Last chance to visit former Cwmbargoed Colliery line?
It looks like the end of the road for the seven-mile freightonly line from Ystrad Mynach.
WITH the highly likely final closure in 2022 of the former Cwmbargoed Colliery line which runs seven miles along a branch from Ystrad Mynach on the line to Merthyr, Pathfinder Tours is running ‘The Cwmbargoed Collier’ on February 5.
Starting at Banbury, with pick-ups to Newport, the charter special will be hauled by a DB Cargo Class 66. At Newport, a
Class 60 will couple onto the rear. The train continues to Bridgend before reversing back through Cardiff to Ystrad Mynach on the Rhymney line and the steeply graded branch to Cwmbargoed. The tour then proceeds to traverse the Barry Docks lines.
The Cwmbargoed line served the open cast mine at Ffos-y-Fran, where work to reclaim 11 million tonnes of coal over the course of 17 years started in 2007. The coal is washed at the adjacent Cwmbargoed washery facility. The extraction licence for this mine expired in October which is likely to see the branch closed for good. Cwmbargoed Colliery, itself, closed as long ago as 1924.