I’m very excited to present this unique photo showing the Tongwynlais railway station platforms and footbridge. I was convinced that there was no evidence of the full station after searching for so long.

There are a handful of photos of the station building but these are all after its closure. This image shows the station shortly after it was opened in March 1911.

Tongwynlais Railway Station

The copyright of this image belongs to The Great Eastern Railway Society and cannot be reproduced without permission.

You can see the Walnut Tree Viaduct and “Eagle Stack” chimney in the distance. The chimney was in the Pentyrch Iron and Tin Plate works near Ynys Bridge.

The station had both up and down platforms, each 135m (450 ft) long, with the station building on the up side. There were also goods sidings for loading, unloading and parking freight trains.

The location and direction of the footbridge and station building match the layout that I shared in part 1.

The Great Eastern Railway Society

I was researching the Walnut Tree Viaduct and came across a reference to a photo in the “Railway and Travel Monthly” from 1911. The magazine was launched in 1912 by G.A. Sekon and it ran until 1920, after which it was renamed Transport and Travel Monthly.

After searching the auction sites for old copies I stumbled across The Great Eastern Railway Society. The Society was formed in 1973 in order to promote a widespread interest in the Great Eastern Railway, to encourage and co-ordinate research into its history, and to provide a permanent record of the results.

They also sell digital copies of old Railway and Travel Monthly volumes! I contacted the Society and requested permission to reproduce the photo so I could share it with you. They very kindly granted permission, for which I’m incredibly grateful.

The Society’s Files Emporium has thousands of files available to purchase.

The Cardiff Railway

The April 1911 article in Railway and Travel Monthly contains some interesting information about the railway’s construction around Tongwynlais.

“The new railway passes along the Taff Valley (already occupied by the River Taff, the Merthyr main road, the Glamorganshire Canal, and the Taff Vale Railway) so that much ingenuity was required to find room for the Cardiff Railway. Most of the 42 bridges on the new railway are built on the skew.

“The Merthyr road is crossed five times, the canal thrice and the River Taff only once, but its course had to be diverted for 1,200 feet near Nantgarw, otherwise the crossings would have been more frequent. The stream was turned into a new channel 80 ft wide, out of which over 50,000 cubic yards of material were excavated. At places the river and canal are close together, and the railway had to be driven between. On the northern portion the canal is on the higher level, and considerable skill was displayed in keeping up the banks, as they were imperilled by the railway being cut so near and at a lower level.

“Near Castell Coch there is perhaps the tightest fit in the valley, here the railway is close to the canal, and it then passes under the Merthyr road, beneath which at this point was laid the main water supply of Cardiff, a gas main, two smaller water mains, and a high-tension main electric supply cable. These had to be provided for and maintained in service and the roadway kept open. The water main was put on an aqueduct by the side of the overbridge, and the abutments formed the supports for a temporary roadway whilst the bridge was being built. The only tunnel on the line is 325 feet long, and is situated at Castell Coch. The tunnel is succeeded by a cutting of an average depth of 50 feet. Here are two overbridges, one of which has its eastern abutment springing from the rock. At Nantgarw is the severest piece of work on the line, here the canal has three locks, and to hold it up there has been built a retaining wall 427ft long.”

The Castell Coch Tunnel

I found another interesting image in a booklet called The Cardiff Railway by S Richards. This grainy image shows the Castell Coch tunnel and retaining wall.

The Castell Coch tunnel, also referred to as the Tongwynlais tunnel, was the only one on the line. The Marquess of Bute requested the tunnel to shield his vineyard that was planted on the slope to the east of the railway.

The booklet was published in 1977 and the source of the photo is not provided.

Coming in Part 3

I have more photos of the station building in my collection that have probably never been seen before. Please share this post and subscribe to get notified of new content.

Sources

• The Great Eastern Railway Society
• The Cardiff Railway by S Richards