Impermanent Ways Vol. 12

The latest volume in the highly successful 'Impermanent Ways' series sees renowned railway historian Jeffrey Grayer visiting Wales in search of the lost railway lines of the region. In South, West and Mid Wales active railway lines once proliferated, from Cardiff, Newport, Pontypool, Merthyr Tydfil, as well as further west at Swansea, Whitland, Cardigan to name a few. One-by-one, many of these lines fell victim to decline and closure particularly in the 1950s and 60s, but much of their infrastructure remained – a silent testament to more glorious past. It was in the first few years after closure that author Jeffrey Grayer travelled these closed lines, chronicling and photographing the platforms, stations, halts, siding, crossings and signal boxes of these Impermanent Ways. Some of these lines and buildings have returned to use through preservation, but many are now lost and this latest volume in the Impermanent Ways series is a testament to these lines, both passenger and freight only. Using photographs from the author’s collection and other images from the lines’ heyday, Impermanent Ways 12 provides a fascinating and nostalgic reminder of the lost railways of Wales a once a thriving network of lines many of which owned their origins to the now vanished coal industry.