+ Motto(Wales hath been, and Wales shall be)
+ Milestones12 October 1835Resolution passed to form The Taff Vale Railway Company21 June 1836Act of Incorporation16 September 1836First company General Meeting, directors appointed9 October 1840Opened Cardiff to Navigation House (Abercynon)12 April 1841Opened Navigation House to Merthyr Tydfil10 June 1865Penarth Dock opened, TVR took out a 999-year lease1900Strike led to Taff Vale case (1901)1903 "Motor cars" (steam railway passenger coaches) introduced1 January 1922Became constituent company of the GWR
+ Railways worked/leased1847Aberdare Railway1862Penarth Harbour & Dock Railway1863Llantrisant & TV Railway1889Cowbridge & Aberthaw Railway
The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in stages in 1840 and 1841.
In the railway's first years, the coal mining industries expanded considerably and branches were soon opened in the Rhondda valleys and the Cynon Valley. The conveyance of coal for export and for transport away from South Wales began to dominate and the docks in Cardiff and the approach railway became extremely congested. Alternatives were sought and competing railway companies were encouraged to enter the trade.
In the following decades further branch lines were built and the TVR used "motor cars" (steam railway passenger coaches) from 1903 to encourage local passenger travel.
From 1922 the TVR was a constituent of the new Great Western Railway (GWR) at the grouping of the railways, imposing its own character on the larger organisation. The decline in the coal and iron industries took its toll on the mainstay of the network, but passenger trains still operate on most of the main line sections.
Before the Taff Vale Railway Minerals Coal mining and iron smelting had been carried out on a small scale in South Wales down to the 18th century; it was encouraged by the plentiful availability of coal, at first at a shallow depth; timber (for pit props and for charcoal); and limestone (for fluxing). The coal was primarily used in iron production and it was only gradually that surplus coal began to be used for power (in industrial stationary steam engines) and for domestic use.
In time coke replaced charcoal in the smelting process. The availability of the raw materials at the heads of the South Wales valleys led to a number of ironworks being founded there between 1750 and 1800; these included the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, Plymouth Ironworks, and Dowlais Ironworks in the Merthyr Tydfil area.
A major difficulty was transport; conveying the finished product away to market was effected by coastal shipping, but the primitive road network made reaching the coast expensive and difficult; and the limestone, plentiful as it was, was located some distance north of the location of the ironworks.
In 1767, Anthony Bacon of Cyfarthfa persuaded his fellow ironmasters to join in a scheme to build a trunk roadway from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff. He used mule-hauled trains.
Tramroads A solution to the difficulty of local transport around the area of the ironworks was the tramroad. Wooden railways had been extensively used elsewhere, but seem not to have been much used in South Wales. The local tramroads were almost all short-distance plateways (in which the rails are L-shaped plates, carrying wagons with plain wheels) and in many cases were simple extensions of plateways used underground in mines.
Canals Canals were built down some of the valleys, to bring the iron down to the coast for shipping elsewhere. The Glamorganshire Canal was opened in 1794; it ran from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff, a distance of . Local mine owners within of the canal were authorised to build tramroads to connect to the canal. About 350 miles (560 km) of tramroad were built in South Wales under this and similar arrangements before the coming of modern railways. 200,000 tons of coal were brought down by the canal in 1839 to the dock that became Bute West Dock.
The Penydarren engine In 1802 the Merthyr Tramroad was opened, connecting the Dowlais and other ironworks with the Glamorganshire Canal. Richard Trevithick was employed at Penydarren Ironworks, served by the tramroad, and he built a steam locomotive engine. In 1804 a demonstration run took place in which 10 tons of iron and 70 people were transported . This was the first use of a steam locomotive engine in the world. However many of the cast-iron tramplates were broken due to the weight of the engine.
A railway proposed For the first decades of the nineteenth century, the transport situation for Merthyr and the surrounding area changed relatively little; the Glamorganshire Canal prospered, but became overwhelmed by the volume of trade. Tramways continued with horse haulage and plateway tracks. Mule trains carried iron down the turnpike road.
Edge railways, evolved directly from earlier wooden railways, had continued in use in Northumberland and elsewhere in the country; the Stockton and Darlington Railway of 1825 and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway of 1830 demonstrated the capabilities of the current technology.
Planning and construction
Early in 1835, Anthony Hill, owner of the Plymouth Ironworks at Merthyr, asked the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a personal friend, to estimate the cost of building a railway from Merthyr to Bute Docks in Cardiff. Brunel's estimate was £190,649. However, by the following year Brunel had revised his estimate upwards, to £286,031, to accommodate improved gradients, mineral branches and shipping staithes.
In October 1835 a meeting of 'the Proprietors of Iron Works, Collieries, and others interested in the Minfral and other Property of the Vallies of the Taff, Rhondda, Cynon, Bargoed, and other adjacent places, and the Trade of the Town of Merthyr Tydvil and Port of Cardiff' was held at the Castle Inn in Merthyr Tydfil, chaired by John Josiah Guest, the MP for Merthyr. The meeting resolved to form "The Taff Vale Railway Company" and a provisional committee was appointed, consisting of J. J. Guest, W. Thompson, T. R. Guest, Richard Hill, Anthony Hill, William Forman, Walter Coffin, E. I. Hutchins, Edward Morgan, Robert Beaumont, Thomas Powell, W. Thomas, D. W. James, David Evans, George Insole, W. Jones, Henry Charles, and David Davis.
