Station Name: FISHGUARD & GOODWICK

[Source: Nick Catford]

Fishguard & Goodwick Station Gallery 3:
September 1963 - August 1974


The designs of Charles Collett prevail in this scene at Fishguard & Goodwick taken on a dismal day in September 1963. The 5700 class 0-6-0PT No.9602 poses a problem. She is recorded as being shedded at Treherbert from August 1963 where she remained until March 1965 but in this view she is, under magnification, carrying a Fishguard shedplate. Withdrawn in March 1965, she was immediately reinstated and sent to Pontypool Road where she lasted a mere month before final withdrawal. On the right, behind the fence, is a former gunpowder van now apparently used for the conveyance of Blue Circle cement if the logo is anything to go by. Cement traffic was a favourite use
for ex-gunpowder vans.
Photo from John Mann collection

Fishguard & Goodwick signal box viewed from the up platform. The full name was 'Fishguard & Goodwick Station Signal Box' but at some point BR decided to paint out the word 'Station'. This was done in the mid-1960s, either after the station closed to passengers in April 1964 or after Fishguard Harbour box closed in January 1965. The most probable answer is after the closure of the Harbour box when somebody in some far away office decided 'Station' should be painted out to avoid any possible impression that Fishguard still had two boxes. In the early years of the GWR signalling, equipment and boxes were provided by McKenzie & Holland but the Great Western soon began to provide for itself, not for only signalling but for almost everything else and the company became quite well known for doing so. Their signal boxes were quite distinctive and came in a number of design variations, that at Fishguard & Goodwick station being a GWR Type 7D box. The roof and window designs were especially recognisable features. This box existed before the station's second platform was provided and the platform was simply built around the box. One may therefore think the locking room windows were chopped in half by the platform but the square six-pane windows seen here were normal for the Type 7D box, so on that basis the platform being level with the bottom of the windows was probably a convenient coincidence. The two objects equispaced on the roof apex were probably ventilators, the chimney on the left being from the stove. By the 1970s the box had been given a gas heater, with its flue fitted into the end wall, on the left, below the windows. The object below the eaves on the left was an electric lamp. Details of the lever frame are a little mysterious. The box is said to have originally contained a 34-lever frame and this was replaced by a 53-lever frame in 1965. However, surviving documents show that a frame of at least 50 levers was in use prior to 1965. The 53-lever frame of 1965 is said to have been from Port Talbot Middle box and this is where things become a little mysterious. At the time, Port Talbot Middle was a temporary box (these boxes were quite common and appeared at times of, for example, major track layout alterations) with a 55-lever frame which was in use only for a few years in the early 1960s and was presumably the frame moved to Fishguard & Goodwick. Back in 1906, when the extension to Fishguard Harbour came into use, the station box received only minor alterations. Apart from the obvious, signalling for the section to the Fishguard Harbour box, the only other changes in 1906 appear to have been discontinuance of lever leads controlling points to the mileage siding(s) and installation of ground frames unlocked from the box. A 'mileage siding' was a goods siding at which customers unloaded wagons themselves and thus were charged only for the delivery mileage of their goods, otherwise an additional charge for handling by railway staff would apply. What surviving records and diagrams do not tell us is the arrangements for the little-known connecting spur to the never completed 'New Line' which was to serve Fishguard (not Goodwick) Harbour and follow the existing route to Letterston Junction. Access to the spur, which was located just south of Fishguard & Goodwick station via point facing in the up direction, was probably via ground frame. The ex-Port Talbot frame came into use on 23 May 1965. Thereafter and until November 1975 the box saw a large number of further alterations, mainly as a result of the closure of Harbour box which had occurred in January 1965. Among the changes during the 1970s was the installation of lifting barriers at the Harbour level crossing, controlled, with interlocking, from the station box. The next major changes occurred in 1982 when on 7 June a number of levers were taken out of use along with applicable track circuits. The following month the line to the Harbour station reopened on a new alignment. This saw No.7 signal brought back into use and the crossing barriers operated manually. At the same time 'one train working' was introduced between Fishguard & Goodwick and Harbour stations, a wooden train staff being provided for the purpose. The mileage siding was disconnected on 19 May 1983 and Fishguard & Goodwick box was taken out of use on 26 June 1983. The box was subsequently demolished but examples of the various versions of the GWR Type 7 box can still be seen; a 7B at Cranmore (East Somerset Railway) and at Blue Anchor (West Somerset Railway) and a 7D at Bishops Lydeard (also West Somerset Railway). On the national network a 7D can, at the time of writing, still be seen at Droitwich Spa as can another example at Malvern Wells.
Photo from John Mann collection

Fishguard & Goodwick station looking north-east from the down platform c1960s. Note the totem signs on the lamp standards.
Photo from John Mann collection

Fishguard & Goodwick station looking south-west in August 1967. The engine shed closed in 1963 and was quickly demolished. Some of the sidings were retained at this time and are seen running behind the signal box. The goods yard was still open at this time. The short dock behind the fence at the end of the station building was used for loading vehicles onto car flats.
Photo by Nick Catford

Fishguard & Goodwick station looking north-east in August 1967. Although the station closed to passengers in 1964 it reopened in 1965 as a seasonal Motorail terminal.
Photo by Nick Catford

Fishguard & Goodwick station building on the up platform in August 1967. The British Rail poster on the end of the building says 'We are at your service'. The yellow AA sign is for the benefit of car drivers arriving at the motorail terminal which was behind the fence.
Photo by Nick Catford

