Railway Herald
Since the closure of Tower Colliery in South Wales a couple of years ago the number of trains operating from the colliery has declined from (an average) of one each day to one each week, moving coal taken by road to Tower from another smaller site for onward transmission to Aberthaw. An operating difficulty at Tower is that one of the points is inoperative, making it impossible for the locomotive to run-round so trains have to be 'top and tailed.' The freight-only line from Tower passes through Hirwaun to Aberdare where it joins the passenger line down the valley to Cardiff and this shot shows EWS-liveried No. 66155 passes through the closed Aberdare High Level station, sited about 100 yards on the north side of the 'new' Aberdare station opened in the 1980s. The image was taken on 22nd October 2011 and the working was the 10.55 Tower Colliery to Aberthaw Power Station.
Stuart Warr
