Pontypridd and Rhondda Valley Tramway

Pontypridd and Rhondda Valley Tramway
Pontypridd and Rhondda Valley Tramway
Operation
Locale	Porth, Pontypridd
Open	November 1887
Close	February 1902
Status	Closed
Infrastructure
Track gauge	3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)
Propulsion system(s)	Horse
Statistics
Route length	3.06 miles (4.92 km)

Last updated December 15, 2022

The Pontypridd and Rhondda Valley Tramway operated a tramway service in Pontypridd and Porth between 1888 and 1902.^[1]

History

The Pontypridd and Rhondda Valley Tramway Company was incorporated by the Pontypridd and Rhondda Valley Tramways Order 1882, which authorised the construction of a link between the town of Pontypridd and the village of Treherbert in Glamorgan. The two termini are about 12 miles (19 km) apart, but the line as built only ran from Pontypridd for 3.06 miles (4.92 km) to the village of Porth. By October 1887, the company was experiencing financial difficulties, and they asked Solomon Andrews to complete the construction of the line, and then to run it for three years.^[2] Andrews was an entrepreneur from Cardiff, who had built a large commercial empire, which included coachbuilding and transportation. He began building buses in the 1870s, and in 1882 he obtained a patent for a horse bus that could run on tramway rails. He ran bus services in several British towns, and ran street tramways in Cardiff and Newport, as well as the Pontypridd tramway.^[3]

The company had hoped to open the line on 2 November 1887, but Andrews did not agree to run the line early enough to meet this deadline, and it probably opened later in November, although the exact date has not been recorded. The line was single track, with the western terminus at The Square in Porth. It followed a course which is now the A4058 road towards Pontypridd, ending near the viaduct which carried the Taff Vale Railway's Rhondda line. This structure prevented the tramway, with its double deck cars, from continuing onwards to the town centre.^[2]

After three years of operation, the company was still in financial difficulties, and was bought out by another company owned by Andrews, the South Wales Machinery & Carriage Company, in 1890. They ran it for another eight years, and then sold it to the British Electric Traction Company, who were building up a portfolio of tramways. Their policy was to seek local authority agreement to electrify and extend the lines they took over, but in this case they were unsuccessful. The services ran for another two years, but ended abruptly, probably in February 1902, when an outbreak of the infectious disease glanders resulted in most of the horses dying. The councils of Pontypridd and Rhondda were both hoping to build their own tramways, and Pontypridd obtained statutory powers to buy the line in August 1903. British Electric Traction received £5,750 on 31 October 1904, and the two authorities each took over a section of the line, which they upgraded to run electric trams. Despite the fact that the two systems were linked at Trehafod, passengers had to change cars at that point, and it was not until 14 July 1919 that through running was again possible. This also required an adjustment to timekeeping, as both systems used local time, which differed by four minutes, but was resolved by both adopting Greenwich Mean Time.^[2]

Closure

The local authorities in Pontypridd and Rhondda purchased the tramway in 1904 and divided it between them to operate Pontypridd Urban District Council Tramways and Rhondda Tramways Company.

Bibliography

Klapper, Charles (1974). The Golden Age of Tramways . David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-6458-1.
Turner, Keith (1996). The Directory of British Tramways. Patrick Stephens. ISBN 978-1-85260-549-0.

Related Research Articles

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.

Porth is a town and a community in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. Lying in the Rhondda Valley, it is regarded as the gateway connecting the Rhondda Fawr and Rhondda Fach valleys due to both valleys meeting at Porth. The Welsh word "porth" means "gate". Porth is a predominantly English-speaking community.

The Rhondda line is a commuter railway line in South Wales from Cardiff to Treherbert. The line follows the Merthyr line as far as Pontypridd, where it then diverges to continue along the Rhondda Valley.

National Welsh Omnibus Services was a bus company which operated in south-east Wales and in the Forest of Dean area of Gloucestershire from 1978 to 1992. It used the trading name National Welsh and its Welsh equivalent Cymru Cenedlaethol.

Dundee Corporation Tramways formerly served the City of Dundee in Scotland. The corporation had financed the construction of a horse tramway in 1877, but had then leased it to the Dundee and District Tramways Company. They had replaced most of the horse trams with steam tram locomotives pulling trailer cars from 1884, but in 1897 the corporation decided that it would run the tramway system itself. After some negotiation and the payment of compensation, they took over the system in 1899, with a view to electrifying it. Electric trams started running in 1900, and the changeover was completed in 1902.

Cardiff Corporation Tramways was a company that operated an electric tramway service in Cardiff between 1902 and 1950.

Cardiff Tramways Company operated a horse tramway service in Cardiff between 1872 and 1902.

Tyneside Tramways and Tramroads Company operated an electric tramway service in Gosforth, Wallsend and North Shields between 1902 and 1930.

