Volume Thirteen - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - even more aspects - Articles from the Great Western Railway Magazine - 1922 - 1948 . . . .

Railway (later absorbed by the Great Western) at Cardiff, and even in this instance, owing to the difference in the gauges of the two railways, it was impossible to exchange the vehicles, and all traffic, including coal, had to be transhipped. In 1858 the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway made a junction with the Taff Vale at Quaker’s Yard, with facilities for the exchange of vehicles and affording access to the Midlands.

Consequent upon the extraordinary increase in the output of coal in the Aberdare and Rhondda Valleys, and the restrictive character of the agreements with the Marquess of Bute as to shipments at the Cardiff Docks, the scheme for making a railway to the river Ely and for converting part of the river into a tidal harbour was revived, and in 1856 a Bill was deposited in Parliament by a separate company, on the ground that it “would be of great public and local benefit.” The Bill was approved, and in the following year further powers where obtained by the "Penarth Harbour, Dock & Railway Company” to construct a dock and the necessary railways and works on the south-west bank of the Ely.

In 1863 yet another Act was obtained, authorising the Penarth Company to lease its undertaking to the Taff Vale Railway Company for 999 years, notwithstanding opposition by the trustees of the Marquess of Bute and an application to the Court of Chancery for an injunction preventing the Taff Vale Company from taking the lease. The Penarth Dock was opened in 1865 and has throughout its existence been an important adjunct of the Taff Vale undertaking.

Between that date and 1889 several special Acts were obtained in order to establish the respective interests of the Taff Vale, Rhymney, Bute Docks and other companies, and it is doubtful whether any other part of the country has ever provided a more expensive batch of Parliamentary fights. The details are too numerous and intricate for this sketch, but it should be stated that in 1889 an Act was obtained for amalgamating with the Taff Vale Company the undertakings of other companies leased or worked by them and for consolidating and arranging the capital of the Taff Vale Company. By this Act the existing stocks were converted into a debenture stock, bearing an uniform rate of interest of 3 per cent., a preference stock at 4 per cent., and new ordinary stock to the amount of £4,195,000 in lieu of the existing stock, which was cancelled. Every holder of the existing Taff Vale stock was entitled to receive £250 of the new ordinary stock for every £100 of the existing stock.