8th May 2019 · ‘The Railways of Glamorgan and the Valleys’

Presenter: Stuart Warr

Our May meeting coincided with the local Radyr & Morganstown Festival and the subject of the illustrated talk by our Branch Secretary, Stuart Warr was ‘The Railways of Glamorgan and the Valleys’. Stuart chose to confine his presentation to the area marketed by the former British Rail as ‘Cardiff Valleys’ starting and ending at the station nearest to our meeting place, Radyr.

The hypothetical journey covered the valley lines to Treherbert, Aberdare, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney and included the freight branches to Ynysybwl, Hirwaun and Cwmbargoed, then the lines around Cardiff to Penarth, Barry Island and from Bridgend to Tondu and the lines that radiate from there. Radyr was then hypothetically reached via Coryton.

Stuart dug into his large collection of images that covered the area from the early 1970s to the present day, featuring timetabled services and excursions, both diesel and steam hauled.

The biggest surprise was the variety of liveries on locomotives and units seen, something that has largely disappeared in the area in recent times. Also of great interest was the way in which the infrastructure and greenery has changed over the years.