Out and About in August The Dean Forest Railway
Leaving the motorway to the mad men, we take the old A48 from Newport to Chepstow via Langstone, and Caerwent. A reasonably wide road which was once the only road to London from South Wales, and the Holiday route to the West of England . Now although still widely used it is a far more pleasant experience than the death trap M4 Motorway and its associated lunacy. Avenues of lush greenery, old country Inns and pleasant village architecture, remind us that there is more to life than being tail gaited by a 100 mile an hour moron in a white transit van.
Chepstow is always a delight as we pass into England. Continuing on the Chepstow / Gloucester road we can take in the panorama of the Severn Estuary. Magnificent on a fine summers day , steeped in History and folk lore, a gem of the natural world with it’s racing tides and the famous Severn Bore.
continued lower left
Pleasant Lydney on the banks of the Severn and the edge of the Dean Forest once enjoyed a greater prominence. The Lydney canal, which terminated at the Lydney Docks, was an important waterway carrying coal and other commodities from the Forest of Dean. Also, here was the junction for the now defunct Severn Railway Bridge linking the Forest with Sharpness and routes to Bristol and the West of England. The railway ceased to exist to Monmouth and across to Berkeley Road following the untimely closure of the bridge in 1960 following a collision by two oil tankers. The Railway Junction closed in 1969 though the GW Station thankfully remains open.
Now the Dean Forest Railway is there to give us a lasting look into how it was, those years ago when the Forest was a coal and Iron producer, and a network of passenger and freight lines served the community in the time honoured manner of the country branchline railway.
Sadly my trip to the Dean Forest Railway did not produce any steam traction as I picked the wrong day. However I was able to travel hauled by an immaculate vintage class 31 diesel locomotive, resplendent in EWS livery. The journey up to Parkend and return to the old Junction was reasonably priced and thoroughly enjoyable.
