Rhymney Railway

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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.

Contents

1 History

1.1 Growth of the railway
1.2 Merging
1.3 The present day

2 External links

History

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.

External links

[Notes on the Rhymney]

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