Ely Valley Railway
| Ely Valley Railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Locale | Wales | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | broad gauge | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
)
)
The Ely Valley Railway (EVR) was a broad gauge railway company in South Wales, which opened a mineral line between Llantrisant station on the South Wales Railway main line and pits at Mwyndy and Penrhiwfer in 1860.
It was unsuccessful financially, and was leased to the Great Western Railway in 1861. The network suffered from being on the broad gauge when many pits and rival railways used the narrow (standard) gauge, but the GWR extended the network into Cwm Clydach and the line became heavily used. The Ely Valley Extension Railway and the Ely and Clydach Valleys Railway were nominally independent additions to the network, also controlled by the GWR.
A limited passenger service was started in 1901. The use of the network declined in the 1920s but the passenger service continued until 1958. The general mineral traffic collapsed in the 1960s but final closure only occurred when Cwm Colliery closed on 2 March 1987.
The mineral resources of the upper end of the valley of the River Taff encouraged the development of iron smelting industries at Merthyr and Dowlais, and these were dominant by the first decades of the nineteenth century. Transport of the products to market was always a problem, and the Glamorganshire Canal of 1794 and primitive tramroads connecting to it were an early response.
The Taff Vale Railway was opened in 1840 and 1841 throughout from Merthyr to Cardiff Docks, and was immediately successful. It was a narrow (standard) gauge line; its course was through the present-day Abercynon and Pontypridd.
Mineral extraction at Dihewyd, near Llantwit Fardre, attracted interest, and a private railway was built from pits there to the Glamorganshire Canal at Maesbach. The pits and the railway were owned by Thomas Powell. The line had a rope-worked incline to descend into the Taff valley. It opened in April 1844 and was known as the Llantwit Fardre Railway.
...
Wikipedia