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.
The Rhymney Railway was a railway company in South Wales, founded to transport minerals and materials to and from collieries and ironworks in the Rhymney Valley of South Wales, and to docks in Cardiff. It opened a main line in 1858, and a limited passenger service was operated in addition.
The Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway (B&MR) was a railway company in Wales. It was originally intended to link the towns in its name. Finding its access to Merthyr difficult at first, it acquired the Rumney Railway, an old plateway, and this gave it access to Newport docks. This changed its emphasis from rural line to mineral artery.
The GWR 5700 Class, or 57xx class, is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive built by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and British Railways (BR) between 1929 and 1950. With 863 built, they were the most prolific class of the GWR, and one of the most numerous classes of British steam locomotive.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 7200 Class is a class of 2-8-2T steam locomotive. They were the only 2-8-2Ts built and used by a British railway, and the largest tank engines to run on the Great Western Railway.
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.
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.
The GWR was the longest-lived of the pre-nationalisation railway companies in Britain, surviving the 'Grouping' of the railways in 1923 almost unchanged. As a result, the history of its numbering and classification of locomotives is relatively complicated. This page explains the principal systems that were used.
The Dulas Valley Mineral Railway was incorporated in 1862 to bring coal from the Onllwyn area north-east of Neath to the quays there, and in the following year was reconstituted as the Neath and Brecon Railway. The line was opened as far as Onllwyn in 1863.
The Rhymney Railway M class was a class of 0-6-2T tank locomotive introduced into traffic on the Rhymney Railway in 1904. These were substantial sized tank engines, and weighed 66 long tons and were 36 feet 9 inches (11.20 m) in length.
The Rhymney R class was a class of 0-6-2T steam locomotive introduced into traffic in 1907 designed by the railway's engineer Charles T. Hurry Riches, the son of RichesT. These were substantial sized tank locomotives, and weighed 67 long tons and were 37 feet (11.28 m) in length.
The Rhymney Railway A class were 0-6-2T tank locomotives introduced into traffic in 1910 and designed by the railway's engineer Hurry Riches. These were substantial sized tank engines, and weighed 64 long tons and were 35 ft 9 in (10.90 m) in length.
The Rhymney Railway P class was a class of 0-6-2T steam locomotive introduced into traffic in 1909 designed by the Rhymney Railway's engineer C. T. Hurry Riches. These were substantial sized tank locomotives, weighed 60 long tons and were 35 feet 0 inches (10.67 m) in length.
Brecon and Merthyr 0-6-2T locomotives were steam tank locomotives of the Brecon and Merthyr Railway including classes 36 and 45.
The Port Talbot Railway Stephenson Class were eleven 0-6-2T locomotives introduced into traffic in 1898 designed and built by Robert Stephenson and Company. They predated the somewhat similar but larger Rhymney Railway M class by six years.
The Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway, also known as the Heads of the Valleys line, was a railway line which operated between 1860 and 1958 between the Monmouthshire town of Abergavenny and the Glamorgan town of Merthyr Tydfil in South East Wales.
Welsh 0-6-2T locomotives were a standard steam locomotive of the railways of South Wales. Many of the independent railways used them and, at the grouping of 1923, the survivors passed into Great Western Railway (GWR) stock. The GWR perpetuated the type in the GWR 5600 Class. The other major railway company in Wales, the LNWR, also had the LNWR Webb Coal Tank Class, though this was grouped into the LMS not the GWR.
The Barry Railway class H was a small class of seven 0-8-2T tank locomotives built for the Barry Railway by Sharp Stewart in 1896. When they were introduced they were the first locomotives in Britain to use the 0-8-2 wheel arrangement.
Barry Railway Class B1 were 0-6-2T steam tank locomotives of the Barry Railway in South Wales. They were designed by J. H. Hosgood and built by Sharp Stewart, & Co., Vulcan Foundry and Société Franco-Belge. The locomotive, though similar to the B class, differed in having an increased tank capacity of 1,630 gallons compared with the 1,400 gallons of the B class. The purpose of this was to enable them to take a train of empty wagons from Cadoxton Yard to Trehafod Junction without the need to refill the tank.
Barry Railway Class D were 0-8-0 steam tender engines of the Barry Railway in South Wales. They were built to a standard Sharp, Stewart and Company design modified by John Waddington Mann, the Chief Mechanical Engineer for the Swedish & Norwegian Railway. In fact, 20 of these locomotives were ordered by this railway. However the company ran into severe financial difficulty with the result that only one and a half locomotives were paid for by the S&N.