Abergavenny Blackbrook
‘P4’ – NEWPORT MRC
In our history the good burghers of Abergavenny were dissatisfied with the North and West Joint line (Newport to Shrewsbury) being so far from the the town and pressed for a town-centre station. Wishing to ward off the LNWR the GWR responded by promoting a nominally independent company to build a short branch, with the prospect of an extension along the Usk Valley to Crickhowell and Brecon. The extension never came about and the company was soon fully in GW hands but the branch did allow the town to expand and the short branch survived until the mid-sixties.
Services from the Vale of Neath line were extended from Pontypool Road and the MT&A trains from Merthyr (by now taken over by the Western Region of British Railways) as well as some of the shorter mainline services to Cardiff and Hereford also work into the station. The expanded population proved beneficial on the eve of WW2 as the town provided (and still provides) a substantial number of workers for ROF Glascoed and there is a workmen's train that runs daily to Glascoed (SX), which is stabled at Abergavenny overnight. Most freight by-passes the station, but there is some freight traffic, generally house coal and supporting the locality's agricultural industry.
Known as Abergavenny with the addition of GWR most of its life, since just after nationalisation (it is now Autumn 1954) Blackbrook has been added to the station name to avoid any confusion with the other stations bearing the town's name.
The layout is built to 4mm scale P4 standards using point kits and flexible track. The locos and coaches are from various members in the club and are built from kits or modified models. Control is fully DCC mainly using NCE and MERG components.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.