The Rumney Railway in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

was a

plateway A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later. Plateways consisted of L-shaped rails, where the flange ...

built to connect the ironworks at

Rhymney Rhymney (; ) is a town and a community (Wales), community in the county borough of Caerphilly (county borough), Caerphilly, South Wales. It is within the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshir ...

to the Monmouthshire Canal Company's tramroad near Newport, providing a connection the wharves at the

Newport Docks Newport Docks is the collective name for a group of docks in the city of Newport, south-east Wales. By the eighteenth century there were a number of wharves on the west shore of the River Usk; iron and coal were the principal outward traffic. Th ...

. The line was opened in 1826. It was later converted to a

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

History

The company was incorporated by the ( 6 Geo. 4. c. lxii) and the line, engineered by George Overton, opened the following year worked by horses. The line ran down the east side of the River Rhymney to Machen where the route left the river to head east towards Newport. It made a junction with the Monmouthshire line at the top end of that part of the company's route, known as the Park Mile, on its way to the shipping places on the River Usk at Newport. Sir Charles Morgan built and maintained the section where it ran through the park of his

Tredegar House Tredegar House (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Tŷ Tredegar'') is a 17th-century Charles II of England, Charles II-era mansion in Coedkernew, on the southwestern edge of Newport, Wales. For over five hundred years it was home to the Morgan family, late ...

. The line operated in a similar way to a toll road and traders introduced steam locomotives in the 1840s. In 1856

Crawshay Bailey Crawshay Bailey (1789 – 9 January 1872) was an English industrialist who became one of the great iron-masters of Wales. Early life Bailey was born in 1789 in Great Wenham, Suffolk, the son of John Bailey, of Wakefield and his wife Susannah ...

purchased a plateway locomotive from the Monmouthshire company for the Rumney Railway, implying that the company was operating the line with its own locomotives. The Monmouthshire company converted its lines in the Western Valleys to standard gauge in the 1850s. In 1861 Lord Tredegar (Chairman) and Crawshay Bailey (Director) obtained an act of Parliament, the ( 24 & 25 Vict. c. ccxxvii) to reincorporate the Rumney Railway as a railway company, with powers to reconstruct the line as a standard gauge railway. Also obtained were powers to make a branch to join the

Rhymney Railway The Rhymney Railway (RR) was a railway company in South Wales, founded to transport minerals and materials to and from Colliery, collieries and ironworks in the Rhymney Valley of South Wales, and to docks in Cardiff. It opened a main line in 18 ...

at Caerphilly and to sell or lease the undertaking to either the Monmouthshire Railway or the

West Midland Railway The West Midland Railway was an early British railway company. It was formed on 1 July 1860 by the ( 23 & 24 Vict. c. lxxxi) which merged several older railway companies. It was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 1 August 1863. It ...

. However, little was done to improve the line and it remained a plateway until it was acquired by the

Brecon and Merthyr Railway The Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway (B&MR) was a railway company in Wales. It was originally intended to link the towns in its name. Finding its access to Merthyr difficult at first, it acquired the Rumney Railway, an old plateway, an ...

by the ( 26 & 27 Vict. c. ccii) of 28 July 1863. The reconstructed line was finally passed as safe for passengers by the Board of Trade Inspector on his third visit, and opened to passenger traffic through to the Monmouthshire Railway's Newport (Dock Street) station on 14 June 1865.

References

External links

Rumney Railway at railbrit.co.uk
{{Historical Welsh railway companies Industrial railways in Wales Early Welsh railway companies Great Western Railway constituents Rail transport in Newport, Wales Railway lines in Wales History of Monmouthshire Railway lines opened in 1826 4 ft 2 in gauge railways in Wales Horse-drawn railways 1826 establishments in Wales