The Skewen Dram Road was a long mining railway near Skewen in Wales with a gauge of .

Route

The Dramroad was built to take coal from Dyffryn and Bryncoch to Skewen Wharf via the Skewen Incline and Dramroad.Skewen Dram Roads.

In 1871, the Neath Abbey Coal Company, who operated the dram road across New Road, was requested to install level crossing gates. These were painted plain white which hence gave their name to the location, which is still known as White Gates locally.Carole Wilsher: The districts and streets of Skewen: "The streets echo with footsteps from the past".

Ownership The Skewen Dram Road was owned and operated by a handful of company’s in it’s lifetime, the Main Colliery Company Limited, the successor of the Dynevor Dyffryn and Neath Abbey United Collieries Company Limited, and likely the Neath Abbey Coal Company.

The New Neath Abbey Coal Company is said to have been founded in June 1819 by the Fox family, which held 7/12ths of the company's shares and Joseph T. Price, who held the remaining 5/12ths. In 1873 the company failed, and its assets were sold to Batters & Scott on behalf of the Dyffryn Main Colliery Company. In 1874 the property was sold again to the United Company, a merger of the Dynevor Dyffryn and Neath Abbey United Collieries Company, under the directorship of John Newell Moore of Cambrian Place, Swansea. The United Company ceased to operate in 1888 and was re-incorporated as the Main Colliery Company Limited with effect from 1 May 1889.Gwasanaeth Archifau Gorllewin Morgannwg - Main Colliery, Skewen Records.

Accidents According to a contemporary newspaper report, an accident, involving the death of three individual men, these being.

John Nicholls, 37, labourer, New-Road, Skewen, married, with children.

Thomas Brown, 69, married, grown-up family of 13, Woodman-place, Skewen.

John Dunn, 66, single, labourer, Neath.

and serious injuries were conflicted to two others, it occurred on the evening of 20 September 1906 on the new Standard Gauge private railway of the Main Colliery Company, by means of which coals are conveyed from Bryncoch to the wharves on Neath River. A party of ten line repairers was proceeding towards the top of the Skewen, on a repairer’s trolly[sic], and we’re rounding a curve when a locomotive traveling light engine on the same rails in the opposite direction about fifty or four yards away at approximately the same speed of six or seven miles an hour, tho it may have been going much faster by the way of the force it pushed the trolley backwards. The locomotives brakes were applied and steam was shut off but it was too late, the locomotive dashed into the trolly sending it 40 yards backwards. The effect of the impact was so great that three of the men who didn’t jump off the trolley in time were seriously hurt and died before they could be conveyed back home

The engine driver was William Lewis, Old-Road, Skewen

The engine fireman was John Williams.Fatal Accident on a Colliery Railway.

Locomotives When Company assets were acquired by the Main Colliery Co. Ltd. in 1889, four locomotives were included, the two 1858 R. & W. Hawthorns, the 1870 Neath Abbey Iron Company’s ‘ABERCRAVE’, and a 1864 Neath Abbey Iron Company 0-4-0ST, of which two were scrapped, these being the two R. & W. Hawthorns. The company converted its narrow gauge lines to standard gauge in 1899, tho the company had considered this change back on 17 December 1890. On 11 October 1899, conversion of the tramway gauge to Standard was completed. Four narrow gauge locomotives were to be sold, but then it was decided to advertise all six small locomotives for sale on 16 November 1899, of which two had been built by the Neath Abbey Ironworks in 1864 and 1870, three by Peckett & Sons in 1890 and 1894, and one by the Lilleshall Iron Company in 1870.

The gauge was both and approx 2 feet 8 inches (813 mm). There were three Peckett’s with Peckett works Nos. 501/1890, 542/1890 and 602/1894 which was both awkwardly Standard Gauge and Narrow Gauge at points in it’s life, ABERCRAVE, the Neath Abbey Iron Company 0-4-0ST, and the Lilleshall built for the Duffryn & Graigola Coal Company ‘DYFFRYN’.The Industrial Locomotive Society: West Glamorgan.

Two similar 0-4-0T steam locomotives with a gauge of , 8 inches x 16 inches cylinders, and 2 feet 4 inches diameter wheels were supplied to the Neath Abbey Coal Company in August 1858 by the company of R. & W. Hawthorn in Newcastle upon Tyne.Peter Johnson: Festiniog Railway: The Spooner Era and After 1830 - 1920. Pen and Sword, 2017

These two steam locomotives had both been built in 1858 as N°1045/1858 ‘PRINCE OF WALES’ which was despatched in August and N°1046/1858 ‘IRON DUKE’ was despatched on 31st August.Dean Forester: Mr. Keeling buys a locomotive. In: The Industrial Railway Record. Nos. 3 & 4, p. 58-61/64, December 1963. They were both subsequently sold for scrap in 1889, likely due to wear or obsolescence, in 1869 these were possibly used as ‘the development of the Cwm Clydach Colliery continued during 1869 and in November a new railroad had been completed from the pit and locomotives had been tested running over the rails’, likely including these two,

‘although the new railway had been built to and around the pit, there were problems with the company’s locomotives which were not up for this work. On 22nd January 1870 it was recorded that the old locomotives ‘Stag’ and ‘Dyffryn’ were not suitable for the Cwm Clydach Colliery work because ‘they are far from being suitable for working upon the gradients that we now have as they have too little boiler and are as well too light’.

External links Historic Neath Abbey archives to be preserved online Historic and modern maps side by side

References