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

Map of Taff Vale Railway.

"The assimilating of the various conflicting interests must have required a good deal of careful negotiation. Can you give an outline of how the dock enterprise was entered upon?"

"There were no conflicting interests as regards dock accommodation until the Penarth Dock came into being. After the West Dock at Cardiff, to which I have already referred, was constructed, the Marquis of Bute proceeded to construct what is now known as the East Dock, and that was practically completed when the Penarth Dock was projected."

"The docks are now quite an important feature of the Taff Vale system, are they not, Mr. Beasley?"

"That is so, although the Taff Vale themselves only own Penarth Dock and Ely Harbour. The Bute Docks at Cardiff now number four - the West and East Docks already mentioned, and the Roath Dock and Roath Basin, which latter, although called and used as a basin, is a dock of twelve acres. There is, besides, another dock, authorised in 1894, which may be said to be under construction, although nothing has yet been done beyond the formation of the embankment within which the dock is to be constructed.

Then there are the Barry Docks, situated about nine miles west of, but still in the port of Cardiff. These docks are the great competitors of the Bute and Penarth Docks, and have been phenomenally successful from the fact that they were promoted by some of the largest colliery proprietors in the district who ship there all the coal they can.

In 1897 nearly 6,000,000 tons of coal and coke alone were shipped at the Barry Dock, while considerably over 3,000,000 tons were shipped at Penarth, and over 8,000,000 tons at the Bute Docks at Cardiff, making altogether over 17,000,000 tons for the year.