Caerphilly railway works

Last updated
The former railway works buildings. Former railway works buildings in Caerphilly.jpg
The former railway works buildings.

Caerphilly railway works in Caerphilly (Welsh : Caerffili) in the county of Glamorgan was the only main railway works in Wales.

It was built for the Rhymney Railway in 1899 and taken over by the Great Western Railway at amalgamation in 1923.

Much of its initial work was in refurbishing older locomotives with new boilers and covered cabs. In 1906, C.H. Riches who had been at Gorton locomotive works became Locomotive Superintendent and appointed J.H. Sellars as Works Foreman. Their policy was to modernise and standardise the locomotive stock, and Riches designed a standard boiler and cylinders for all the railway's tank engines.

He also designed a new class of 0-6-2 tank engine to be built by Robert Stephenson and Company who had provided six of their own design in 1903. In 1919 Sellars became the Works Manager. Until 1922 the works only repaired its own locomotives, but they began to be sent from the Barry Railway and in 1924 the first Swindon-built locomotive arrived. The works was enlarged with a new erecting shop in 1926.

The works also maintained a variety of wagons and passenger vehicles, building new mineral wagons and a few carriages, with a new workshop in 1901. However a new wagon works was built at Cardiff and, with work finishing its main work of converting Westinghouse air brakes to GWR vacuum brakes, the carriage and wagon works was phased out. However, in 1939 new workshops were built for carriage repairs only.

Until 1952 only tank engines had been repaired, but the efficiency of the works was such that they were asked to handle the smaller two-cylinder tender engines. They were so successful that larger engines were sent, the first being the 4-6-0 Number 5955 Garth Hall.

Around 1958 Swindon was committed to diesel locomotives and Caerphilly was sent Castle class and BR Standard locomotives.

With the withdrawal of steam on British Railways, the works closed in 1963 and the site converted into an industrial estate.

Related Research Articles

North Tyneside Steam Railway Visitor attraction in North East England

The North Tyneside Steam Railway and Stephenson Steam Railway are visitor attractions in North Tyneside, North East England. The museum and railway workshops share a building on Middle Engine Lane adjacent to the Silverlink Retail Park. The railway is a standard gauge line, running south for 2 miles (3.2 km) from the museum to Percy Main. The railway is operated by the North Tyneside Steam Railway Association (NTSRA). The museum is managed by Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums on behalf of North Tyneside Council.

Derby Works

The Derby Works comprised a number of British manufacturing facilities designing and building locomotives and rolling stock in Derby, England. The first of these was a group of three maintenance sheds opened around 1840 behind Derby station. This developed into a manufacturing facility called the Midland Railway Locomotive Works, known locally as "the loco" and in 1873 manufacturing was split into locomotive and rolling stock manufacture, with rolling stock work transferred to a new facility, Derby Carriage & Wagon Works.

<i>Novelty</i> (locomotive) Early experimental locomotive

Novelty was an early steam locomotive built by John Ericsson and John Braithwaite to take part in the Rainhill Trials in 1829.

GWR 5600 Class

The GWR 5600 Class is a class of 0-6-2T steam locomotive built between 1924 and 1928. They were designed by Charles Collett for the Great Western Railway (GWR), and were introduced into traffic in 1924. After the 1923 grouping, Swindon inherited a large and variable collection of locomotives from historic Welsh railway companies, which did not fit into their standardisation programme. GWR boiler inspectors arrived en masse and either condemned the original locomotives or had them rebuilt. The systematic destruction of many examples of locomotives, most still in serviceable condition, followed, but various were worked alongside 5600 Class.

Motive power depot Rail yard for cleaning, repairing and maintaining locomotives

The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds" or, for short, just sheds. Facilities are provided for refuelling and replenishing water, lubricating oil and grease and, for steam engines, disposal of the ash. There are often workshops for day to day repairs and maintenance, although locomotive building and major overhauls are usually carried out in the locomotive works.

Ashford railway works

Ashford railway works was in the town of Ashford in the county of Kent in England.

