Woodhams of Barry The legendary steam locomotive scrapyard 2019

This selection of photographs were taken by myself at this famous site in May 1966 (black and white) and October 1968 (colour). A history of the scrapyard and the company who ran it can be read here. Many of the locomotives pictured went on to be preserved and restored to use after years of dereliction, on this site is a list of the locos which have been preserved. The Great Western Archive site also has a comprehensive history recounting the 'Barry Story'.
When I first visited there were over 170 locos present. As well as the lower yard, where the cutting up was undertaken, the old Barry Railway works sidings next to the mainline and some of the sidings leading to the coal tipplers were also in use for loco storage. The photos above and below show some of the locos stored in the lower yard. Most of the locos present were from the Western Region although Southern, B.R. standard and Midland types were also well represented.

[@gillianholt9613]

Thank goodness for this scrapyard that had 73156 a rusting hulk now a beauty of an Engine

[@johngates3844]

Engine #52 into the video at 3:41 minutes is actually located just a bit west of downtown Snoqualmie, Washington, USA on State Route 202 and is part of the train museum there. I found it in Snoqualmie on Google street maps. It only 20 miles from my house. That’s how I initially recognized it. Trying to pull a fast one, eh? Check out our train museum.

[@davidbuxton7921]

Myself and a couple of friends travelled from Newcastle to Barry Docks in 1968/69 can’t remember exactly. We were only 13-14 years old and by ourselves. It was such an upsetting sight even at our young age to be faced with lines of dead steam engines, we had to get their numbers from the con rods as some had been stripped. That is a sight I’ll never forget. Steam forever!

[@ellisdiggle1523]

It mustve been a lot of work for the yard workers to move whole rows of engines for a purchased one to be removed. Years in the sea air, no lubrication. Good on ya woodham brothers for saving our heritage . Also praise the wagons for sacrificing themselves to save others.

[@The8224sm]

A combination of factors came together at Woodhams, Cardiff Docks was unable to handle the amount of coal, and Barry Dock was chosen to take the excess of coal exports. The space was available to lay down multiple sidings to feed several coal loading hoists, this required a continuous supply of loaded coal wagons. Many sidings were built to accommodate the constant arrival of coal trains from the valleys. The converse applied to the empty wagons which needed to be stored until the next load of coal arrived and the loco would then haul one of the many sidings full of empties to return to the Welsh valleys. With the transition to oil, coal traffic declined, as evidenced by the oil tank farm that's there today, and the multiple siding became unused. Again fortune played a part, in that the lines weren't cut up for scrap. With the advent of dieselisation, the steam locos were scrapped, by the hundreds. As luck would have it, Dai had space to store hundreds of locos, unlike other scrap yards, such as Cashmore's, in Newport, and others, that had little room to hold stock for any length of time. The myriad of sidings at Barry Docks allowed Dai to store hundreds of unbraked coal and freight vans. Dai Woodhams's decision to scrap the wagons first, after pleas from the heritage community, completed a loop from the early twentieth century to the present day situation of a whole new industry in society, the Heritage Preservation society. A tribute to Dai is about to take to the rails, in the new build, GWR, County Class locomotive to be named the County of Glamorgan. His bank manager must have had a passion for steam, to allow Dai to have all that capital sitting idle, for so long, the interest payments must have been enormous! God Bless You Dai

[@dwayneday2895]

CISR do not take parts on front of boller need for the 702 CISR RR hold three thousand one stating 1958

[@alishalama3650]

chicgos poiar exprss train🚂🚃 ride canceled of 2024 seson🔔 ⌚️🎼

[@cerealkiller4248]

I used to pass this ‘graveyard’ on the way to Barry Island as a boy. We knew we were close when we passed the trains, it used to be a marker to stop us yelling “are we there yet” 🤣 I was too young to appreciate what was going on at the time, great work Dai and his brother did 👍

[@Shark30006]

If more locomotives from the LNER such as the Gresley A1s and A3s and the Gresley A4s had went to the Woodham Brothers scrapyards, we might have had more saved for preservation.

[@Shark30006]

Locomotives that went to Barry had a chance for survival, and those that went to other scrap merchants didn’t have a chance for survival.

[@2805224]

the locos at 046-054 were at Cashmoores, Newport just inside the main gate

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

Correct. Cashmores was much more efficient at slicing up locos for scrap.... How it should be done!

[@andrewganley9016]

Dai Woodham legend of scrap men!

[@catthecommentbothunter6890]

Of course i have a souviner from barry scrapyard a steam wistle and a piece of iron revets

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

I hope you paid for those. But even so, taking something like a whistle, even if you did pay, would cost the people who preserved that loco a lot of money to machine a replacement.

[@jimward8095]

And we ended up with a glorified electric train set network,not affordable by most today? It was one of the worst railway transport history IMO.

[@JohnSmith-wl8cv]

Remember them well walked around the yard in the mid 70s with my 2 children ,I lived near a railway line grew up with steam travelled by steam to Barry Island a few times on day trips ,used to watch new diesel Dmu in the early 60spass my back garden , slowly replacing the steam engines , the line closed in 1963 to passenger trains kept open for coal trains from the local collieries reopened in the late 80s still operating today.

[@wendyjohn2523]

Wonderful, I remember this, I lived in Barry and loved travelling by train to Cardiff.

[@afganno3385]

my father was utterly useless. one of the only positive memories im grateful for is him taking me to see these trains as a boy. im glad most were preserved.

[@levelcrossing150]

This is the kind of thing we used to do when Britain was great.

[@BAS19.6]

Fantastic work. I can’t find a single story in existence that is happier than the barry scrapyard. Apparently the owner of the scrapyard didn’t actually care about steam engines but sold off so many of them anyways. I’m sad nothing like this ever happened here in the United States.

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

He did cut up about 84 steam locos. Mainly GWR types. It was about 28% of the locos sent there.

[@michaelcruse7570]

What a crying same

[@daanpowermc7064]

who also thinks a class 04 engine is super good looking

[@Porsche_Addict05]

THE WORST PLACE ON RHE PLANET!

[@pmonkeygeezer6212]

Cut these polluting locos for scrap!

[@timothysmith8300]

no more poluting than shitty deisels will you listern once and for all steam will never die get rid of all electrics once and for all and deisels as well except small deisels shunters ect.

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

@Ethan Prest Steam locomotives need to be ripped apart for scrap with cutting torches and sent for melting down and recycling.

[@harold5337]

joakim Gaardsted Too Late! They've all been saved so generations can admire them. We should cut your possessions up for scrap instead.

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

@@harold5337 80 locos were ripped apart for scrap with cutting torches at Barry. We should be thankful for that, and all the other great work done scrapping steam locos.

[@Marcel38281]

Ur mom gay