An Illustrated History of Cardiff Docks: Volume 3 – Book Review

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the export market for coal, iron and steel was so lucrative that control of an integrated transport system from pithead to quayside was viewed as essential for maximizing profits. In such a competitive environment this aspiration faced many obstacles.

The Cardiff Railway started out as an evolution of the extensive and important Bute Docks estate. The change of name reflected an ambition to compete with the established railway companies by extending its own lines into the crowded valleys area north of the city. This explains why the railway is covered in ‘An Illustrated History of Cardiff Docks: Volume 3’ by John Hutton. It was published by Silver Link books in 2009 and is still available to purchase new.

The history of Cardiff docks in its railway guise

The railway is featured on a location basis with a range of photographs at each station. Starting at the junction with the Rhymney Railway at Heath and finishing at Taffs Well, the entire length was just 11 miles long. This forms over a third of the book’s contents with a separate section dealing with the locomotives and engine sheds, including the rival Rhymney Railway engine shed, locomotive and carriage works. Two chapters, not directly related to the railway, feature the docks staff and management and finally the docks during the Second World War. However, the war material has much to interest the railway enthusiast including the unloading of American engines ahead of the D-Day landings in 1944.

True to its title of an illustrated history the book packs in more than 360 black and white photographs. Supporting these are maps, timetables, engineering diagrams and other ephemera. Although the photographs cover a wide timespan there is not much in the way of formal history. So, for example, though mention is made of the convoluted and fierce legal battles with its rivals, especially the Taff Vale, they are not covered in depth.

Aborted engineering works and a continuing story

Ironically, although the main line from Heath to Treforest was a mere 11 miles, the total length of track within the confines of the docklands itself amounted to more than 120 miles at its greatest extent. Ultimately, despite its turbulent and relatively short independent existence of just 11 years, the Cardiff Railway lives on today as a commuter line to Coryton.

In Summary

On the face of it a peculiar subject for a series on Cardiff Docks! The book is more a pictorial profile of the Cardiff Railway than a formal history. But there is much in the illustrations and captions to interest both dedicated railway history enthusiasts and anyone with a general interest in the history of Cardiff.

Outline Contents

• Introduction
  
  1. The Cardiff Railway: Heath Junction to Treforest
  
• Heath Junction
• Ty Glas
• Birchgrove
• Rhiwbina Halt
• Whitchurch
• Coryton
• Tongwynlais
• Tafts Well
• Glan-y-llyn
• Nantgarw
• Upper Boat
• Rhydyfelin and Treforest
  
  2. Cardiff Docks: Staff and Management
  
  3. Cardiff Docks Engine Sheds and Engines
  
• Bute Yard
• East Moors (Cardiff Railway)
• Rhymney Railway Fast Dock
  
  4. Cardiff Docks in Wartime
  
• Outbreak of war
• 1940
• 1941
• 1942
• 1943
• 1944
• 1945
• Lest we forget

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