Brecon and Merthyr Railway

The Brecon and Merthyr Junction Railway (B&MJR) was one of several railways that served the industrial areas of South Wales and Monmouthshire. It ranked fifth amongst them in size, although hemmed in by the Taff Vale Railway (TVR) and Great Western Railway (GWR). It notably gained the unfortunate nickname of "Breakneck and Murder Railway" owing to a certain tendency towards having accidents - which, owing to the steep gradients, were generally rather severe.

History

The B&MJR was once described as a "lively octopus in a tank of sharks", but despite the aggressive activities of the "sharks", it survived until the railway grouping. In the process, it absorbed several smaller companies and by negotiating running powers over the lines of other companies, it established links between Newport Docks in Newport and Brecon, and hence into Mid-Wales.

As early as 1836, Sir John Josiah Guest, of the Dowlais iron Works, had written of his proposal to construct a railway linking Dowlais to the valley of the River Usk, and possibly also running into Brecon. The line would have pretty nearly covered the same route as was eventually adopted by the B&MJR. A similar proposal suggested a line running up the Taf Fawr valley over the Brecon Beacons via Storey Arms and thence to Brecon.

The company was established by a Bill of 1858, with the directors including several prominent Brecon citizens. The Beacons tunnel (also known as Torpantau) was completed by 1862, and runs between Brecon and Pant commenced in 1863. The complicated series of amalgamations (including its originator the Hay Railway,a tram-road worked by horses opened in 1816) can best be appreciated here to explain how the B&MJR came about. In fact the B&MJR used the Hay Railway as the basis for its route between Talyllyn and Brecon. This included the tramroad tunnel (see below) at Talyllyn which required widening and deepening to allow the passage of standard gauge trains.

The system eventually came to comprise two sections of lines:

• The Southern section, effectively the consumed Rumney Railway, which linked Bassaleg (where there were connections with the GWR and the London and North Western Railway) and the ironworks town of Rhymney, near the head of the Rhymney Valley. The RR/TVR ran up the same valley in parallel with the B&MJR, and the wholly separate Rhymney Railway
• The Northern section linked Deri junction by means of running powers over a section of the Rhymney Railway in the Bargoed Rhymney Valley to Pant, Pontsticill and Brecon via a tunnel through the Brecon Beacons. From the tunnel the line descended towards Talybont on a continuous 1-in-37 gradient known as the "Seven Mile Bank". For southbound trains this presented the steepest continuous ascent on the British railway network.

Initially, the only connection to Merthyr Tydfil was by means of a horse-drawn bus from Pant, but, by 1868, a connection with Merthyr had been established by sharing lines with Vale of Neath, London and North Western and Taff Vale railways. This involved the building of nearly seven miles of line from Pontsticill to Merthyr, with an almost continuous descent of 1 in 45-50, two complete reversals of direction and the construction of two viaducts to carry the line over the Taf Fechan at Pontsarn, and the Taf Fawr at Cefn Coed. The Pontsarn viaduct is 455 feet (139 m) long and 92 feet (28 m) height, whilst the Cefn Coed (or Pontycapel) viaduct is 770 feet (230 m) long with a height of 115 feet (35 m).

The section to the north of Pant was primarily a passenger service, serving isolated farms and villages. South of Pant, it was mainly a mineral line and carried coal from the mines down to the Newport Docks.

Tunnels

To develop routes into and through the rugged South Wales landscape, it was forced to construct two tunnels:

• The Torpantau tunnel through the Beacons was 666 yards (609 m) long, and reached by a three mile (5 km) ascent. Exiting from the tunnel, the line descended along the side of Glyn Collwyn (now flooded to form a reservoir) to the River Usk at Talybont, and thence to Brecon. It was the highest above sea level anywhere in Britain.

• A second tunnel was situated at Talyllyn located about 5 miles (8.0 km) to the east of Brecon, just after Talyllyn Junction, (with the Cambrian railway). This tunnel is 674 yards (616 m) long, and was originally built in 1816 for the Hay Railway (see above); it survived long enough to become the oldest in regular use on Britain's railways.

Rolling stock

• Locomotives: 35 Several of those were still running post-WWII
• Coaching stock: 69
• Goods vehicles (mainly coal): 629. Collieries also provided some, including Powell Dyffryn. By 1913, the line carried nearly 3.5 million tons a year of coal and 227,000 tons of other minerals.

World War One

The line was used in World War I by intensive coal trains, dubbed 'Jellicoe Specials', from the South Wales Coalfield travelling north towards Scapa Flow via the Mid Wales Line for use by warships of the Royal Navy.^[1]

"The slow train"

Prior to the two sections of line being linked, the train services had been somewhat unpunctual, with unconnected timetables, and the company acquired the unenviable reputation of operating "slow trains". They became the butt of music-hall jokes.

Officers

Locomotive Superintendents

• J. T. Simpson (1863–1869)
• T. Mason (1869–1873)
• C. Long (1873–1888)
• E. C. Owen (1888–1922)

Post-grouping

The end of the Brecon and Merthyr

The line was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway following the Grouping. The ex-B&MJR system survived nationalisation into British Railways, but most were eventually closed during and after the Beeching Axe. By 1980 only one short section of 10.5 miles (16.9 km) survived, serving coal traffic to Bedwas Navigation Colliery. With the demise of the coal industry in Britain the section between Bedwas and Machen was closed in 1985. The section between Machen and Bassaleg Junction (with the GWR Ebbw Valley line) remains to serve Hanson's limestone quarry.

Partial resurrection of the Brecon and Merthyr

In 1980 a private company, the Brecon Mountain Railway, began to build a narrow-gauge steam-hauled tourist line on the existing 5.5-mile (8.9 km) trackbed from Pant through Pontsticill to Dol-y-gaer. The initial section of 1.75 miles (2.82 km) from Pant to Pontsticill opened in June 1980. Plans exist to extend the line to Torpantau.

References

• The Brecon and Merthyr Railway, by D S Barrie. Oakwood Press, 1957–1980
• A Brief History of Merthyr Tydfil, by Joseph Gross. Starling Press, 1980
• The Early History of the Old South Wales Iron Works, John Lloyd, 1906

External links

• Historical notes including maps of system
• Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway
• The Brecon Mountain Railway
• Brecon and Merthyr Railway Company on the Cardiffrail Website
• Alan George's The Photographic History Of Merthyr Tydfil