21 April 2008

The Welsh Heartlands Autofest held over the weekend at the Council Offices and Park at Pontllanfraith had great promise in the build up but for the second year running it was not to be with the weather once again ending the dreams of a great weekend.

The choice of the early date by the Council did not help and the late decision to limit access to already agreed areas put tremendous stress on those on the ground.

It will not be a surprise to learn that the organisers have called it a day and will not repeat this event in 2009.

21 April 2008

Concerns over the possibility of weather problems at the Parc Penallta site following the chaos at the Pontllanfraith transport festival last weekend caused by the weather have resulted in the Rhymney Valley Transport  Preservatyion Society deciding to cancel the proposed Gelligaer Anniversary Rally planned for Sunday 21st September.

11 March 2008

The Bedford Drive-In is a new event organised by the Bedford Register & Drivers Club International. The first edition takes place at Sheppton Mallet at Truckfest South West over the weekend of 4-5th July  and the 2nd edition is at Usk Showground on 27-28th September.

10 March 2008

The Welsh Heartlands Transport Festival has now reached 450 entries for this years show in April 19-20th at theCivic Centre in Blackwood Road, Pontllanfraith.  Due to spacer limitations this will be the last time the event will be staged at this venue and is due to move to a new location next year in Ystrad Mynach.

25 February 2008

Hot on the heels of the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway receiving the news that their local authority, Torfaen County Borough Council (TCBC) have secured £526,000 to underpin a southward  expansion from their current centre of operations at Furnace Sidings 1¼ miles to Blaenavon High Level station comes the news that  Barry Island Railway has been dealt a major blow from the Vale of Glamorgan Council who appear unlikely to give further backing to keep the railway afloat.

This follows the news that an employment grant forced the railway to make its General Manager , Janet Small redundant in December last to be followed by Michelle McCarthy, an Admin Assistant who is likely to be leaving the railway before the end of the month leaving the railway without full or part time employees.

The net effect of this is not yet known although the "South Wales Echo" is forcasting the end of the railway in its present form which must cast doubts over other projects in the Barry area. Let us hope that the Barry Transport Festival advertised for the 7-8th June will not be affected  as this has been a popular road transport rally for several years and more recently co.organised by the Cardiff Transport Preservation Group who are hoping to estabnlish a bus and transport centre in the old Western Welsh Garage in Barry with help from the Vale of Glamorgan Council.

25 February 2008

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Rhymney Railway main line. On Thursday 25th February 1858, the first trial run left Rhymney for Cardiff Docks carrying iron from Rhymney Iron Works. A second train followed, carrying coal. Both trains arrived in Cardiff without incident. The original route was along Nantgarw 'big hill' and thence exercising running powers to Cardiff over the Taff Vale from Walnut Tree Junction (later known as Taffs Well).
    It seems that there are to be no official or formal events to mark the anniversary, though in one sense it echoes the deliberate secrecy of the original opening. In his historical account, D.S. Barrie suggested this was a result of considerable boardroom nerves at the prospect of bringing the first heavy train down the valley!

Written by Paul Burgess

18 February 2008

The Rhymney Valley Transport Preservation Society has been very active during the last six weeks since the start of the New Year and has already secured no less than six vehicles by donation including a Cardiff Bus Volvo Ailsa and Leyland Lynx, a Lister Auto Truck, an ex, IBT Leyland Tiger, a Scammell Recovery Truck and a Bedford ex. police events control office.

It is worth recording that a Karosa three door city bus is expected soon from the Czech Republic and other vehicles have been offerred for the museum including an Aveling Porter steam roller fully restored from the year 1910. 

2 February 2008

JOHN TODD. It is with some sadness that we report the untimely death of one of South Wales leading experts in the diesel engine.  He was one of life's natural gentlemen with a quick wit and an absolutely encyclopeadic knowledge of just about anything to do with tractors or lorries.

It is sad to think that he is gone and all that knowledge along with him.  John had been a Zetor tractor dealer for many years and while others mocked the humble Skoda,  John sung the praises of the Czech Made Zetor from the highest branch and it is sad that he will be unaware of the sudden upsurge in the fortunes of this once great tractor company which was in administration when I last met John some six monthgs ago 

The funeral will be held at Coity Crematorium, Bridgend at 2.15 PM on Wednesday 6th February.  It is hoped that a procession of tractors will follow the hearse to the crematorium and if the weather permits, John's coffin is to be carried on a tractor and trailer.

Additional note from Kevin Harding, a close friend. 
I have lost a true friend and mentor as well as an occasional drinking partner who was always ready with a piece of advice - although you always had to look for that twinkle in his eye to see if he was having you on.  He will be missed.

9 January 2008

We would like to invite our many vistors from outside the UK to sign our Guestbook please and let us know what your interests in Welsh Transport are.  As of today the last 100 visitors to this website came from many parts of the world....from the USA- 6, Australia - 5, and one each from Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Turkey, Malta, Spain,Switzerland,Germany, Holland and Poland. The other 78 came from the UK.

8 January 2008

The organisers of the Welsh Heartlands Transport Festival have announced that the number of entries received has now topped 300 with three months yet to run before entries close.

