WRRC Forum

Can anyone pinpoint (more specifically than "Port Talbot"!) where these two locations were, please? Or are they one and the same?

Old Dock Halt is quoted by Simmonds (in Vol. 2 of his PTR book) as the start point for the 1918 workers' service to Cribbwr Fawr colliery.

Morfa Crossing is shown in Tony Cooke's Track Layout Diagram section 50B page 48 but it is not clear what service it was for - unless it was the Cribbwr Fawr service.

These were definitely two different locations. Morfa Crossing Halt was one of two halts constructed during WWI for the trains conveying German prisoners of war assisting in the construction of Margam Steelworks, see Chapter 14 of my book, p. 348. This halt was situated as per Tony Cooke’s Track Layout Diagram and is marked as disused on the GWR Swansea Division Station Diagrams ca. 1923.

Old Dock Halt or Platform was constructed in 1918 to deal with a workmen’s train service between Margam Steelworks and Newlands and Cribbwr Fawr Collieries, see Chapter 16, p. 365. At the time of the Board of Trade inspection the platform was situated near DR David’s Tinplate Works, but I have not yet found it on any map or plan of the Port Talbot dock area. The revised edition of Tony Cooke’s GWR Atlas 1947 places it further to the northwest near Burrows Junction, but I do not know what his source for that is.

Robin Simmonds

Many thanks for clarifying that (I didn't dig deeply enough into your Vol. 2!).

What was the other end of the journey for the Morfa Crossing trains?

The other platform was at English Celluloid Works situated at the 1m 40ch point on the PTR main line. The site of these works was used as a PoW camp during WWI, see Chapter 21, p.431. A reversal at Copper Works Junction would have been necessary to run between the two halts.

Robin Simmonds

wokmad wrote:The other platform was at English Celluloid Works situated at the 1m 40ch point on the PTR main line. The site of these works was used as a PoW camp during WWI, see Chapter 21, p.431. A reversal at Copper Works Junction would have been necessary to run between the two halts.

Nothing is given in the section on train services - presumably no records have survived to indicate the dates of operation of the PoW workers' service? nor of the schedule of it?

I'm afraid not, probably because this was a sort-term wartime measure, There is more on this subject on p. 348. My apologies not not having mentioned this earlier.
Robin Simmonds