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Description
This is Pontypridd station in March 1973. Few pictures can do justice to this once beautiful station in the Welsh valleys, built by the Taff Vale Railway near the confluence of the rivers Rhondda and Taff. It was a huge island platform, the largest in the world when built, with two through platforms, 1 and 6, and the remaining platforms 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 being bay platforms. Platforms 3 and 4 were what I would call 'normal' bays at the north end of the station, whilst 2, 5 and 7 were inset into the through platforms, a most unfamiliar arrangement to me. Here, I have taken a photograph from a position on Bay Platform No. 5, looking south to the through Platform 6. There were freight lines on the other (west) side of the station and a through platform line still in use on that side. I remember freights still going through behind Class 37 diesels, still with pre-TOPS numbers.

The station buildings, in rich terracotta and red brick, were still extant at my last visit in 2009, and there had been some regeneration, with a new platform having been added on the 'freight' side in 1991, and a footbridge connection. I have some pictures to come from my 2009 visit.

Description
This is Pontypridd station in March 1973. Few pictures can do justice to this once beautiful station in the Welsh valleys, built by the Taff Vale Railway near the confluence of the rivers Rhondda and Taff. It was a huge island platform, the largest in the world when built, with two through platforms, 1 and 6, and the remaining platforms 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 being bay platforms. Platforms 3 and 4 were what I would call 'normal' bays at the north end of the station, whilst 2, 5 and 7 were inset into the through platforms, a most unfamiliar arrangement to me. Here, I have taken a photograph from a position on Bay Platform No. 5, looking south to the through Platform 6. There were freight lines on the other (west) side of the station and a through platform line still in use on that side. I remember freights still going through behind Class 37 diesels, still with pre-TOPS numbers.

The station buildings, in rich terracotta and red brick, were still extant at my last visit in 2009, and there had been some regeneration, with a new platform having been added on the 'freight' side in 1991, and a footbridge connection. I have some pictures to come from my 2009 visit.