South Wales Mineral Railway

South Wales Mineral Railway
Legend Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway South Wales Main Line Briton Ferry Ynysymaerdy Incline Tonmawr Junction closed 31.5.1910 Tonmawr Colliery Cwm Pelenna Colliery Gyfylchi Tunnel (1109 yds) closed 1947 Llynvi and Ogmore Railway to Maesteg Cymmer (Corrwg) closed 1930 South Pit Halt Glyncorrwg North Rhondda Clyncorrwg Colliery

The South Wales Mineral Railway was a broad gauge railway at Briton Ferry, Glamorgan, Wales. It only operated goods trains. It was leased to the Glyncorrwg Coal Company, which became the Glyncorrwg Colliery Company Limited in 1870. It was transferred to the Great Western Railway on 1 January 1908. The railway is closed but it now forms part of the Afan Valley Cycleway in the Afan Forest Park.

Route

Briton Ferry - Tonmawr - Cymmer - Glyncorrwg

A map showing the relative positions of the South Wales Mineral Railway, the Port Talbot Railway, the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway and the Great Western Railway can be found here.

Chronology

• 1853 South Wales Mineral Railway authorised by Act of Parliament
• 1861 Opened from Briton Ferry to Tonmawr
• 1863 Railway completed to Glyncorrwg
• 1872 Converted to standard gauge
• 1908 Sold to the Great Western Railway

Locomotives

Main article: Locomotives of the Great Western Railway

Broad gauge

The Glyncorrwg Coal Company provided four or five different locomotives to work the South Wales Mineral Railway. One or two were withdrawn after a couple of years and little is known about them.

Princess was a small 0-4-0ST tank engine built by Manning Wardle and Company in 1863 (works no. 74). It was converted to standard gauge as an 0-6-0ST.

Glyncorrwg and another, which name is unknown, were a pair of Manning, Wardle 0-4-2ST locomotives. Glyncorrwg was built in 1864 (works no. 116). In 1872 it was sold to Roland Brotherhood, an engineer at Chippenham, who then sold it on to the Bristol and Exeter Railway. It lost its name and became No. 110, changing to 2058 when it became the property of the Great Western Railway in 1876. It was finally withdrawn in 1881. The second 0-4-2ST was built in 1866 (works no. 136) but in 1869 went to work on the Newquay and Cornwall Junction Railway where it was named Newquay. In 1874 the line passed to the Cornwall Minerals Railway, being withdrawn by them in 1877.

Standard gauge

In 1902 there were five standard gauge locomotives, all 0-6-0 saddle tanks. Nos. 1 to 4 were built at the GWR's Wolverhampton railway works in 1872/1873 and these may have been standard GWR 645 Class locomotives. No. 5 was built by Black, Hawthorn & Co in 1891 (works no. 1028).

No locomotives still exist this day into preservation.

External links

• South Wales Mineral Railway
• Schematic of railway route
• BBC Wales website "Age Of The Train"
• Forestry Commission Wales - River & Railway Walk 3