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Taff Vale Railway Miscellany By John Hutton w dust jacket
Taff Vale Railway Miscellany By John Hutton
Hardbound With Dustjacket
Approx. 120 Pages
Copyright 1988
Introduction
The origins of the Taff Vale Railway Company can be traced back many years to 1804. In that year Richard Trevithick, a Cornishman, drove a steam locomotive of his own design for a bet, down the Merthyr tramroad to Abercynon which was then called Navigation House, a distance of some 10 miles.
This tramway was used by horse power to take iron products from the iron works at Merthyr and Dowlais to be shipped to Cardiff Docks via the Glamorganshire Canal. It was found that the locomotive designed by Trevithick was too heavy for the rails but it was decided that the expense involved to re-lay the tramway with heavier rails was just not justified. Therefore the TVR came into being because colliery owners like Coffin, Insole, Gethin and others were finding it more and more difficult to supply their customers with a quick delivery of good steam coal. Their tramways to the Glamorganshire Canal at Pontypridd were just not adequate to keep pace with the increase in demand. The ironmasters of Merthyr and Dowlais were also faced with these same problems, so on the 21st of June 1836, the Taff Vale Railway received Royal Assent, and a young engineer called Mr Isambard Kingdom Brunel was appointed to survey for the best route available.
The Taff Vale Railway became one of the most prosperous railways in the kingdom. The main line was from Cardiff Docks to Merthyr and from this 24 mile line there were no less than 23 branch lines making a total of 124 miles 42 chains, of Taff Vale Railway ownership. Although built through mountainous country there were only two tunnels, one at Ynysycol near Taffs Well, and the other on the notorious incline between the area of Abercynon and Quakers Yard. They were both opened out into cuttings in 1862 when the main line was doubled.
The busiest junction of the system was at Pontypridd, with a train passing every two minutes, and passenger trains running to places like Treherbert, Maerdy,- Ynysybwl, Nelson, Aberdare, Caerphilly, Llantrisant, Cowbridge and Aberthaw, as well as Cardiff and Merthyr. In the early days of the TVR there were three rope worked inclines; Abercynon to Incline - Top, near Quakers Yard, Dowlais Junction to the Dowlais Iron works, near Merthyr, and Pwllyrhebog to Blaenclydach, near Tonypandy. This last mentioned incline was worked by specially designed engines right up to July 1951.
Engine sheds had an aroma of their own, a blend of steam, heat and hot oil, of which there were twelve of them scattered around the Taff Vale system. The coaching stock was large and varied, and catered for three classes of travel. These coaches had dark chocolate coloured lower panels, with white upper panels, while workmens' carriages were dark brown all over.
The stations, except those at Cardiff, Pontypridd and Treherbert were simple in design, yet functional in every way. Three stations had lifts, Cardiff Queen Street, from street level
ib platforms, as at Pontypridd, but Tonypandy was unique in as much as the lift worked from the 'up' platform, to street level, and was hydraulically worked by using water from the adjacent river.
Signal boxes were also unique in design, and only at Abercwmboi, Llandaff, and Radyr Quarry are Taff Vale boxes still in existence today. Goods depots were at most stations with the largest being at Merthyr and Pontypridd, where every type of traffic was handled. Cattle pens existed at Llandaff, Pontypridd, Merthyr, Ystrad Rhondda and Treorchy, as well as Aberdare and Tonypandy.
The Taff Vale Railway made good use of the docks at Cardiff and also Penarth, where the best of Welsh coal was shipped to all over the world. Today, most of the former branch lines of this great company have now disappeared. Some were dismantled years ago and yet most can still be followed, through areas that have become lost in the growing blanket of nature, and the modern day estates of houses and factories. The lines that are still in use have changed, sidings have been lifted as the collieries were closed, and superfluous lines removed.
I have tried "through the lens of the camera", to capture the past and illustrate the changes that have occurred, and to show how things used to be, for present day youngsters to compare scenes of their local "down the road station", where the ivy has crept onto broken platform slabs or the sleepers, now broken and rotten, with just a scattering of ballast faintly noticeable amongst the weeds and grass, showing a trace of the track. If my work kindles an interest for them to find out more about their local history and to ask "why" then I have achieved my aim.
British Rail has started building new stations and halts on those lines that are still operational. Some are at the planning stage and some have actually been built. As new housing and factory estates are extended so British Rail has tried to recapture the spirit of the past and provide a service for the public and to regain lost revenue. Perhaps they will also realise that instead of selling the former branch lines to the property developers, they would do better to reopen these lines and provide a service not only to the new estates, but to the old villages, once again.
John A Hutton Pontypridd.
Mr I.K. Brunel, FRS engineer, deposited on the night, at the time of half past eleven, on the 30th of November in the year of 1835, with the Clerk of the Peace, of the County of Glamorgan, the completed, surveyed plans for the directors of the Taff Vale Railway Company, eventually resulting in the Royal Assent by His Gracious Majesty, King William IV, to the Act of Parliament, of the 21st of June 1836.
The Taff Vale Railway became one of the most prosperous railways in Britain. The main line ran from Cardiff Docks to Merthyr, a distance of only 24 miles but from this there were no less than 23 branch lines. These served the collieries in the South Wales valleys, and at one time trains passed through Pontypridd Junction about every two minutes.
Together with the other independent South Wales railways the TVR was absorbed by the Great Western in 1922. It had always had a close affinity with the GWR having been engineered by the same brilliant engineer, Isambard K. Brunel.
This album, the latest in the long established Miscellany series, includes many rare illustrations collected over a number of years from a wide variety of sources.
The former headquarters of the railway at Bute Road, Cardiff is now the home of the Wales Railway Centre which is destined to become a major railway preservation project.
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