On 26th February 2014, I travelled from Wolverhampton to Chirk by rail in order to visit the Ty Gwyn woodland. There's a report on the visit here.
Wikipedia have some information on the line from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury here and on the line beyond Shrewsbury to Chester here.
I've been familiar with the G.W.R. route from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury and beyond since childhood. Back then, manual signal boxes with Absolute Block working controlled the route from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury but over the years, one by one, they've been eliminated. I've continued to use the line to Shrewsbury and beyond intermittently for various trips.
Shrewsbury
I took an Arriva Trains Wales DMU from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury, calling at Telford and Wellington. At Shrewsbury, I had a few minutes to take photographs before my connecting train to Chirk was due.
The impressive station building on platform 3 features a tower flying the Union flag!
There were plenty of people waiting to join the 3-coach Arriva Trains Wales service from Cardiff to Holyhead but we were soon on our way.
Cardiff - Holyhead DMU arriving at Shrewsbury.
Gobowen
After traversing a number of level crossings set in a fairly flat and rather wet landscape, we stopped at Gobowen. The station sports a Great Western railway nameboard 'GOBOWEN FOR OSWESTRY' (partly hidden behind the compulsory tall pole for mounting a CCTV camera). The currently-unused and rusty single line to Oswestry about 3 miles away is still intact and enthusiasts hope to re-open it, but the bay platform at Gobowen has lost its track.
The nameboard hints at the station's former importance.
A further reminder of former better times is the rather attractive Italianate station building with a turret and stucco detailing, designed by locally-born Thomas Penson Junior and built around 1846 for the Shrewsbury and Chester railway. The building is now unused and available for sale or to rent. Wikipedia has more on the station here.
The Down side former station building at Gobowen
Both the nameboard and the building are Grade II Listed:-
Railway station. Circa 1848 by Thomas Penson Jun. on the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway with later additions and alterations. Stuccoed red brick on moulded stone plinth; low-pitched hipped slate roofs have brick and ashlar ridge stacks with moulded capping and dentilled cornices. Italianate style. 2 storeys. Entrance side has 3-storey rectangular tower projecting to right with finial to low-pitched pyramidal roof and modillioned eaves cornice. 'Belfry' has blind round-headed arches with balustrade. 2-bay centre section has round-headed sash windows to first floor, paired to right, with continuous moulded impost bands and interlacing wheel decoration to aprons. Glazing bar sashes in lugged architraves to ground floor. Projecting left range has paired round-headed sash windows to first floor. Tall double doors to centre approached by flight of 3 steps and flanked by round-arched sash windows. Single-storey exedra to left with dentilled cornice and 4-paned sashes in lugged architraves. Platform side has bracketed canopy, removed at time of resurvey (April 1986) to top end of platform but continued, supported by cast-iron columns, to south; cusped quatrefoils to spandrels of brackets. Footbridge linking down-line side with up-line side has latticed cast-iron girders to covered walk-way. Single-storey yellow brick range to up- line side with round-arched sash windows and doorways; ornamental cast-iron brackets supporting canopy. Later platform canopy to south of footbridge. Station name-boardslettered "GOBOWEN / FOR / OSWESTRY" between cast-iron columns with moulded capping at north end of up -line platform and south end of down-line platform. Extensive restoration was in progress at time of resurvey (April 1986).See the British Listed Buildings entry here.
Chirk
The next stop was Chirk, where I alighted and continued by road. The tiny station is looked after and kept attractive by local support.
Chirk Station.
Chirk is dominated by the huge Kronospan factory. Kronospan claim to be the world’s largest manufacturer of wood panel products and laminate flooring. Worldwide, it has more than 30 manufacturing sites. There's more information here.
View of the Kronospan plant from Chirk Station car park.
Returning from Chirk
Later in the day, I was back at Chirk station for the return journey. I'd forgotten, until I saw a plaque on the station, that Chirk was the end of the Glyn Valley Tramway, opened in 1873, finally closed in 1935. There's a 'Wikipedia' article here. The New Glyn Valley Tramway & Industrial Heritage Trust are seeking to conserve, research and interpret the Industrial Heritage of the area and Glyn Valley Tramway and have experimentally laid a length of track to the tramway's odd 2ft 4½in track gauge. The Glyn Valley Tramway Trust are separately pursuing similar aims.
Glyn Valley Tramway Plaque, Chirk station.
The 3-car DMU which I took back to Shrewsbury was going through to Maesteg.
The Maesteg train arriving at Chirk.
Passing through Shrewsbury
I was quite tired by the time we arrived at Shrewsbury (after spending a few hours romping round the woodland in the rain earlier) so I was relieved to be able to get on my connecting train back to Wolverhampton. The late afternoon sun improved my picture of Severn Bridge Jn. signal box. I noticed that the 3-aspect colour light in the foreground of my shot now sports a blue GSM-R plate. The world is changing!
The monolithic bulk of Severn Bridge Junction, with a 3-aspect colour light in the foreground.
Book references
[1] 'Rail Centres: Shrewsbury' by Richard K. Morriss, published by Booklaw Publications (ISBN 1-901945-20-0).
[2] 'A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 11 North and Mid Wales by Peter E Baughan, published by David & Charles (ISBN 0-9153-7850-3).
Related articles on other sites
Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line (Wikipedia).
Shrewsbury to Chester Line (Wikipedia).
Glyn Valley Tramway (Wikipedia).
My pictures
Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury line.
Wellington.
Shrewsbury area railways.
