Milford Haven and Neyland Branches

By John Hodge

Part of the West Wales Railways series, this book starts at Clarbeston Road, covers the oil-rich town of Milford Haven, where oil refineries were opened mostly in the 1960s in association with the deep-water port, to accommodate super tankers from the Middle East, though the development of other products and pipelines in the oil world has seen the number of oil terminals there currently reduced to one at Robeston. Neyland was the original West Wales terminus of the GWR, after plans to develop Fishguard were delayed until 1906, and saw several through Passenger and Parcels trains to Paddington until 1963, when through passenger trains between Paddington and West Wales were terminated at Swansea with a DMU service beyond. The Neyland branch from Johnston was closed under the Beeching cuts of 1964, involving the closure of the important Motive Power Depot whose allocation of County Class engines is well illustrated, though the effect of this was largely nullified by the arrival of the diesel age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781526795878

John Hodge

JOHN HODGE is a former railway manager during the 1960s who, since retirement in 1992, has produced many articles and books on South Wales railways.

Book preview

PREFACE

This book brings to an end my series on West Wales Railways which began in 2000 with my series on the South Wales Main Line with Wild Swan Publishers, and consists of 9 volumes covering: Severn Tunnel to Newport, Cardiff, Cardiff to Bridgend, Bridgend to Swansea, Swansea to Llanelly, Llanelly to Carmarthen, Carmarthen to Fishguard Harbour, Whitland to Pembroke Dock, Milford Haven and Neyland Branches. The format has changed with the change of publisher as the books with Wild Swan contained only steam age photographs whereas we have now moved forward to include the modern scene with diesel traction, which I hope readers enjoy, and for which I must largely thank my friends Stuart Warr and Stephen Miles for the supply of the images.

Map of Clarbeston Road to Milford Haven and Neyland Branches. (Richard Harman)

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The Beeching report of 1963 contained many surprises, nay shocks, with some of the sweeping changes to the railway it announced, with whole lines and routes to disappear on the grounds of duplication or uneconomic status. In West Wales, the report came down hard on branch lines where, although the end of the line was a significant place, the places served in between were not. Such was the case with the Carmarthen to Aberystwyth, Newcastle Emlyn and Aberayron lines and Whitland to Cardigan, but it came as a great shock that the service to Neyland was announced as for closure. This had been the original terminus station of the South Wales Railway and, from 1863, of the Great Western Railway, with through trains to and from Paddington. In the Cardiff Divisional Office which controlled all of South and West Wales, there was widespread amazement that this branch was about to be amputated. On a personal note, my friend W.A.R.(Roy) Mason, who had been my boss in the Cardiff District Passenger Train Office in September 1961, a very knowledgeable, intelligent and capable person, was a native of Neyland and various degrees of incredulity passed between us on the subject. Perhaps it was one of the principles that led Roy to leave the railway and take a position in the Welsh Tourist Board, just the sort of person the railway could not afford to lose at that time.

But with three main line termini in West Wales – Neyland, Milford Haven and Fishguard Harbour – it was perhaps predictable that the weakest link in terms of revenue, which had to be Neyland, was going to be sacrificed to the London railway mood of the era. Milford Haven was in the throes of developing multi million pound oil traffic from the refineries being built near the deep-water port, supported by its fish traffic which produced one or two complete trains per day, one for the Bristol area and the other for London, with a short train for Manchester via the Central Wales Line, with other direct vans as tail traffic. Fishguard Harbour was complementary to Holyhead as a ferry port for Ireland, but Neyland had little other than its originating passenger traffic to make its case and that case was not at all strong, though it was more important operationally to the area, as its engine shed provided the power for Milford Haven trains and coaches and vans from both places were cleaned and serviced there. But that was insufficient to justify its retention, especially in the context of how matters would evolve in future years. Though Fishguard Harbour survived the onslaught, Fishguard & Goodwick and the stations and halts between there and Clarbeston Road did not, though it is pleasing to say that Goodwick station has since been reopened.

Though through trains to and from Paddington had operated from the start of the South Wales Railway until 1963, they had ceased in that year when the London service was truncated to run between Paddington and Swansea with a mostly DMU service beyond. This was partly to address the poor coach utilisation position where many coaches were only doing one run to/from London and West Wales per day. The quality of travel for first class passengers to/from West Wales declined sharply with everyone having to change trains at Swansea, with a downgrading of everything in travel beyond, with train heating problems prevalent and the stink of diesel fumes pervading the stations, though a few early starters and late terminators were extended from/to Carmarthen. The only main exceptions were the Irish boat trains which continued as complete trains beyond Swansea to/ from Fishguard, but now only one train per day in each direction connecting into and out of the night sailing to Rosslare. With the increase in the attraction of air travel to and from Ireland, including from Cardiff Airport at Rhoose, and the rapid increase in road travel, the rail market declined markedly. The London service was withdrawn and the importance of a rail service to Fishguard Harbour went with it, so that now all that operates is a mid-morning DMU service from and to Cardiff with local support in the re-opened Fishguard & Goodwick station with a service to Carmarthen, Swansea or Cardiff. For a while, the Cardiff service was worked by a diesel engine and coaches which added to its attraction, but now the run round facility at the Harbour station has been removed so the service is condemned to DMU status permanently.

Though the high revenue-earning oil services from Milford Haven were extremely buoyant in the 1960-2000 period, developments in the global oil company scene have seen a huge contraction in rail traffic in the following years, so that the only company sending oil by rail is Puma, who have bought out Murco and who operate from Robeston using Murco tankers, with the other refineries either closed or using pipeline conveyance. Though the longest standing company Esso, whose refinery at Herbrandston opened in 1960, developed a new rail traffic in Liquified Petroleum Gas in the 1970s and produced the longest mileage running freight train on British Railways with their daily train from Milford Haven to Provan in Scotland, running at the highest category freight train Class 4, this is now a thing of the past. The oil business has changed immeasurably at Milford Haven with refineries either closing down or being sold to companies specialising in the production of Liquified Natural Gas which is pipeline conveyed. Esso closed its oil refinery in 1983 and has moved into the LNG field of operations; Gulf, whose refinery opened in 1968 with trains to Birmingham Albion terminal, sold out to Chevron and the refinery closed in 1997, again moving into the LNG and other businesses. The position, as at 2020, is that the only Milford Haven oil terminal producing rail-borne traffic is Robeston where current owners Puma run a huge daily train of