Celebrate 200 Years of Railway History!
In 1825, the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened the world’s first passenger railway station on Tuesday 27th September — a milestone that transformed travel forever. Steam locomotives carried passengers and goods at unprecedented speed, sparking a transport revolution that connected towns, boosted industry, and shaped modern Britain.
This special SideTracked Railway 200 event at Barry Sidings is part of a nationwide celebration running from Wednesday 24th to Tuesday 30th September 2025. All finds and hides from this event count towards your SideTracked statistics, and a unique profile badge will be created especially for this event. Whether your chosen location is old, disused, miniature, or still bustling today, it’s part of a railway story that’s been 200 years in the making.
The Barry Railway opened its main line from Trehafod in the Rhondda to Barry in 1889 and its first dock was opened in the same year, with modern loading equipment. It was immediately successful and principally carried coal, the tonnage increased year on year, so that by 1910 it had overtaken Cardiff as the largest export point of South Wales coal and in 1913, a world record of shipment of 11.09 million long tons (11.27 million tonnes) of coal were exported. Later it built costly branches to connect to the Rhymney and Brecon & Merthyr Railways.
Although chiefly a mineral railway, it ran a suburban passenger service from Barry to Cardiff. After 1918 the South Wales coal industry declined and the Barry Railway suffered accordingly. After the grouping of the railways in 1922 the Great Western Railway sought rationalisation, and the main line of the Barry Railway, which duplicated the ex-Taff Vale main line between Treforest and Trehafod, was 'run down', the passenger service via Tonteg Junction to Trehafod and Porth being terminated between Tonteg Junction and Hafod Junction in 1930 but freight traffic continued until June 1951, the line from Tonteg Junction via the Graig tunnel and station having been singled in its twilight years. Thus from June 1951, all traffic from the south ran to Pontypridd and beyond via the Tonteg Junction-Treforest Junction section from Barry or Llantrisant. Track was thus lifted later between Tonteg Junction and Trehafod (Hafod Junction). The line from Barry to Cogan, near Penarth, is in use at the present day carrying a busy passenger service to Cardiff and valleys.
(Infomation taken from Wiki)
Coords are for the path outside the cafe. There are picnic benches on the green, I believe the cafe is open until 7pm.