The Vale of Neath Railway was incorporated in 1846 to link the iron and coal producing areas of Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil with the ports of Neath, Briton Ferry and Swansea. The railway was engineered by I.K. Brunel and it involved difficult gradients through the watershed of the Neath and Cynon valleys. The line opened from Neath to Aberdare in 1851 and it was later extended to Pontypool Road to provide a link with the English Midlands. In 1863 an extension was opened to Swansea and the line was acquired by the Great Western Railway in 1865. The railway closed in stages between the 1960s and the 1980s.

Source:
Stephen Hughes and Paul Reynolds (1989) 'A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of the Swansea Region' Association for Industrial Archaeology.

Claire Parry, RCAHMW, 20 October 2011.