Please read about the Pembrokeshire coal mines below (22nd April 2007)
This wagon was scheduled to be delivered to me in April 2007 but arrived on 13 March 2007! 175 of these were produced. The final one was sold in February 2008.
This wagon became famous for an error. As photographed at the time, the sign-writers managed to spell "Pembrokeshire" incorrectly - omitting the second 'e' so that it read "Pembrokshire".
The photograph show two of these wagons - with both sides showing.
In this instance, as a first for West Wales Wagon Works, the two sides of this wagon will be different. One side will read "Pembrokshire" whilst the other will read "Pembrokeshire".
Since this wagon has been released, one of my customers, Mr Harverson, who lives in Pembrokeshire has sent in these details.......
The Hook wagons were the only colliery wagons to travel below Whitland on the main line to Neyland and would have left the main line at the colliery sidings at Johnston Station, before being hauled to the colliery by their own saddle-tank locomotive. The railway was about four miles long from the junction - also the junction for the Milford Haven line.
The colliery traffic all stopped around 1947-48 after the mine was nationalised and there had been flooding of the mine. The track was all lifted by the end of 1952.
The railway to Hook was an extension of an earlier railway from Johnston to Freystrop Colliery, but I do not know details of any wagons used by this mine, as traffic had stopped by 1911.
Another colliery which had its own wagons was Bovilles Court Colliery, Saundersfoot which had its own railway line connected to the Pembroke and Tenby line just below Saundersfoot Station looking towards Tenby. Here GWR engines went in to take trains out.
This mine was also connected to the Saundersfoot Railway - a 4' 1/4" gauge line which brought coal from mines further inland, with its own engine - an 0-4-0ST.
Coal worked from Bonvilles Court to Saundersfoot Harbour used an incline down to the harbour. There was also a lower section of this railway which used a route along the coast, passing through tunnels to Wiseman's Bridge and up the Stepaside Valley to mines there. This line was worked by another 0-4-0ST engine. This coastal route is now a public footpath and is part of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path.
