RMweb Premium Andy Kirkham Posted February 9, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 9, 2013 One of my favourite railway books is The Red Dragon and Other Old Friends - an album of superb black-and-white photos of the Swansea area. On page 94 is a view taken in 1955 south of Briton Ferry station - in those days an elaborate multi-track layout. From the left (west) of the picture there emerges single narrow gauge track which crosses three standard gauge lines on the level and then swings round to run parallel to the standard gauge apparently between two pairs of running lines. It is not fenced off from the BR tracks. The caption says that the line belonged to the Briton Ferry Ironworks. Does anyone know anything about this line? What traffic did it carry and why did it have to weave through a busy mainline track layout? Did it interchange with BR or was it just passing through? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 Looking at R A Cooke's Signalling diagrams ( Section 50a, Neath to Port Talbot), a 'tramway' is shown running from Whitford Steel Sheet and Galvanising Works, around the top of Briton Ferry Dock, near the wonderfully named Walleroo Crossing, then into Briton Ferry Steelworks. No details of gauge etc are given, but the line was shown as late as 1959. My father worked at Briton Ferry Steelworks (part of RT& B) during WW2. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyD Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 It gets a short mention in the IRS Handbook "Industrial Locomotives of West Glamorgan" "A narrow gauge tramway serving the works was converted to locomotive operation in 1882. Narrow gauge traffic ceased and the track was lifted in 1959" It was 2ft 4 and a half inch gauge and latterly used two 0-4-0 saddle tanks "The Doll" Bagnall 1787/1905 and "B.F.W No 5" Bagnall 2062/1917. Andy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkea1 Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 I believe it ran from Briton Ferry Ironworks, in order to carry slag from the blast furnace. I have a photo in a book of Doll coupled to a narrow gauge slag ladle (which looks like a fairly standard Dewhirst design built to the narrow gauge). I'm aware of narrow gauge ironstone quarry lines, and the narrow gauge in the cold mill at Shotton Steelworks, but I'm not aware of another instance in the UK go the narrow gauge being used to transport molten slag. Incidentally, the blower house for the Briton Ferry blast furnace is still standing and can be seen if you look down at the east bank of the River Neath from the Briton Ferry bridge on the M4. It's on your left as you head westwards. If it is of interest I'll try and find the book with the photo. Alastair Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkea1 Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 See the sixth photo in the slide show on this BBC site http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/southwestwales/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8494000/8494079.stm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Kirkham Posted February 10, 2013 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 10, 2013 Thank you for all your replies so far. There is a photo of one of the locos at the bottom of this page http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/60/NG_Wagons.htm The close-together pair of buffers seems quite unusual. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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