c. cclxii), giving authority for part of the route in 1898, and changed the company name to the Cardiff Railway.

Already in the 18th century, it was obvious that some improved means was needed to convey coal mined in the South Wales Valleys to wharves on the Bristol Channel.

[1] This represented huge progress, but the canal had 49 locks and did not directly reach the majority of the mineral sites.

From 8 October 1840 the Taff Vale Railway opened, in stages, from Merthyr to the Bute Dock, later connecting in pits in the Rhondda and elsewhere.

The Rhymney Railway too opened its line from the upper part of the valleys, also reaching the Bute Dock.

This feeling led to a long-standing desire to build alternative dock facilities in the Cardiff general area.

The Taff Vale Railway had long been criticised for congestion of its lines leading to the Bute docks.

The Taff Vale Railway saw this as an obvious assault on its established near-monopoly in those areas, and sought to counter-attack by proposing yet another dock near Cardiff, on the east bank of the River Ely opposite Penarth, and a bill was submitted for this work in the 1896 session.

[2] The terrain at the point chosen by the Cardiff Railway for its junction with the Taff Vale was extremely awkward.

Immediately to the east was the River Taff and the Glamorganshire Canal, and then the Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Newport Railway, and then more hills.

Immediately north of the proposed point of junction, southbound trains could diverge to the lines of the Barry Railway Company.

[2] Meanwhile, having obtained Inglis's adjudication in their favour, the Cardiff Railway laid in a temporary junction at Treforest.

On 15 May 1909 a revenue-earning coal train from the Bute Colliery at Treherbert passed from the TVR system on to the Cardiff Railway.

Immediately after this apparent triumph, the Taff Vale Railway demanded that the temporary junction be removed, on the grounds that it was unauthorised and in a location not permitted by Parliament.

(In addition it seems likely that Board of Trade approval for the configuration and working of the junction had not been obtained; as it lay in the TVR passenger line this was a requirement.

The line was inspected by Colonel Druitt of the Board of Trade on 18 October 1910, for passenger operation from Heath Junction (with the Rhymney Railway) to "the termination in a field at Treforest".

At this time many railway companies had been experimenting with railmotors, generally single coaches with an integrated small steam locomotive.

[2] The first steam railmotor was delivered from the Gloucester Carriage and Wagon Company on 23 February 1911, and a trailer vehicle a few days later.

A second railmotor was delivered during March, and during occasional non-availability of the vehicles, a conventional engine was hired in from the Great Western Railway to cover the service.

The rail motor car by which the traffic is at present conducted makes 11 double journeys daily (5 on Sundays), but, pending the completion of the junction at Treforest, the terminus is at Rhyd-y-Felin.

[9]The first stations were at Heath, Rhubina (the spelling was changed later), Whitchurch, Coryton (originally intended to be called "Asylum"), Glan-y-llyn, Nantgarw, Upper Boat and Rhyd-y-felin.

A station called Treforest, as close as possible to the TVR main line, was contemplated, but probably not actually built and certainly never opened; there would have been difficult pedestrian access problems.

[2] After World War I the government decided that most of the railways of Great Britain would be compulsorily restructured into one or other of four new large companies, the "groups".

[10] The new company now had some passenger stations with duplicate names, so that from 1 July 1924 Heath became Heath Halt Low Level; Rhydyfelin became Rhydyfelin Halt Low Level; Whitchurch and Coryton acquired the geographical suffix "Glamorganshire" (or "Glam").

The Nantgarw colliery was buoyant at this time, and the access to it from Coryton was causing operational difficulties, as the signalling had been substantially reduced there.

The Cardiff Railway had 36 steam locomotives, all built by private manufacturers, which were acquired by the GWR on 1 January 1922.