Brecon and Merthyr Railway
Encyclopedia
The Brecon and Merthyr Junction Railway (B&MJR) was one of several railways that served the industrial areas of South Wales
and Monmouthshire
. It ranked fifth amongst them in size, although hemmed in by the Taff Vale Railway
(TVR) and Great Western Railway
(GWR). It notably gained the unfortunate nickname of "Breakneck and Murder Railway" owing to a certain tendency towards having accidents - which, owing to the steep gradients, were generally rather severe.
in Newport
and Brecon
, and hence into Mid-Wales.
As early as 1836, Sir John Josiah Guest
, of the Dowlais iron Works, had written of his proposal to construct a railway linking Dowlais to the valley of the River Usk
, and possibly also running into Brecon. The line would have pretty nearly covered the same route as was eventually adopted by the B&MJR. A similar proposal suggested a line running up the Taf Fawr valley over the Brecon Beacons via Storey Arms and thence to Brecon.
The company was established by a Bill of 1858, with the directors including several prominent Brecon citizens. The Beacons tunnel (also known as Torpantau) was completed by 1862, and runs between Brecon and Pant commenced in 1863. The complicated series of amalgamations (including its originator the Hay Railway,a tram-road worked by horses opened in 1816) can best be appreciated here to explain how the B&MJR came about. In fact the B&MJR used the Hay Railway as the basis for its route between Talyllyn and Brecon. This included the tramroad tunnel (see below) at Talyllyn which required widening and deepening to allow the passage of standard gauge trains.
The system eventually came to comprise two sections of lines:
Initially, the only connection to Merthyr Tydfil
was by means of a horse-drawn bus from Pant, but, by 1868, a connection with Merthyr had been established by sharing lines with Vale of Neath, London and North Western and Taff Vale railways. This involved the building of nearly seven miles of line from Pontsticill to Merthyr, with an almost continuous descent of 1 in 45-50, two complete reversals of direction and the construction of two viaducts to carry the line over the Taf Fechan at Pontsarn, and the Taf Fawr at Cefn Coed. The Pontsarn viaduct is 455 feet (138.7 m) long and 92 feet (28 m) height, whilst the Cefn Coed (or Pontycapel) viaduct is 770 feet (234.7 m) long with a height of 115 feet (35.1 m).
The section to the north of Pant was primarily a passenger service, serving isolated farms and villages. South of Pant, it was mainly a mineral line and carried coal from the mines down to the Newport Docks
.
by intensive coal trains, dubbed 'Jellicoe Specials', from the South Wales Coalfield
travelling north towards Scapa Flow
via the Mid Wales Line for use by warships of the Royal Navy
.
following the Grouping
. The ex-B&MJR system survived nationalisation into British Railways, but most were eventually closed during and after the Beeching Axe
. By 1980 only one short section of 10.5 miles (16.9 km) survived, serving coal traffic to Bedwas Navigation Colliery
. With the demise of the coal industry in Britain the section between Bedwas and Machen was closed in 1985. The section between Machen and Bassaleg Junction (with the GWR Ebbw Valley line) remains to serve Hanson's limestone quarry.
, began to build a narrow-gauge steam-hauled tourist line on the existing 5.5 miles (8.9 km) trackbed from Pant through Pontsticill to Dol-y-gaer. The initial section of 1.75 miles (2.8 km) from Pant to Pontsticill opened in June 1980. Plans exist to extend the line to Torpantau.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....
. It ranked fifth amongst them in size, although hemmed in by the Taff Vale Railway
Taff Vale Railway
The Taff Vale Railway is a railway in Glamorgan, South Wales, and is one of the oldest in Wales. It operated as an independent company from 1836 until 1922, when it became a constituent company of the Great Western Railway...
(TVR) and Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
(GWR). It notably gained the unfortunate nickname of "Breakneck and Murder Railway" owing to a certain tendency towards having accidents - which, owing to the steep gradients, were generally rather severe.
History
The B&MJR was once described as a "lively octopus in a tank of sharks", but despite the aggressive activities of the "sharks", it survived until the railway grouping. In the process, it absorbed several smaller companies and by negotiating running powers over the lines of other companies, it established links between Newport DocksNewport Docks
Newport Docks is the collective name for a series of docks in the city of Newport, South Wales.-Background:Newport was a small fishing port and market town until the coming of the industrial age at the beginning of the 19th century...
in Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
and Brecon
Brecon
Brecon is a long-established market town and community in southern Powys, Mid Wales, with a population of 7,901. It was the county town of the historic county of Brecknockshire; although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of Powys, it remains an important local centre...
, and hence into Mid-Wales.
