terms with its competitors. The delay continued right up until 1914, when the outbreak of World War I prevented the realisation of major new schemes. Financial results From the outset the Barry Railway had been remarkably successful in financial terms. Volumes of traffic carried, numbers of ships berthed at Barry, quantity of coal exported, all resulted in superlatives. Shareholders had become accustomed to excellent dividends and these were consistently distributed, although there were periods when the expense of new works, and of the Parliamentary costs associated with them, diverted profit away from shareholders, leading to dissatisfaction. Nevertheless, the dividend was 10% in 1890, and every year from 1894 to 1897 and in 1912, and was never less than % in any subsequent year. Passenger services Although the mineral traffic was massively dominant, the Barry Railway ran a respectable passenger operation. Between Barry and Cardiff, the Company ran 33 trains each way every weekday. Barry to Porth was less intensive, typically six return trips and about the same frequency on the Barry to Bridgend section. In 1898 there were ten trains daily between Cardiff Riverside and Pontypridd of which four were non-stop. Railcars were briefly used on the service from 1905. The service on the route declined in later years, in favour of the Taff Vale route which gave better connectivity. Many railway companies adopted railmotors, or "motor cars" as they were described, in the early 1900s. These were single coaches with a small steam engine integrated. They were generally used with very basic stopping places with minimal facilities, and the aim was to enable the cheap establishment of passenger calls at locations where demand was low. The motor car stopping places were very short platforms, and suitable only because a single entrance and exit door in the vehicle could be controlled by the guard. The Great Western Railway and the Taff Vale Railway made great use of the system, and in 1905 the Barry Railway experimented with it also, opening new stops at St-y-Nyll near the village of St. Brides-super-Ely, a short distance north of Tynycaeau Junctions, and Tonteg, between Efail Isaf and Pontypridd. The Barry Railway purchased two steam rail motors from the North British Locomotive Co; they were very similar to contemporary GWR railmotors. It ran the motor cars between Pontypridd and Cardiff via Tynycaeau Junction and St.Fagans. The service started on 1 May 1905, with the steam