Barry Island railway station
This station unlocked Barry Island’s development as a resort and residential area. It opened in August 1896 after the Barry Railway built an embankment across the harbour and a steel viaduct above the harbour’s coal sidings.
Five months before the station opened, trains from the Rhondda Valley to Barry began, so that “miners and their wives and families” could easily reach the seaside. The platforms at Barry Island’s “commodious railway station” were 150 metres (500ft) long. The station was c.65 metres from the beach.
While the station was being completed, a 260-metre tunnel was excavated to extend the railway to a new pier. Trains went to the pier station only when passenger ships called there. White Funnel Fleet steamers stopped using the pier in 1971, and the railway tunnel closed.
The 1943 aerial photo below, courtesy of the Welsh Government, shows both stations – see the footnotes for details. The colour photo, by Rhodri Clark, dates from 1993.
Barry Island’s scheduled trains were supplemented with specials on key dates, including “miners’ fortnight” (the annual colliery holiday) in late July and early August.
The Sweetmeat Automatic Machine Company placed a vending machine at the station but local children worked out how to steal the chocolate. A string of court cases followed. One boy admitted theft in 1906 after 31 discs were found in the machine’s coin receptacle. His defence solicitor condemned the “temptation” the machine offered to boys.
Mass car ownership reduced train travel to Barry Island, but the new Butlin’s holiday camp in 1966 gave the trains fresh impetus. Over the following 20 years, many rail enthusiasts came to Barry Island to view derelict steam locomotives awaiting scrapping on the former coal sidings. Enthusiasts saved most of the locos for restoration to working order.
One of the railway tracks to Barry Island was used in the early 21st century for Barry Tourist Railway steam rides. It was bought by Transport for Wales in 2022 in conjunction with introduction of tri-mode trains, which draw power from overhead electric wires, on-board batteries or diesel engines.
Barry Island station building, which retains many original features, was listed in 2023.
Postcode: CF62 5TH View Location Map
Footnotes: What you can see in the 1943 aerial photo
Barry Island station is in the bottom right corner, alongside a roller coaster in the fairground. Near the centre is the tunnel mouth where the railway continued to the pier station, in the top left corner.
Two white wartime barrage balloons are visible, one near Barry Island station and the other at Nell’s Point. They were part of the defences around Barry docks. There were also gun emplacements and coastal searchlights at Nell’s Point.