Aberthaw High Level railway station was a Vale of Glamorgan Railway station operated by the

Barry Railway The Barry Railway Company was a railway and docks company in South Wales, first incorporated as the ''Barry Dock and Railway Company'' in 1884. It arose out of frustration among Rhondda coal owners at congestion and high charges at Cardiff Dock ...

which served

Aberthaw Aberthaw ( cy, Aberddawan) is an area containing the villages of East Aberthaw and West Aberthaw, on the coast of South Wales about west of Barry. It is home to Aberthaw Cement Works, Aberthaw Lime Works, and Aberthaw Power Station, a coal power ...

, located near the north shore of the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...

in the former

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

county of South Glamorgan, and in the current county of Vale of Glamorgan.

History

Opened by the Vale of Glamorgan Railway on 1 December 1897 and operated by the

Barry Railway Company The Barry Railway Company was a railway and docks company in South Wales, first incorporated as the ''Barry Dock and Railway Company'' in 1884. It arose out of frustration among Rhondda coal owners at congestion and high charges at Cardiff Dock ...

, it became part of the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

during the

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923. The line then passed on to the Western Region of British Railways on

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in 1948. It was then closed by the British Railways Board in 1964 (as a result of the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...

) when regular passenger services over the line ceased from 13 June. The line remained open to provide freight access to Aberthaw Power Station and Rhoose and Aberthaw cement works, (only Aberthaw cement works survives as at 2020), and as a diversionary route between Cardiff and Bridgend via St.Fagans when engineering possessions are necessary on the latter South Wales main line.

The site today

Due to public demand and expansion of Llantwit Major and Rhoose, passenger traffic was reinstated on 10 June 2005 on the

Vale of Glamorgan Line The Vale of Glamorgan Line ( cy, Llinell Bro Morgannwg) is a commuter railway line in Wales, running through the Vale of Glamorgan from Barry to Bridgend, via Rhoose and Llantwit Major. Route The Barry branch starts at Cardiff West and ru ...

with rebuilt stations at

Llantwit Major Llantwit Major ( cy, Llanilltud Fawr) is a town and community in Wales on the Bristol Channel coast. It is one of four towns in the Vale of Glamorgan, with the third largest population (13,366 in 2001) after Barry and Penarth, and ahead of Cowb ...

and Rhoose but Aberthaw station was not included and private houses have been established on the up platform. Rhoose station also has a bus link to Cardiff International Airport. Three Aberthaw "B" power station reception sidings at Aberthaw East, remain but following the official closure of that plant in March 2020, the sidings and merry-go-round coal delivery discharge lines are redundant. Aberthaw signal box was taken out of use on 9 March 2013 and all semaphore and previous colour light signalling on the Vale of Glamorgan branch signalling replaced by LED signals in new positions and with motorised points all operated remotely from the SWCC Vale of Glamorgan Workstation, Cardiff.

References

Sources

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External links

Station on navigable O. S. map
Disused railway stations in the Vale of Glamorgan Beeching closures in Wales Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1897 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964 Former Barry Railway stations {{Wales-railstation-stub