Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - Some newspaper reports from the 1870's

The Penarth railway station is being built near the West House farm, about 150 yards from the main road, opposite St Fagan's Castle Hotel, and at the head of a cutting 15 feet deep, the material from which is utilised for forming the embankment which carries the railway from the girder bridge over the Penarth road to the wood to the south of Cogan Pill.

The contract has been taken by Mr Billups, contractor, Cardiff, who is pushing on the work very rapidly, in order that the line may be completed in November, the Taff Vale Railway Company, who are lessees of the Penarth Harbour, Dock and Railway, propose to lay down a line of rails on the Penarth railway, from the viaduct over the river Ely, to join the new line at Cogan. This will be specially used for passenger traffic. The rails from the Great Western Railway, by means of the junction at Grangetown, are connected with the Penarth railway, and thus a single line of rails, for passengers only, will extend nearly the whole distance between the Great Western Railway station, St Mary-street, and Penarth. It is not proposed, at present, to proceed with the extension from Penarth to Barry, for which parliamentary powers have been obtained.

The railway stations at Cogan and Penarth are stone-built structures of neat design, and are provided with waiting rooms and the usual accommodation for passengers. The railway passes through land and property of the Trustees of the Windsor estate, and they are sole proprietors of the railway. As soon as completed it will be leased to the Taff Vale Railway Company, who will work it, paying the proprietors a fixed dividend. The traffic between Cardiff and Penarth has been largely increased during the past two years. Buses ply between Cardiff and Penarth every half-hour, and two steam ferry-boats ply between Penarth and the Pier-head as frequently as the tide will admit. There is, therefore, every reason to believe that the new line of railway, while it will be a great accommodation to the inhabitants of Cardiff and Penarth, will also be a successful one also." Cardiff Times [019] 18th August 1877.

The station referred too as Cogan was actually the Penarth Dock and Harbour Station which opened on 29th February 1878. The map on the preceding page is the OS 1878 [010] and the bridge at 'A' is the modern entrance to the dock below Cogan hill, which is adjacent to the approach road to the Barry Railway Cogan Station. The girder bridge at 'B' is situated at the older entrance to the docks (prior to the 1883 dock extension works) and is situated at the rear of the garage on the Penarth side of the former Penarth Dock Railway Station building.