Back to Burry Port

Six months on from my last visit (November 2023) and it is time to take a day return trip to delightful Pembrey & Burry Port, in order to see if there has been any progress on the heavily-delayed re-signalling project called Port Talbot West 2 (PTW2).

This project will see the end of semaphore signalling at both Pembrey and Ferryside and was due for completion earlier this year, but that had seemed highly improbable on the evidence of my previous visit, when there was absolutely no sign of any work taking place to prepare for the re-signalling.

Sure enough, my sunny springtime visit on 10 May 2024 once again revealed no real evidence of any re-signalling activity, apart from the secure compound that was installed opposite the former Pembrey East Signal Box some considerable time ago and an area at the east end of platform one earmarked for new signalling equipment.

Having failed to find any update on the project timescale, I made an official enquiry to Network Rail and was told that “The second stage of the project was delayed…and is now being commissioned in our next financial period, which started last month”. I was also told that “more information will follow in the coming months”.

Given that Network Rail’s Control Period 7 runs from 1 April 2024 until 31 March 2029 it seemed like it could be some time until the Pembrey and Ferryside semaphores were replaced. But talking to a group of engineers from Siemens on the station, I was told that a commissioning date for the new signalling of June 2025 had just been agreed.

If and when it does finally go ahead, PTW2 will see control of the route from Swansea West Loop (215m 14ch) to Whitland (250m 0ch) pass to the Wales Railway Operating Centre (ROC) at Cardiff, with closure of the signal boxes at Pembrey, Kidwelly, Ferryside and Carmarthen Junction.

For now there is still time to appreciate the quintet of lower quadrant semaphores at Pembrey & Burry Port, which in the up (eastbound) direction are outer home PY82 at the end of platform 1 and up inner home PY81 close to the signal box and protecting the level crossing.

In the down (westbound) direction, home signal PY7 is on a bracket east of the level crossing, starter PY9 stands unusually between the two running lines and section signal PY10 is around 200 yards west of the station.

As I noted in November 2023, passenger services to Carmarthen and Milford Haven are now in the hands of the new Class 197 units, with 5-car Class 80x IET units on the Paddington-Carmarthen services, while services to Pembroke Dock and Fishguard Harbour are still formed of Class 150 or 153 units.

Freight traffic in West Wales is generally limited to the daily working of oil tanks from and to Robeston Sidings near Milford Haven, but this working runs early morning in the eastbound direction and returns in the evening, so visiting from fairly far afield, I had not previously been able to photograph any freight movement at Pembrey.

Hoping my luck would be in on Friday (10 May), I had seen on Realtime Trains (RTT) that there was a civil engineer working (6J02) from Gloucester Horton Road to Haverfordwest, which was shown as being pathed for a “diesel loco trailing 715 tonnes” and was running in connection with a planned closure of the line between Carmarthen, and Milford Haven on Sunday, 12 May.

Alas it proved to be no more than a Colas Rail track machine (photo above), but drowning my sorrows at the failure to see a genuine freight working, it was a great to discover again that the cost of living crisis seems not to have affected the Portobello Inn outside the station, where a fine pint of Felinfoel Brewery’s Double Dragon remains a bargain £2.50!