Act of Parliament
The promoters agreed to go forward with a parliamentary bill in the 1836 session. The Glamorganshire Canal Company opposed the bill, but it was passed and obtained royal assent on 21 June 1836 as the (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. lxxxii). The Taff Vale Railway Company was incorporated with capital of £300,000. The directors were Josiah Guest (who became its first chairman), Walter Coffin, Edward Lee, Thomas Guest, Thomas Guppy, Thomas Powell, Christopher James, Thomas Carlisle, Henry Rudhall, William Wait, William Watson, and Peter Maze. However, at the company's first general meeting on 16 September 1836 the following were appointed as directors: J. J. Guest, Walter Coffin, T. R. Guest, Thomas Powell, T. Carlisle, E. H. Lee, Henry Rudhall, C. E. Bernard, Chris. James, W. K. Wait, Elijah Waring, and R. H. Webb.
The act authorised a railway from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff, to be known as the Taff Vale Railway, with several branches: to connect with the tramroad to Dowlais and other ironworks nearby; to collieries at Llancaiach; to the tramroad serving Dinas collieries (in the Rhondda); and to Cogan Pill. Company profits were limited to 7%; this could be augmented to 9% if the tolls for use of the line were substantially reduced. Independent carriers as well as the company itself were potentially able to use the line. The act also limited the speed of the trains on the line to , with stiff penalties for any speeding. (These two clauses were repealed by the (3 & 4 Vict. c. cx)) Locomotive operation and the carriage of passengers were permitted by the Taff Vale Railway Act 1836.
The Merthyr terminus was to be on an open space south of the town, between the River Taff and Cardiff Road. The Cardiff terminal was to be at or near the ship canal which the Marquis of Bute proposed to build. This became Bute West Dock; he had obtained powers to build it in 1830 but had held off from actually doing so.
Brunel, as the engineer for the line, designed it as a standard gauge line. He told the directors,
As regards the gauge or width of the rails, I see no reason in our case for deviating materially from the ordinary width of 4' ″. The general gradients, the inclined planes, and still more the nature and the immediate extent of the peculiar class of traffic to which the line must always be devoted, not only render high speeds unnecessary, but must almost prevent their being attempted, while the same causes operate to diminish any advantage that may be gained in reducing friction by increased diameter of carriage wheels. The curves also which the nature of the ground render unavoidable would be unfit for a wider gauge…Brunel, reporting to board meeting, August 1838, quoted in Jones, p. 127
Construction and opening of the first main line The construction of the line posed no great engineering challenges as its course followed the valley of the River Taff. The line was in length. At Quakers Yard there was a sudden steep change of ground level and Brunel used stationary winding engines; the inclined section was in length with gradients of 1 in 19 and 1 in 22. Locomotives did not ascend the incline. There was a 1 in 13 gradient on the Pwllyrhebog branch, near Tonypandy; it too was rope-worked with special locomotives. Inevitably there were some stiff gradients elsewhere. There were two stone viaducts on the route: the first, at Pontypridd, crosses the River Rhondda, and the second bridges the Taff valley between Goetre-coed and Quakers Yard.
As well as the avoiding the use of broad gauge, Brunel adopted a different form of track for the line: "parallel rails" weighing , fixed in chairs with compressed wooden keys. The chairs were fixed to transverse sleepers by screws inserted prior to laying, "ensuring accuracy of gauge".Railway Times, page 138, volume not stated, quoted in Jenkins, p. 180 and 181
A ceremonial opening of the line between Cardiff and Navigation House, Abercynon, took place on 8 October 1840, when the directors and shareholders travelled on the line; the full public opening of that section was on 9 October 1840. On 20 April 1841 the line was inspected by Sir Frederick Smith for the Board of Trade, and on 21 April 1841 the main line was opened throughout to Merthyr. Passenger stations were at , , Pentyrch (later ), , Newbridge (later ), , and . There were two passenger trains each way daily, seven days a week. The line was single throughout with passing places at the stations. On double track sections and at crossing loops, right-hand running was employed for several years.
Early branches A mineral branch from Pontypridd to Dinas Rhondda opened in June 1841.
The Llancaiach Branch was authorised in the original Taff Vale Railway Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. lxxxii). It opened on 25 November 1841 for mineral traffic only, from Stormstown south of Abercynon to three adjacent collieries at Llancaiach. There was a self-acting rope-worked incline long on a 1 in 8 gradient. Use of the line was less than expected, traders finding that the charges on the canal were substantially lower.
The TVR hesitated to build the authorised branch to the tramroad to Dowlais and the clause in the act enabled the Dowlais Iron Company to take over the construction and the branch, which they did.
First years of operation The line was open between Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff, but almost immediately thought was given to improving the capacity of the main line and of serving the coal production of adjacent valleys.
Widenings