Aberdare Urban District Council Tramways operated a tramway service in Aberdare between 1913 and 1935. It was the only system in the United Kingdom which consisted of a tramway with feeder services run by trolleybuses from the start. The trolleybuses used the Austrian Cedes-Stoll system, and became increasingly difficult to maintain. Parts of the trolleybus network were converted to tramways in the early 1920s, and the rest stopped operating in 1925, when no trolleybuses were available for service. The tramway continued for another ten years, but was closed in 1934 and 1935 as a result of a downturn in the prosperity of Aberdare, due to collieries closing and the population dwindling. Motor buses took over the local services once the tramway had closed.

Airdrie and Coatbridge Tramways operated a tramway service in Airdrie and Coatbridge between 1904 and 1922 when it was taken over by Glasgow Corporation Tramways.

Wigan Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Wigan, England, between 1901 and 1931. The first tramway service in the town was run by the Wigan Tramways Company, whose horse trams began carrying passengers in 1880. They began replacing horses with steam tram locomotives from 1882, but the company failed in 1890 when a Receiver was appointed to manage it. The Wigan & District Tramways Company took over the system in 1893 and ran it until 1902. Meanwhile, Wigan Corporation were planning their own tramway system, obtaining an authorising Act of Parliament in 1893, and a second one in 1898. This enabled them to build electric tramways, and in 1902, they took over the lines of the Wigan & District Tramways Company.

Bath Tramways Company and its successors operated a 4 ft horse drawn tramway service in Bath between 1880 and 1902. From 1903 until its closure in 1939 an expanded route carried electric trams operated by Bath Electric Tramways Company.

Pontypridd Urban District Council Tramways operated a tramway service in Pontypridd between 1904 and 1931. Part of it used the route of the Pontypridd and Rhondda Valley Tramway Company's horse tramway. Between 1919 and 1927, it was the only system in Wales where through running onto a neighbouring system occurred. In 1930, part of the system was converted to use trolleybuses, and the former horse tramway section was replaced by motor buses in 1931, bringing the tramway era to an end. During the Second World War, a number of trolleybuses were borrowed from other systems, to cope with heavy traffic, but the use of electric vehicles ended in 1957. Most of the vehicles were sold on to other undertakings, and the system was the last in Britain to be run by an Urban District Council.

Rhondda Tramways Company operated a tramway service in Rhondda, Wales, between 1904 and 1934.

Llanelly and District Electric Tramways operated a standard gauge tramway service in Llanelli, Wales, between 1908 and 1933. It was the successor to a 3 ft gauge horse tramway, which ran from 1882 until 1908. A complex series of negotiations took place in the early 1900s, resulting in the horse tramway being converted to an electric tramway. Standard gauge horse trams were run initially, until the company completed North Dock power station, which supplied electricity to the tramway. Two of the employees who worked on the construction went on to found Balfour Beatty.

Huddersfield Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Huddersfield, England, between 1883 and 1940. It initially used steam locomotives pulling unpowered tramcars, but as the system was expanded, a decision was taken to change to electric traction in 1900, and the first electric trams began operating in February 1901. The system was built to the unusual gauge of 4 ft 7+3⁄4 in, in the hope that coal wagon from neighbouring coal tramways, which used that gauge, could be moved around the system. This did not occur, but two coal trams were used to delivered coal to three mills.

The Provincial Tramways Company was a holding company for horse tramway companies in various regional towns of England. It was floated in July 1872 by means of a prospectus inviting public subscription for shares in the new company. The published prospectus lists the towns where it was proposed to operate horse tramways as Plymouth. Cardiff, Dundee. Portsmouth. Southampton and Tynemouth. Initially those in Plymouth and Cardiff were constructed and in operation as reported to the half yearly meeting of the company in 1873.

The Portsmouth Street Tramways Company operated horse tramways in Portsmouth, England. It was started under the terms of a Provisional Order of 1874 and was a wholly owned subsidiary company of The Provincial Tramways Company.

The Great Grimsby Street Tramways Company was a tramway serving Grimsby and Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire, England. It was a subsidiary of The Provincial Tramways Company. They opened a horse tramway in 1881, running from the Wheatsheaf Inn in Bargate to the border with Cleethorpes, with a branch along Freeman Street, and extended the line into Cleethorpes in 1887. It followed the trend of many British systems, and was converted to an electric tramway in December 1901. Small extensions were made to the system at both ends, but the basic plan of the system remained the same throughout its life.

Stockport Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Stockport, England, between 1901 and 1951. It was preceded by a horse tramway from Levenshulme to Stockport, which opened in 1880, and was ultimately run by the Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company. A second independent horse tramway opened in 1890, running to Hazel Grove. In 1899 the Corporation bought the first line, electrified it, and leased it back to the operating company. Their powers to buy the Stockport and Hazel Grove Tramway, authorised by the same Act of Parliament, were not exercised until 1905.

References

↑ Klapper, C. (1961) The Golden Age of Tramways. Published by Taylor and Francis.
1 2 3 Turner 1996, p. 179.
↑ Turner 1996, pp. 169–170.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Klapper, C. (1961) The Golden Age of Tramways. Published by Taylor and Francis.

[FOOTNOTETurner1996179-2] 1 2 3 Turner 1996, p. 179.

[FOOTNOTETurner1996169–170-3] Turner 1996, pp. 169–170.

[1]

[2]

[3]