Crockherbtown

[Cwmtudu]

There is a mention in the Great Western Railway magazine for September 1923 of two employees moving from Crockherbtown to Cardiff (R.R.) as number-takers.
As far as I can discover the Taff Vale Railway re-named their Crockherbtown station Queen Street when it was rebuilt in 1887.
Can anyone suggest where this location could be please?
John

[Rhobat Bryn]

I thought I had the answer to this but, on inspection of Quick's Chronology, I find i'm more confused than ever. I also thought that the Taff Vale station was known as Crockherbtown until 1887 when the station was rebuilt and renamed Queen Street. This was shortly after Crockherbtown Street was widened in 1886 and renamed Queen Street in honour of Victoria. However in Quicks, there is no mention of this under the Cardiff Queen Street entry. In fact, under Cardiff Parade (Rhy), the following entry is to be found:

"Opened 1 April 1871 as Cardiff; CROCKHERBTOWN added in Bradshaws 1872 when Rhymney trains moved from their own table to the LNW one. This was dropped in 1888 timetable."

This needs clarification but first I need an authority to validate the original name of what is now Cardiff Queen Street station. Can anyone provide any pointers?

[RichardHC]

I think that this subject has been pretty well answered already but I will just add a few thoughts.

The Railway Clearing House maps show Crockherbtown Junction just to the north of Queen Street Station and this was the junction between the Rhymney Railway and the Taff Vale Railway. "Number Takers" were employed by the Railway Clearing House to record the wagons being transferred from one railway company to another. Obviously after the Grouping it was all Great Western in this area so the need for number takers here had gone as there were no wagons being transferred between companies. Perhaps this was an attempt to find suitable employment for RCH employees who would otherwise be redundant.

[Cwmtudu]

My thanks to Noel and Richard for their input and appologies to Rhobat for causing him any confusion!

A few thoughts from me. Number-takers were undoubtedly employed by the R.C.H. but were certainly also employed by the G.W.R. who required a daily tally of where their wagons were on their system. When wagons were in sidings at stations then this could easily be covered by the station staff but when it came to large storage sidings then this was probably where number-takers were employed. So I am inclined to agree with Noel's suggestion that Crockherbtown was probably an area rather than a specific station as I had assumed.

Incidently, any reference to number-takers in the G.W.R. magazine always has them with the Traffic Department. Where Cardiff (R.R.) is mentioned then this relates to goods guards so Adam Street is certainly a probability, although again they are with the Traffic Department rather than the Goods Department.

John

[Newport_rod]

All interesting stuff and it’s fascinating how one question spawns others. Thank you all.

Wouldn’t one of the expected benefits of the common management arrangements of 1917 been to obviate the need to record the passage of a wagon from the RR to the TVR (or v/v) or did the fact that they were still independent legal entities have maintained their need to the grouping?