Ep63 | Crossing the Barmouth Rail Bridge by Motorcycle (and more of course)

The challenges keep coming on our trip around the English and Welsh coastline. See how we managed to navigate this unusual right of way.

Hello and welcome to the Great British Biking Adventures Coast Series. In this series we are travelling around the coast on our motorcycle, a Honda VFR1200X Crosstourer.

A lot of our viewers are bike enthusiasts but this series will appeal to a wider audience. Why? Because there’s so much more to the Coast series than motorcycles. There’s the challenges, the journey, geography, history and people. You get to travel the entire coast of England and Wales with us, see how we did it, share our ups and downs, experience English culture, the history and hear about the people that made Britain ‘Great’!

What’s also good about the coast series is it doesn’t matter when you start watching, it’s like one of those open top bus tours – you can get on at any point and just keep going until you arrive back where you started.

Who are we? We’re a husband & wife living in an unremarkable coastal town in England. We’ve been married 35 years and were brought together by motorcycles. One day, Esther’s Honda Melody broke down and she brought it to Jarrod’s motorcycle shop – the rest (as they say) is history.

One cold February day, we started riding along the seafront and just kept going. We wanted to record the experience to have something to watch in the future – the YouTube channel was an afterthought. Take a look at those first few episodes to see just how novice we were, cobbling together what little phone footage we had to try to make a story. To make up for our amateur recording and shyness we added information in the editing. This set the tone and style of our videos, we hope you like it. We like to think we’ve improved and hopefully you’ll agree, take a look, compare our earlier videos with the later ones and let us know in the comments.

There’s also the filming and production journey. When we started we knew nothing about filming, video and audio production, editing, YouTube and the like. We’ve learnt loads and spent loads in time and money along the way but it’s been almost as enjoyable as the journey itself. You’ll hopefully appreciate how far we’ve come.

But what’s with all those bible verses we hear you say. We know some of you don’t appreciate this aspect, one or two have told us in the comments! That’s fine – it really is. All are equally welcome here, believers and unbelievers. It would be a pity if you enjoyed everything else but just stopped watching because of the Christian references but we completely accept you’re free to do as you please.

Our faith has prompted us to include a bible verse in our videos and sometimes a Christian perspective on the things we talk about. The channel is not about Christianity but our faith cannot be separated from it. We hope and pray that it will make you think, inquire and even bring you into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Go last night we stayed at the Tillman in barmouth having fueled up on a good breakfast we resumed our adventure around the English and Welsh Coastline in the last episode we gave you a sneak preview of The Challenge that immediately awaits us today barmouth Bridge is a grade 2

Listed Wooden Railway Viaduct across the EST of the river maak it is 900 y long and carries the Cambrian line it is the longest Timber viaduct in Wales and one of the oldest in regular use in Britain the bridge was officially opened on the 10th of October 1867 and by all accounts has been a maintenance nightmare ever since over the years it’s had all sorts of issues including fire corrosion and woodworm there’s a long list of Maintenance and restoration the expense of which has periodically threatened its closure

It once had a draw bridge to allow the passage of tool ships This was later replaced by a swing Bridge which is no longer operational due to a lack of use as well as trains The Crossing is used by pedestrians cyclists and motorcyclists tolls used to be collected

But now this is voluntary the local Council contribute £30,000 a year to network rail to keep the access open last night night the line was open but this morning it was being worked on ahead of a major restoration this is one of the last times you’ll see the old riveted iron

Work within days it was to be replaced with a brand new steel structure as well as adding to the adventure using the bridge also avoided a 13m ride around the Estery Beautiful morning o I would say no but it’s millimet so we’ve got to get through this little old toll gate and uh we’re a bit wide it is yeah well I’m not walking that way no that’s I’ll wait a minute yeah of course keep an eye

On I do hope a train doesn’t come right now with that man stood there so bouth has a famous Victorian Railway Bridge over the Ester and uh I’ll just show you and it has a permitted byway footpath byway for a bit of traffic as well including

Motorbikes it has an old two toll booth which is narrow so Jared’s just taken off one of the pias oh looks a bit bare and unbalanced um and we dumped it up there cuz that’s also a narrow section so we’re just going to get that section done and then

Hopefully we can put the p on so well I’ll film you going through shall I and then you just carry on our walk if you like good yes good lean yeah lean to the left slightly that’s [Laughter] good you’re all good there you’ve got a

