Diesels Around Cardiff – Book Review

The nature of rail transport has changed hugely during the past sixty years. The demise of mining and heavy industry along with increasing demands for comfort and convenience from the travelling public has led to a revolution in the variety of diesel traction used.

Diesels Around Cardiff by Andrew Wiltshire documents these changes over the decades in the diverse urban, mainline and valley environments around the Welsh capital. It was published in May 2021 by Mainline and Maritime.

Locomotives in and around Cardiff since the 1960s

The author Andrew Witshire or his late father John took the majority of the photographs, with contributions from a number of other sources. Predictably, the structure of the collection is chronological, starting with a few from the 1960s. The majority of images, however, are from the 1970s and 80s. These comprise almost half of the book and include a special selection from the Cardiff Canton Open Day held on 7^th July 1985 as part of the GWR150 celebrations and a feature on the Coryton Line.

The most recent 30 years take up the remainder of the book with a chapter on the reintroduction of locomotive hauled services on the Cardiff to Rhymney line. This was mainly in the mid to late 1990s, but unexpectedly returned for a very brief period in 2019-20.

Good quality photographs also show a changing Cardiff city!

With many photograph collections now being published, two features are paramount if it is to be a worthwhile buy. Firstly, the quality of the images. This book does not disappoint with picture clarity and focus fully exploited by images being set mostly one to a page. Secondly the quality of the annotations. These are especially good, with a wealth of information showing care in the research undertaken by the author.

Don’t pass over the well researched image annotations

The annotations reveal interesting snippets of information. As may be expected from the heart of the Western Region, a number of diesel-hydraulics are featured in the early chapters including Westerns, Hymeks and a Warship.

Generally considered to have been less than successful, diesel-hydraulics were eventually replaced by diesel-electric traction. It was thus interesting to note that Class 143 DMUs were upgraded in 1989 to include Voith hydraulic transmission. The image of the 143 in the book is also notable for a more obvious reason, namely the extremely photogenic scenery of a snowy Castell Coch!

In Summary

This book is slightly more expensive than photographic railway albums from other publishers. This is offset by a hardback cover, larger area devoted to the images and the well researched and informative annotations. Beyond those who live or have spent time around Cardiff it will interest anyone curious about the changing face of diesel power in a single location over six decades.

Outline Contents

• The 1960s
• The 1970s
• The 1980s
• Canton Open Day
• On through the 80s
• The Coryton Line
• The colourful 90s
• 2000 and beyond
• Loco hauled Rhymney variety
• The last decade

Related reviews

Class 37s by Mark V. Pike
Diesel Dawn 4: First Generation DMUs – A Pictorial Observation by Robert Carroll
Diesels in the Western Region by George Woods
Freight Trains of the Western Region in the 1980s by Kevin Redwood
Railways in South Wales and the Central Wales Line in the late 20th Century by Peter J. Green
Western Class Locomotives: A Tribute by Bernard Mills