South Wales Tramways

rogerfarnworth · 2 Feb 2019

The Penydarren Tramway

The Railway Magazine, March 1951, carried a short note about the Penydarren Tramway as well as an article about Richard Trevithick and his locomotive which first ran on the Tramway in February 1804. The first steam locomotive on rails .....

This post pulls together information from a number of different websites about the Penydarren Tramway. The next post will follow the length of the line as best as is possible ....

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/02/02/the-penydarren-tramroad-south-wales-part-1

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DerekC · 2 Feb 2019

A fascinating read with echoes from the really early days. Thanks, Roger. Does anyone know why the apparently retrograde step from edge railways to plateways, related in this article, took place?

martinsh · 3 Feb 2019

Just to be pedantic, the correct name for this type of railway was a Tramroad, not a Tramway. [ THe thread title made me think it was about the Swansea and Mumbles !]

Merthyr Imp · 3 Feb 2019

The Trevithick Memorial, photographed about 20 years ago. It's no longer fenced off.

Merthyr Imp · 3 Feb 2019

The course of the tramway from the Penydarren works to the canal can easily be traced for part of its length as it now forms a raised footpath (known as The Promenade) at the side of the road:

rogerfarnworth · 3 Feb 2019

Not sure why the 'retrograde' step took place - the early edgeways seem to have been quite inefficient with usually one horse to one wagon (tram). I guess that the proprietors were looking at ways to increase efficiency and it seems that they were 'moving with the times'. I am not an expert and someone else may have a better handle on this.

rogerfarnworth · 3 Feb 2019

martinsh said:
Just to be pedantic, the correct name for this type of railway was a Tramroad, not a Tramway. [ THe thread title made me think it was about the Swansea and Mumbles !]

Interesting comment. I have found that throughout my reading the terms seems to be interchangeable. Wikipedia certainly has posts entitled 'The Merthyr Tramroad' and the 'Penydarren Tramroad' but other use the term 'Tramway' - just a few examples of the use of 'Tramway' for what might be called 'Tramroads'in the text of articles/blogs etc.:

https://www.merthyr.gov.uk/resident/regeneration/cyfarthfa-leat-and-old-gurnos-tramway
http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/PenydarrenLocomotive.htm
http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/forum/read.php?4,474
https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/91513/details/merthyr-tramroad-penydarren-tramroad

The last of these is perhaps the most interesting. While calling the tramway/tramroad a 'Tramroad' in the page title, interestingly the Coflein* says that it falls into the category of a 'Tramway' as far as heritage classification is concerned. Seems to me that the terms are probably best seen as interchangeable? But I am definitely not an expert, just interested in tramways, tramroads and railways of the past!

*When first looking at the tramway/tramroad I came across 'Coflein'. I had not heard of them beforehand. This is what their homepage(aboutpage) says ... Coflein is the online database for the National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW) - the national collection of information about the historic environment of Wales. The name is derived from the Welsh cof (memory) and lein (line). The database contains details of many thousands of archaeological sites, monuments, buildings and maritime sites in Wales, together with an index to the drawings, manuscripts and photographs held in the NMRW archive collections.

krus_aragon · 4 Feb 2019

rogerfarnworth said:
The name is derived from the Welsh cof (memory) and lein (line).

True, but the play of words is based on 'cof' and 'ar-lein' (on-line), as it's a website.

The use of terms such as tramroad and tramway were much more fluid in the early days, along with terms such as plateway, etc. Even in the 20th century you had mislabellings such as the Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Electric Railway, which was in fact a tram line.

My understanding is that the distinction is largely created by historians and enthusiasts to try to bring some order to things.

rogerfarnworth · 6 Feb 2019

I promised a survey of the line between Abercynon and Merthyr Tydfil. This next post follows the Penydarren Tramroad along its full length.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/02/06/the-penydarren-tramroad-south-wales-part-2

rogerfarnworth · 12 Feb 2019

I have just begun reading a book by John Minnis - 'Britain's Lost Railways' - and found this picture which he says is the only one known to be in existence of the Merthyr/Penydarren Tramroad in use.

Webp.net-resizeimage (1)

rogerfarnworth
12 Feb 2019

Merthyr/Penydarren Tramroad 1862

Merthyr Imp · 12 Feb 2019

The above photo also appears in the book 'Merthyr Tydfil Tramroads and their Locomotives' by Gordon Rattenbury & M. J. T. Lewis and is reproduced twice in the journal 'Archive' issue 21. Information from the captions is:

The photo shows the Taff Vale viaduct at Quakers Yard in the process of being widened in 1862. On the tramroad the horse path is made up to the level of the running surface of the plates. The photo shows a south-bound train of five drams with its two horses and attendant drivers standing in the turn out as what appears to be a single horse-drawn dram has just passed northward. By this time in the 1860s the Penydarren Ironworks had closed, Dowlais was sending its output via the Taff Vale, and it was only the Plymouth Ironworks which continued to use the tramroad for some colliery traffic.

It's stated that the only other known image of the Merthyr Tramroad in operation is this wash drawing, attributed to Penry Williams and depicting a steam locomotive at the same location c. 1841. This is from the front cover of the booklet with the title shown.

krus_aragon · 12 Feb 2019

What are those two in the foreground up to, laying something across one rail and hiding behind some rocks?

rogerfarnworth · 12 Feb 2019

The image is interesting. It is from the other direction and shows Brunel's viaduct close to completion. It would be interesting to know which loco us being depicted on the tramway.

rogerfarnworth · 13 Nov 2019

This next post relates in passing to the Penydarren Tramroad. It focuses primarily on the Plymouth Ironworks an Collieries which grew as a result of the existence of the Tramroad and the later railways in the Taff Valley. ...

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/11/13/the-plymouth-or-south-duffryn-colliery-in-the-taff-valley

South Duffryn or Plymouth Colliery, situated to the south of Pentrebach and just north of Troedyrhiw, was opened by the Hills Plymouth Company in 1862. It was served by the Taff Valley Railway and the Penydarren Tramroad. I have been prompted to write this short post by reading an article written by Clive Thomas in the Archive Journal of September 2014. [1]

The featured image above shows the colliery sidings in a postcard image from the early 20th century.

Merthyr Imp · 13 Nov 2019

Pentrebach House, the former home of the ironmaster Anthony Hill is currently in use as a Table Table pub restaurant.

rogerfarnworth · 13 Nov 2019

Any good as a pub?

Merthyr Imp · 13 Nov 2019

Same as any other Table Table I imagine. Only been in it once and that was for a meal.

South Wales Tramways

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