S O U T H W A L E S V A L L E Y S S E R I E S Railways and Industry in the TONDU VALLEYS BRIDGEND TO TREHERBERT Railways_and_Industry_in_the_Tondu_Valleys_Bridgend_to_Treherbert_P4.indd 1 05/07/19 9:36 PM Cover pictures Front cover The now preserved Large Prairie Tank 5101 Class 2-6-2T No. 4144 departs from Tondu with the two coach 12.45pm Bridgend to Blaengwynfi service on 21st August 1962, a very undemanding task for an engine of this power, against the background of the long footbridge which served all platforms. (Gerald T. Robinson) Back cover top Recalling the days when the main branch lines radiating from Bridgend were still open, the Down Platform Running-In Board shows that passengers should change here for the Llynvi, Ogmore and Garw Branches and also for the Vale of Glamorgan Railway, the wording reflecting the very early disposition of the concerns on 2nd July 1950. (R.K. Blencowe) Back cover bottom The top end of the Llynvi Valley was at Abergwynfi, a single terminus platform seen here on 29th August 1951 as 3100 Class No. 3100 waits to depart for Bridgend with a two-coach train, both coaches still in the former GWR chocolate and cream livery. (Ian L. Wright) Railways_and_Industry_in_the_Tondu_Valleys_Bridgend_to_Treherbert_P4.indd 2 05/07/19 9:36 PM S O U T H W A L E S V A L L E Y S S E R I E S Railways and Industry in the TONDU VALLEYS BRIDGEND TO TREHERBERT JOHN HODGE & STUART DAVIES Railways_and_Industry_in_the_Tondu_Valleys_Bridgend_to_Treherbert_P4.indd 3 05/07/19 9:36 PM First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Pen and Sword Transport An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Limited Yorkshire - Philadelphia Copyright © John Hodge and Stuart Davies, 2019 ISBN: 978 1 52672 725 1 The right of John Hodge and Stuart Davies to be identified as Authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. Typeset by Aura Technology and Software Services, India Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt. Ltd Pen & Sword Books Limited incorporates the imprints of Atlas, Archaeology, Aviation, Discovery, Family History, Fiction, History, Maritime, Military, Military Classics, Politics, Select, Transport, True Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing, The Praetorian Press, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe Transport, Wharncliffe True Crime and White Owl. For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Or PEN AND SWORD BOOKS 1950 Lawrence Rd, Havertown, PA 19083, USA E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.penandswordbooks.com Railways_and_Industry_in_the_Tondu_Valleys_Bridgend_to_Treherbert_P4.indd 4 05/07/19 9:36 PM CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................6 Preface ...............................................................................................................7 Chapter 1 Industrial Development of the Tondu Valleys ...........................................9 Chapter 2 The Succession of Great Industrialists in the Tondu Valleys .................20 Chapter 3 The Tondu Valleys Position in the South Wales Coalfield ......................30 Chapter 4 Passenger Services ........................................................................................38 Chapter 5 Coal Services .................................................................................................54 Chapter 6 Tondu Depot..................................................................................................63 Chapter 7 Llynfi (or Llynvi) Valley .............................................................................86 Chapter 8 Glyncorrwg Branch South Wales Mineral Rly (SWMR). ......................214 Chapter 9 Closure & Renaissance ...............................................................................236 Appendices ....................................................................................................246 Index ..............................................................................................................259 Railways_and_Industry_in_the_Tondu_Valleys_Bridgend_to_Treherbert_P4.indd 5 05/07/19 9:36 PM 6 • RAILWAYS AND INDUSTRY IN THE TONDU VALLEYS Preface • 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to the following for their Every effort has been made to properly help with photographs and information: credit the photographers concerned with all the illustrations. Where this has not Mike Back, Robert Darlaston, Don Gatehouse, been possible, they should contact John Great Western Trust, Kidderminster Railway Hodge to rectify the situation. Museum, Stephen Miles, Rowland Pittard, (Email: [email protected]) Porthcawl Museum, Museum of Wales, Stuart Warr and Richard Woodley. Railways_and_Industry_in_the_Tondu_Valleys_Bridgend_to_Treherbert_P4.indd 6 05/07/19 9:56 PM Preface • 7 PREFACE Stuart Davies, a native of the Ogmore Valley, Unlike any other South Wales Valley worked in various capacities for British Rail, railways, those radiating out of Tondu including Margam which from the 1960s were a network in themselves, even to had operationally embraced the Tondu having their own seaside resort. Indeed, Valleys. In 2014, he approached John Hodge, most of the resources and associated also a life-serving railwayman, to say that timetable were concerned with moving he wanted to publish a detailed history and coal and passengers from one end of this insight of the railways in that area. As John network to the other (if one includes was already embarking on a series