Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) . . .

In 1849, a letter was sent by Mr. Isambard Kingdom Brunel to Mr. George Fisher as he had caused an employee to break rule number 380 in asking his resident engineer on the TVR project to ride on the engine : -

“Mr. Brunel requested me to inform you that he took the liberty of riding on one of your Engines, yesterday, from Merthyr and being contrary to your rules, and the Engine Driver being anxious that you should be informed of it, Mr. B wished me to tell you that no blame attached to the man, and that he will feel obliged by your not noticing this apparent neglect of duty.”

A company engineer, Price Williams recalled an account of Mr B. with an “incorruptible guard” at Dowlais Station regarding TVR Rule No. 50 : -

“I had been up to Dowlais and was quietly smoking a cigar on the platform waiting for a train back to Cardiff when, Merrick very respectfully came and reminded me that smoking was strictly prohibited on the platform. I strolled out into the Goods Yard, as there was some little time to wait before the the train started, and on my return I requested Merrick to reserve a compartment for me, which he did. When well out of the station, and I was comfortably enjoying a smoke, to my surprise there was a tapping on the window, and Merrick’s face appeared. In the most sorrowful tones he said, ‘There you are, at it again, Mr Brunel, a-breaking the rules.’ I at once let down the window and handed him a tip, but Merrick in a more saddened voice exclaimed, ‘Oh! Mr. Brunel, you don’t surely think so badly of me as that. I am only doing my duty.”

The Glamorgan Gazette published the foregoing account on the 18th December 1908 [862] [361] and explained that the cigar incident occurred whilst Mr Brunel was a guest of the TVR on a visit to the Dinas Collieries in the early 1850's with his relative, the late Mr. Walter Coffin, who was at that time the Chairman of the TVR. Apparently, it was the aroma of a large Lopez cigar that pervaded the air.

'During the same journey Mr. Brunel was asked by the chairman which seat he considered the safest in the railway carriage. He replied, "Not where you are sitting Mr. Coffin, right over the front wheel. One of my friends was sitting in that position when the end of a nail (not fastened with fishplates in those days) ran up the tyre on the wheel and spitted him like a trussed fowl."