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

As an appropriate concluding note nothing can serve better than a reminder of the services rendered to the Taff Vale by Mr. Ammon Beasley, the man who has made history in the railway world. He needs no introduction, and it is a pleasure to know that, although ripe in years, he still retains his great mental gifts to the full and continues to enjoy his retirement at Penarth.

Mr. Beasley came to Cardiff in troublous times. When in 1891 he resigned his position as Chief Assistant to Mr. Henry Lambert, the then General Manager of the Great Western Railway, in order to take over the control of the Taff Vale Company, the fortunes of the latter were at a low ebb. There had been dissensions on the Board, the shareholders were dissatisfied, and the staff were in a state of open revolt. It was a heartbreaking task to face ; but with indomitable courage and unbending firmness of will — one of the chief characteristics of his many-sided personality — he began to pick up the broken threads of the tangled skein, and by perseverance succeeded in weaving a rope which was strong enough to weather all the storms which occurred in after years. As a monument of his undoubted capacity, the Taff Vale came to occupy a leading position among the remunerative undertakings of the country.

There is so much of deep interest to be said about the Taff Vale and its romance that the writer is genuinely sorry he has now to obey the crack of the Editor's whip.