At 11.00pm on Tuesday 4th August 1914, following August Bank Holiday, the British Government, having received no response to its ultimatum from the Imperial Government of Germany, declared that a state of war existed between the two countries. So began the Great War, an ‘emergency’ lasting for over four years and bringing significant changes to the economic, social and political landscape.
Gelligaer Parish and its immediate surroundings was not immune from this but provides a microcosm of the stresses and strains affecting the railways in the UK. To date little has been written about the effects of the ‘war to end all wars’ on the railway system in this or any other area in South Wales. A partial explanation might be, that being of strategic significance, reporting of railway operations was strictly censored in the press and even railway companies’ Boards of Directors’ minutes and reports were so bland they gave few hints about what was happening. Such restrictions did not apply to the railways’ emerging competitors, nor their political detractors, thus few positive reports emerge.
This article hopes to shed some light on the role of the railways in the study area during the war years, their achievements, operational constraints and short to medium term outcomes for this strategically significant, but often (deliberately) undervalued transport system. The sources are many, including information gleaned from Board of Directors’ Minutes of the Rhymney and Brecon & Merthyr Railways, reports to the Great Western Railway directors following the war, company board meetings in both The National Archives and Welsh Railways Research Circle’s copies of the late Colin Chapman’s transcriptions, newspapers, notably Merthyr Express and Caerphilly Journal, journals such as Railway Magazine and Welsh Railways Archive, plus a wide range of published works, notably E. A. Pratt’s magnum opus.1
The study area
The study area (Map 1) is dominated by Gelligaer Parish but extends to some strategically important fringing locations and railways having significant wartime links with those operating in the parish area. In 1914 this railway system comprised five main railway companies, plus two joint operations.2 Even before the war there was much interchange of traffic between the railway companies, expanding during the war years, mostly involving goods traffic.
The pre-war railway network
Railways within the study area were privately owned, legally incorporated companies comprising two main categories: local companies including Taff Vale Railway (1836), 3 Rhymney Railway (1855), Brecon & Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway (1858)4 plus two national companies, Great Western (1835) and London & North Western Railways (1846). Jointly operated lines included those constructed by the RR & LNWR from Rhymney (1871) and that from Llancaiach to Dowlais built jointly by the GWR & RR (1876).5. As a result of agreements reached over the years,
