Barry Railway Company

The Barry Railway Company was a coal pit owner developed and owned railway company, formed to provide an alternate route for the sea export of coal mined in the South Wales valleys to the existing monopoly of the Taff Vale Railway and Cardiff Docks. Incorporated from 1884 and built from 1885, by 1910 it had overtaken Cardiff as the largest export point of South Wales coal thanks to its greater efficiency. Like much of the South Wales infrastructure, it quickly declined following the 1926 miners’ strike, and never recovered after World War II, with the docks becoming the home of the most famous site for the scrapping of British Railways steam locomotives in the 1960s onwards. Now a smaller operation than its former rival, what remains of the railway infrastructure has been absorbed into Network Rail, while the docks, now owned by Associated British Ports, are being given a light industrial and residential make-over. Additionally, from 2009, a section of part of the docks, south-western end, along with Network Rail infrastructure, the Barry Tourist Railway was established and includes the former Barry Low Level Goods shed and Barry Motive Power Depôt built in 1886 and a new section of track from the Barry Island Causeway lines to the docks Waterfront.

David Davies of Ocean Collieries was one of the premier business men of the South Wales coal fields, but like many suffered from the capacity and monopoly issues created by two companies:

In light of the geographic restrictions of the valley south of Pontypridd, Davies proposed development of a secondary route which terminated at Barry, where a dock infrastructure could be developed without the mud flat or tidal restrictions which gave Cardiff's Tiger Bay its name. This would create a competitive edge to the development, and due to being later developed to a more easily accessible docks, a resultant efficiency advantage over Cardiff.

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