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

The construction of the Roath branch in 1888, to serve the later Roath Dock, Roath Basin and Queen's Dock is, of course, another story. To resume this story, the Penarth Railway was opened in 1862 and commenced at Penarth Junction, Radyr (now Radyr Junction) 4½ miles north of Cardiff Queen Street station. It ran southward around Cardiff through the districts of Fairwater, Ely, Canton and Grangetown, where it originally terminated at the north side of the Penarth Tidal Harbour, six miles from Radyr. Penarth Dock was opened on the south side of the Ely River in 1865. the railway was extended from Grangetown to serve it and in 1878 was projected one mile further from Penarth Dock, to Penarth Town as the Penarth Extension Railway.

A mixed-gauge connection had been constructed earlier (in 1854) from the T.V.R. Queen Street station, to the east side of Cardiff station of the South Wales Railway (later G.W.R.). It was a natural step to join the Penarth Railway at Grangetown with the G.W.R. at Canton, on the west side of Cardiff, to provide a through route from the Taff Vale main line to Penarth for passenger trains and to link with the G.W.R. and collect traffic from them for export at Penarth Dock.

Extensive sidings were constructed at Canton by both the T.V.R. and G.W.R. and a spur on the north side completed a triangle junction, which enabled coal traffic from the Radyr direction to continue on to the G.W.R. in the direction of Newport without reversal. The triangle was then controlled by three junction signal boxes; Penarth Curve North Junction and Penarth Curve South Junction on the Penarth line; and Penarth Curve Middle Junction (now Penarth Curve East Junction), where the two G.W.R. spurs joined at Canton.

Penarth Dock was an immediate success and coal exports rose rapidly. The main dock had nine high level coal tips on the south side and two moveable tips on the north side. The basin had four moveable tips on the north side, which could be operated in unison; these tips held the record for rapid operation and a steamer carrying 4,000 tons had been loaded at this berth in 3hr 40 min. The sidings serving most of the tips were on a falling gradient for the loaded wagons to the tips and for the empties leaving, an ingenious system which contributed to the very smart working. There were also five tips on the Grangetown side of the Tidal Harbour.