Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - Railway Magazine - Interview with Mr. Ammon Beasley - TVR - 1898 . . . .

I can, however, say with absolute truth that the growth of the traffic has been far larger than the experience of the first few years appeared to justify. Success came later, and no doubt when it did come it was very marked."

"You have some very severe gradients to negotiate on the Taff Vale system. Will you kindly say what is the severest over which passenger trains are worked, and if you use any special plant for working these inclines?"

"The severest gradient over which passenger trains run is 1 in 36, for a short distance between Ferndale and Maerdy, at the head of the little Rhondda Valley. What is known as the main incline extends from Abercynon to Quaker's Yard, and has a gradient of 1 in 40 for a mile, and there is a similar gradient between Penarth Dock and Penarth Town stations. All the gradients I have mentioned are worked with ordinary locomotives.

"The incline which preceded the present main incline had a gradient of 1 in 19 for a length of 20 chains, and 1 in 21 for a length of 22 chains, and the method of working was by a rope attached to a stationary engine at the top of the incline."

"Thank you. I suppose, Mr. Beasley, on the purely mineral branches even more severe banks have to be worked, some, I think, by means of stationary engines? Will you be good enough to supply some particulars of these?"

"We have an incline of 1 in 13 on the Pwllyrhebog branch, which is worked by locomotives assisted by a wire rope. From the top of the incline to the Cambrian Colliery, at the head of the valley, there is a zigzag line, which is worked by ordinary locomotives. The sections which I have had copied for you show the general characteristics of the line and the nature of the work that has to be done by the engines."

"I suppose in the early days of the railway the directors saw the urgent necessity of having adequate dock accommodation?"

"What I have already said with respect to the branch to Cogan Pill shows that it was considered essential by the original promoters of the railway that means should be provided for shipping coal at the nearest port, which was, of course, Cardiff. The foresight of the promoters in this respect was nothing less than remarkable, because no better or more convenient position for the shipment of coal could possibly have been selected.