Ely Valley Railway
The Ely Valley Railway (EVR) was a broad gauge railway company in South Wales, which opened a mineral line between Llantrisant station on the South Wales Railway main line and pits at Mwyndy and Penrhiwfer in 1860.
| Ely Valley Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Locale | Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Track gauge | broad gauge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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It was unsuccessful financially, and was leased to the Great Western Railway in 1861. The network suffered from being on the broad gauge when many pits and rival railways used the narrow (standard) gauge, but the GWR extended the network into Cwm Clydach and the line became heavily used. The Ely Valley Extension Railway and the Ely and Clydach Valleys Railway were nominally independent additions to the network, also controlled by the GWR.
A limited passenger service was started in 1901. The use of the network declined in the 1920s but the passenger service continued until 1958. The general mineral traffic collapsed in the 1960s but final closure only occurred when Cwm Colliery closed on 2 March 1987.