Author: Harold Morgan
Publisher: Ian Allan (now owned by Crecy Publishing)
Price: S/H Approx £10 to £21 depending on condition
Publication: 1984
Number of pages: 128
Format: Hardback
How Obtained: Purchased
During the Victorian and Edwardian eras, South Wales boasted a number of well-run, dynamic and innovative small railway companies. This meant they were often able to cause problems for their more grandiose rivals.
South Wales Branch Lines by H. Morgan provides a history of these lines in text and photographs. Published by Ian Allan in 1984, copies of this out of print book are widely available. Expect to pay somewhere between £10 and £21 (at the time of posting in July 2021) depending on condition and whether you want the softcover or hardcover version.
South Wales branch lines in the pre-grouping era
The focus of the book is the pre-grouping era from the 1840s to the formation of the ‘Big Four’ in 1922. Each company comprises a single chapter which, are dealt with alphabetically, rather than the usual chronological or geographical order. It starts with one of the smallest, The Alexandra (Newport and South Wales) Docks and Railway and finishes with the mighty Taff Vale Railway.
Many rare and unusual photographs are presented from a number of collections, including the Welsh Railways Research Circle. Unsurprisingly, all are black and white. Each chapter contains a small map of the railway concerned along with the routes and junctions to its rivals. Unfortunately there is no bibliography.
A facet which clearly emerges from this engaging book is the sheer variety of the South Wales pre-grouping scene. Some railways ran highly profitable routes, intensively transporting coal and other minerals over relatively short track lengths. At the other end of the scale were the long routes into mid Wales with a higher proportion of passenger trains.
Dynamic companies a challenge for larger rivals
While it is impossible to ignore the cut-throat rivalry between the valleys railways, the book does not overly dwell on this aspect, instead preferring to give an overview of route development along with lineside structures, rolling stock and locomotives.
Although each company possessed strengths and weaknesses in the services it provided to the community, their overall dynamism often meant problems for their rivals. For example, Barry Railway brake vans were fitted with electric side and tail lamps which were actually removed by the GWR at the time of the 1922 grouping and replaced by older oil lamps!
The problems of compressing a complex story into one volume
Because it attempts to cover all the branch lines in South Wales the book has to strike a balance. For example the relatively short independent history of the Sirhowy Railway following its conversion from a tramroad in 1865 is dealt with in a chapter covering the activities of the LNWR in Wales.
Unfortunately, in order to make the book a reasonable length the clarity of the writing occasionally suffers and can be misleading. The photographs, however, are well chosen and the fact that many are from the late nineteenth century means that they are of value way beyond that of nostalgia.
In Summary
This book strikes a good balance between the in depth single volume histories which are available and the general photograph oriented nostalgia books. Many excellent older pictures complement the history orientated text. Recommended, with a few reservations.
The Good
- Highlights the fascinating individual stories of the pre-grouping railways.
- Illustrated with many unusual photographs which date back to the final quarter of the nineteenth century.
- Small maps are provided for each line showing the main routes and minor lines of the company at its greatest extent.
The Not So Good
- The writing is occasionally confusing when dealing with some complex historical events
Outline Contents
- The Alexandra (Newport and South Wales) Docks and Railway
- The Barry Railway
- The Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Railway
- The Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway
- The Cardiff Railway
- The LNWR in Wales
- The Manchester and Milford Railway
- The Midland Railway in Wales
- The Neath and Brecon Railway
- The Port Talbot Railway
- The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway
- The Rhymney Railway
- The South Wales Mineral Railway
- The Taff Vale Railway
About the Author
Harold Morgan was born in Oxford and lived in Carmarthenshire for a while before moving to the Vale of Glamorgan, working as a bookkeeper and a signalman. He served in the Welsh Guards during his national service and was posted to Egypt where he once represented his regiment in rugby on a pitch made of sand.
Apart from authoring books on Welsh railways, he was a founding member of the Welsh Railways Research Circle in October 1978 and possessed an encyclopaedic knowledge of railways in Wales.
He sadly passed away aged 84 in 2014.
(Information from Wales Online)
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