Rhymney Railway
The
Rhymney Railway (Rhymney) was virtually a single stretch of main line, some fifty miles in length, by which the
Rhymney Valley was connected to the docks at
Cardiff in the county of
Glamorgan,
South Wales.
The aim of the railway was to gain access to the large
iron works and
collieries at the extreme north of the Valley. Short extensions, connecting with other railways, gave the Rhymney routes to take its (largely mineral) traffic to the
Midlands and the North of England, or opened up connections to collieries and iron works. Some of those routes were worked jointly with other companies.
Growth of the railway
The original incorporation was in 1854, and the railway was opened in various sections as follows:
*
Rhymney to
Hengoed, January 1858
*Hengoed - Walnut Tree Junction, February 1858
*line into Cardiff 1864
*Rhymney -
Nantybwch, giving access to the
London and North Western Railway. This section was worked jointly by the two companies April 1871
*
Ystrad Mynach - Penallta Junction, giving access to the
Great Western Railway and the
Aberdare Valley, April 1871
*
Taff -
Bargoed giving access to the
Dowlais Iron Works. Nine miles in length, with a gradient of 1:40, it had heavy usage. In 1911 the Rhymney conveyed over 300,000 tons of iron and iron ore per annum over this route. Opened January 1 1876
*Quaker's Yard - Cyfarthfa, authorised 1882
*Aber branch, 1890
*Ystrad Mynach - Cylla Valley, 1895
The Rhymney owned 120 locomotives in 1911. By then the total mileage of the Rhymney was over 61 miles; a further 16 miles of 'foreign' track was also worked over. Over two million tons of freight had been carried.
Details above taken from The Railway Year Book 1912 (The Railway Publishing Company Ltd)The first workshops for the railway were in
Cardiff, opening in
1857 but, as their work increased, there was insufficient room for expansion, and
Caerphilly railway works was opened in
1899.
Merging
Although the Rhymney was nominally independent until absorption in the
Great Western Railway at the Grouping of 1923, the same managing director, in 1917, took over control of the line and the
Taff Vale Railway and the
Cardiff Railway, making them to all and intents and purposes one undertaking.
The present day
The core line is now largely in use as the
Rhymney Line. The stations of the line from Cardiff to Rhymney are as follows:-
* Cardiff Central
* Cardiff Queen Street
* Heath High Level
* Llanishen
* Lisvane / Thornehill
* Caerphilly
* Aber
* Llanbradach
* Ystrad Mynach
* Hengoed
* Pengam
* Gilfach Fargoed (Stop by request only)
* Bargoed
* Brithdyr
* Tirphil (New Tredegar)
* Pontlottyn
* Rhymney
* Tredegar (Bus Link)
Evening trains traditionally stop closer and closer to Cardiff as the night wears on. For example, the last trains typically only go as far as Ystrad Mynach station.
*
Notes on the Rhymney
