Volume Ten - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Even more aspects - The Chronology of the Proposed Ely Branch : 1834 to 1851 . . .

• 1835 : Taff Vale or Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff Railway. NOTICE is hereby given, that Application is intended to be made to Parliament in the ensuing Session, for an Act to make and maintain a Railway . . .

• 1836 - On the 21st June 1836 a Parliamentary Bill was enacted, For making a Railway from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff, to be named 'The Taff Vale Railway', with branch lines and authorising a 25 mile long single track of standard gauge way 4ft. 8½in. complete with six passing places. The Taff Vale Railway Company was formed with a capital sum of £300,000 comprised of £100 shares.

On the 16th July 1836, The Taff Vale Director's Minutes record that it was 'necessary to ascertain the practicalities of making an efficient port at the Ely'. On the 16th August the Director's instructed their engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, 'to prepare a plan and estimate of the dock at the mouth of the Ely.' Previously, in 1835, Brunel had made an estimation of the cost of constructing a railway between Merthyr Tydfil and the ship canal at Cardiff (later to be known as the Bute West Dock) at £190,649. The Merthyr ironmasters, including John Josiah Guest (1785-1852) of the Dowlais Ironworks, formed a new company and appointed I. K. Brunel as its consulting engineer.

The TVR Director's Minutes of 24th October 1836 record that I. K. Brunel presented his report to the Board whom resolved to seek Parliamentary powers for the proposed dock facilities at the mouth of the River Ely. His letter book of October 1836 provides statement that he had considered the practicality of constructing the docks and had undertaken trial borings, soundings and a detailed survey of the intended site. He wrote :

'From the general opinions entertained by those who possess experience from all the information I have been able to obtain from my own observations and from the results of the surveys and soundings and the examination which has been made there appears to be no doubt that as regards the requisites for a good harbour ; depth of water ; sheltered position ; facility of ingress and egress ; and anchorage, the mouth of the River Ely is superior to that of the Taff. . . .'