Penarth Dock, South Wales - 150 years - the heritage and legacy  
Penarth Dock, South Wales - the heritage & legacy . . .
Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - Activity at the docks . . .
The sidings at Llandough in the late 1880's as seen from Penarth Dock and Harbour Station

The sidings at Llandough in the late 1880's as seen from Penarth Dock and Harbour Station with a TVR 0-6-0 “L” class in the foreground. There were seven engines that fit this description, one being built by the "Cardiff" engine works and the remainder by "Kitson" between the years 1874 and 1885.

The shunting loco in the sidings is thought to be a former Metropolitan Railways 0-6-2T engine. The capacity of the sidings was significantly increased by 1901 through the addition of ten or more lines eventually there were 28 miles of sidings available. The signal box built in 1889 was closed by 1899 and subsequently replaced with a larger box. [026] [033] [139]

 
The sidings at Llandough in the late 1880's as seen from Penarth Dock and Harbour Station.

The same photo, only slightly clearer and with the signal included! It features in John Hutton's excellent reference book 'The Taff Vale Railway' - Volume 3. [197]

Horses were also used to shunt wagons at the docks and life as a shunter was hard and dangerous whether using steam or equine power, and especially in the darkness at midnight, as this report taken from the Railway Review [141] of 4th January 1884 illustrates:

"Accident at the Penarth Docks.- On last Thursday midnight Chas. McCarthy, 19, of 37, Tyndall-street, was admitted to the Infirmary badly injured. He had been engaged near the new dock, and was driving a team of horses attached to some railway trucks, when his foot slipped and got fast in the points. He was unable to extricate himself, and the wagons coming in contact with him knocked him down and passed over his leg. Amputation of the injured limb above the knee became necessary."

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