Wild Swan Books
The North and West Route
Volume 3B - Abergavenny Brecon Road to Maindee Junction
John Hodge
Hardback - 148 pages - £30.95
Contents- Northern Approaches to Abergavenny
- Abergavenny Monmouth Road
- Penpergwm
- Llanvair Bridge
- Nantyderry
- Little Mill Junction
- Pontypool Road Station
- Pontypool Road South & Yards
- Pontypool Road Shed
- Pontrhydyrun Tin Works
- Lower Pontnewydd
- Llantarnam
- Ponthir
- Caerleon Tin Works Siding
- Caerleon
- Maindee Junctions
Volume Three of this North & West series deals with the section from Hereford to Newport (Maindee Junction). Volume 3A dealt with Hereford to Abergavenny Junction, and this Volume 3B continues from Abergavenny (Monmouth Road) to the Maindee junctions which linked the North & West line to the South Wales Main Line, the East Junction taking trains toward the Severn Tunnel and the West of England, and the West into Newport High Street and onwards to Cardiff and West Wales.
The branch lines that deviated from or impinged upon the North and West line are described, viz, the Little Mill to Monmouth line; the Taff Vale Extension/Vale of Neath line; the Pontypool, Caerleon and Newport line, which became the main line south of Pontypool; and the Eastern Valley service, which used the North & West between Newport and Llantarnam Junction on its way to Pontypool (Crane Street) and Blaenavon. All these lines combined to add local interest to the main line, where gleaming 'Castles', 'Britannias' and 'Kings' could be followed by doughty panniers bustling along with auto trains or other types of stopping services, with the interminable flow of coal and general freights that South Wales was all about.
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