Volume Nine - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - Penarth Dock and Tidal Harbour - Handbook - 1893 . . .

The map of the Penarth Dock and Tidal Harbour of 1893 and a Taff Vale Railway Plan of 1895.

Penarth Dock . . . . . The Taff Vale Railway Company transports Coal from the Collieries to the tips at Penarth Dock. The shipment of Coal into vessels at the Dock is also undertaken by the Taff Vale Co., so that the entire service between the pit's mouth and the vessel's hold is in one hand, a fact, the significance of which cannot be over-estimated as bearing upon the all important question of dispatch. Coal brought to bank in the morning has often been shipped at Penarth in sufficient time to enable the wagons to be returned to the Colliery and re-filled the same day ; and, on one occasion (March, 1893), Coal urgently required to complete the cargo of a vessel then loading at Penarth was shipped within two hours after it had been raised from the pit, some fourteen miles distant, which would have been impossible if the transit and shipment had been in separate hands.

The rates to Penarth Dock are, in all cases, the same as to Cardiff and Barry.

The Dock is also in direct railway communication with the Monmouthshire, Llynvi and Ogmore, and Ely Valley Coal fields, from which districts Coal is conveyed at through rates, and transferred to the Taff Vale Co.'s system at Penarth Curve, within a mile of the Dock.

Storage Sidings, to hold Coal awaiting shipment, have been provided in convenient proximity to the Dock, and are capable of holding some thousands of wagons.

Through Railway Rates for ship's stores, machinery, and general merchandise, are in operation between Penarth Dock and all parts of the United Kingdom, which rates are, in all cases, the same as from the Docks at Cardiff. Railway wagons are loaded and discharged on sidings alongside the ships, so that there is no break of bulk between the ship's side and the stations of origin or destination.