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

The article continues with many statistics and much detail about the technical development of the company.

Penarth Dock and Harbour

As already stated, the Penarth Dock and Harbour were leased to the Company for 999 years. The dock has an area of 26 acres, including a basin three acres in extent, with a width of entrance of 60 ft. and a depth of water on sill at high water of ordinary spring tides of 36 ft. and at neap tides of 26 ft. There is a quayage of 7,580 ft., equipped with 18 hydraulic coaling tips, as well as several discharging cranes for import traffic. The harbour is tidal, with an area of 55 acres and a quayage of 691 ft., equipped with four hydraulic coaling tips. The bulk of the trade is coal shipment, and in times of prosperity it has reached as high a total as 4½ million tons in one year.

Four movable tips have been erected on the north side of the basin, which can be worked simultaneously into one steamer. Vessels can enter and leave the basin while the dock gates remain closed and obtain at these tips greater dispatch than at any other tips in the port. A steamer has been loaded with 2,652 tons at this berth in exactly two hours, and steamers up to 3,000 tons have been frequently loaded and despatched on the tide of arrival at these four tips.

There is a floating pontoon within the dock which is capable of lifting vessels up to 420 ft. in length. Vessels are here able to undergo repairs of every description, thus saving the expense of docking and undocking.

In addition, the Company holds a lease for 20 years from the Marquess of Bute of the east side of the West Bute Dock at Cardiff, with a quayage of 2,300 ft., equipped with 12 hydraulic coaling tips.

The statistical tables published with this article convey far more to the trained railwayman than miles of descriptive writing. They show at a glance how easily the Taff Vale can, according to its length, claim a place in the very front rank, if not actually the first place amongst traffic-carrying railways in any part of the world. In 1913 it conveyed nearly 21,000,000 tons, while the passenger traffic in that brisk year comprised over 9,000,000 journeys. Then came the war and its blasting concomitants.