Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - Activity at the docks . . .

	The shipping activities at the dock are reliant upon the efficiency of the railway activities of the TVR. A lovely hand coloured Valentine's postcard view of the docks c.1900 for the visitors to Penarth beach who never saw the docks at all! "The Dock, Penarth" looking west with sail and steam side-by-side.

In the following image, also taken around the turn of the century, the passenger train belonging to the Taff Vale Railway is traveling from Penarth Town via Dingle Halt to the station at Penarth Dock. The next stop is Grangetown and then Cardiff General station. Cardiff was the junction on the GWR main line for London Paddington, with Fishguard Harbour to the west with its steamer connection to Ireland. The “Up” line was north out of Cardiff to the numerous valleys, south to the Cardiff Docks and the “Down” line was to the coast. The TVR had its Cardiff terminus station at Queen Street. The railway line which may be seen at the bottom of the image below, belongs to the competition, The Barry Railway Company. Their station, a few yards to the right, is Cogan (where Julie lived); next stop is Dinas Powys (the home of the writer), then onto Cadoxton, Barry Dock, Barry Town, Barry Island (complete with all the fun of the fair!) and finally Barry Pier.

	The Penarth Town Crest is proudly included on the postcard, it being commissioned sometime after 1875 by the Penarth Local Board. The image is recorded as showing the TVR “O2” Class 0-6-0T No. 83 engine built by Neilson Reid in 1899 which heads the train at Penarth Dock and Harbour Station.

No. 85, of the same class and year may be seen steaming away at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway a few miles from our home here in Yorkshire. The station was opened on the 20th February 1878 but the GWR renamed it Penarth Dock Station in January 1928. Thanks to Dr. Beeching it was closed to passenger services on the 1st January 1962. An engine shed is situated to the right of the image, built c.1886, intended to service shunting engines at the dock, it served until closure in April 1929 and was demolished by 1932.