Porthcawl | |
|---|---|
 Porthcawl station in the 1940s | |
| General information | |
| Location | Porthcawl, Bridgend Wales |
| Coordinates | 51°28′52″N3°42′08″W / 51.4811°N 3.7021°W |
| Platforms | 3 |
| Other information | |
| Status | Disused |
| History | |
| Original company | Duffryn Llynfi & Porthcawl Railway |
| Key dates | |
| 1828 | Opened as tramway |
| 1865 | Converted to railway |
| 6 March 1916 | Rebuilt and resited |
| 9 September 1963 | Closed |
Porthcawl railway station served the seaside resort of Porthcawl in South Wales. It closed in 1963.
The first railway at Porthcawl was the 4 ft 7 in (1,397 mm) gauge Duffryn Llynvi and Porthcawl Railway, a horse-drawn tramway. Construction began in 1825 and it opened in 1829; the tram rails were laid on stone sleepers. It was built to carry minerals from South Wales to the harbour at Porthcawl. [1] It ran from Duffryn Llynfi near Maesteg, via Tondu and Pyle, and was extended to Bridgend in 1834.
The South Wales Railway, which passed through both Bridgend and Pyle, opened in 1850. The Llynfi Valley Railway took over the original company in 1847 and upgraded both the former tramway branches, reopening them as broad gauge railways on 10 August 1861. Porthcawl station opened 1 August 1865. The Llynfi Valley Railway merged with the Ogmore Valley Railway in 1866, creating the Llynvi and Ogmore Railway.
Despite the conversion to a railway, trains on the Porthcawl branch continued to be drawn by horses until 1868, when the system was altered again to standard gauge. The Llynvi and Ogmore Railway was taken over by the Great Western Railway in 1873. [2]
By the early 20th century, Porthcawl grew in importance as a destination for holiday traffic; in 1916, the GWR rebuilt the station on a new site. Despite the fact that it had been built a mile nearer to the seafront, the new station was not universally popular; the building was a rather insubstantial structure built of wood and asbestos and, whilst the original station had possessed a footbridge, the GWR did not supply one for the new station, despite the increase from two to three platforms. Passengers using the more remote platforms were obliged to make a long detour via a link at the end of the platforms. A special gate was provided at the end of the departure platform for the use of day-trippers. [3] The original station's turntable was not replaced, but remained derelict on-site for many years. In the decades following the opening of the new station, passenger numbers remained high, with around 70,000 passengers using the station. [4]
Its closure came in 1963, despite the fact that the branch was still well-used; the move was very unpopular with local businesses and residents alike. Poor ticket sales from Porthcawl station itself were used to justify the closure, but the fact that most travellers bought their tickets to, rather than from, Porthcawl (the ticket sale therefore recorded elsewhere), the plea was ignored. [1]
| Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nottage Halt Line and station closed | Great Western Railway Porthcawl branch | Terminus |
The trackbed is occupied by a road. The station building is used by the Porthcawl branch of the Sea Cadets.
Maesteg ( ) is a town and community in Bridgend County Borough, Wales. Maesteg lies at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with Neath Port Talbot. In 2011, Maesteg had a population of 20,612. The English translation of Maesteg is 'fair field'.
Tondu is a village in Bridgend County Borough, Wales, located about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the town of Bridgend, in the community of Ynysawdre.
The Maesteg Line is a commuter rail line in South Wales from Bridgend to Maesteg. Services usually operate hourly from Maesteg to Cardiff Central via the South Wales Main Line.
Pyle railway station is a minor station in Pyle in Bridgend county borough, south Wales. The station is located at street level at Beach Road in Pyle, 196 miles 40 chains (316.2 km) from the zero point at London Paddington, measured via Stroud.
The Garw Valley Railway is the trading name of the Bridgend Valleys Railway Company Limited. It operates a short section of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge railway located in South Wales, which is being recreated as a heritage railway. Formerly part of the Llynvi and Ogmore Railway (L&OR) and built by the Great Western Railway (GWR), the line was used for freight and passenger services, with most of the track still in place between Brynmenyn and Pontycymer. The project currently has a train shed at Pontycymer, and hopes to initially offer brake van rides between Pontycymer and Pant-y-Gog, a distance of 0.5 miles (0.8 km).
Tondu railway station is a railway station serving the village of Tondu, Bridgend county borough, South Wales. It is located on the Maesteg Line from Cardiff via Bridgend.