As early as 1836, Sir John Josiah Guest
John Josiah Guest
Sir Josiah John Guest, 1st Baronet, known as John Josiah Guest, was a Welsh engineer and entrepreneur.-Life:Born in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, as the son of Thomas Guest, a partner in the Dowlais Iron Company...
, of the Dowlais iron Works, had written of his proposal to construct a railway linking Dowlais to the valley of the River Usk
River Usk
The River Usk rises on the northern slopes of the Black Mountain of mid-Wales, in the easternmost part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Initially it flows north into Usk Reservoir, then east by Sennybridge to Brecon before turning southeast to flow by Talybont-on-Usk, Crickhowell and...
, and possibly also running into Brecon. The line would have pretty nearly covered the same route as was eventually adopted by the B&MJR. A similar proposal suggested a line running up the Taf Fawr valley over the Brecon Beacons via Storey Arms and thence to Brecon.
The company was established by a Bill of 1858, with the directors including several prominent Brecon citizens. The Beacons tunnel (also known as Torpantau) was completed by 1862, and runs between Brecon and Pant commenced in 1863. The complicated series of amalgamations (including its originator the Hay Railway,a tram-road worked by horses opened in 1816) can best be appreciated here to explain how the B&MJR came about. In fact the B&MJR used the Hay Railway as the basis for its route between Talyllyn and Brecon. This included the tramroad tunnel (see below) at Talyllyn which required widening and deepening to allow the passage of standard gauge trains.
The system eventually came to comprise two sections of lines:
- The Southern section, effectively the consumed Rumney RailwayRumney RailwayThe Rumney Railway was an original industrial tramway built to service the needs of shipping goods to and from the west side of the Ebbw Vale to Newport Docks...
, which linked BassalegBassalegBassaleg is a small semi-urban suburb on the west side of the city of Newport, in south Wales. It lies in the Graig electoral ward and community.- Location, communications & amenities:Bassaleg is located two miles north west of Newport city centre...
(where there were connections with the GWR and the London and North Western RailwayLondon and North Western RailwayThe London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
) and the ironIronIron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
works town of RhymneyRhymneyRhymney is a town and a community located in the county borough of Caerphilly in south-east Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. Along with the villages of Pontlottyn, Fochriw, Abertysswg, Deri and New Tredegar, Rhymney is designated as the 'Upper Rhymney Valley' by the local...
, near the head of the Rhymney ValleyRhymney ValleyThe Rhymney Valley is a valley encompassing the villages of Abertysswg, Fochriw, Pontlottyn, Tirphil, New Tredegar, Aberbargoed, Rhymney, and Ystrad Mynach, and the towns of Bargoed and Caerphilly, in south-east Wales, formerly famous for its coal mining and iron industries.-Geography:Created as a...
. The RR/TVR ran up the same valley in parallel with the B&MJR, and the wholly separate Rhymney RailwayRhymney RailwayThe Rhymney Railway was virtually a single stretch of main line, some fifty miles in length, by which the Rhymney Valley was connected to the docks at Cardiff in the county of Glamorgan, South Wales.-History:... - The Northern section linked Deri junction by means of running powers over a section of the Rhymney RailwayRhymney RailwayThe Rhymney Railway was virtually a single stretch of main line, some fifty miles in length, by which the Rhymney Valley was connected to the docks at Cardiff in the county of Glamorgan, South Wales.-History:...
in the BargoedBargoedBargoed is a town in the Rhymney Valley, Wales, one of the South Wales Valleys. It lies on the Rhymney River in the county borough of Caerphilly and straddles ancient boundary of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. 'Greater Bargoed', as defined by the local authority Caerphilly County Borough Council,...
Rhymney ValleyRhymney ValleyThe Rhymney Valley is a valley encompassing the villages of Abertysswg, Fochriw, Pontlottyn, Tirphil, New Tredegar, Aberbargoed, Rhymney, and Ystrad Mynach, and the towns of Bargoed and Caerphilly, in south-east Wales, formerly famous for its coal mining and iron industries.-Geography:Created as a...
to Pant, PontsticillPontsticillPontsticill is a village within the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. It lies within the valley of the Taf Fechan on the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park...
and Brecon via a tunnel through the Brecon BeaconsBrecon BeaconsThe Brecon Beacons is a mountain range in South Wales. In a narrow sense, the name refers to the range of popular peaks south of Brecon, including South Wales' highest mountain, Pen y Fan, and which together form the central section of the Brecon Beacons National Park...
. From the tunnel the line descended towards Talybont on a continuous 1-in-37 gradient known as the "Seven Mile Bank". For southbound trains this presented the steepest continuous ascent on the British railway network.
