The Wales & Borders Railway

The Wales & Borders Railway, story 7: A Bridge too Far!

It was wet and rainy, on the Wales & Borders Railway. The engines had to go to Crewe South Yard for some EWS MFA wagons to bring back to Canton Taff Vale Sidings, they were full of ballast and coal. 8572, 60103 and 1211 had to go and collect the MFAs, they were all dirty and grimy and the drivers hated them. "Excuse me, sir?" 1211s driver, Myrtle Jones asked Mr Griffiths, the railway director, "who's going to take the passengers around the railway, when 60103 has buggered off to Crewe?", "Hmm, good question, let me have a little think", Mr Griffiths went back into his office and thought very carefully about this situation. Alfies from the Garage had decided to build a prototype battery tram, the new battery tram engine eventually came to work on the W&BR on the Railway, 3 were built, they were numbered BPT001 - BPT003. They were allocated to certain parts of the railway. BPT001 was allocated the valley lines services along with 1211, BPT002 was coupled to BPT003 and was working the InterCity services such as Carmarthen - London Paddington. Due to only 1 train being on the IC services, every service such as Carmarthen, London, Manchester, Penzance, Taunton Portsmouth and Holyhead were all running hourly, but luckily it was only for a few hours.

But, 60103 had to cross over an old rotten wooden bridge that crosses the huge flowing River Mersey, near Stockport. There were old BR Mineral Wagons and ex LMS Class 3F 7119 that were rusting in the river. Barry was worried about falling in, the rain made the rails slippery and the wind made the bridge wobble, "We can't do it, we can't do it" Barry said dreadfully, "If we go over the bridge, we'll break it, and we'll fall in the water", "No you won't" said Jack McPahil, the track worker from behind, he was watching 60103 cross safely, he felt very proud for helping an engine in trouble. Back at Cardiff Central, BPT002 had uncoupled from BPT003, 002 went back to Holyhead via Chester, whilst 003 went to Swansea then to Llanelli. Whilst 60103 was gone, there was a huge gust of wind, it made the main support on the bridge collapse, and then, bit by bit, the entire bridge collapsed, everyone was most worried about him and his crew, they were stranded in the middle of Stockport, and there was no way of getting back.

Then, out of the ordinary, a person came up and said, "I've found a way for the train to get back home, there's some old tracks that run through the forest, it used to be the old Manchester - Shrewsbury line back in like the 1950s". "Thank you for that" Mr Griffiths said, he told the signalman to take Scotsman through the forest, they were very surprised to see they were going off track, they saw the tracks and Halton said, "Well I never! It's the old tracks that I used to go on to go from Manchester to Wilmslow", they arrived safely back home, they all thanked the woman for telling them about the disused line, but unfortunately BPT001 - 003 were sent to Canton Sidings where they were stored until further use. The old disused line was reopened to the public and a station was built, and was called Old Bridge, serving Wilmslow and Stockport.

NEXT STORY COMING UP SOON!!