The Sirhowy Tramroad was a plateway built to convey the products of ironworks at Tredegar to Newport in South East Wales. It opened in 1805 between Tredegar and Nine Mile Point, a location west of Risca, from where the Monmouthshire Canal Company operated a tramroad to Newport. The Sirhowy Tramroad was operated at first by horse traction, but early locomotives were used, and a passenger service was operated.
In 1860 the Sirhowy Railway was incorporated to modernise the tramroad; it followed a similar alignment but with several modifications, and opened in 1863, between Tredegar and Nine Mile Point. A short extension northward to Nantybwch, joining the Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway, was opened shortly afterwards. The Sirhowy Railway was acquired by the London and North Western Railway, for which it formed a useful route to access Newport Docks.
The dominant traffic on the line was minerals: at first iron ore and later coal; the Great Western Railway used the lower part of the line for the trunk haulage of coal from Aberdare.
With the decline of the traditional mineral industries and the loss of local general traffic, the line closed in 1960.
Monmouthshire Canal The area of the valleys of south-east Wales had long been notable for the rich mineral resources, especially coal and iron ore, and also limestone. Much of the useful mineral deposit was in the upper valleys, and ironworks developed there. Transport of the manufactured iron, and of the raw materials, was difficult, requiring pack animals to reach Newport for shipping. At the end of the eighteenth century, determined efforts were made to improve the situation, culminating in the authorisation in 1792 of the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation Company. This was to build a canal from Newport to Pontnewynydd, near Pontypool, and a branch to Crumlin. Plateway tramroads were to be built connecting the canal to mineral sites.Aubrey Byles, The History of the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company, Village Publishing, Cwmbran, 1982, , pages 10 and 11Joseph Priestley, A Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways of Great Britain, Longman, Rees Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1831
Many industrialists supported the works as it would considerably enhance their business, and the canal was opened in 1796, by which time many of the connecting tramroads had already been completed.
The canal was a success, but experience showed that it had shortcomings too. The large descent from the top to Newport made the transit slow. Shortage of water in summer and icing in winter delayed traffic. Most significant of all, there were many industrial locations not served by it or the tramroads. These were limited by the terms of the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation Act 1792 (32 Geo. 3. c. 102) to reaching works within of the canal, and owners of works and pits outside that limit keenly felt the disadvantage.
Linking Tredegar The Tredegar iron works, and others in the Sirhowy Valley, were among those for which a suitable transport connection was urgently needed. Samuel Homfray, Richard Fothergill and Matthew Monkhouse were the co-founders of the Tredegar Ironworks, and a lease of 20 March 1800 from the landowner Sir Charles Morgan granted them not only the right to extract coal and iron ore from his land, but to build a tramroad on it "down the Sirhowy Valley to join the Monmouthshire Canal". The Monmouthshire Canal Company heard of this and negotiated with the Tredegar partners.Tasker, page 11Charles E Lee, The Sirhowy Valley and its Railways -- I in the Railway Magazine, September 1939
The engineer Benjamin Outram was called in by the directors of the Monmouthshire Canal to make recommendations for improving the situation in general. He reported later in 1800, and so far as the canal itself was concerned, he limited his proposals to the provision of additional reservoir capacity, to deal with the water shortage.
Instead of proposing an extension of the canal, he considered that a new line of plateway from Tredegar to Risca Church should be built. It would connect with the existing canal at Risca, and loads would be transferred there to barges. The line would have "all convenient turnouts", that is, passing loops—the previous local tramways had been simple single lines, and empty wagons ascending were manhandled off the track to allow loaded descending wagons to pass. In fact double track would be laid if necessary. His railway would be a plateway, in which the rails are L-shaped plates, the upstand providing the guidance to plain wagon wheels; the gauge was to be .
The canal company accepted his recommendations on 18 December 1800. There must have been a joint discussion with the Tredegar partners, for on the same day an undertaking was signed by the canal company; they promised to build at their own expense a tramroad from the Tredegar Works to a point on the canal near Risca Church by Christmas Day 1801.
In fact nothing of the sort was done; the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation Act 1802 (42 Geo. 3. c. cxv) of 26 June 1802 authorised the tramroad, but it was the Tredegar partners who had to build most of it. Homfray, Fothergill, Monkhouse, Thompson and Foreman, now also directors of the newly incorporated Sirhowy Tramroad Company, were to make the tramroad at their own expense from the Sirhowy Works to a location west of Risca, from Newport: it soon became known as Nine Mile Point. The Monmouthshire Canal would build from there to Pillgwenlly, in Newport, except for a section through the Tredegar Estate which would be built by Sir Charles Morgan: he would retain the right to charge tolls on the mile of route. This section became known as "the Park Mile" or "the Golden Mile", and proved a source of considerable income to his estate.E T MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway: volume II: 1863 - 1921, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1931 The Sirhowy Tramroad was the third public railway sanctioned by act of Parliament. The same act empowered Homfray and his partners to build a tramway from Tredegar to the Trevil limestone quarry.
