Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - Some newspaper reports from the 1880's

- that the existing dock accommodation at Penarth was inadequate to the demands made upon it, and thereupon the Harbour, Dock, and Railway Company went to Parliament and successfully sought for powers to extend their system by making a substantial addition to their present dock. This was also leased to the Taff Vale Company, who have guaranteed a dividend of 5¼ per cent. on the completion of the work. To be plain, the Taff Vale Company may be said to be the virtual proprietors, for their lease extends over a period of 999 years, and probably by the end of that time a fresh set of docks may be slightly necessary. I hope I need not explain that this supposed to be "my little joke."

The contract for the new undertaking was given to Mr. T. A. Walker, whose name is familiar to us all in these parts as having successfully built the new dock at Swansea, and who at present moment, in addition to some other gigantic enterprises, is fulfilling the mighty task of joining the Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire coasts - in other words, connecting South Wales with England - by tunneling beneath the broad waters of the Severn. . . .

. . . As I said Mr. Parker represents the contractor at Penarth, and he has under his direction nearly a thousand men, who are engaged in constructing the addition to the dock. One of the first obstacles with which the engineers had to contend was the removal of something like a small mountain which stood exactly and provokingly in the way. But engineers do not stick at trifles in these days, and the work of demolishing a hill 78 feet above the quay level was commenced with a will, and now the formidable obstruction is cleared away, and day-light may be said to have been let in between the levels in the neighbourhood of the Dock Station and the town of Penarth, standing boldly out on the promontory beyond. Chiefly instrumental in clearing away the many thousands of cubic feet of marl and earth of which the elevation was composed of five "steam navvies," scope for their action being, of course, previously made by blasting, of which a word anon.

The "steam navvy" is a piece of machinery simple enough in its construction, but is capable of performing Herculean labours. Attached by chains to a powerful lever which is set in motion by steam, is a strong "bucket," as it is called, which in shape resembles one of the old-fashioned coal-scuttles affected by our grandfathers and grandmothers, but is of much larger proportions. This bucket is worked up the face of the debris which has been formed by the operation of blasting, and having filled itself is emptied by the mechanical arrangement in an ordinary ballast truck which is placed conveniently on metals connected with the main line. The capacity of this gigantic scuttle may be gauged from the knowledge that it lifts more than a ton of material which it is set to clear away.