The Vale of Neath Railway (VoNR) was a broad gauge railway company, that built a line from Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare to Neath, in Wales, mostly to transport the products of the Merthyr iron industries to ports on Swansea Bay.
In 1861 the Llynvi Valley Railway was opened in Glamorganshire, Wales, to convey mineral products to the Bristol Channel at Porthcawl. It adopted an earlier tramroad, the Duffryn Llynvi and Porthcawl Railway. The Llynvi and Ogmore Railway was opened in 1865, and the two companies amalgamated to form the Llynvi and Ogmore Railway in 1866. At first Porthcawl harbour was an important destination for onward transport, but this soon declined.
The South Wales Railway was a main line railway which opened in stages from 1850, connecting the Great Western Railway from Gloucester to South Wales. It was constructed on the broad gauge. An original aspiration was to reach Fishguard to engender an Irish ferry transit and transatlantic trade, but the latter did not materialise for many years, and never became an important sector of the business. Neyland was the western terminus of the line until 1906.
Ogmore Vale is a village in the county borough of Bridgend, Wales on the River Ogmore. The village's main source of income came from coal mining. Up until the year 1865, the Ogmore valley was a quiet, isolated, rural hill farming community of less than ten farms and a few cottages. Today, along with Nantymoel and Price Town it makes up the community of Ogmore Valley.
The Vale of Glamorgan Railway Company was built to provide access to Barry Docks from collieries in the Llynfi, Garw and Ogmore valleys. Proposed by the coalowners but underwritten by the wealthy Barry Railway Company, it opened in 1897 from near Bridgend to Barry, in Wales.
The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway was a Welsh railway company formed to connect the upper end of the Rhondda Fawr with Swansea, with the chief objective of transporting coal and other minerals to Swansea docks. It was incorporated in 1882, but at first the connection to Swansea from Briton Ferry was refused.
The Severn and Wye Railway began as an early tramroad network established in the Forest of Dean to facilitate the carriage of minerals to watercourses for onward conveyance. It was based on Lydney, where a small harbour was constructed, and opened its line to Parkend in 1810. It was progressively extended northwards, and a second line, the Mineral Loop was opened to connect newly opened mineral workings.
John Brogden and Sons was a firm of Railway Contractors, Iron and Coal Miners and Iron Smelters operating, initially as a general contractor, from roughly 1828 until its bankruptcy in 1880.
The Port Talbot Railway and Docks Company (PTR&D) was formed in 1894 to secure the means of bringing minerals, chiefly coal, to the harbour in South Wales. It took over the docks at Port Talbot that had been operated by the Port Talbot Company. It opened its main line in 1897 and reached a connection with the Great Western Railway Garw Valley line the following year. A branch line to collieries near Tonmawr also opened in 1898. The lines were extremely steeply graded and operation was difficult and expensive, but the company was successful. Passenger operation on the main line started in 1898, but this was never a principal part of the business. For some time most of the passenger train service was operated by a railmotor that was the largest ever to work in the United Kingdom. Also in 1898 the Ogmore Valleys Extension (OVE) line, a part of the PTR&D, was opened. It had been projected as a defensive measure against competitive incursion, and it led from Margam Junction towards Tondu.
The Llantrisant and Taff Vale Junction Railway was a railway company that constructed a standard gauge line in South Wales, connecting Llantrisant and the Taff Vale Railway near Treforest. It ran through thinly populated country, and linked to a number of iron mines, collieries and other mineral sites. It opened in stages in 1863 and 1864. In 1865 through passenger trains from the Cowbridge Railway ran over the line, to Pontypridd, although for some time there were no passenger stations on its own network. At the Llantrisant end, it was reliant on broad gauge railway companies which were not always friendly to it. The company leased its line to the Taff Vale Railway in 1870.
The Ely Valley Railway (EVR) was a broad gauge railway company in South Wales, which opened a mineral line between Llantrisant station on the South Wales Railway main line and pits at Mwyndy and Penrhiwfer in 1860.
Margam Knuckle Yard is a railway yard in Margam, South Wales, on the South Wales Main Line, operated by DB Schenker Rail (UK). The yard is the major freight yard of the region, handling all of the rail freight movements from Port Talbot Steelworks, and most of the railfreight traffic around South Wales.
Nottage Halt railway station was a small halt on the Porthcawl branch line, serving the village of Nottage, near Porthcawl, in Bridgend County Borough, South Wales.