The date of opening of the tramway is uncertain, but Lee said that the most probable date was 1805. Tasker implies that the first part of the tramroad opened in 1810; independent carriers were then permitted to use it on payment of a toll charge, and that it opened fully on or about 11 August 1811. There was very little habitation intermediately, and only a very limited network of roads.
Writing in 1824, Cumming described the tramroad:
From 1824 a passenger coach, known locally as "the Caravan", was operated on the line by John Kingson of Newport. Other carriers followed his lead.
Scott described the line, but he made the mistake of stating that the Sirhowy line continued to Newport. He said that the Monmouthshire Canal had several connecting railways
but the most important is the Sirhowy line. This railway commences at the Monmouth Canal, Pillgwenlly, and passing through Tredegar Park up the Ebwy [Ebbw] river at Risca, crosses that river by a bridge of 16 arches, following afterwards the course of the Sirhowy river by Tredegar and Sirhowy Iron-works to Trevill Lime-works, about 28 miles. A branch proceeds to the Romney [Rhymney] Ironworks, and from the same place the Brinore railway is continued over the Black Mountain to the Vale of the Uske at Brecon... there are also branches from the [Sirhowy] railway to the several collieries, and likewise to the Monmouthshire Canal in two places.Alexander Scott, Mr Scott's account of railways, in Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland, volume VI, Arch'd Constable & Co, Edinburgh, 1824
All traffic was horse-drawn until 17 December 1829 when a steam locomotive named Britannia was introduced on a trial basis. It had been ordered specially from Robert Stephenson of Killingworth by Samuel Homfray junior. The locomotive was a success, although the first run to Newport was badly delayed, and due to its weight numerous of the tramplates were broken.Charles E Lee, The Sirhowy Valley and its Railways - II, in the Railway Magazine, October 1939 Nevertheless, it made daily journeys of hauling loads of , while reducing the cost of horse power by 35%. Other carriers soon followed by introducing locomotive power themselves.
However breakage of the tramplates due to the weight of the locomotives was a continuing problem; in 1830 the Monmouthshire company ruled that all locomotives on their line must be suspended on proper springs.
Formation of the Sirhowy Railway The Sirhowy Tramroad was effectively a monopoly, and it was making good profits; for many years it saw little need to adapt itself to changed circumstances. Nevertherless the neighbouring Monmouthshire Canal Company, on which the Sirhowy line depended to reach Newport, was extending its network. Intending to become a full passenger-carrying railway (rather than allowing carriers on to its line), the Monmouthshire Canal changed its name to the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company in 1845. It had been under pressure in 1847 and again in 1849 to convert its line to a railway. It started to do so, but to continue the tramroad operation by independent carriers during the conversion, it adopted a combination tramplate that could carry standard gauge railway vehicles as well as tramroad waggons.
By the end of 1855 the whole of the Monmouthshire system in the Western Valley (with the exception of the Rassa Tramroad) had been transformed into locomotive worked standard gauge railways. This included the Nine Mile Point branch from Risca.
By this time it was impossible for the Sirhowy Tramroad to continue to ignore technological progress, and parliamentary approval to convert the system to a railway was obtained by an act of Parliament, the (23 & 24 Vict. c. lxxi), of 25 May 1860; this changed the name of the company to the Sirhowy Railway Company. The act also authorised a northward extension of the line to a junction at Nantybwch on the planned Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway, which had received parliamentary approval in 1859.
The owners of the tramroad to Trevil were also authorised to convert it to a railway. Minor deviations of the Sirhowy line of route were made in the lower part of the system, but the new track followed an entirely distinct course passing through Blackwood and Argoed, where the tramroad passed through the main streets, having been laid before the settlements developed. The whole length from Bedwellty Pits through Tredegar to Sirhowy was also on a new alignment. It probably opened in 1863.
The Nantybwch extension was not made according to the Sirhowy Railway Act 1860; its route was amended by the (28 & 29 Vict. c. cccxlii) of 5 June 1865, and opened on 2 November 1868. The act also changed the planned direction of the connection there so that it faced east, towards Abergavenny.Jone, page 84