Author: Eric R. Mountford
Publisher: Oakwood Press
ISBN: 0853613478
Price: S/H copies available from about £20-£35 depending on condition
Publication: February 1987
Number of pages: 176
Format: Hardback
How Obtained: Purchased
The 1897 name change of the Bute Docks Company to The Cardiff Railway was aspirational: to build a powerful docks and railway company along the Barry Railway model. But the railway project was an abject failure, though one section still thrives today!
Although titled The Cardiff Railway, Eric Mountford’s 1987 book necessarily contains a substantial amount of Bute Dock history. It was published as Number 69 of the Library of Railway History by Oakwood Press.
The Cardiff Railway: Bute Docks by another name
Mountford devotes the first section in the book, covering no less than 36 pages, to the Bute Estates. This included the mighty dock operation. The major transport artery to the docks was initially via the Glamorganshire Canal from the Merthyr ironworks. Then, in 1841, the Taff Vale Railway (TVR) opened, eventually rendering the canal redundant.
The development of the Cardiff Railway itself is the subject of Section 2, including details of the antagonistic approach of the TVR, who opposed almost everything attempted by the Cardiff! The final section outlines the locomotives, rolling stock and operations. A range of black and white photographs, maps and station diagrams is included.
The turbulent relationship between the Bute Docks and the TVR provides the backdrop to the formation of the Cardiff Railway. This vacillated between antagonism and co-operation depending on external pressures, but by the 1890s both companies had concluded that their futures lay in freeing themselves from the services of the other.
From Taff Vale Railway antagonism to a thriving commuter line
While the TVR focussed on trying to get authority to build a docks at Penarth, the Cardiff Railway was Bute’s move to construct an effective feeder system. Due to a campaign of obstruction, opposition and aggressive legal action by the TVR only 11 miles was built, with one end left disconnected from the system! With legal difficulty in getting authorisation and lack of cooperation from other railways, a large portion of the history of the Cardiff Railway consists of administrative wrangling. Mountford’s book reflects this and the story of the actual engineering is almost an afterthought!
The Cardiff inherited a wholly tank engine stable from its Bute Docks predecessor. Moreover, by the time the Cardiff was operational, South Wales railways had long realised the most effective locomotives were 0-6-0 and 0-6-2 tanks. As a result it was the only railway to use non-tender engines during the entirety of its short existence.
Despite its stunted development and failure as a mineral line, the Cardiff had something of a last laugh. While many more prestigious routes were ruthlessly cut in the last decades of the twentieth century, a branch line terminating at Coryton is thriving as a commuter line. You can find out more about the Coryton branch as it is today in Bob Price’s excellent Rail Relics video available here. Being published in 1987, though, the book can only hint at the changes which were to come to fruition in the Cardiff Bay Development project!
In Summary
By necessity much space is devoted to the story of the Bute Docks and the legal conflict with the Taff Vale Railway. This makes it different from the usual Oakwood Press railway history books, though still an entertaining and informative read.
The Good
- Authoritative account of the history of the smallest of the South Wales railway companies
- Well illustrated with informative photographs, maps and station layout diagrams
- Outline locomotive elevation drawings of the Cardiff Railway tank types
The Not So Good
- Being published in 1987 modern developments and services are obviously not included
- No index
Outline Contents
- The Bute Docks, Cardiff
- The Cardiff Railway
- Locomotives, Rolling Stock and Operations
About the Author
Eric Mountford was born in Swindon to a railway family that stretched back well into the broad gauge era. After witnessing the birth of the Castle and King class locomotives,-and the death of that brilliant locomotive engineer, G.J. Churchward, he served his apprenticeship at the famous locomotive works in the heyday of Great Western steam.
After completing his apprenticeship at Newport Docks Drawing Office, he had a lengthy spell in private industry before returning to the railways at Caerphilly Drawing: Office in 1954. Nine years later he was promoted to the Management Staff at the Welsh Divisional Office at Cardiff, from where he retired in 1980.
Although a lifelong GWR enthusiast, he concentrated on the railways of South Wales from an early age, an interest he was able to develop when he had access to local railway records and those held by British Transport. An acknowledged expert on these railways, Mountford has written numerous books and articles.
(From: The Oakwood Press)
Related reviews
An Illustrated History of Cardiff Docks, Volume 3 by John Hutton
Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: vol 12, South Wales by D.S.M. Barrie
South Wales Branch Lines by H. Morgan