A recent publication that immediately found its way to my book case is:

Aberystwyth to Carmarthen by Geraint Roberts. Published by the Lightmoor Press it weighs in with 304 pages and a price tag of £40.00. Put like that it sounds expensive, but if you’ve got other books Lightmoor like the Forest of Dean or Gloucestershire books this one wont disappoint. This area of the Cambrian Mountains and foothills of Wales has long held a place for me. As a young child family holidays were taken staying in Llandovery and then travelling around the area by car, four of us in a cramped Mini Traveller visiting locations such as the Abbey at Strata Florida, and seeing the construction of LLyn Brianne Dam.

Geraint Roberts isn’t a name familiar to railway enthusiasts. This is the first non fiction book by the author and covers the route from Aberystwyth to Carmarthen in West Wales. Within, it also covers the Newcastle Emlyn and Aberayron branch lines, both of which branch off (unsurprisingly) from this route.

A mix of three original companies that developed this line are covered in the first part of the book with their history, plans and hopes that this route would bring significant commercial benefits to the south west Cambrian region. As with many other railway projects across the uk this never came to pass. This section includes images of timetables and opening ceremonies, and continues into the Great Western era with subsequent closure under British Rail. The page layout in this first section to me is ok but doesn’t fire my imagination, however thats not to detract from the content which is interesting and well written.

The next section covers operating the line and includes images of early motive power, but this isn’t in the style of a Wild Swan type of coverage. Timetables for some sections are included in the earlier section. There isn’t a great deal of data regarding stock etc either but this is not for me a big issue, other similar volumes are no different in this respect.

The best part of the book for me is the core section which looks briefly at each individual station and halt, with images primarily from the British Rail Steam era. The line is covered north to south and the images include station buildings and infrastructure both with and without trains. Most are good quality, but it must be remembered that this route was very much out of the way, and there isn’t anything like the coverage more popular and easier to access cross country routes of the day had. The mix of the images outlined above is excellent with both monochrome and colour images included. Also in this section are signal box track diagrams which are useful for anyone modelling the line. Whilst many of the locations have been covered in the OPC Great Western Stations volumes, this single book covers them with greater detail and variety of images. The Aberayron and Newcastle Emlyn branches have their own chapters at the rear of the volume. Following the style of the core of the book the branches are dealt with station by station and all appear to be previously unpublished which for me adds enormously to the value and practicality of this book.

If you’re modelling the steam era and this route is of interest to you, this book is probably a must have for a comprehensive and affordable coverage of the line. If your interest is biased towards the end of its life with Hymeks and 37’s on milk trains then theres not much included. For me this book is an excellent single source of reference.

Within the images theres so much information in terms of locomotives and rolling stock that used the lines in the BR steam era. I found a surprise too in that one of the common engines on the line I’ve already modelled! Whats really nice is so few of the images are standard platform 3/4 views, there’s much of the environment included, emphasising the beauty and rural nature of the Cambrian foothills the line passed though. It being the authors first non fiction and specific railway book it’s a commendable effort. It’s a book I’ll cherish, and if you have an interest in the line, do take a look at it, it’ll probably end up in your library too.

Aberystwyth to Carmarthen

Lightmoor Press

ISBN 9781 915069 40 5