Pontypridd Graig station (Barry Rly)

[RichardMaund]

D S M Barrie’s Taff Vale Rly (2nd edn.) gives closure date as 5 May 1930 (as does Quick's Railway Passenger Stations) but Barrie's Barry Rly gives 10 July 1930 (as does Clinker’s Register). When tackled on the discrepancy, Mr Barrie wrote (on 20 Jan 1966): “The date of closure…as quoted in my TVR book was on the information I had available. Subsequently, when I was doing my Barry book, Mr C R Clinker obtained a more authentic date…I think his source was an official Western Region record.”

Can anyone adjudicate - or point me to what might have been Clinker's source (Quick cites Railway Magaizne and a Hand-Book of Stations amendment leaflet).

[RichardMaund]

I have consulted the GWR public Train Alterations leaflet for May 1930 (RAIL 936/64 at TNA Kew) and the GWR Supt of the Line's General Instructions Circular no. A.4489/457 dated 17 April 1930. Both are quite clear that the changes at Tonteg and Pontypridd Graig were to take place on 5 May 1930 (a trawl through the subsequent General Instructions Circulars did not reveal any notice altering the 5 May 1930 date).

Railway Magazine for July 1930 (page 68) correctly reported this but, alas, sister paper Railway Gazette of 11 July 1930 (page 57) only picked up the change from the July issue of the timetable - and erroneously gave the start date of that timetable (7 July) as the effective date of the changes. That, I think, was the cause of Messrs Barrie and Clinker giving the wrong date for the changes. Those who have copies of Mr Barrie's Barry Railway, his Regional History of the Railways of GB Vol. 12 (1994) - dealing with South Wales, and of Clinker's Register may want to alter their copies to show the correct date for the changes as 5 May 1930.