Torpantau railway station
This station opened in 2014, near the site of its Victorian predecessor. It’s the terminus of the narrow-gauge Brecon Mountain Railway, which provides scenic steam train rides from Pant, Merthyr Tydfil – see website link below for details.
To hear how to pronounce Torpantau, press play: (audio coming soon)
The first station was on the Brecon & Merthyr Railway’s initial line, opened in 1863 from Brecon to Pant. It was later extended to Dowlais, Bargoed and Newport. To cross the mountains of Bannau Brycheiniog (the Brecon Beacons), the single-track railway climbed for 11km from Talybont to the line’s summit in the tunnel north of Torpantau station. This climb, 300 metres in height, was known as the Seven Mile Bank and is now part of the Taff Trail.
Torpantau station had a loop line for trains in opposite directions to pass. Slate cladding protected the signal box walls from the elements here, 400 metres above sea level.
Steam locos had their water supplies replenished here. Banking engines returned northwards from here after giving a helping push at the rear of heavy trains.
Charles Mallett was Torpantau’s station master for 45 years until the day he went to Talybont to vote in the 1910 general election. He collapsed there and died soon after, aged 71.
On a “very rough and windy night” in February 1916, a southbound goods train left Torpantau station without permission to proceed. It soon collided with a northbound goods train, killing its driver, Thomas Lloyd of Talyllyn, and its fireman, James Morgan of Brecon.
Signalman Edgar Thomas, previously a porter at Talybont, wasn’t to blame, but the accident inquiry said the three days’ training he had received seemed “hardly sufficient for a lad of under 19 years of age”. There was a shortage of signallers during the First World War.
Passenger trains through Torpantau were withdrawn in 1962. The photo, by Peter Clark, shows the derelict station and signal box in August 1965.
The road over the top to Glyn Collwn was later improved by cutting through the former railway. The 2014 station is south of the road.
Postscode: CF48 2UT View Location Map
Website of the Brecon Mountain Railway
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