Valley Lines
Region North Wales Mid Wales South Wales National Network Route Sections Gazetteer of Stations About Wales	Arriva Trains Wales services on the Merthyr Tydfil Branch This  is an extract from the page on Valley Lines. To access the main site select either the Taff Valleys and Cardiff section, the Rhymney Valley, Cardiff and coast section, or the full version which combines the two. Select one of these links to return to the Gazetteer of Stations or Route Sections page. Trevithick 1804-2004 February 21 2004 marked the 200th anniversary of the first steam train to run on rails. The historic journey began in Merthyr Tydfil, and throughout 2004, a series of commemorative events took place, which can be reviewed here. Search WalesRails .......... Message Board	Preserved: Standard gauge Narrow gauge WalesRails: The Grand Tour Official Websites What's New Back to Welcome page

Other stations on the branch (with journey times from Merthyr) are: Pentrebach (3 minutes); Troedyrhiw (6); Merthyr Vale ((9); Quakers Yard (14); Abercynon South (18) and Pontypridd (24). Select here for stations between Cardiff and Pontypridd.

...on the route include the town of Merthyr Tydfil itself, which has many sites of historic significance such as Cyfarthfa Castle and the Ynysfach engine house. Iron working made it the largest town in South Wales, until the late-1840s when the growth of coal mining in the valleys areas led to the development of Cardiff as one of the world's major ports. It was from the Penydarren ironworks that the world's first steam-hauled train ran in 1804 when ten tons of pig iron and some seventy passengers were hauled nine-and-a- half miles to join the Glamorgan Canal basin at Navigation House (present-day Abercynon), and a number of commemorative events were planned for the bicentenary in 2004.
Near Pentrebach station is the world's first railway tunnel through which the Penydarren locomotive hauled its train on its pioneering run. At Tramroad in Merthyr Tydfil and alongside the fire station in Abercynon are monuments commemorating the event; while between Edwardsville (near Quakers Yard) and Mount Pleasant (near Merthyr Vale) it is possible to walk part of the original route which, in places, still has some of the stone rail chairs in situ (pictured left.
Rhydycar Sports Centre at Merthyr offers indoor leisure facilities, while all of the stations on the route give access to the Taff Trail which runs from Cardiff to Brecon (the section pictured right is near Aberfan). Designed specifically for cyclists and walkers, walks of any length can be taken by getting off at one station and walking to another. There is a cycle hire facility at Radyr (see Cardiff and Pontypridd section below).
Across the valley from Merthyr Vale station is Aberfan cemetery, which has a memorial to the 144 people (mostly children) who lost their lives in October 1966 when a colliery waste tip slid down the mountainside and engulfed the village primary school.

This page is an extract from the Valley Lines pages. To access the main site select either the Taff Valleys and Cardiff section, the  Ebbw Vale (Western Valleys), Rhymney Valley, Cardiff and coast section, or the full version which combines the two.
Select this link to return to the Gazetteer of Stations or Route Sections page.

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Copyright © 1996/7/8/9/2000/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8 by Deryck Lewis. All rights reserved.
Page created July 14 1996; Redesigned March 29 1999; Updated February 6 2008
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