Initially, the only connection to Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is a town in Wales, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales. It also gives its name to a county borough, which has a population of around 55,000. It is located in the historic county of...
was by means of a horse-drawn bus from Pant, but, by 1868, a connection with Merthyr had been established by sharing lines with Vale of Neath, London and North Western and Taff Vale railways. This involved the building of nearly seven miles of line from Pontsticill to Merthyr, with an almost continuous descent of 1 in 45-50, two complete reversals of direction and the construction of two viaducts to carry the line over the Taf Fechan at Pontsarn, and the Taf Fawr at Cefn Coed. The Pontsarn viaduct is 455 feet (138.7 m) long and 92 feet (28 m) height, whilst the Cefn Coed (or Pontycapel) viaduct is 770 feet (234.7 m) long with a height of 115 feet (35.1 m).
The section to the north of Pant was primarily a passenger service, serving isolated farms and villages. South of Pant, it was mainly a mineral line and carried coal from the mines down to the Newport Docks
Newport Docks
Newport Docks is the collective name for a series of docks in the city of Newport, South Wales.-Background:Newport was a small fishing port and market town until the coming of the industrial age at the beginning of the 19th century...
.
Tunnels
To develop routes into and through the rugged South Wales landscape, it was forced to construct two tunnels:- The Torpantau tunnel through the Beacons was 666 yards (609 m) long, and reached by a three mile (5 km) ascent. Exiting from the tunnel, the line descended along the side of Glyn Collwyn (now flooded to form a reservoir) to the River UskRiver UskThe River Usk rises on the northern slopes of the Black Mountain of mid-Wales, in the easternmost part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Initially it flows north into Usk Reservoir, then east by Sennybridge to Brecon before turning southeast to flow by Talybont-on-Usk, Crickhowell and...
at Talybont, and thence to Brecon. It was the highest above sea level anywhere in Britain.
- A second tunnel was situated at Talyllyn located about 5 miles (8 km) to the east of Brecon, just after Talyllyn JunctionTalyllyn JunctionTalyllyn Junction was a railway junction located 4 miles east of Brecon, Powys, opened in 1863. The junction was triangular, with north, east and west chords, station platforms being sited at the western junction and also, until 1878, at the eastern junction...
, (with the Cambrian railway). This tunnel is 674 yards (616.3 m) long, and was originally built in 1816 for the Hay Railway (see above); it survived long enough to become the oldest in regular use on Britain's railways.
Rolling stock
- Locomotives: 35 Several of those were still running post-WWII
- Coaching stock: 69
- Goods vehicles (mainly coal): 629. Collieries also provided some, including Powell Dyffryn. By 1913, the line carried nearly 3.5 million tons a year of coal and 227,000 tons of other minerals.
World War One
The line was used in World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
by intensive coal trains, dubbed 'Jellicoe Specials', from the South Wales Coalfield
South Wales Coalfield
The South Wales Coalfield is a large region of south Wales that is rich with coal deposits, especially the South Wales Valleys.-The coalfield area:...
travelling north towards Scapa Flow
Scapa Flow
right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...
via the Mid Wales Line for use by warships of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
.
"The slow train"
Prior to the two sections of line being linked, the train services had been somewhat unpunctual, with unconnected timetables, and the company acquired the unenviable reputation of operating "slow trains". They became the butt of music-hall jokes.Locomotive Superintendents
- J. T. Simpson (1863–1869)
- T. Mason (1869–1873)
- C. Long (1873–1888)
- E. C. Owen (1888–1922)
The end of the Brecon and Merthyr
The line was amalgamated with the Great Western RailwayGreat Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
following the Grouping
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...
. The ex-B&MJR system survived nationalisation into British Railways, but most were eventually closed during and after the Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
. By 1980 only one short section of 10.5 miles (16.9 km) survived, serving coal traffic to Bedwas Navigation Colliery
Bedwas Navigation Colliery
Bedwas Navigation Colliery was a coal mine that was located in the small Welsh village of Bedwas. Situated 2 miles north of Caerphilly, the colliery opened in 1913 and in 1939 produced 675,000 tonnes of coal in single year....
. With the demise of the coal industry in Britain the section between Bedwas and Machen was closed in 1985. The section between Machen and Bassaleg Junction (with the GWR Ebbw Valley line) remains to serve Hanson's limestone quarry.
Partial resurrection of the Brecon and Merthyr
In 1980 a private company, the Brecon Mountain RailwayBrecon Mountain Railway
The Brecon Mountain Railway is a narrow gauge preserved railway that runs through the Brecon Beacons along the full length of the Pontsticill Reservoir...
, began to build a narrow-gauge steam-hauled tourist line on the existing 5.5 miles (8.9 km) trackbed from Pant through Pontsticill to Dol-y-gaer. The initial section of 1.75 miles (2.8 km) from Pant to Pontsticill opened in June 1980. Plans exist to extend the line to Torpantau.