Volume Ten - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - 1906 - A Visit to Penarth Dock. (Taff Vale Railway) . . .

The following article was published within the Railway Magazine [053] in its September 1906 edition. It contains the most precise explanation of the circumstances which drove the Directors of the Taff Vale Railway to facilitate the construction of Penarth Dock :

A Visit to Penarth Dock. (Taff Vale Railway).

'One of the most interesting functions in connection with the recent summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, held at Cardiff, was a visit to Penarth Dock and Tidal Harbour. Interest in the mechanical appliances at the docks had been stimulated by the reading of an admirable paper, for which Mr. T. Hurry Riches (locomotive superintendent Taff Vale Railway), and Mr. Thomas E. Heywood (district locomotive superintendent Penarth Dock), were jointly responsible, with the result that visitors, over 400 in number, journeyed to the dock next day, and previously to the inspection, were entertained by the Taff Vale Railway at a sumptuous luncheon, presided over by Mr. R. L. G. Vassall, the Railway's chairman.

The toast of " Success to the Taff Vale Railway " was proposed in felicitous terms by Mr. J. A. F. Aspinall, general manager Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and Mr. Ammon Beasley, general manager Taff Vale railway, in the course of an eloquent response, said that, although their line was only 124 miles long, and although only 70 miles covered what he might call the coal-carrying portion, they carried more coal in a year than any of the railway companies in the Kingdom, with the exception of the North-Eastern, the London and North-Western, and the Midland. They carried more than the Great Western, with its 6,750 miles. They had accounted for 400,000 tons of coal over their railway in one week. It was a daily experience for them to have a vessel coming into the dock early on tide and to give her a full load of 2,400 or 2,500 tons on the same tide before high water.

Steamer loading cargo and bunkers at the two new moveable tips, Penarth Dock.