| 词条 | Portskewett Pier railway station |
| 释义 |
|name = Portskewett Pier |image_name = |locale = Black Rock |borough = Monmouthshire |platforms = 2 |original = Bristol & South Wales Union Railway |pregroup = Great Western Railway |years1 = 1863 |events1 = Opened |years2 = 1881 |events2 = Fire |years3 = 1886 |events3 = Closed }} Portskewett Pier railway station was a railway station on the Bristol & South Wales Union Railway. The pier at Black Rock, near Portskewett, was the Welsh side of the New Passage Ferry across the River Severn. The ferry linked rail services between Bristol and South Wales, avoiding the previous long detour through Gloucester. The ferry service lasted for nearly twenty five years, from 1863 to 1886, until the opening of the railway tunnel beneath the river. New Passage Ferry{{More|New Passage Ferry}}Brunel's Great Western Railway from London reached Bristol in 1841. The South Wales Main Line was built in 1850. There was no railway link between them though until 1852 when the Chepstow Railway Bridge was built, connecting South Wales to England, across the River Wye. Even after this, trains from Bristol to Cardiff still had to travel the long detour around through Gloucester, rather than crossing the Severn Estuary. The Severn is noted for its extreme tidal range. This means that there are few safe crossing points for a ferry, the New Passage Ferry being the deeper channel downstream of the Dun Sand and upstream of the English Stones.{{sfnp|Smith, Bristol & South Wales Union Railway|2013|page= 28 }} This passes between New Passage Pier in Gloucestershire and Black Rock in Monmouthshire, approximately the line of the Second Severn Crossing. The other crossing in the area is upstream at the Old Passage Ferry, from Aust to Beachley, approximately the line of the earlier Severn Bridge. This crossing goes from England to England, as it is still slightly upstream of the confluence with the Wye below Chepstow,{{efn-lr|The Wye forms the boundary between England and Wales}} and so a crossing to here would still require traffic to cross the Wye on its way to Cardiff. The pier and station would be built at Black Rock, the landing point of the New Passage Ferry, rather than Portskewett village. There were only two buildings already here, the ferryman's house and the Black Rock Inn. From 1758 a turnpike road had been built from Black Rock to Crick and then the market town of Abergavenny.{{sfnp|Smith, Portskewett Railways|2013|page=1}} This road had avoided the nearby but then unimportant village of Caldicot. {{Bristol and South Wales Union Railway|collapse=yes}}ConstructionThe South Wales Main Line was opened from Chepstow (West station) to Cardiff in 1850, with intermediate stations East of Newport at Portskewett railway station, Magor and Llanwern.{{sfnp|Hodge, South Wales Main Line, 2|2002|page= 35 }} Once the Wye bridge was opened, two years later, this provided a rail link from England to South Wales, via Gloucester and the South Wales Railway. An Act of Parliament had already been granted in 1846 for the Junction Railway, but confidence in railway development collapsed around this time and it was not until 1856 that a new company was mooted, incorporated in 1857.{{sfnp|Smith, Portskewett Railways|2013|page=9}} LineThe new pier was to be built within a mile south-east of Portskewett and the existing station. The first station, with no significant facilities, had been built just to the West of the bridge carrying the road to Southbrook.{{efn-lr|Southbrook Farm, later the village of Sudbrook}} It was considered simpler to relocate the station as the new Portskewett Junction railway station and move it to the other side of the bridge, about ½mile East, rather than having to construct a second bridge to carry the road over the new pier line.{{sfnp|Smith, Portskewett Railways|2013|pages=10–11}}{{sfnp|Smith, Portskewett Railways|2013|pages=36–38}} The New Passage line was opened on 8th September 1863, but the Portskewett side ran late. A locomotive was hired in September to work the branch but it was not ready for inspection by the Board of Trade until late November. This gave permission to open the line as a separate line, but not to work as a branch junction until the signalling had been improved, with the two ground frames for both lines moved to a single enclosed signal box serving both. The branch was finally opened fully on the 1st January 1864.{{sfnp|Smith, Portskewett Railways|2013|pages=10–11}} The line was regauged to standard gauge in 1872.{{sfnp|Smith, Portskewett Railways|2013|page=36}} FireOn Sunday night, 22nd May 1881 the pier was substantially destroyed by a fire. This was during the long period when progress on the tunnel was largely suspended following the 'Great Spring' flood of 1879. Relations with the tunnel workers were strained and a strike had begun the previous day. The fire was thus often blamed on disgruntled tunnel workers, although this was denied by those closely involved with the works.{{sfnp|Walker|1888|pages=56–57}}{{sfnp|Smith, Bristol & South Wales Union Railway|2013|pages= 37–38}} Replacement by the tunnel{{More|Severn Tunnel}}Even during the construction of the union railway, in 1862 Richardson had put forward the idea of a tunnel as an alternative.{{sfnp|Walker|1888|page=7}} This tunnel faced a number of difficulties though and its construction was delayed for some years by water entering from the 'Great Spring' on the Monmouthshire side. Local passenger trains through the Severn Tunnel began from December 1886, with through services to London from July 1889. Freight services, primarily coal, had begun some months earlier but this traffic had never crossed by the ferry anyway. The effect on passenger traffic was immediate, travel by the tunnel now taking 75 minutes from Cardiff to Bristol, around half of a typical crossing by two trains and the ferry.{{sfnp|Walker|1888|pages=155–156}} The Portskewett branch closed the day before the Tunnel opened and its demolition began shortly afterwards. The engine shed and refreshment room at Portskewett Junction were both removed. The Junction had previously also acted as the junction station for the Wye Valley Railway,{{efn-lr|Even though the Valley trains also passed through Chepstow}} but these would now terminate at the new Severn Tunnel Junction.{{sfnp|Smith, Portskewett Railways|2013|page=27}} Some of the track at was kept though, and formed a new Down line refuge siding. This remained in service into the 1950s and the shrinkage of slow goods services, and the eventual closure of the Junction station under Beeching.{{sfnp|Smith, Portskewett Railways|2013|page=44}} Surviving traces todayThe area has hardly been developed since and so the alignment of the railway line is still easily visible. Two stone road overbridges still carry the now barely used road over the shallow cutting. Of the pier, stone foundations can still be seen at low tide. References{{Notelist-lr}}}} Bibliography
|title=The Bristol & South Wales Union Railway and the New Passage Ferry |first=Richard |last=Smith |year=2013 |isbn=9781484137635 |ref={{harvid|Smith, Bristol & South Wales Union Railway|2013}} }}
|title=Portskewett Railways |first=Richard |last=Smith |year=2013 |isbn=9781491294031 |ref={{harvid|Smith, Portskewett Railways|2013}} }}
|last=Walker |first=Thomas A. |authorlink=Thomas A. Walker |title=The Severn Tunnel: Its Construction and Difficulties, 1872-1887 |origyear=1888 |year=2004 |publisher=Nonsuch Publishing |isbn=1-84588-000-5 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PIhpQtwWFDoC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA57 |ref={{harvid|Walker|1888}} }}
|title=The South Wales Main Line |last=Hodge |first=John |volume=Part Two: Severn Tunnel to Newport |publisher=Wild Swan Publications |year=2002 |isbn=1-874103-76-3 |ref={{harvid|Hodge, South Wales Main Line, 2|2002}} }}{{Coord|51.58955|-2.70412|display=title}} 2 : Bristol and South Wales Union Railway|Disused railway stations in Monmouthshire |
| 随便看 |
|
开放百科全书收录14589846条英语、德语、日语等多语种百科知识，基本涵盖了大多数领域的百科知识，是一部内容自由、开放的电子版国际百科全书。