Year
1841Duration
5 yearsCost
UnknownLocation
WalesProject achievements
Economy boosted
Helped develop the Merthyr iron and steel industry
Used engineering skill
The crossing over the river Taff was made on the skew
Connected communities
Connected Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff in Wales
Connect Merthyr Tydfil’s iron industry to Cardiff’s docks
The Goitre Coed Viaduct (also known as Quaker’s Yard Viaduct) is a masonry structure built for the Taff Vale Railway (TVR) connecting Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff’s docks in Wales.
The civil engineer behind it was none other than Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who agreed to take on the project soon after the Great Western Railway.
He was persuaded by Sir John Guest of the Dowlais ironworks at Merthyr Tydfil, which, under Guest’s stewardship, became the largest ironworks in the world at the time.
Having fulfilled what he called “a troublesome order” for Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge made Guest feel entitled to ask Brunel to cost and then survey what would become the viaduct.
The aim was to transport rails and finished iron to Cardiff for shipping.
Did you know …
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The TVR was the only standard gauge (4ft 8.5in or 1.44m) railway Brunel engineered in Great Britain.
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Brunel's assistant engineer, Samuel Downing, who went on to become a civil engineering professor, used the story of the viaduct as a teaching aid for Victorian engineering students.
How was the Goitre Coed Viaduct built?
The Welsh landscape challenged Brunel to develop innovative engineering solutions.
In particular, the crossing of the river Taff, which had to be made on the skew.
Goitre Coed Viaduct was, however, no conventional skew arch but a totally Brunelian solution.
It had six 50ft (15.24m) spans springing from five hollow octagon piers, two sides of which were parallel to the axis of the river.
The viaduct performed as Brunel had predicted against the force of the Taff.
However, it only carried a single standard gauge (4ft 8.5in, or 1.44m) line.
When the TVR line started getting doubled in 1846, 41 bridges and viaducts carrying the railway over roads, rivers and canals had to be widened.
Goitre Coed Viaduct’s time came in 1857, with Sir John Hawkshaw as consulting engineer.
Completed in 1862, the viaduct was widened by building a similar sized viaduct alongside the original.
However, the octagonal feature of the piers was now lost and the widened base of the two river piers would cause problems for many years.
Difference the project has made
Now a Grade II-listed structure, the Goitre Coed Viaduct played a formative role in the industrial development of south Wales.
It carried enormous amounts of coal and helped develop the Merthyr iron, and later steel, industry.
It helped the Taff Vale Railway (TVR) become one of the most prosperous railways in Britain.
The TVR’s role today as an urban commuter railway shouldn’t be overlooked.
Indeed, it’s being enhanced with the South Wales Metro, an integrated heavy rail, light rail and bus-based public transport system around the Cardiff valleys.
It will also have a £100 million metro depot and control centre at Taffs Well.
The South Wales Metro demonstrates modern transport innovation in the spirit of Brunel.
Project milestones
Brunel is appointed to the project
Viaduct completed
Viaduct widening authorised following an Act of Parliament
Widening works take place
Viaduct becomes Grade-II listed
People who made it happen
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel
- Sir John Guest
- George Bush
- Samuel Downing
- Sir John Hawkshaw
More about this project
- Goitre Coed Viaduct Plaque
- Stone viaduct at Goitre Coed
- Description of the curved viaduct at Goed-re-Coed, near Quaker's Yard, Taff Vale railway
- More information on the viaduct's history
Profile written by Stephen K Jones.
