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Concept
Taff Vale Railway
Summary
The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in stages in 1840 and 1841.
In the railway's first years, the coal mining industries expanded considerably and branches were soon opened in the Rhondda valleys and the Cynon Valley. The conveyance of coal for export and for transport away from South Wales began to dominate and the docks in Cardiff and the approach railway became extremely congested. Alternatives were sought and competing railway companies were encouraged to enter the trade.
In the following decades further branch lines were built and the TVR used "motor cars" (steam railway passenger coaches) from 1903 to encourage local passenger travel.
From 1922 the TVR was a constituent of the new Great Western Railway (GWR) at the grouping of the railways, imposing its own character on the larger organisation. The decline in the coal and iron industries took its toll on the mainstay of the network, but passenger trains still operate on most of the main line sections.
Coal mining and iron smelting had been carried out on a small scale in South Wales down to the 18th century; it was encouraged by the plentiful availability of coal, at first at a shallow depth; timber (for pit props and for charcoal); and limestone (for fluxing). The coal was primarily used in iron production and it was only gradually that surplus coal began to be used for power (in industrial stationary steam engines) and for domestic use.
In time coke replaced charcoal in the smelting process. The availability of the raw materials at the heads of the South Wales valleys led to a number of ironworks being founded there between 1750 and 1800; these included the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, Plymouth Ironworks, and Dowlais Ironworks in the Merthyr Tydfil area.
Official source
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