Volume Four - An Era of Change, Uncertainty, Depression & War - Frederick Riden's contribution . . .

	There were a great many mineral, coal and ballast, as well as general merchandise goods wagons on the system in South Wales which required repair.

Also the capacity boundaries were being pushed and the older ten or twelve ton capacity coal wagons were being progressively replaced with new rolling stock such as this 21 ton coal wagon designed at Swindon for use at the GWR South Wales ports.

	As previously stated, my grandfather, Frederick John Riden (1872-1946) was born in the district of Bedminster, Somerset and became a boilermaker and engineer at Cardiff. He was, according to my late Mother, the engineer and owner of the Taff Wagon Company Limited this being the “Wagon Works” indicated in the track layout diagram for the Ferry Road area.

The company entered into a PSA (Private Sidings Agreement) with the GWR on the 26th July 1923, but within two years the works became the Principality Wagon Works. I am, therefore, unsure if Frederick was involved, had sold up, or perhaps was hit by the decline in the use of coal wagons and perhaps the looming Worldwide depression.

	The 1922 OS Map of Ferry Road district of Cardiff. The wagon works is near the fish meal factory – maybe the smell was the reason why grandfather left the Taff Wagon Company!