Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with the BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) timetable book from 1983, and it reminded me that at that date, Milford Haven was the terminus for the sleeper service serving South Wales from Paddington.

That said, to this day, Milford Haven has four through services a day to... Manchester Piccadilly - not implying that that's a bad thing: inter-regional services are a positive.

It's amusing given previous ambitions that led to construction in mid-Wales, giving us the empty trackbed pursuing its arrow-straight course across Tregaron Bog - and then its ghost in the form of the unbuilt Cwmystwyth viaduct and the subsequent tunnel beneath the high ground, which exists only as an isolated pair of brief approach cuttings. The signs of construction near Llangurig, followed by the remains of a once useable railway leading away from the village, even that, at one point, horribly eroded by the accompanying stream as it makes its way in the hope of delivering those rail services to, yes, Manchester.

The houses** in Llangurig - the two photos below show that they've seen the arrival of those ambitions and also their departure, unfulfilled - and yet, today, a traveller can board a train in Milford Haven and step off it in Manchester, without needing to worry about unbuilt viaducts in remote valleys along the way.

Mark

**Though looking again at the house in the second photo: it's not the same building as the one shown in the first photo, is it?

[Image from here is not available to guests]

[Image from here is not available to guests]

And Devil's Bridge never became a major rail interchange