Former railway manager John Hodge continues his fascinating history of Wales' transport lines.
Part of the West Wales Railways series, Whitland to Pembroke Dock continues the previous South Wales Main Line series covering the line from the Severn Tunnel through to ends of the main line in West Wales.
This volume covers a largely agricultural and holiday line, centering on the Welsh towns of Tenby and Pembroke. The line was worked by Whitland depot which was a steam sub-shed of Neyland, with its own allocation, mainly of tank engines. These worked the Cardigan and Pembroke Dock branches until the former was closed under the Beeching closures of the mid-1960s, when the engine shed was closed under dieselization in 1964. The volume of freight traffic was radically affected by the withdrawal of goods sundries and parcels traffic, but especially by the withdrawal of wagon load freight traffic in 1976, which had brought much Animal Feed and Farming traffic to the line.
Like much of South Wales, the traffic is now purely passenger with Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) though Summer Saturdays still sees a through train now with Intercity Express Trains (IETs) to and from Paddington, carrying on the service from High Speed Trains (HSTs). The previous Pembroke Coast Express in steam and early diesel days was the prime train on the branch running to and from Paddington and is still reproduced in the modern preserved steam special workings.