Just another brief post about some old local railway architecture…
As mentioned in my previous posts, we know that the huge former-TVR station in Pontypridd has been the area’s primary station for ages, and that there used to be a secondary station a couple of hundred yards up the road, run by the rival Barry Railway, named Pontypridd Graig.
In researching that second station I was surprised to find out the existence of a third (albeit much smaller) railway station in Pontypridd! A few hundred yards down the track from the main station, just at the beginning of the Broadway in Treforest, used to stand Pontypridd Tram Road Halt. Part of yet another rival company, the line ran to Caerphilly and onto Newport. I was surprised to learn of this station, because the area where it once stood has been so extensively remodeled over the years that there is very, very little evidence remaining of it.
The railway line from Pontypridd used to cross over the Broadway via a bridge. The only evidence of the bridge now remaining is one of the abutments, everything else has been swept away to widen the roads and provide a link to the A470 through-road.
The bridge goes up around the start of the 1900's... the entrance to the station appeared to have been a walkway, unseen from here on the other side of the bridge.The view from the other side of the bridge, now happily in use for several yearsThe end, the bridge is finally demolished in the 60's, the station having been shut down some four decades earlier. The road and earthworks here were remodelled numerous times up to the start of the 21st century, but the abuttment wall remains.
