Taff Vale Railway
| History | |
|---|---|
| 21 June 1836 | Act of Incorporation |
| 9 October 1840 | Opened Cardiff to Navigation House (Abercynon) |
| 12 April 1841 | Opened Navigation House to Merthyr Tydfil |
| 1865 | Penarth Dock opened, TVR takes out a 999 year lease |
| 1888 | Competition from Barry Railway |
| 1900 | Strike leads to Taff Vale case |
| 1922 | Became constituent company of the GWR |
| Railways Worked/Leased | |
| 1847 | Aberdare Railway |
| 1862 | Penarth Harbour & Dock Railway |
| 1863 | Llantrisant & TV Railway |
| 1889 | Cowbridge & Aberthaw Railway |
| Successor organisation | |
| 1923 | Great Western Railway |
| Key locations | |
| Headquarters | Queen Street, Cardiff |
| Workshops | West Yard, Butetown Cathays |
| Major stations |
Cardiff Bute Road Cardiff Queen St Pontypridd |
| Route mileage | |
| 1921 | 124 miles (200 km) |
The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a railway in Glamorgan, South Wales, and is one of the oldest in Wales. It operated as an independent company from 1836 until 1922, when it became a constituent company of the Great Western Railway. Much of the TVR is still used for freight and passenger services.
Coal mining and iron smelting had been carried out on a small scale in South Wales for some centuries before the arrival of railways. Both industries grew significantly during the industrial revolution, particularly as coal-derived coke could replace charcoal in the smelting process. The availability of coal, iron ore and limestone at the heads of the South Wales valleys led to a number of ironworks being founded there between 1750 and 1800, including the Cyfarthfa, Plymouth, and Dowlais works in the Merthyr Tydfil area.
Canals were built along several of the valleys, to bring the iron down to the coast for shipping elsewhere. The Glamorganshire Canal, authorised in 1790, ran from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff, a distance of 25 miles. The canal company were authorised to build tramroads from the canal to connect with nearby industries, and various foundries and quarries operated their own tramroads.
On 10 February 1804, a young engineer, Richard Trevithick, built a steam locomotive at Penydarren Ironworks near Merthyr Tydfil and drove the world's first steam hauled train along the Merthyr Tramroad from the ironworks to the canal basin at Abercynon. Ten tons of iron and 70 persons were transported nine miles. The cast iron plateway track, built to carry iron in horse-drawn trams or wagons from Penydarren and Dowlais to Abercynon, proved too weak to carry his heavy locomotive, and it was converted to a stationary engine instead.
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