Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - The Penarth Harbour Dock and Railway - Railway World Article - 1964 . . .

I found this fascinating article in the Railway World [181] magazine issue of August 1964, written by William Jones, who's home overlooked Grangetown Junction and whom noted Penarth line activity for half a century. This finely researched account is very much from a railway enthusiasts point of view but provides an in-depth account associated with the Penarth Dock, hence, I felt it very worthy of inclusion in its entirety. For reference, you need to know, or be reminded, that a 'chain' is 1/80th of a mile, or 22 yards, or 66 feet, or 20.12 m; I did!

The Penarth Harbour dock and Railway - by William Jones.

"The Taff Vale Railway was the first public railway in Wales and was opened from Methyr Tydfil to Cardiff Docks in 1841 as a standard-gauge line. The original Act also provided for a branch to Cogan Pill, at the mouth of the River Ely, which later became Penarth Tidal Harbour on the west side of Cardiff. The Taff Vale contributed more than any other railway to the development of the Port of Cardiff which made it eventually the premier port of the world for the export of coal, but its contribution was never fully appreciated by the dock authorities.

In 1830 the Marquis of Bute obtained powers to build a dock at Cardiff. Negotiations with the T.V.R. resulted in their obtaining a lease of part of the dock for the erection of coal shipping appliances (at their own expense) and connecting railways. This rather expensive lease was conditional on the Taff abandoning the Cogan Pill branch and was an embarrassment to them for many years. The Bute West dock, as it eventually became, was connected to the main Taff Vale system by the East Branch opened in 1848. The Marquis next built the Bute East Dock. opened 1855-59, which was the cause of further embarrassment to the T.V.R., as the Rhymney Railway was opened in 1857 and then used six miles of the Taff main line to reach Cardiff, where it was granted exclusive use of the coal tipping appliances provided by the Bute Trustees on the east side of the dock, while the Taff was denied access except on payment of tolls to the Rhymney! The Taff eventually obtained access to the west side of the East Dock, but by then congestion at Cardiff was so acute that they were forced to revive the Cogan Pill scheme in another form by promoting it as a separate company to avoid violation of the lease with the Bute Trustees. The Penarth Harbour Dock & Railway was therefore formed under an Act of 1857.