Wolverhampton railway works was in the city of Wolverhampton in the county of Staffordshire, England. It was almost due north of the city centre, and is commemorated with a small display of level crossing gates and a plaque. Known as the Stafford Road Works, it was opened by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway in 1849 to maintain bought-in locomotives.

Swindon Works

Swindon railway works was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1843 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It served as the principal west England maintenance centre until closed in 1986.

Doncaster Works Railway Engineering Works

Doncaster Railway Works is a railway workshop located in Doncaster, England.

Eastleigh Works

Eastleigh Works is a locomotive, carriage and wagon building and repair facility in the town of Eastleigh, in the county of Hampshire in England.

Brighton railway works

Brighton railway works was one of the earliest railway-owned locomotive repair works, founded in 1840 by the London and Brighton Railway in Brighton, England, and thus pre-dating the more famous railway works at Crewe, Doncaster and Swindon. The works grew steadily between 1841 and 1900 but efficient operation was always hampered by the restricted site, and there were several plans to close it and move the facility elsewhere. Nevertheless, between 1852 and 1957 more than 1200 steam locomotives as well as prototype diesel electric and electric locomotives were constructed there, before the eventual closure of the facility in 1962.

Charles Collett

Charles Benjamin Collett was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1922 to 1941. He designed the GWR's 4-6-0 Castle and King Class express passenger locomotives.

NZR W<sup>F</sup> class Class of 41 New Zealand 2-6-4T locomotives

The NZR WF class were steam locomotives designed, built and used by New Zealand Railways (NZR). Their wheel arrangement is described by the Whyte notation 2-6-4T and the first members of the class entered service in 1904. The locomotives were tank engines designed by the Railways Department's Chief Mechanical Engineer A. L. Beattie, and were mainly built for suburban duties such as those between Christchurch and Lyttelton. They also saw main-line service in the Taranaki region, but most of the class members were assigned to branch line and local services throughout the country. Two were experimentally converted to oil burners in 1909-1910. The tests were satisfactory, but as coal was much cheaper than oil at the time, no further conversions took place.

Taff Vale Railway A class Class of 58 British 0-6-2T locomotives

The Taff Vale Railway A class was a class of 0-6-2T steam tank locomotives designed by J. Cameron for mixed traffic work and introduced to the Taff Vale Railway (TVR) in 1914. The A class was an enlarged version of the TVR O4 class designed by Tom Hurry Riches in 1907. The A class was the last new class of locomotive to be introduced on the TVR, which had introduced its first 0-6-2Ts in 1885 ; and, with a total of 58 built, was numerically the largest class of tank locomotive on the TVR.

Gorton Locomotive Works Railway workshops in Gorton, Manchester, England

Gorton Locomotive Works, known locally as Gorton Tank, was in West Gorton in Manchester, England and was completed in 1848 by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway.

Bow railway works was at Bow, an area of London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was built in 1853 by the North London Railway.

Taff Vale Railway O1 class

The Taff Vale Railway O1 class was a class of 0-6-2T steam tank locomotives designed by Tom Hurry Riches and introduced to the Taff Vale Railway in 1894.

Cathays railways works was a railway engineering development by the Taff Vale Railway to provide its main carriage and wagon works, as well as its main railway depot for the entire TVR system, located in the Cathays suburb of Cardiff, South Wales.

British steam railcars

A steam railcar is a rail vehicle that does not require a locomotive as it contains its own steam engine. The first steam railcar was an experimental unit designed and built in 1847 by James Samuel and William Bridges Adams. In 1848 they made the Fairfield steam carriage that they sold to the Bristol & Exeter Railway, who used it for two years on a branch line.

Cardiff West Yard Locomotive Works

West Yard Works was the Taff Vale Railway's locomotive repair and construction factory. It was located in Cardiff between Bute Street and the Glamorganshire Canal.

References

Coordinates: 51°34′17″N3°12′14″W / 51.57139°N 3.20389°W / 51.57139; -3.20389