A Casual report

[Sir Fallsalot]

As the fuhrer of this forum instructed me to go out and ride i did, and as he likes anything to do with choo choo trains i thought i would revisit the old tunnel and viaduct where i grew up

The viaduct is called Goitre Coed Viaduct the only one of three left and still in use today, originally it was a single track but was widened it to make it into a twin track i think it was designed by some bloke called brunel

I think I've posted this before this is it being widened they just built another viaduct against the original one

 

To get to the viaduct i had to ride the old tram road which passes under it, which was the place the worlds first powered rail journey took place.  powered by Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive
The trees are huge compared to what i remember walking along here as a lad

 

Avon Taf in English river Taff 

I tried to do a now and then photo of this

But all you can see now are trees

 

So onto the tunnel the route in has had various types of blockades over the years but luckily for me the locals always find a way through, the old line ran over this little bridge

This is what the line is like now hard to imagine trains travelling along here

 

 

And another futile attempt to stop me getting into the tunnel, looks like some recent drainage works has been going on

Tunnel is this way

There it is

 

Not the best I've seen it 

And we're in, only about a quarter of a mile long this one

That LED light i got on the bike is not much good on the road i can see why now most of it goes up lol

with the light off didn't do that for long it was a bit scary 

 

Out at the other end, they built the A470 and blocked off the exit from the cutting so you have to turn around

 

This is the tunnel in use 

and this is now, the same end of the tunnel

This end of the tunnel is quite wet and has drainage ditches in the centre so you have to stay to the left or right to avoid them, this end also suffers from the most deterioration  

 

 

 

You can still see all the soot on the walls here, this opening used to be a little room for the track workers to rest in, i remember it having wooden benches in there as a lad but in the miners strike back in the 80's my cousins boyfriend dug through here into the old pit workings and started digging out coal, it was filled in but this looks like someone has been in there again, i was too freaked out to take a closer look and made for the exit 

The exit 

A shaky hand held video my phone couldn't handle the bumps so its a bit blurry 

I then took the old parish road to get back up over the mountain, my father said he used to drive his bubble car over here 50 years ago, well there's no chance of that now.

And on the top, the tunnel is beneath the bike here

 

another now and then, the old photo showing the three viaducts, the one on the far right is the only remaining one

And the same view now, you can just make out the viaduct below the smoke 

That's it for now i'm off to bed

 

 

 

[Earache]

Love the old pics with the same view in today's pics!

[XTreme]

Brilliant Fred........you've joined me in the world of Dark Motorcycling now?

And scary with the light off? I don't think you're going to encounter anybody or anything in there that looks more horrific than you! 

[Pedro]

Great report, great scenery. That tunnel looked scary, but it must have sounded weird with nothing but the bike engine in there.

[Tym]

That was all really cool if these reports got grades that was an A report! Thanks for taking the trouble! 

[XTreme]

1 hour ago, Pedro said:

 That tunnel looked scary

Yeh......could be the Bogey Man in there Pedro! 

[Sir Fallsalot]

4 hours ago, XTreme said:

Brilliant Fred........you've joined me in the world of Dark Motorcycling now?

And scary with the light off? I don't think you're going to encounter anybody or anything in there that looks more horrific than you! 

My mind can conjure up some pretty scary stuff when left in the dark alone 

[Sir Fallsalot]

1 hour ago, Pedro said:

Great report, great scenery. That tunnel looked scary, but it must have sounded weird with nothing but the bike engine in there.

When walking though the wet end all you hear is water running but about halfway through it goes completely silent all you hear is your foot steps and whatever your mind thinks it hears 

[Sir Fallsalot]

5 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Yeh......could be the Bogey Man in there Pedro! 

He was in there yesterday riding a bike LOL

When i was about 10 year old me and my sister were walking through there with the neighbours dog, around the middle one of us stepped on what we now think must have been the dogs foot, the yelp he let out meant we would have left Usain Bolt struggling to keep up with us as we exited the tunnel the fact everyone locally called it the ghost tunnel didn't help either 

[Sir Fallsalot]

Back to the ride this is a photo of the tunnel entrance where i had to turn around its the group of trees to the left of the pylon

 

Down to a place called Pontygwaith from there to the humpiest hump back bridge i know of

 

Looking into the Taf again

 

Just off the tram road is this, i'm not sure what its purpose was i think a WW2 pill box 

 

 

Looks like some poor bastard spent a night or two in here

 

Good view from the window

Back on the tram road its now the Taf trail only those pedal powered heathens allowed on here so only rode in for a couple of photos and then left. I used to ride it all the time before everyone went green 

 

 

On the parish road to methyr now i cant think I've ever seen anyone walking up here but past 3 families on the way everyone's invading my peace since corvid used to be just me the horses and the sheep 

The black shapes above the brown horse in the distance are solar panels lots of them appearing here now

 

Aberdare in the valley below here

This is looking towards Sennybridge one of my many favourite roads

 

This is one of the reasons i came out today I've had a few people ask me about a few lanes on the TET https://transeurotrail.org/ Lots think it's a route suitable for the larger bikes i've been telling people not all of it in the UK is so decided to take a few photos of two i know would be a challenge

The start on this one looks ok 

But soon becomes a flat twins nightmare 

Bike for scale

Quite nice once you get past all that though

But soon goes down hill literally LOL

 

Ends in someones garden 

 

And the next one isn't much better looks rough from the start 

 

 

This photo and the next show how in my opinion these easily accessible routes on line affect the lanes the second photo i took in 2012 same lane and location

On the way home i decided to check out a lane i thought i haven't ridden before

The road there was good 

starts off ok 

But doesn't last long

surprisingly that was all OK to get through

Photo to prove i didn't go around

When i got here i realised i had ridden this before many years ago and vowed i'd never come back bloody poor memory, getting old sucks LOL

Stuck here for a short while but pulling it back a few few feet slipping it into second with lots of gas sorted that.

After that it was a bit more hard work before getting stuck again

I wasn't far from the main track which goes around this shit but the red dots are supposed to be the vehicle right of way. You will notice by my route i had trouble finding the entrance to this i should have left it lost, i'll be sticking to the gravel next time.

 

Almost there

It was home from here along some uninspiring lanes after that 

And this is why we cut out or remove the front sprocket cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pedro]

Love it, would like to ride my XR there

[boboneleg]

Absolutely brilliant Fred

 

I've ridden up here with Paul many years ago but I had no idea that tunnel was close by

[Grasshopper]

On 13/09/2020 at 03:43, Sir Fallsalot said:

My mind can conjure up some pretty scary stuff when left in the dark alone 

You and me both.....I've watched and read too many scary stories to turn the light off in there.....

[Grasshopper]

Well that was awesome....looks like a lot of fun.  Great photos and a cool ride report....thanks for sharing.   

[Tym]

That bike looks good dirty!