Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - The Taff Vale Railway and Docks - 'The Engineer' Article of 1866 . . .

The Taff Vale Railway was originally laid with single T-headed rails of 48 lb. to the yard, succeeded at a later date ny others weighing 55 lb. to the yard, supplied by Merthyr and Pontypool ironmasters at about £8 10s. per ton. [eqivalent to £1,019 in 2019] [771] As the traffic increased, however, the whole line was relaid with double T-headed rails, weighing 74 lb. to the yard. image left : A section of 82 lb. per yard T.V.R. rail by Crawshay Bros. Cyfarthfa Limited dated 1903 - [Amgueddfa Cymru — National Museum Wales - [Item Number : 72.25I] [629] The crossings are made are of solid steel rails 74 lb. to the ton, and recently a few lengths of the main line have been laid with steel rails made at Sheffield, to test their durability. The chairs are fastened to the sleepers in the creosoting works of the railway, at Cathays, near Cardiff. The accuracy of the gauge is thus insured, and the platelayers are thus obliged to straighten or curve the rails, but cannot twist them by spiking down the chair whilst the rails are being laid.

At Cathays, where the creosoting are chairing are carried on, the carriages required by the company are also built. The whole staff employed in the yard amounts to about 800 men. The company has also a locomotive department, originally established only for the performance of repairs, but now employed to make a large proportion of the new engines used on the line.

The railway, though so short in length, has more than fifty colliery sidings upon it, so that coal traffic alone is very heavy. Previous to 1857 the toll for the carriage of coal and coke was 11/8d. per ton per mile, but in that year, when the company sought powers from Parliament for additional lines and new works, the tolls were reduced to 7/8d., and since that date the dividends to shareholders have increased.