T

Taff Vale Railway

At first, coal was moved from the valleys in South Wales to the Bute Docks at Cardiff by the Glamorganshire Canal opened in 1798, which moved coal and iron from Merthyr Tydfil. As production rose, the canal proved inadequate and in 1836, the Taff Vale Railway received Parliamentary approval to build a line over the twenty-four miles between Merthyr and Cardiff. Although Brunel was appointed as the engineer, the standard gauge was adopted, doubtless to aid construction in the narrow valleys, although the line presented no significant engineering challenges. In 1839, the new Bute West Dock opened in Cardiff, and the Taff Vale opened in 1841. Two branches were soon added, and a further branch followed in 1845, between Abercynon and Aberdare, which had been the source of much of the coal from South Wales, although this was soon overtaken by the Rhondda.

The TVR was quick to enjoy considerable prosperity, paying an average dividend of 5 per cent during the 1850s, but by the 1880s it achieved a record of 14.9 per cent between 1880 and 1888, the highest dividend paid by any UK company over such a long period. This performance was all the more notable because of growing competition, most significantly from the Rhymney Railway after 1858, while the Bute Trustees, originally supporters of the TVR, soon switched to the Rhymney. The TVR responded by building a new port two miles down the River Taff at Penarth, leasing the operating company from 1862. As the congestion in the Cardiff docks continued to worsen, mine owners supported the building of yet another new port at Barry, with its own railway, which was another competitor for the TVR after 1889.

Not everything the TVR built turned to gold, and the 7 mile line built in 1892 to the small port of Aberthaw never succeeded in challenging the operations at Barry. Passenger traffic began to be encouraged during the 1890s, when services were increased by 40 per cent. Incredibly, in 1916, the TVR was able to obtain a court ruling to prevent the Cardiff Railway from opening a competing line near Taff’s Well. Earlier, in 1908, plans to merge with the Cardiff and Rhymney railways were rejected by Parliament, but the three companies were then run by the same general manager until merged into the GWR in 1923.

Talyllyn Railway

The Talyllyn Railway was authorised by an act of 1865 and was intended both as a slate line and as a passenger line from the outset. Running from Bryn Eglwys, south-east of Abergynolwyn to Towyn on the Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway. It was built to a demanding specification with many cuttings, bridges and embankments, to keep the maximum grading to 1 in 75, and to a gauge of 2ft 3ins to match that of the horse tramway in the Corris Valley (see Corris Railway). Unlike many such lines, it was a narrow gauge railway but not a light railway.

Lacking any association with other railways, the line never passed to the Great Western but remained independent, and passed into what must have been one of the first preservation societies when it was taken over by the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society in 1951.

Tay Bridge

The North British Railway’s route through the east of Scotland was punctuated by the wide estuaries or ‘firths’ of the Rivers Forth and Tay, across which the company ran train ferries. Nevertheless, this delayed through services north of Edinburgh and the crossings were often stormy and uncomfortable. Anxious to beat the Caledonian Railway for traffic to Dundee and Aberdeen, the North British commissioned first a bridge across the Tay from the north coast of Fife to Dundee, designed and built by Thomas Bouch, the bridge opened to traffic on 31 May 1878, and during summer 1879, HM Queen Victoria travelled by train across the bridge to bestow a knighthood on Bouch.

On a stormy night, 28 December 1879, the bridge collapsed as a train was running northwards across it, with the loss of all 72 people aboard. At first it was thought that the storm had blown the train over, destroying the bridge, but it soon became clear that the bridge had been badly designed, poorly constructed and without adequate supervision of its building or its maintenance. It was also the case that it was higher than it should have been to satisfy the Perth Harbour Commissioners, who were concerned that large sailing ships might not be able to proceed upstream. The train had been derailed because of poor construction and had struck the side of the bridge, bringing it down.

Bouch was disgraced and the appalling circumstances no doubt contributed to an early death. His plans for a bridge over the Forth, a form of suspension bridge, were scrapped and the work given elsewhere. William Barlow built a more substantial replacement that opened in 1887. The piers and other remains of the original bridge were demolished as a condition for authorisation for the new bridge, but the base of the piers can still be seen upstream of the existing bridge.

The importance of the Tay and Forth bridges was that, once completed, the through railway line meant that the East Coast main line became the faster and shorter option for passengers from London to Dundee and Aberdeen, Scotland’s fourth and third largest cities respectively.

Teign Valley Railway

A number of plans emerged for an inland railway between Exeter and Newton Abbot, but it took two railway companies to provide this line, with one of them, the Teign Valley Railway, needing no less than nine acts of Parliament to bring it to life, and another three afterwards, all for 7.75 route miles. While an alliance with the London & South Western railway was considered, the bankrupt company was eventually brought into the Great Western fold and once opened between Heathfield to Ashton in October 1882, it was worked by the GWR. Heathfield was on the broad gauge Moretonhampstead line, and the Teign Valley was standard gauge, so until the former was converted, the Teign Valley had an isolated existence with a single side tank locomotive and a handful of six-wheeled carriages. It was not until 1903 that the Exeter Railway, authorised in 1883, opened giving a through route from Exeter to Heathfield. The line’s full potential as a diversionary route when the Dawlish Sea Wall was closed due to bad weather was never realised as it suffered from severe gradients, and while the GWR persisted with this, the nationalised railway preferred taking the longer LSWR route via Okehampton.

