run by a commercial company, Cambrian Transport.
The railway operates the line over 30 days a year and runs many special events. The biggest annual event for the last 3 years has been the Barry at War Weekend, which attracts many thousands of visitors to the town. In August 2014, Cambrian Transport sponsored a display by the Red Arrows and a fly-past by the Battle of Britain Memorial Fight during this event, bringing more people to Barry Island than for many years.
Santa Special trains are also popular during the Christmas period.
Route
The Barry Tourist Railway is centred at Barry Island railway station and platforms (51°23’31"N, 3°16’31"W), which is shared with mainline trains. The station has a shop, café and military museum as well as space for event displays and activities.
At the 'Cardiff' end of the building is the end of the Network Rail platform area. Access to the Barry Tourist Railway platform and two at-present unused bay platforms is at the pier (east) end of the station. The Barry Island Railway line exits the east end of the station to Plymouth Road where a museum is to be developed. A small platform allows visitors to alight and see the historic artefacts and exhibits while a DMU driver changes ends or steam-hauled trains have to run-around. In the past, certain trains ran through Barry Island station and a tunnel to Barry Pier to connect with P&A Campbell's paddle steamer sailings in the Bristol Channel. At the moment the tunnel is blocked off and used as a shooting range. The railway has long-term ambitions to reopen the tunnel and route to Barry Pier.
Heading west, the line crosses the causeway bridge parallel to Network Rail before taking a sharp right-hand turn and splitting into two branches, one leading down to Hood Road (the Waterfront), the other heading past a locoshed and on to Woodhams halt to the new terminus at Gladstone Bridge next to the supermarkets. It is intended to extend the line a further half mile to a site adjacent to Arriva Trains Wales Barry Docks Station.
The running line runs near to the site of the former Woodham Brothers scrapyard. The former EWS loco depot at Barry (which was once the Barry Railway Steam Loco Depot) is now the main running shed and is also used to store and repair rolling stock. This has recently been renamed by the railway as the Barry Main Depot.
On television
Some parts of the line, particularly around the Plymouth Road/Barry Island and BarryTown area, were used for several scenes in the Doctor Who episodes "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" in January 2005 and more recently for the episode "Flatline" screened in October 2014.
Other recent filming includes Being Human, Ar-y-Tracs and "Stella" - the last two featuring Ruth Jones.
Rolling stock
Stock marked with an asterisk (*) is located at the Barry Main Depot. On most running days, guided shed tours are offered by the railway.
- Main-line steam locomotives
The last remaining locomotives from Dai Woodham's scrapyard, were the remains of the last locomotives left when the yard closed - and were a group often called the Barry Ten, as there were ten of them. Most of them have been removed for use in heritage railway projects and for restoration. Two former scrapyard steam locomotives remain on the railway and are publicly viewable on most operating days.
- BR 2-10-0 Class 9F no. 92245* built in 1959. – (Stored. Due to be displayed as an example of an unrestored ex Barry scrapyard engine).
- GWR 2-6-2T 4575 Class no. 5539* built in 1928. – (under restoration in a non-public building - owned by Llangollen Railway)
- GWR 0-6-2T 5600 Class no. 6686* built in 1928. – (partially dismantled before commencing restoration).
Also on site are:
- Diesel locomotives
- BR 0-6-0 Class 08 no. 08503* – Operational.
- BR Class 20 Class 20 no. 20228* (CFD no. 2004) – Non-operational, under overhaul. - Owned by Traditional Traction.
- Diesel Multiple Units
- BR Class 101 unit (Iris II)* – Operational. Owned by Cambrian Transport. Formed RDS 977963+RDB 977964.
- BR Class 101 DTCL 6300* - stored, some work carried out to restore this coach as an observation vehicle.
- Electro-Diesel locomotives
- BR Class 73 Class 73 no. 73118* – Non-Operational. Operated by Transmart Trains [1]
- Electric Multiple Unit trailers
- BR Class 488/2 unit 488206 (72505+72629)*
- BR Class 488/3 unit 488311 (72620+72710+72621)
- BR Class 489 unit 489110 (68509)*
Other rolling stock includes:
- DW139 Great Western Toplight Coach 2360 of 1911
- HAA Hopper wagon
- Bogie Bolster wagon
- 2 Grampus Wagons
- Covered air-braked wagon (Cov AB)
- Ex LNER Permanent Way Brake Van (Privately owned. Being restored as living accommodation by private owners)