Lydney be your fantasy

Lydney Town v Highworth Town

A number of potential games this evening, but eventually a trip across the water to the fringes of the Forest of Dean was chosen.

Another mid-afternoon train off Swindon, this time west bound. Going the other way was the first High Speed Train painted in the new Great Western Railway green livery.

On approach to Bristol Parkway, we crawled along the embankment approach. Remarkably, 150 years ago this was an intensive mining area, littered with collieries, hence it's name, Coalpit Heath. The area is suffering from it now as there is considerable subsidence causing speed restrictions. The present day industry of Axa call centres won't have the same impact in 2150. God bless Thatcher.

I alighted at Parkway. This is a spiritual home for me as I managed it for a few years at the start of my railway career. Most times you manage a station that has a car park attached, Parkway was the opposite way round.

One sign jogged my memory, which was the code for discounted parking if you are a rail user. This had to change each week and would always be the Rovers score from the weekend (the area being Gas). There were a lot of noughts used.

I had a three minute hop on a unit, which took me past the new depot built for the Intercity Express Trains, but standing unused as the electrification programme is so far behind.

This took me to Filton Abbey Wood, which was opened in the late nineties as the MOD procurement centre was opened next door, employing umpteen thousand civil servants. How hard is it to buy a tank? The station has been extended at various stages which means it is a sea of wheelchair friendly ramps.

My move was the all shacks service to Cardiff. This goes past British Aerospace Filton, home to one of the preserved Concordes, though it can never fly again as the run way has been shortened to build a by-pass.

Down to the Severnside marshes, and through Pilning station. Two trains a week stop here and a bit of insider knowledge, my bet for least used station next year as the only user died last summer.

My destination was Severn Tunnel Junction......

.....which is in the process of being re-built with DDA compliant ramps.

There are no plans to upgrade Britain's least salubrious station building, made out of an old container....

....or Britain's least professional station signage.

Severn Tunnel Junction is actually in Roggett, but was so called because it was a massive marshalling yard. As it was.....

....and as it is now. The demise of waggon load freight and export in general from South Wales meaning the yard shut in the late 1980s, the site now being the toll booths of the Second Severn Crossing.  Bloody Thatcher.

This was also the case for the loco shed. 1986....

....and now as a Swansea bound HST disappears under the M4.

The land the yard occupied was soon sold off. However, what no one realised was that a lot of the railway power and signalling cable was buried underground, skirting the edge of the yard, rather than going trackside down the main lines as was normal. I was the Area Ops Manager in South Wales for a few years and we were forever getting massive signal failures caused by people digging foundations for conservatories in the new housing on the land that had been sold off, but cutting straight through the cabling.


Unfortunately the legendary railway pub has now shut down.

As I am only a heartbeat away from me telling you how I wore an onion on my belt as it was the fashion then, I headed on to Caldicot.

This was one of those 'it looks shorter on the map' walks but after 45 minutes it was into Caldicot.

First stop was Jubilee Way, home of Welsh league Caldicot Town.

The ground has been fenced off since I was last here....

...and a modest cover has emerged on the far side.

Though some glorious ironwork was undoubtably the highlight.

Inevitably, the reason for the diversion was to tick off a couple of guide pubs, first the Cross Inn for a Cottage - Conquest.....

.....and then the Castle for a Wye Valle - HPA.

The lucky inhabitants of the town are not short of entertainment, with first of all these denim clad wonders upcoming....

.....and then Scott May and his wheelie cool bus.

I was disappointed to find the outdated HST livery on the town crest

Next it was on to Caldicot station. This is situated on the Newport - Cheltenham direct line, but the station overlooks the adjacent South Wales Main Line....

..... the entrance to the Severn Tunnel, of which I would have taken a spectacular shot if it wasn't for the rebuilding of the bridge for electrification.

At the appointed hour, in rolled my Cheltenham service, joyfully formed of an Arriva Trains Wales pacer.

The route skirts the Severn Estuary. Firstly, the Second Severn Crossing. The large building to the right of the bridge is the Sudbrook pumping station for the Severn Railway Tunnnel. When the tunnel was built, bizarrely, it encountered underground springs rather than seepage from the river. This means that two million of litres of water per hour have to be pumped from the tunnel. If the pumps were to cease, the tunnel would flood within minutes. The water from the tunnel is supplied to the adjacent Magor Brewery, where Inbev make it into, amongst other things, Stella Artois.

The line passes right under the original 1966 vintage Severn Bridge. In the foreground is Portskewett, which was a medieval harbour, but, according to work acquaintance and Magor resident Fat Jacko The Liar, is now one of Gwent's foremost dogging locations.

My next stop off was at Chepstow.

Amongst other things, Chepstow is famous for the Brunel rail bridge that spans the Wye river. However, the council have done everything they can to stop anyone taking an interest in it as on one side the path to the river was blocked off, and on the other, they have built a dual carriage way in front of it. So instead, here is the picture of the Wetherspoons, which served a pint of Sheppard Neame – Hog Island APA, immeasurably better than the one in Camberley last night.

Unfortunately, the other GBG tick, the sports club, didn't open until seven, but by then, I was back at the station.

Next leap was an ATW 158.....

.....across the aforementioned bridge......

.....into Lydney.  I know nothing about Lydney, other than my great uncle based himself here during the war so he could smuggle in supplies from Ireland through the docks, for onward distribution to conscientious objectors who were on the run.

Sharing the station is the Dean Forest Railway.

And hellfire, their diesel depot is right next to the main road, with an 08 shunter.....

.....and a rather shy class 37 on display.

One of the most picturesque 'and then I spied the floodlights' shots, across the shimmering mill pond.

For the second time in two nights it was across a troll ridden bridge, into dark woodland.....

.....but again, I survived. As similar an entrance to Union Berlin as there is in the UK.

Strangely, the refreshment hut and social club are situated outside the ground.

So a very passable Old Peculiar was had amongst the pendants.

Before heading in for the main event.

Lydney Town 0 v Highworth Town 0, Uhlsport Hellenic League, Premier Division.

Lydney Town have been in existence for just over a hundred years, most of that time in the Gloucestershre North Senior League. They had a couple of seasons in the Hellenic in the 1980, and finally returned in 2006 after winning the Gloucestershire County League. Last season they won promotion into the premier

For some reason I have thought that Highworth have always been in the Hellenic league, but it was only when checking for this that I found they were in local leagues until the 1970s, when they moved to the Wiltshire Combination, then on to the Hellenic in the mid eighties, though they have been in the premier division for the last 20 years. Last season they got to the semi-finals of the FA Vase, losing to eventual winners North Shields.

The changing rooms are also outside the ground, so the teams are made to line up in the roadway before their grand entrance.

The ground is pretty undeveloped, being fenced from the rest of the recreation ground with motorway acoustic fencing.

Inevitably there is an Arena UK stand. Just beyond is the foundation for an identical stand which they have on order.

The fancy buggers were showing off this piece of kit vice the usual rusting vintage tractor.

The rugby club are situated behind the far goal, and there was also a fair going on behind the far touch line.

The programme contained the most detailed explanation of the fair play system I have ever seen. No idea why Thatcham are highlighted.

The game was 11th v 6th, and with Highworth short on players, and Lydney having already played on Monday at Brimscombe and Thrupp in the floodlit cup, it wasn't the greatest of games, and finished 0-0.

Afterwards it was back through the woods to the station, for a cross country service.....

..........on to Gloucester, where an HST was waiting to whisk me back to Swindon.

Unfortunately this had come from Cheltenham, so was full of coked up estate agents in outlet village Hugo Boss, necking prosecco and wildly exaggerating about how much they had won/lost.