A History of the Port Talbot Railway & Docks Company and the South Wales Mineral Railway Vol 2: 1894-1971

Robin G. Simmonds   Lightmoor Press  2013  £30

This book continues the history of the PTR and SWMR with an account of the period from 1908 to 1922 when they were worked by the GWR. The PTR&D’s 1894 Act authorised the company to make a new dock at Port Talbot and the construction and development of this part of the company’s undertaking from 1894 to 1922 are described. The history of the PTR&D and SWMR as independent companies is completed with accounts of their finances and of the men who were responsible for guiding their fortunes. The PTR&D and SMWR were absorbed into the enlarged GWR and thus became part of the nationalised British Railways in 1948. They saw relatively little development during this period and were mostly closed by the 1960s, but the docks and industry around them continued to expand, culminating in the modern Abbey Works at Port Talbot. The volume closes with an account of what would have been encountered during journeys along the lines of the PTR and SWMR in their heyday, and of the industries, principally collieries, that were served, and with an illustrated survey of the private owner wagons which conveyed their output.