The Railways of South Wales

We welcomed Stephen Bigley to our January meeting to give a talk on the Railways of South Wales. A quick look at a map of South Wales in the pre-grouping era showed it to have a large and complex system of lines operated by many independent companies that resisted mergers until the Grouping. This was in contrast to the situation in England where local lines built by independent companies soon amalgamated with larger neighbours.

The driving force behind railways in the Cardiff Valleys was coal and the need to transport it to docks at places such as Newport, Cardiff, and Barry for export or use elsewhere in Britain. Such was the scale of coal production that competing railways could be found on different sides of the valleys. Whilst most railways headed to the coast, a notable east - west link was the railway between Pontypool and Quakers Yard at Merthyr which included the very tall Crumlin Viaduct where it crossed a valley. Whilst coal production has ceased, away from the colliery lines we were reminded that the quarry at Machen near Newport is still in use, before heading west of Cardiff to Swansea.

Stephen’s talk was largely concerned with infrastructure and he illustrated bridges, viaducts, stations, and builders’ plates on structures that are now 200 years old, though they are no longer in railway use.

Our thanks to Stephen for his informative talk and illustrating that there is much for railway enthusiasts to look at apart from just train