Although organised to promote the Welsh Transport Museum project at Risca, the festival will give financial support to those who help save lives in and around Wales,  once again the Wales Air Ambulance charity plus in 2008, the RNLI  and SARA - the Severn Area Rescue Association who are lending their support to the Land Rover 60th Anniversary part of the festival by entering several of their fleet, each with a different rescue role, from towing rescue boats to where they are needed, mountain rescue or ambulance duties in rough terrain.

So every visitor will in some small way be supporting one of the above charities.

7 January 2008

From BIG to Small,  this reflects the most recent donations to the RVTPS backed museum project.  From Cardiff Bus has come one of the last Volvo Ailsas that bowed out of service in December after 25 years on the Cardiff scene  and also from Cardiff, but this time the Russian owned Carrington Wire, a 1940 Lister autotruck that started its working life up in Warrington in 1940 with a wire company there.

There is an interesting link there as the old Lister truck headed south from Warrington while a number of Cardiff built Bruce  bodied Bristols headed north to do service on the street of Warrington.

Another donation to the RVTPS project is a Green Goddess fire engine and around 12 tonnes of engineering and workshop equipment for the proposed Welsh Transport Heritage restoration workshop at the Risca site.

1 January 2008

A very Happy New Year to everyone from the editorial team who have brought you this website for the last two and a half years.  We hope to continue doing do through the coming years.

31 December 2007

Work continues on making this website even better  and to help we have installed a couple of SEARCH engines today,  the first allows you to find anything on the website to save you time  and the second is a web search engine,  every time you use this to locate whatever you seek on the worldwide web,  we will recieve a small donation for the transport museum project.  Remember every SEARCH equals money for Welsh Transport Heritage.

31 December 2007

As the minutes tick away towards the year ending, it is interesting to note that we have a worldwide audience, of the last 100 site visits, we have had six from the USA, five from Australia, two from New Zealand, two from Spain and one each from Turkey, Hungary,Malta and Argentina and the rest from the UK.

10 December 2007

A major face lift of this site starts today and will last three weeks which will see a much easier to follow format and also allow more photos.  Please bear with us during these improvements as certain pages may disappear on a temporary basis and some photos will appear rather as small squares withy a red cross therein.

11 November 2007

An old Hammond hand operated petrol pump that used to dispense Russian fuel into the buses of the Stephens Red fleet up in Tredegar in the 1930's has been found by David Stephens tucked away in the back of the D.F. Stephens garage.  With the help of the Rhymney Valley Transport Preservation Society,  it will be professionally restored to its original working order.

The work will be carried out by an expert in Yorkshire over the next six months and it will hopefully be on display at the Gelligaer Anniversary rally on 21st September 2008 at Parc Penallta,  the landscaped country park on the site of the old Penallta Colliery and its slag heaps.

Interestingly D.F. Stephens Ltd were hauling stone from the old Adams Quarries in Risca when they closed, so a nice connection.

10 November 2007

The Welsh Heartlands Transport Festival was forced to move from the Blackwood Showfields in Cefn Forest just 24 hours before it was due to open in July this year due to the waterlogged state of the ground.  Thanks to a lot of effort on the part of John Evans and Brian Turner, the show carried on with the assistance of the Caerphilly Country Borough Council and re.located to the Civic Centre in Pontllanfraith.

Yes this is old news,  but it is worth mentioning again because the CBCC granted the society permission to use the associated parkand as well for the second festival over the weekend of 19-20th April next year.

And what a blessing in disguise that has turned out to be,  so far the website news reports that a super total of 225 people have already pre.registered to bring vehicles,  in one case no fewer than 10 vehicles !

Click here to visit the Welsh Heartlands Transport Festival.

10 November 2007

What a wonderful day Saturday 10 November 2007 has been with two former Welsh with two former Welsh buses arriving back home where the grass is greener.

Leyland Tiger NDW141X  the ex. Hills coach was driven down from Leicestershire while former and crossed the border into Wales at 15.30 while we understand that Western Welsh 1287 crossed the Severn Bridge Crossing around the same time.  Photos will appear within the next 24 hours hopefully.

8 November 2007

No sooner than we report one impending arrival than we hear of another,  this time the bus in question is former Western Welsh AEC Reliance 1287 (WKG287) built in 1961.  This last saw service some years ago with a Kent operator from whome it was aquired a few months ago.  1287 is due to make the journey from Kent to South Wales on Saturday.

 7 November 2007

Another Welsh bus is heading home for a new life in preservation,  this time we are pleased to announce that a former Hills of Tredegar Leyland Tiger  with Plaxton 47 seat coach body registered NDW141X and new in March 1982 is coming home this weekend. 

It will be driven back to Wales by a former Hills driver and photos will appear then and the new owner will be revealed.

28 October 2007

The Welsh Heartlands Vintage Autofest website has altered its on line registration form as it had caused some confusion with a few would be entrants,  the organisers have also added a space if the entrant requires camping.

28 October 2007

The South Wales Model & Craft show will be going ahead in April 2008 over the weekend of the 5-6th, but at the new venue of Newbridge Fields which will allopw more parking and even overnight camping facilities. This years event as part of thge Bridgend Festival was very sucessful which has encouraged the organisers to expand the 2008 Show.  Entry forms and other information will be available in about four weeks time,  and we will post more details as they become available.