April 2026 – RailwayWorld.net

Tondu revisited

197047 approaches Tondu on 21 April 2026 with 2L26 from Ebbw Vale Town (11.07) to Maesteg

An enjoyable return visit to Pantyffynnon in February 2026 prompts me to pay another overdue return on 21 April 2026 to what is now the only other mechanically-signalled location west of Cardiff in South Wales, and a trip to Tondu on the Bridgend-Maesteg branch line.

Four years on from my March 2022 visit and the only real change since then has been to the rolling stock and destinations served by branch services, with TfW Class 170/175 units replaced by Class 197s, all of which now shuttle between Maesteg and Ebbw Vale Town, rather than serving places as far afield as Cheltenham Spa and Holyhead.

Return to Deal

375615 departs Deal on 15 April 2026 with 2W73 from Ramsgate (15.46) to Ashford International

Among the handful of isolated locations across Southern England that still boast any mechanical signalling, one remarkable outpost is in the charming town of Deal, where semaphore signalling has hung on almost 15 years since completion of a major re-signalling project in East Kent at the end of 2011.

Deal boasts one of the classic Type 13 signal boxes built by the Southern Railway (1939) in what is known as the Odeon or glasshouse style, with a model of it produced by Hornby. Another working example (also with semaphores) can be found at Bognor Regis (feature: March 2026), while there are preserved examples at Horsham, Wimbledon, Woking and Portsmouth Harbour.

A trip along Portugal’s last metre-gauge railway

Railcar 9636 crosses the Ponte sobre o Rio Vouga on 11 April with R5109 from Aveiro (10.55)

Portugal was once home to a fine collection of narrow-gauge railways, but their ranks have sadly diminished over recent decades until the present day, when just one route remains to give travellers a small taste of once was a truly fantastic collection of scenic little railways.

That last surviving metre-gauge line is the Linha do Vouga, which extends in a 96km (60-mile) loop inland from the seaside town of Espinho, on the main line not far south of Porto, to its headquarters at Sernada do Vouga, then westwards to via the town of Águeda to another junction on the main line leading south from Porto at Aveiro.

A trip on Birmingham’s new suburban railway

196002/005 arrive at Moseley Village with 2E27 from Birmingham NS. (12.57) to Kings Norton

Railway re-openings are always a cause for celebration and invariably see passenger forecasts vastly exceeded, as has most recently been the case with the Newcastle-Ashington Northumberland Line, so with no indication when the Oxford-Bletchley East-West Rail route will see its first passengers, it is good to be able to head to the West Midlands and sample opening day on the UK’s newest passenger service.

While the Northumberland Line was closed to passengers during the Beeching era (July 1964) and the Varsity Line from Oxford to Cambridge in January 1968, residents of Moseley and Kings Heath to the south of Birmingham have had to wait a good deal longer for the restoration of Camp Hill Line services, whose local stations were closed 85 years ago (in 1941) as a war-time economy measure.