Taffs Well to Ponty 261120 2585
A walk from Taffs Well to Pontypridd using the trackbeds of old railways, on 26 November 2020.
This line, whose trackbed is now part of the Taff Trail, was the Pontypridd, Caerphilly & Newport Railway (PC&N) that (nominally) linked the towns of its title from 1884 to 1965. In practice the railway only owned the five miles from Pontypridd to Penrhos Junction and another two miles between Caerphilly and Machen, for the rest using running powers over the lines of other companies.
Of further relevance is that it was in reality controlled by the Alexandra Dock & Railway Company (ADR), who wanted to be able to tap into the coalfields of the Taff Valley and divert Cardiff bound coal to their own docks in Newport. This was a quite reasonable aspiration as at that time it was commonplace for ships to have to stand for days off Cardiff waiting access to the docks there, whilst coal stood for days waiting to be loaded.
A passenger service was started on 28 December 1887 and the three or four trains ran non-stop between Pontypridd and Caerphilly until a number of stopping places were opened in April 1904, most of these being closed between 1930 and the end of all passenger services in 1956.
Until 1903 all trains had been worked by the Taff Vale Railway, but in that year they gave notice to end this and the ADR took over, using locomotives that had recently been displaced by electrification of the Mersey Railway, quite a change of environment.
Taffs Well to Ponty 261120 2585
A walk from Taffs Well to Pontypridd using the trackbeds of old railways, on 26 November 2020.
This line, whose trackbed is now part of the Taff Trail, was the Pontypridd, Caerphilly & Newport Railway (PC&N) that (nominally) linked the towns of its title from 1884 to 1965. In practice the railway only owned the five miles from Pontypridd to Penrhos Junction and another two miles between Caerphilly and Machen, for the rest using running powers over the lines of other companies.
Of further relevance is that it was in reality controlled by the Alexandra Dock & Railway Company (ADR), who wanted to be able to tap into the coalfields of the Taff Valley and divert Cardiff bound coal to their own docks in Newport. This was a quite reasonable aspiration as at that time it was commonplace for ships to have to stand for days off Cardiff waiting access to the docks there, whilst coal stood for days waiting to be loaded.
A passenger service was started on 28 December 1887 and the three or four trains ran non-stop between Pontypridd and Caerphilly until a number of stopping places were opened in April 1904, most of these being closed between 1930 and the end of all passenger services in 1956.
Until 1903 all trains had been worked by the Taff Vale Railway, but in that year they gave notice to end this and the ADR took over, using locomotives that had recently been displaced by electrification of the Mersey Railway, quite a change of environment.