Volume Ten - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Even more aspects - 1911 - The Penarth Dock of the Taff Vale Railway - Railway News Article . . .

The Penarth Dock has a long and honourable history behind it, is one of the oldest of the South Wales docks, and the writer, who has paid more than one visit of inspection, has never failed to find that the work of improving the equipment to keep it abreast of the most modern practice is in evidence.

The story of the connection of the Taff Vale with the Penarth Dock reads like a chapter of romance. It was in the year 1836 that the Taff Vale Railway was formed, and acquired power to construct a line from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff, with a branch to Cogan Pill, on the River Ely, the site of the present Penarth Dock. The construction of the West Dock at Cardiff by Lord Bute and the Taff Vale Railway's main line to Cardiff proceeded simultaneously, and were completed about the same time ; but the branch to Cogan Pill was never built, and in 1846 an arrangement was come to with Lord Bute, under which the Taff Vale Railway agreed to abandon it altogether in consideration of getting access to West Dock at Cardiff.

The Taff Vale Railway undertook :

(1) to construct a branch line to Lord Bute's new dock ;
(2) to take a lease, at a heavy rental, of a large part of the east side of the dock ;
(3) to construct thereon staiths and other coal shipping appliances ;
(4) to abandon their own powers to construct a line to Cogan Pill, where coal could be shipped as readily as at Cardiff ; and
(5) to cause and procure all shipment traffic carried over their railway to be " shipped  or unshipped " at Lord Bute's dock, or in default to pay the dues as if such traffic actually used the dock.

When at a later date the Marquis of Bute built the Cardiff East Dock and refused the Taff Vale Company access thereto, friction arose, and the relations between the Bute interests and the Taff Vale Company were further embittered by the fact that the Rhymney Company was allowed to ship coal at the new dock. This had the effect of causing the Taff Vale Company to pay tolls to the Rhymney on any coal carried over the Rhymney Railway to the East Dock.