The Wye Valley Railway (abbreviated WVR) was a 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge railway that ran for nearly 15 miles (24 km) between Chepstow and Monmouth along the lower part of the scenic Wye Valley in Monmouthshire, Wales, and Gloucestershire, England. It followed the route of the River Wye for most of its length. The line opened on 1 November 1876 as an independent company but was financially unsuccessful and amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1905. The GWR ran the line until the Transport Act 1947, which nationalised the railways of Britain. From then, it was operated by British Rail until its closure to goods traffic in 1964; passenger traffic was withdrawn before that date on 5 January 1959. The southern section of the railway between Tintern Quarry and Wye Valley Junction remained open until 1981, when operation was then cut back to Dayhouse Quarry, (near Tidenham Station). This remained used for quarry traffic until the early 1990s.
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Famous quotes containing the words wye, valley and/or railway:
“The Wye is hush’d nor moved along,
And hush’d my deepest grief of all,
When fill’d with tears that cannot fall,
I brim with sorrow drowning song.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“Over the mountains of the moon, down the valley of the shadow. Ride, boldly ride, the shade replied, in search of El Dorado.”
—Leigh Brackett (1915–1978)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)