Good line I can see it’s narrow good job you took that one side off so I shall go and catch up with Jared so there’s sort of three sections to the bridge the first tarmac well not the tarmac but isn’t the bridge but it comes down to the bridge with a very

Narrow sweep which is at right angles to the road so we took that as stage one and planned that stage two was the toll booth stage three was getting over this most narrow part which I’m just walking along now and uh stage four is quite wide

So just popping the paa back on cuz this bit is a lot wider look at that that’s a picture is it the planks are a bit more rickety and shaky but we trust that all the other motorbikes that have gone over it would have fallen in before us if they were weak

I am so Naughty [Applause] To the network rail team caring for it the 154 yearold barmouth bridge is affectionately known as trigger’s broom in the classic Only Fools and Horses scen trigger proudly reveals he has used the same broom for 20 years saying dead pan this old broom has had 17 new heads and 14 new

Handles at it time much like triggers broom there is little remaining of the original 1867 Bridge my camera Neither do we care exactly when and how the motorcycle access was established is unclear but it seems to be a long-standing right of way on OS Maps it’s classified as other route with Public Access which is very unusual most people we encountered were either familiar with motorcycles using

The bridge and all had no problem with it however as reported by other motorcyclists we did get a couple of grumpy stairs the trial Riders fellowship and trans European Trail endorse the use of the right of way and are working with the snowdonia National Park to get signs

Erected which will warn other users about motorcyclists and hopefully reduce the hostility we sometimes Get Yeah all good don’t lean over to anymore all good good yeah yeah okay plenty of room plenty of GRE masses of room on the front all good yeah all good I didn’t know there was a look at that a I didn’t know there was um what’s it called little Heritage

Line mini gauge yeah it’s not Narrow Gauge narrow Narrow Gauge yeah it’s only a little stretch down to the beach I think into the center of the village but yeah it’s great lovely little thing to do with the young family lots of fun look at this

Just off the main road you wouldn’t have thought really from the main road that this was here but it’s a delightful little Resort is it if you want somewhere a bit quieter yeah it is so we were over on the bridge over there through the cars and we’ve looped all the way around

There to come onto this little like Peninsula that’s barmouth over there there’s the Old Railway Bridge yeah looking back at the Railway Bridge oh the train is at the end oh yes I can see the steam so I think yes so you can take the Narrow Gauge Railway to the ferry wow and

There’s the ferry in the river in the estery there that takes some passenger so you could do a big long walk around here that’s what that lady was saying wasn’t it who we met on the bridge that’s a nice walk yeah it’s lovely isn’t it this little line is the Fairborn Railway

And it runs for 2 miles from Fairborn Village to penin point at the mouth of the mordak estri where it connects with the equally small passenger ferry to barmouth the railway has carried holiday makers for over a 100 years at its peak in the 1970s it was carrying in excess

Of 70,000 passengers a year it started in 1895 as a 2T gauge horsse drawn Tramway used to whole construction materials that helped build the village in 1916 it was converted to 15in gauge and in 1986 to its present gauge of 12 and 1/4 in nice one a hold up we want your

Money the railway has had mixed fortunes and on several occasions has been on the brink of closure but each time someone has stepped in to save this precious gem and today it is run by a charitable trust so hopefully we’ll continue for another 130 Years [Laughter] Now we go right don’t we right yeah that’s us oh this is absolutely fantastic yeah we’ve already got our our episode haven’t we it’s amazing stories subject lighting competion yeah failing that PO and Sho yeah cture something capture Something Yes ooh smell that sea going to Loop Round yeah it’s a lovely fishy smell check behind for me yeah all good a horrible new stuff don’t stop a minute I can’t quite see if we got a post there no we all good there wasn’t the post

Right it’s going this is a switch back onto the main roow mhm this might be a little bit tricky right so here’s the switch back if we make it we might have to go L to go yeah he’s going to try and do it though he’s doing it do it’s not on a

Hill I think you’ll be all right well it is on the hill but you know what I mean lights oh light controlled oh that’s good then maybe let us go first what people want to come down in you all right you let us go first is

That all right yeah tell us when they go Green this is that road I saw you okay I’m really good know You’ been a good friend there in the thick and I know it’s never going to end [Applause] cuz you been a good [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] friend [Applause] Thanks for watching all the way to the end we really appreciate it we look forward to seeing your comments if you like what we’re doing then as well as clicking the like And subscribe share this video with friends and family see you next Time