Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - The Taff Vale Railway and Docks - 'The Engineer' Article of 1866 . . .

The Quaker's Yard viaduct - a colourised photograph originally from the series of Images of Industry of Amgueddfa Cymru — National Museum Wales. [Accession Number : 70.102I/17] [629]

A skew viaduct of four arches, the largest of them 104ft. span, carries the railway over the Rhondda river. Near Cardiff the line was carried with some difficulty over soft alluvial soil full of water, and among the hills the character of that country made numerous curves necessary, more than half the main line consisting of curves from a quarter of a mile radius upwards.

The principle feature of the Taff Vale Railway is a steep incline of 1 in 18, and half a mile long, from Aberdare junction to the top of a range of hills leading to Merthyr.