A website worth looking at - The Afan Valley
In our Internet search on the AFAN VALLEY, we found the following which is worth looking at.
There is one thing missing in this beautiful valley and that is the railway, which was taken up in the 1960s. if it had remained it would now be a great tourist attraction.
There are cherished railways in many parts of Britain and this could have been one of them.
During its working life, regular passenger services allowed the people of the valley to visit Aberafan on market day and special trains were laid on for visits to Neath Fair and the Barnum and Bailey circus at Swansea or the seaside at Porthcawl.
Opened throughout in 1895, the line boasted the single bore Rhondda Tunnel at 3443 yards (the longest tunnel in Wales) opened on 2nd July 1890 and Neath River Bridge (the only swing bridge on a skew and curve in Britain) both engineered by S.W. Yockney. The line on the swing bridge, now a fixed structure, is still in use with a line from Court Sart, Briton Ferry leading to West Wales and by-passing Neath. The bridge is a Grade II listed structure.
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