Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - A History of Penarth Dock by Roy Thorne . . .

The Bute policy of bringing minerals from the hinterland to Cardiff Dock was also extended to the mid-Glamorgan valleys. These valleys were linked to Cardiff by branches of the Great Western Railway, and much of the coal from that area was exported through Cardiff.

Brunei was retained by the G.W.R. in 1844 to build a railway from Gloucester to Swansea through Cardiff and eventually to Fishguard. Construction began of that South Wales Railway but the line was essentially a passenger line and carried little goods traffic to the Bute Docks. Brunel persuaded the T.V.R. Company to give up the idea of a 5 feet 0 ins gauge and to adopt the 4 feet 6½ ins gauge. The S.W.R. had a seven feet gauge. Goods carried on the S.W.R. had to be unloaded and transferred to the narrower gauge of the valleys and docks. This was expensive especially with coal.

In 1866, South Wales coal freighters petitioned the G.W.R. to make their line a narrow gauge and in 1872 the 295 miles from Swindon to Neyland were changed, but it was not until 1892 that the last broad gauge was converted.

It was to the Rhymney Valley Railway that the Bute Trustees gave their greatest support. Although Newport was the natural outlet for the products of the Rhymney Ironworks and had previously been its exporting dock, the Bute Trustees were part landlords of the iron works and wanted to ensure that the exports went through Bute East Dock when it was opened in 1855.

The Bute Trustees tried to persuade the T.V.R. to build a branch line up the Rhymney Valley, but the T.V.R. declined, so the Butes sponsored the Rhymney Railway and the line was opened in 1858. This favoured partner, the Rhymney Railway, became a serious competitor of the T.V.R.

The R.R. were given access to the new East Dock, but the T.V.R. were not. The initial capital had been raised by the Butes and the chairman was a Bute Trustee. A fifth of a penny was remitted to the R.R. traffic through the East Dock.

The T.V.R. traffic had to pass over the docks branch of the R.R. who received dues from the T.V.R. The T.V.R. and Bute Trustees' aims were complementary but they were now antagonistic towards one another, and this tension lasted until the completion of Barry Dock in the 1880's drove them together.