Re: Photos of South Wales in the 1970's


BH Williams wrote:

"Andy Kirkham" <a.kirkham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1143798092.820005.319140@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have added to my Fotopic site http://andy-kirkham.fotopic.net/ a fair
number of picture taken in South Wales in 1973-5. The main collection
concerns the Taff Bargoed Joint line (to Cwmbargoed and Dowlais Cae
Harris), which is to me one of the most fascinating railways I've ever
visited.

Andy

I'd forgotten how desolate the upper reaches of the Valleys could be. It
took me a while to recognise the traffic in those wagons- retired moulds
being returned from the various steelworks. Were you in the brake van to get
those shots along the train?. I don't remember BSC Landore, the sister-plant
of Dowlais, where both my dad and I worked, getting so many of the moulds
back- I think we used mainly 'fresh' scrap from Bachelor Robinson's
detinning plant at Llanelli or from the various scrap works around the
Swansea area. Strange to think that ingot moulds are hardly used these days,
having been superseded by Continuous Casting, and that the importance of the
steelworks in South Wales area is so reduced.
Brian

Yes I was travelling in the brake van. Having become intrigued by
photographs of the strange landscape around Cae Harris, I paid a visit
one day but there was no activity. I was determined to take some
photographs with trains, so I wrote to the BR Public Relations office
at Cardiff simply enquiring about train times. To my surprise and
delight they wrote back with an application for a brake van trip! I
made the trip to celebrate the completion of my A-Levels. The fee was
calculated as the first class fare for the appropriate mileage. (I
think this is still the only occasion in my life when I have paid a
first class train fare in this country).


Andy

.

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