of books the Steel Works at Margam) or to some across the Valleys, it was agreed they should points between. There were no unique produce this volume together, combining features or impressive installations, their mutual knowledge, efforts and passion except perhaps several railway operating for the subject matter. practices not commonplace. Other than Composed principally of the Llynfi, the Bulldogs allocated in the 1930s and Ogmore and Garw Valleys we have the 4400 Class used on the Porthcawl used the generic railway term ‘Tondu Branch until the 1950s, most locomotives Valleys’ throughout the text, although were unnamed tank engines and all of in the geographical sense, they are the standard Great Western Railway (GWR) Mid Glamorgan Valleys. In the railway origin. So, we present a workaday sense, Blaengwynfi to Treherbert and system that went about its tasks the Glyncorrwg Branch were not strictly unsung and only now comprehensively part of the Tondu Valleys; however, with recorded. closures and rationalisation during the As more than 50 years have passed 1960s, the Llynfi Valley passenger service since the last steam engine left Tondu, it is was extended to the former and the latter likely some readers will be unaware of the could only be accessed through Tondu. implications of large scale steam operation This book deals with the full history, on a daily basis. Though not unique to tables and a detailed survey of the Llynfi Tondu, we have explained a number Valley, through to Treherbert and the of fundamental principles to better Glyncorrwg branch. Tondu Depot was appreciate the preparation and planning the nucleus, providing the resources for that underpinned such operations. We this network and is also detailed here. The hope the very informative outcome will second book deals with the Ogmore & please the reader. Garw Valleys, the Porthcawl, Gilfach Goch The situation continues to develop, and and Llanharan branches. It also includes though all the modern scene in this book special features covering Main Line has been recorded under the Arriva Trains Diversions, Enthusiast Specials and two Wales franchise, this has now passed to photographic chronologies. Transport For Wales. Railways_and_Industry_in_the_Tondu_Valleys_Bridgend_to_Treherbert_P4.indd 7 05/07/19 9:36 PM 8 • RAILWAYS AND INDUSTRY IN THE TONDU VALLEYS IInndduussttrriiaall DDeevveellooppmmeenntt ooff tthhee TToonndduu VVaalllleeyyss •• 99 (Courtesy of Railway Magazine) Railways_and_Industry_in_the_Tondu_Valleys_Bridgend_to_Treherbert_P4.indd 8 05/07/19 9:36 PM IInndduussttrriiaall DDeevveellooppmmeenntt ooff tthhee TToonndduu VVaalllleeyyss •• 99 Chapter 1 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TONDU VALLEYS PRE-INDUSTRIALISATION SCENE at Porthcawl. This was the first major industrial development of the area. Early records show that in the Middle In the early years of the nineteenth Ages, Robert Fitzhamon, Earl of Gloucester century, the greater part of Mid Glamorgan and Norman conqueror of Glamorgan was sparsely populated mainly by those in 1075, set up hunting reserves in the closely linked to the soil. These few area, which enjoyed flourishing woods, inhabitants lived in scattered farmsteads, sparkling streams and game coverts. cottages and tiny hamlets dotted among The Cistercian Monks of Margam Abbey the hillsides. Their houses were either were using locally mined coal as early as stone built, thatched or slated. However, 1246 and there are increasing references amongst the poverty were several to mining in the area throughout the mansions that housed the landed gentry, sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth such as Tondu House, built by Sir Robert centuries. Iron working is first recorded in Price, founder of Tondu Ironworks. Tondu 1730 and it is thought the reddish-brown translated means the Fortified Settlement colouration along the edges of some of the (Ton) of Black (du) Ithel; seemingly in the local streams suggested its presence. The present name, Ithel has been vanquished. ore ran closely to the blackband seams of Porthcawl as such did not as yet exist coal and the surface configuration of both and the settlements of Newton and made mining comparatively easy. Nottage between them amounted to Until the eighteenth century, many of less than 500 inhabitants. To both west the farmsteads in the Llynfi Valley were and east lay wind-blown sandy wastes, focuses for local culture. Records show Merthyr Mawr boasting the largest dunes that Llwydarth, home of the influential in Europe. To the north existed the hamlets Powell family, was a centre for writers of Cornelly, Pyle, Llangonoyd, Cwmdu and poets in the seventeenth century. In and Duffryn Llynfi (Nantyffyllon) with 1770, John Bedford purchased an 80-acre considerable wooded areas in between. estate at Cefn Cribbwr. Here he built an To the south the Bristol Channel or Severn ironworks, complete with blast furnace Sea boasts a world-renowned difference in and forge. Included in the estate were water depth between High and Low tides local collieries, brickworks, mines and of 32 feet. stone quarries, for a princely sum put at Most of the population was involved £36,000. He was attracted to the area by its in farming crops (potatoes and corn) indigenous raw materials and proximity or raising cattle and sheep. Newton to the sea, having plans to use the harbour had access to a creek allowing small Railways_and_Industry_in_the_Tondu_Valleys_Bridgend_to_Treherbert_P4.indd 9 05/07/19 9:36 PM