the upper valleys. The Barry Railway deposited proposals for the 1896 Parliamentary session to build a new line from Tynycaeau Junction (near St Fagans) to join the Rhymney Railway near Caerphilly (at Penrhos Junction), and to get running powers on that railway's system north from the new junction. The Taff Bargoed line, joint between the Rhymney and the Great Western Railway, led to the important mineral centre of Dowlais, and running powers were sought on that line too. The Act was passed on 7 August 1896 for the line, seven miles in length, but the running powers were refused. Descending from Penrhos Junction, the existing Rhymney Railway line to Walnut Tree Junction dropped down into the valley by a long and steep gradient at 1 in 48 but the Barry Railway's new line, parallel in this area, remained at a higher level and crossed the railways, river and canal in the Nantgarw gap by the Walnut Tree viaduct of 517 yards. The engineering complexity of the route was such that it was not until 1 August 1901 that it opened, for goods and mineral traffic only. It had cost £270,000. Cadoxton improvements The mineral operation on the Barry Railway was of course focused on the sidings at Barry and Cadoxton, where considerable sorting activities took place and dock storage was necessary waiting for specific ships to become available for loading. About 100 miles of sidings were at the location, and access to the sidings by arriving trains resulted in serious congestion. In 1898-1899 a burrowing junction was constructed at Cadoxton from the sidings and goods lines on the north side of the line to No. 1 dock. R.A.Cooke's GWR track layout diagrams show the new docks access lines as "READY BY 1898". The facility comprised two pairs of tracks descending at 1 in 121 from Cadoxton Low Level Junction to Graving dock Junction, one pair feeding No.2 dock and the other No.1 dock and goods yard, all at quay level, although there was a double-line junction to access No.1 dock from the No.2 dock lines near Graving Dock Junction. The section between the two block posts (Cadoxton Low level Jct and Graving Dock Jct) had always been controlled permissively (i.e. more than one train could be permitted to enter the section at a time). The 'burrowing' was provided by two reverse curve alignments with the 'bores' separated by a dividing