An excellent afternoon spent at Cardiff Central station on the South Wales Mainline where we see no end of services from Transport For Wales, Cross Country, Great Western Railway and freight from DB Cargo UK.
Cardiff Central was built in 1850 and was used exclusively by the Great Western Railway when they wee running their trains from the capital into Wales. The station owes its existence to Isambard Kingdom Brunel who managed to divert the river Taff to the West which allowed the area to be to developed for the station to take place. After a long time of not being touched by architects in 1932 and 1934 the station was redesigned into a new stone structure which included an impressive booking office and waiting area to improve passenger comfort at the station, within the building itself the Great Western Railway had its name carved into the stone which you can still see to this day. The station building has become a grade 2 listed site which means that the main entrance, buildings and platforms cannot be touched by any sort of work unless its to repair where needed.
The station has always had the name Cardiff, this was the original name for the station before being renamed Cardiff General in July 1924 and finally Cardiff Central in May 1973.
There was another station here called Cardiff Riverside station which served the Riverside railway, this was integrated into Cardiff Central in 1940, but the platforms were closed to passenger usage in the late 1960's.
My next station will be Shrewsbury.
If you have any trackside locations or stations you would like to see me go to then please do let me know and I will see what I can do for you.
You can find me on Facebook through the group Tornado922, there you will find regular updates, videos and photos from all of my goings on throughout 2022.
You can also find me on Instagram through the name tornado922 where it isn't just rail related content that I produce.