Was there much cattle traffic on either the branch or main line ca 1955?

There should be something coming from or to Raglan.

There should also be traffic from Hereford but maybe not stopping.

Was there any animal facilities at Little Mill?

Don,

There were no cattle facilities at LMJ.

Having thumbed through a few books....

Branch

There were cattle docks at Llandenny, Dingestow, Raglan, Usk and Monmouth. Usk handled 430 wagon loads of cattle in 1936, Llandenny 27 and Raglan 25 (both 1933). (Jenkins and Mitchell & Smith books), The traffic figures show a marked reduction from the preWW1 period to the 'thirties. There are cattle wagons visible in the pics of Monmouth yard in 1931 and 1951, but none in the pics from the period 1957 - 1961.

Main line

I've found only one pic (out of a couple of dozen) showing cattle wagons on the main line - two at the front of a 28xx hauled up train from Alexandra Dock Jc in 1951 (Hodge). Given that cattle wagons (when loaded) are marshalled at the front of trains they should be easy to spot.

So to conclude there would probably be some cattle traffic at LMJ, but not very much. So I can dispose of my D&S pre-grouping kits.

PS Don - Thanks for prompting me to do the literature search. R

Further clarification from drandles

I am afraid I don't have much in the way of written records/documents on the cattle traffic from West Wales - Just the memories and a few odd notebooks from my teenage spotting days at Carmarthen. The cattle trains from Fishguard didn't appear in the Working Timetables, but were arranged by Control whenever a cattle boat docked at Fishguard. I was never sure where they were going, but I think it was quite likely that some travelled on the North & West route. They would probably have passed in the early hours of the morning as they were through Carmarthen Jc around 7 or 8pm.

The Wednesdays only Carmarthen-Crewe (via the Central Wales line) conveyed livestock from the local mart at Carmarthen. My recollection is that it would be formed of standard GWR/LMS or BR cattle vans in the late 1950s. As a train spotter, I always took an interest as it was the only train that brought larger LMS motive power to Carmarthen, usually Black 5s or 8Fs from Shrewsbury or Swansea Victoria. All the local trains between Carmarthen and Llandilo had GWR power by this time, as the locally based LMS engines (2-4-2Ts mainly) were transferred away soon after nationalisation.

At one time a little earlier in the 1950s there was also a Mondays only Cardigan to Crewe cattle train, which again conveyed livestock from local marts. I remember this one as it was worked over the Cardigan branch and on from Whitland as far as Carmarthen by a pair of 45xx prairies which were then replaced by a larger GWR engine. I am pretty sure this train travelled via Cardiff and Hereford, but I havn't checked this - it should appear in the relevant working timetables.

Sorry my info is a bit limited, but I hope this helps. Good luck with the Little Mill Jc layout. I only have very hazy recollections of the station from its heyday when I did a circular Carmarthen-Llandovery-Craven Arms-Newport-Carmarthen trip.

So....

The Carmarthen-Crewe is obviously not relevant to LMJ, but the Cardigan to Crewe and the cattle trains from Fishguard might be.