Taff Vale No 85 'The Taffy Tank'

I have a special affection for the Taffy Tank or more

accurately the Taff Vale railway. Below a picture from

the day David Coates with my assistance lit a fire 

and tested the modified slide valves.

My association with the Taff Vale Railway goes back to my childhood. I spent many holidays with a cousin of my mothers in a small village, which had become a suburb of Cardiff, called Rhiwbina. It was very much a suburb on the edge, the south of the village being TOWN and the northern side very much COUNTY. The village had a station or more accurately 'halt' on what had once been the Cardiff Railway which eventually had joined the Taff Vale at Tongwynlais. Sadly in my day the Taffy Tanks were done and most of the motive power was GWR 56XX and 66XX class engines, which had been the replacement units for the Taffy Tanks on the GWR taking charge back in 1923/4. However the Taff valley and its railway became very much part of my childhood days out, both to the south to Cardiff and the north to Pontypridd, where the line branched, to the west up the Rhondda and the east up the Taff to Myrthr Tidfill. The taffy tanks were especially designed for heavy hauling both on the main lines up and down the valley of the Taff and Rhondda and to the docks in Cardiff and Penarth. They had a relatively tight wheelbase which allowed them to move safely about the tight curves of the collieries whose track could be of doubtful quality and maintenance. They were as you see of 0-6-2 construction which carried an ample bunker and allowed for roomy footplate. All in all engines well suited to the work of hauling very heavy coal trains to the docks.

Rhiwbina Halt in its heyday.

The terminal station in Cardiff for the Taff Vale Railway was Cardiff Queens St and the Sheds (MPD) was Cathays Yard. Another relative of my mums lived in Crwys Rd very close to Cathays Yard. In those days you could get the train from Rhiwbina down to the docks at Bute Rd station which was about a five min walk from the pierhead and wonderful trips on the P&A Campbell steamers across to Weston Super-mare and the long voyage  (two hours) to Illfracombe. That was where I got my love of the sea, that and trips around the docks both at Cardiff and Penarth where I saw the big ships from all the corners of the earth. However this is about locomotives. Now the replacement by the GWR for the Taffy Tanks were the 56XX class of 0-6-2 engines which were of similar dimensions to the Taffy Tanks but with 4ft 8 1/2 inch wheels as opposed to the 4ft 7 1/2 inch wheels of the taffy tank. Was this the reason for their propensity to derail when working in the collieries? Who knows however  the 5600s were very unpopular with footplate crews at the time. They were beset by numerous failures, the most common of which was hot axle boxes. They lacked the wider tolerances in their boxes that the original Welsh company locomotives had. They also had the tendency to derail, so those driving them preferred them in reverse, where the pony truck was able to guide them around tight bends.

Many thanks to Jim Payne for the above.

Both these 56XX class engines photographed at Cathays Yard Cardiff in BR days. We of course have a later class the 66XX class running here in Yorkshire on the Embsay Bolton Abbey line. The GWR and Charles Collett in particular chose to use the Rhymney Valley class M&R as the base for the design of the 56XX class. These engines or the M class specifically had been designed by the son of Tom Hurry Riches one Charles T Hurry Riches. The similarities therefore have good base between father and son. Tom never left the Taff Vale and his son became Loco superintendent of the Rhymney valley line in 1906. 

Many thanks to the Railway Magazine 

As can be seen the Rhymney engine bears many similarities to the Taff vale engines. The Rhymney Valley of course was another of the Welsh coal mining valleys which ran to the east of Cardiff and indeed has its station just across the road from Queens St in Cardiff. 

Old Cardiff much as I remember it.

Above we see Queens street station is still called the Taff Vale station. On station terrace off Queens St. The station was to take on the name Queens St after 1923/4 amalgamation of all the South Wales valley lines under the GWR.