This book illustrates the dramatic changes that have taken place in the railways of South Wales in the last 35 years, with a gradual transition to just two types of freight locomotives and a step change in the area’s passenger services.

With South Wales being an industrial heartland, its popularity with railway enthusiasts is understandable. Gone is the continuous procession of coal trains, but there is still plenty of twenty-first-century rail freight, although the closures of steel works have undoubtedly affected the number of trains.

Instead of freight trains being hauled by Class 37s and 47s, Class 66s now hold an almost complete monopoly in hauling freight, except for Class 60s on trains of oil tankers from West Wales refineries.

Passenger services have undergone an even greater change. Principality services have transferred from Arriva Trains Wales to being operated by Transport for Wales, and the Great Western Main Line from London Paddington to Cardiff has been electrified, with the consequent loss of the popular High Speed Trains.

In this book, John Jackson presents compelling evidence of how the rail scene in South Wales has changed from the 1990s to the present day.

Published in August 2024 by Amberley Publishing and written by John Jackson, this soft-cover book measures around 16.5 cm x 23.4 cm, and has 96 pages and 180 photographs.

It has a published price of £15.99, but at the time of writing, it can be purchased for £14.39 from Amberley Publishing and for £12.39 from Amazon.


The book has 20 logical sections, starting with a map of the current extent of South Wales railways and the pre-1990s scene covering freight, local passenger trains, and the iconic High Speed Trains.

There follows sections for Cross Country Trains, Great Western Railway services to England’s south coast and the southwest. Change is seen in sections covering the electrification of the South Wales main line and loco-hauled passenger trains to Manchester and Holyhead and in the Valleys.

The next four sections deal with different types of diesel multiple units, from Class 142 and 143 Pacers to Class 170, 175 and 769s. The last four sections bring the story up to date with the latest Class 197, 231, 398, and 756 units.

Seen below are common scenes from the 1990s, which at the time only 20 years after the end of steam seemed set to continue for many more years. The Class 37s and 47s on the left-hand page were a familiar sight on both long-distance and local freight services, as were the High Speed Trains at the top right and the uncomfortable Class 143 Pacers at the bottom right.

Instead of the Class 37s and 47s that were to be seen hauling coal and steel trains in previous years, Class 66s in the scenes below are more typical of today’s freight trains, especially their use on inter-modal freight as in both top images.

Another change that has been welcomed by passengers is the elimination of the despised Pacers. These were non-affectionately known as ‘nodding donkeys,’ and are being gradually replaced with modern electric trains and the South Wales Metro.

At first sight, the word ‘Present’ in the title could mean anything, depending on when the book was published. However, in the context of this book, ‘Present’ does mean what it says, as the South Wales story is brought up to date with images of a new depot at Taffs Well for the South Wales Metro on the left contrasting with an ageing Class 150 shown at the bottom right.

Anyone familiar with railways in South Wales will be only too well aware of how much the railway scene there has changed since the 1990s.

John Jackson has captured those changes admirably, and his division of the book into self-contained sections through those years will help readers to understand how the Principality’s railways have progressed. Each photograph has a useful caption that fully describes the accompanying image without going into extraneous details, and benefits from excellent reproduction.

The book will be of interest to anyone with memories of South Wales railways in years gone by, as well as those trying to keep up with the quickly changing railway scene today, and is well worth a rating of 5/5.

The book is available to purchase from Amazon and from Amberley Publishing.

We would like to thank Amberley Publishing for providing us with a copy of the book for review.