Hengoed Viaduct - Lookout - Maesycwmmer, Wales.
N 51° 38.813 W 003° 13.399
30U E 484548 N 5721788
Hengoed Viaduct is a Grade II listed railway bridge. In 2000 the viaduct was re-opened for public pedestrian access, with a lookout platform the top, giving views of the Rhymney Valley. The Viaduct located above the village of Maesycwmmer, Wales.
Waymark Code: WMPKJA
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/14/2015
Views: 5
Maesycwmmer is overshadowed by the vast Hengoed Viaduct, which dates from 1853 and used to carry the Taff Vale Extension, of the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway over the Rhymney valley.
In 2000 the viaduct was re-opened for public pedestrian access, known as the Taff trail, Crossing the Gap, & the National cycle network, route 47. In the center of the bridge are two raised ramps giving pedestrians exceptional views, North & South along the entire Rhymney Valley.
"During the Industrial Revolution, and the mass-extraction of coal from South Wales, there was a resultant growth in construction of railways into the South Wales Coalfield. The Taff Vale Railway so monopolised the trade of shipping coal to Cardiff Docks, that mine owners were desperate for competitor railway companies to both improve speeds of shipping, provide access to new markets, and hence reduce shipping rates.
The London and North Western Railway had developed a route for the industrialised West Midlands and Northwest England, by controlling the Llanfihangel Railway and the Grosmont Railway's as feeder lines into the Hereford Railway, and hence onwards via the joint GWR/LNWR controlled Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway. This allowed shipment of goods from Pontypool and the Ebbw Valley to Hereford. However, access to the productive Rhymney Valley and Rhondda Valley coalfields was at best restricted, through having to route trains south to Cardiff along the TVR, then along the South Wales Railway to Newport via the GWR, before being able to access LNWR controlled track.
The UK Parliament hence approved an Act of Parliament on 3 August 1846, the construction of the Taff Vale Extension, which would connect Coedygric North Junction at Pontypool with the TVR/GWR at Quakers Yard, and hence allow direct and LNWR controlled access. The LNWR approved the required capitol expenditure, and merged the existing three railways and the extension project in the new Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway". Source: (
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