The Barry Railway

Acts of Parliament

In 1884, with tough opposition and on the second attempt, the Barry Dock and Railway Company Act was passed. This opened the way for a new dock at Barry, and a rail link to the Rhondda, relieving congestion and a practical monopoly charging ‘extortionate’ fees to export from Cardiff.

Dock construction began in November 1884, along with 27 miles of new railway and sidings, linking Barry to Trehafod, Rhondda. Thousands of navvies arrived, and Barry town exploded out of what was previously only a tiny hamlet. Rapid growth and poor sanitation led to a ‘lawless and unsanitary place’. Barry was likened to a frontier town of the American West.

The dock opened in 1889, the railway the same day, reserved for coal and freight. The previous December, a light freight and passenger line was laid from Cogan to Barry. In 1891, Barry Railway changed its name to The Barry Railway Company, losing the word ‘dock’ which had seen shares placed in a disadvantageous category.

The first dock was immediately successful, and 1893 saw a further act passed to build a second.

In 1896, Barry Island Station opened. Later, the line was extended to Barry Pier by tunnelling through the Island. Located between the breakwaters of the outer tidal basin, the pier served steamboat passengers. The ‘Great Civiliser’ as the railways had become known, had arrived. Sanitation and roads improved, and the cleansing of Barry’s unsanitary and lawless reputation began.

Further Taff and Vale concessions allowed Barry Railway to operate passenger trains from Porth in the Rhondda via the new line. Having previously been reserved for minerals only, new passenger stations were required, at Wenvoe, Creigiau, Efail Isaf, Treforest and Pontypridd. And so began a steady increase of seasonal visitors to Barry Island from the valleys.

New lines

The Vale of Glamorgan Railway Act of 1889 called for a new line between Barry and Coity, Bridgend, for coal owners in the Llynvi, Garw and Ogmore Valleys, limited by shipping capacities at Porthcawl. This was run by Barry Railway and opened in December 1897.

The new Bridgend line included the viaduct at Porthkerry, which suffered subsidence in early 1898 and had to be bypassed while it was secured. The viaduct was finally reopened in Jan 1900. More concessions and new lines followed allowing Barry Railway to serve parts of the wider valleys. They also operated on the St Fagans to Cardiff line. But passenger traffic to Barry Island from the valleys was of course seasonal.

Woodham’s scrapyard

After World War I, government plans heralded the end of the Barry Railway Company. The Railways Act of 1921 forced the railways to restructure in what was called the “grouping”. Barry Railway Company was incorporated into the new Great Western Railway group, along with the original GWR and others.

Modernisation and the 1957 Beeching Report resulted in 650,000 wagons and 16,000 steam locomotives being scrapped. British Railways couldn’t scrap them fast enough and Woodham’s of Barry began purchasing these wagons and locomotives through tender. They were stored in huge numbers at the oil terminal, and sidings built on reclaimed land where the docks West Pond had been. By August 1968 Dai Woodham had purchased 297 locomotives, of which 217 then remained at the Barry scrapyard. Although he scrapped the wagons, he sold most of the engines to steam locomotive enthusiasts. By 1989, Dai had sold more than 200 steam locomotives at scrap metal value, for preservation. The collection of engines was affectionately known as the ‘train graveyard’ and the Barry Tourist Railway took on several of the last remaining engines when the site was cleared.