Telford, Thomas, 1757-1834

Telford was an engineer of the canal age as well as a notable builder of roads, but he designed one railway, linking Berwick-on-Tweed with Glasgow, 125 miles away, to be worked by horses and cables powered by stationary steam engines, but it remained unbuilt. After he became president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1820, he was frequently consulted on the new railways, both by the promoters of railways and by the authorities, including inspecting lines before they opened, of which the most significant was the Liverpool & Manchester. He always recommended horse traction, although never opposed steam locomotives, and indeed late in life he began to draw comparisons over their performance, but he was not a mechanical engineer.

Thornton, Sir Henry Worth, 1871-1933

An American, he joined the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1894, and became general superintendent of its subsidiary, the Long Island Railroad in 1911. In 1914, he was persuaded to become general manager of the Great Eastern Railway, where he produced a new intensive suburban timetable, launched in October 1914. By this time, the First World War had started and he was appointed by the British government to take part in the running of the railways, being later appointed as inspector-general of transport, for which he was knighted in 1919.

He returned to the GER afterwards, and his new timetable in 1920 was widely acclaimed as the best that could be done with steam traction. On Grouping, he returned across the Atlantic to become president of the state-owned Canadian National Railways.

Timoleague & Courtmacsherry Light Railway

Opened in stages in 1890 and 1891, the Timoleague & Courtmacsherry Light Railway was built to Irish standard gauge and linked Courtmacsherry with Ballinascarthy. It became part of the Great Southern Railways in 1925 and was nationalised in 1945, losing its passenger services in 1947 and closing completely in 1961.

Tottenham & Forest Gate Railway

Jointly-owned by the Midland Railway and the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway, the Tottenham & Forest Gate Railway opened in 1894. Control passed to the Midland in 1912, and under grouping it became part of the London, Midland & Scottish.

Tralee & Dingle Light Railway

Incorporated in 1888 to build a 3ft gauge light railway using powers from the Tramways and Public Companies Act (Ireland) 1883, the Tralee & Dingle Light Railway linked the two towns in a remote area of Co Kerry. Opened in 1891, it was a loss maker, but a subsidy from the central and local authorities and by local landowners enabled a guaranteed 4 per cent dividend to be paid. The route mileage was 37½ miles, and it never operated more than eight locomotives. In 1925, it was absorbed by the Great Southern Railways. Passenger services were withdrawn in 1939, but workings of cattle trains continued until the line was closed completely in 1953, by which time it had been nationalised and part of Coras Iompair Eireann, CIE, since 1945.

Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association

Originally founded in Sheffield in 1897 as the National Association of General Railway Clerks, it became the Railway Clerks’ Association in 1898. The creation of a union was prompted by the poor working conditions and long hours of railway clerks, whose conditions were not affected by the various Factories Acts. Recruitment at first was difficult, and the union was nearly wound up in 1898. There were fears that union members would be passed over for promotion, but this was resolved by the Trade Disputes Act 1906. The RCA adopted a policy of encouraging Labour MPs to block railway bills until companies recognised the union, and was one reason why a bill to authorise a merger of the Great Central, Great Eastern and Great Northern Railways before the First World War was defeated. On the other hand, the union was not unduly militant in the workplace, refusing to join the August 1911 strike over union recognition. During the General Strike of 1926, less than half of its members stopped work. Membership grew to 25,791 by the end of 1913.

The current title was adopted in 1950; so that it became clear that membership was open to all railway clerical workers. This was the period when membership peaked at 91,514, helped by recruiting amongst newly nationalised concerns such as Thomas Cook. Today, its membership is less than 40,000.

Trevithick, Richard, 1771-1833

An enginewright in a Cornish tin mine, in 1800, he built a double acting high pressure engine that was soon adopted by the mines in Cornwall and South Wales. Next, between 1801 and 1803, he patented three high pressure steam road carriages, but despite demonstrations in Camborne and London, the vehicles were too heavy for the poor roads of the day. In 1804, he built a steam locomotive for the Penydarren ironworks near Merthyr Tydfil, which managed to haul a ten ton load over a 9½ mile tram-road, but again suffered from weight problems as the iron rails broke. The locomotive was modified to drive a hammer. A second locomotive was built but not used.

His third locomotive was named Catch-me-who-can, and completed in 1808, was used for rides on a circular track close to Euston. He then dissipated his energies on a variety of projects, including a steam dredger on the River Thames, but his innovations such as the blast pipe and return flue boiler and coupled wheels, were adopted by others. He wasted his not inconsiderable fortune on mining projects in South America and died virtually bankrupt.