Phone Box I Remember Being Quite Excited at the Prospect of This Village Having a Telephone Box

Phone Box I remember being quite excited at the prospect of this village having a telephone box. In the early 1960’s only five or six households had the luxury of a telephone. When the railway station was open emergency phone calls could be made from the Booking Office at cost price. It was originally intended to place the kiosk on the junction under the street light but space was very limited and the new phone box was eventually erected in its current position. The year was 1966 Roger Young, May 2019 Street Lights Originally there was only one feeble street light in the village situated on the junction. In the early 1960’s a second light was placed in the middle of the village. The current seven light scheme was put in about 1980 and included a light in the phone kiosk. The railway station never had electricity and was lit by oil lamps. Roger Young, 20 th May 2019 School Transport On the demise of the trains at the end of 1962, home to school transport was provided by bus. Gwernyfed was served by Western Welsh. Llangorse area to Brecon County schools travelled on Vic Jones Pontfaen’s “Flying Banana”, a pale yellow and white with a black flash; a Bedford S B Coach with a 33 seater Duple Body that leaked whenever it rained (Registration no: CCP339). Any trouble-makers were allocated seats that the driver, Vic, could see in his interior mirrors; continued bad behaviour resulted in the pupil being thrown off the bus and left to walk home - as Vic would say, he was not in the army for nothing! The bus never broke down in the morning going to school but the trip home was not so reliable. For about a whole term the bus did not have a reverse gear, so this involved the older boys having to push the bus backwards which was required to turn around in Trewalter Lane. I sat in the front seat and operated the sliding access door – no automatic powered doors then! Good old days. Roger Young, May 2019 Train At least 20 people would catch the 8.30am train into Brecon every week day. During winter months there would be a roaring fire in the Waiting Room which was the place to hear the latest news and gossip. Sweets, chocolates and cigarette for the day would be bought from the ‘Refresh’. With eight trains in and eight out of Brecon every day that was a train to suit everyone. Roger Young, May 2019 Water & Electricity in Talyllyn The village water supply came from springs and tanks in the adjacent fields. Pressure was very low. Most houses did not have an inside toilet, or an internal tap. Water could be obtained from one of the three village taps (these taps did not dry up even in the summer of 1976). It was 1956/7 that the DMD water mains arrived. Water from Talybont Reservoir pumped up to a tank on the Allt; the water pressure was amazing but blew all the ball valves. Water for the station and railways was collected from springs in the tunnel. Mains electricity arrived in 1953, however George Thomas of “Allt View” supplied power (110v DC from a bank of batteries that he kept charged with a “Black Stone” generator) to his immediate neighbours just for lighting. He charged two shillings (10p) a week. George would run his generator on a Saturday afternoon and I was told that it would rattle the windows. Roger Young, May 2019 I was three years old when I moved from Talybont to Lake View with my parents and twin brother, Brian. My dad, Reg Evans, worked on the railway as a signalman at the North Box and I used to love going to have tea with dad and watch him pulling the levers for the train to go by. We went to school on the train and used to walk up the ash path (as it was called) to Tayllyn Station. As we knew some of the drivers they would take us for a ride in the engine and let us blow the whistle. Then we’d go in the guards van and even went on a trolley all the way to Pentyrhw with Bill Dyer and his dog Jane. Many times we’ve walked through the tunnel and then go and buy sweets from the refreshment rooms (happy times). Great excitement when the Royal Train with the Queen stayed in the siding just up by the North Box in August 1955. When we lived at Lake View we had no running water or electricity. We used oil lamps and had a pump with the well in our garden which was filled from a spring in the field. No TELEVISION only the radio and no ELECTRIC GADGETS (like we have today). But many happy hours were spent with the Thomas children at Oakfield and the Gerrish children who lived at Old Platform (no longer there). A very happy childhood with so much fun and GREAT MEMORIES. Brenda Arnold (née Evans), May 2019 It can be no coincidence that I started my working life at Talyllyn Station since I grew up a few feet away from a railway track at Crossing House Llanfihangel-Talyllyn where there were manually operated level crossing gates on the Hereford to Brecon branch line. There were three porters working at the station covering three shifts in a day which included overlaps when two porters were on together. As well as porter duties we were lamp ‘boys’, a once a week duty caring for the signal lights and tunnel lamps. Keeping lamps alight was a finely tuned and monitored duty that paid attention to details - as was every job on the railways. Each activity was recorded, signed and accounted for including the items coming off the goods van of one line and then being moved to the other at this railway junction. It was the porter’s job to ensure this transfer went without a hitch from the respective Brecon to Merthyr and Hereford to Brecon lines and vice versa. Moving boxes, crates and baskets meant trolleying them from one platform to another over the walk-way used by everyone. This was no mean feat. Trolley brakes and the incline on the walk-way meant that sometimes one of the containers would fall off and be damaged. The Station Master was required to record the loss and ensure that it was accurately costed so that the owner did not lose money and could be compensated. If the contents were perishable the station staff would be able to purchase them and the goods were divided out amongst them and paid for as part of the compensation. One such box contained kippers; not only were they shared out and paid for but one mischievous porter used a kipper’s head to play a trick on the Station Master after he had left for home on the Brecon train. The head was pinned to the underside of his desk, above and at the back of a drawer where it proceeded to decay and smell! First of all the smell was thought to be caused by a bird having flown through an open window and died in the office. Staff were used to move the furniture to no avail. The puzzle contained to cause speculation as the smell became worse and some uninformed staff scratched their heads. The ticket clerk however knew the characters who worked at the station and during a tea break suggested that if anyone knew what was causing the smell they had better cure it as the floor boards were to be taken up the following day in search of the cause. The kipper’s head was removed that evening! Pranks and playfulness were all part of railway comradery whilst carrying out the serious job of keeping a transport system moving. I went on to spend my working life around trains from porter to foot-plate man and driver on steam engines and then diesel ones. There were many times when I passed Crossing House on the way to Dowlais Top, Pant and Merthyr. On the way we slowed to go through the gates and I dropped my washing off the shovel for Mam to do as I was in lodgings in Hereford. At Dowlais I loaded a lump of coal on the coal store for Mam (Daisy) and one lump for John Hamer at Trefeinon. They were dropped off on the return journey and had my clean washing on the shovel the next day. Useful things those shovels. The story which marks railway comradery for me occurred during my childhood. I was nine years old and was allowed to roam the countryside with friends. One summer’s day in 1946 I was told to stay home but not told the reason. I already knew some of the rules for the trains going over the crossing and I was startled when the train I was expecting sounded a whistle at Llangorse Halt. Surprised because it was the ‘stop’ whistle which wasn’t to be used unless the circumstance was exceptional. More surprisingly it was followed by the ‘slow’ whistle and so the pattern continued as the train passed the warning signal and appeared under the tin bridge which took the road traffic to Llangorse. Something was amiss according to these whistles as the train went past the house a dark haired, very tanned man waved to me from the window and Mam was waving back to him.

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