A Brush Type 4, Class 47, waits at the former Fishguard & Goodwick station sometime around 1970 with a Motorail train for London. The station had been reopened as a Motorail terminal by this time. The goods yard is still fairly busy with wagons of various types visible. The Motorail loading facility was the dock behind the up platform, as seen here. A lengthy and part-loaded train of Carflat wagons is present. There were bridge plates between wagons, hinged back once loading and unloading was complete, plus another between the dock and the end of the train. The latter can be seen here adjacent to the brick hut. Some Motorail services ran separate trains for cars but the majority ran complete. Typically what would happen, as here, is drivers would turn up, show their tickets, by asked to ensure any belongings in the car which might be required on the journey are removed, the car loaded onto the train while driver and any other passengers boarded the train. Cars would be strapped or chocked to the decking of the wagons. Passenger stock for Motorail users was first class and generally included a Brake First; in this case the third coach behind the locomotive. Once all booked cars and passengers had arrived, or departure time arrived, the train would be shunted, coupled and ‘away we go’. Longer Motorail services ran overnight and included sleeping cars. In this scene the first two coaches behind the locomotive have boards fixed midway along the bodysides below the windows. These were a form of destination board or, as likely in this case, informed passengers that the coaches so-adorned were reserved for Motorail (first class) or other (second class) passengers; probably the latter as the leading two coaches do not appear to be first class. Motorail had its origins in The Car-Sleeper Limited, an overnight London - Perth train which began in 1955. The Motorail brand appeared in 1966 and the network of routes, all long distance, was quite comprehensive. Attempts to expand the network were none too successful and services to and from places such as Brockenhurst, Cambridge, Dover and Harwich were short-lived. Some of these more obscure services joined or divided with others en route. The Motorail fare, which was first class, included car and driver while other passengers had their own tickets and it was usual to book all tickets at the same time as in some cases it was not possible to buy tickets for car passengers on the day. Fares were not cheap by the standards of the day but at the same time they were affordable. Taking into account the saved cost of fuel, for the car, and the avoidance of the drudgery of driving long distances and the attraction is obvious. One thing which did put people off Motorail was the use of flat wagons open to the elements. Damage to cars was not unknown and usually the cause was deliberate vandalism - not, of course, by railway staff but by the yob element of society. In due course covered vans came to be used more and more, often GUV vans painted into Motorail livery. NPA, NVA and NX vans were also used, many of these being converted from former Royal Mail coaches. Double deck 'Cartic 4' sets were also used at one time. Despite the handful of short-lived services the core routes remained popular. There exists a tendency to blame the end of Motorail services on ludicrously exaggerated claims such as, ‘Oh well, you can now drive from London to Scotland in four hours’ or ‘You can drive from London to Fishguard in three hours’. In theory when dividing mileage by 70, the maximum legal speed on dual carriageways and motorways, it might be near-possible and especially if one drives a Ferrari at 3 o'clock on a Sunday morning but in practice journey times by road are much longer and extremely tiring. To an extent, however, the growing motorway network and more fuel-efficient cars were partly to blame but the truth behind the end of Motorail was the so-called privatisation of the railways. In the run-up to privatisation the government of the time simply withdrew the subsidies and that, in a nutshell, was the end of Motorail. However, in 1998 a bus company called FirstGroup who were by then running the First Great Western rail franchise to their credit reintroduced a London (Paddington) to Penzance Motorail service but this ceased in September 2005. The only remaining such service in Britain today is the Channel Tunnel shuttle although this can hardly be compared with the former long distance Motorail trains. The equivalent of Motorail still operates in some European mainland countries and other places around the world but such trains are unlikely to be seen again on Britain's fragmented railway system. The former engine shed site has been fenced and industrial development is underway.
Photo from Courtney Haydon collection

In defiance of little transfers warning passengers not to lean out of the window, here is the view from an arriving train at Fishguard & Goodwick in 1970. The vehicle from which the camera protrudes appears to be a BR Mk2a. Both locomotives are Brush Type 4, or Class 47. At this time the station was in use only as a Motorail terminal, so the train from which the photograph was taken will continue without stopping to the Harbour station. As he passes the signal box the driver will hand over the single line staff. The Motorail terminal is on the right; it used the dock at the end of the Up platform and the purpose-built walkway seen here which was in effect a narrow platform. A rake of car-carrying flat wagons is in place. The train at the platform may or may not be a Motorail service. Either way it is waiting for the down train to clear the single line before it can proceed and is under the control of the signal seen here. The signal is interlocked with the trap points and will clear when the points are changed, the driver of the up train having received the staff for the single track southwards.
Photo by Alan Thwaites from his Hat Pics web site

Fishguard & Goodwick station looking north-east towards Fishguard Harbour in August 1974. Although closed to passengers in 1964 the station was later reopened as a Motorail terminal and, in the early 1970s was fitted with Corporate Identity signage. Cars would drive of the flats at the loading dock behind the fence on the right and drive to Fishguard Harbour and onto ferries.
Photo by John Mann

Fishguard & Goodwick station building on the up platform in August 1974. During the early 1970s the station building was renovated. A sign points to the Fishguard car ferry.
Photo by John Mann

Fishguard & Goodwick station forecourt in August 1974.
Photo by John Mann

Fishguard & Goodwick signal box in August 1974. The box remained in use until 26 June 1983.
Photo by John Mann

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Station Gallery 4: August 1974 - May 2012

 

 

 

[Source: Nick Catford]



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