The TVR and the Coal Trade - A busy day at Penarth Junction, Radyr - photographed by H. J. B. Wills in 1907. A postcard from the 'TVR 150' series - 1836 - 1986 and another piece of our heritage held in the Penarth Dock Collection. [001]

The description below is from Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - The Penarth Harbour Dock and Railway - Railway World Article - 1964 . . . '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.'  Railway World - August 1964 - William Jones [181]

Dic Mortimer in his book 'Cardiff, The Biography' states: 'At Radyr, the Penarth Junction assumed great importance as a marshalling yard for the endless stream of coal wagons heading to, or returning from, the docks. The Radyr Sidings spread out over 2 square miles and, until the First World War, constituted Europe's largest marshalling yard.' [442]