cardiff Cathays shed/works/wagon works???

[18B]

evening, 

 

just getting a little confused between the buildings at Cardfiff Cathays, 

 

what exactly where there, 

 

cardiff Cathays shed/works/wagon works??? 

[The Johnster]

Briefly, they were two separate and quite large premises, a loco shed and a wagon works.  The loco shed, later dmu depot, was on the west side of the TVR main line between Woodville Road and North Road overbridges; it was the Taff's main passenger loco depot in Cardiff.  The site is now occupied by the University Library building where the shed itself was and student flats in the yard.  The wagon works was on the other side of the line, to it's east, and is now also occupied by student flats and the University's Business School, as well as a Lidl store at the southern end, in between the railway and Maindy Road.  The shed, 88A under BR's coding system, closed in 1964 and it's remaining locos went to Radyr; the dmus went to Canton.  The wagon works lasted longer, until the mid 80s, latterly under the auspices of the Pullman Company who maintained their own vehicles there and did contract work for BR.  The site was not redeveloped and the buildings were still extant until 2000.

 

A British Railways Staff Association club was incorporated into the wagon works site, but accessed directly from Maindy Road.  Two halts were associated with the complex, opened by the Taff when they introduced steam railmotors, 'Woodville Road', actually south of the bridge and accessed by the lane at the back of Park Place; the site can be distinguished by a raised part of the stone wall separating this lane from the railway.  The current Cathays station is just to the south of this.  The other, 'Maindy' was near the North Road bridge and accessed from a path from the bridge approach.  Both were single low platforms to the up (northbound) line and the service terminated at Maindy, using a trailing crossover to access the down line to return to Queen Street and Bute Road.  Thus a journey from Woodville Road to Queen Street began in the wrong direction and ran via Maindy.  It lasted until about 1960.

 

To the south of Woodville Road bridge were the Senghenydd Road coal storage sidings, the site now occupied by the Student's Union building which straddles the track just south of Cathays station, a car park, and more student flats; the University is the major player in this part of town!  

 

To the north of the North Road bridge on the west side of the line was another wagon works, this time a private industry one, Powell Dyffryn, which IIRC closed in the early 70s.  Guess what occupies the site now?  That's right, more student accommodation.

[John-Miles]

The university (this is Cardiff University as opposed to Cardiff Met or the University of South Wales) has been very fortunate in that as the railway gave up land in the area, they were able to use it to extend the campus. In addition to The Johnster's contribution about, there are student flats on the site of Salisbury Road goods depot, the maths department is on the land south of the Students' Union and the western side of the Engineering Buildings which are on the North Side of Newport Road are where the Rhymney lines and Parade station were. Up until the late 1980s, next to the road bridge immediately north of Queen Street station, there was a BR Staff Club and a road alongside it called Rhymney Approach.

[The Johnster]

Rhymney Approach was in fact originally the road acccess to Crockherbtown, the Rhymney’s passenger terminus in Cardiff, replaced post-grouping by extending Queen Street.  It was not a terminus in the buffer stop sense, as the line continued across Newport Road on an overbridge to access the docks.  Crockerbtown was also the passenger terminus for the Cardiff Railway, which had running powers for it’s railmotor service to Rhydfelin over the Rhymney as far as Heath Jc; this is now the Coryton Branch.  

 

Working as a Valleys Link passenger guard at Canton back in the 70s, on a Coryton-Bute Road shuttle, a little old lady of the particularly sweet and genteel sort boarded at Rhiwbina, a suburb where these sorts were not uncommon, and asked me for a return to Crockherbtown.  Taken aback for no more than a second, I printed up a Queen Street return on the Setrite and explained that we were going to arrive at the Taff Vale station.  

 

She seemed quite happy with this, as ‘it’s that little bit nearer the shops, isn’t it, and I shan’t have to cross the road with those trams’.  Made my day, love her!

 

There was another BRSA near the street entrance to Long Dyke yard on Sanquhar Street.