Known locally as "The Taff Gap" - Walnut Tree Junction and Taffs Well station viewed from the former Barry Railway Walnut Tree Viaduct on the day of the 'Rambling 56xx' rail tour.
We are looking north. The former Taff Vale Railway quadruple 'main line' goes straight ahead toward Pontypridd. The branch to the right just beyond the staion is the 1952 connection to Nantgarw Colliery and coke ovens. Curving away to the right is the original Rhymney Railway 'main line' which climbs the 'Big Hill' via Penrhos to Aber Jct. and the Rhymney Valley. At Penrhos Jct. it would make contact with the Pontypridd, Caerphilly & Newport and also the Barry Railway on the course of which the photographer was standing.
The small building just to the left of 'South Wales Forgemasters' Garth Works is the former Rhymney Railway engine shed officially closed in 1922, it still stands today. A banker (outbased from Radyr) worked daily from the coal yard (left) assisting trains up the 'Big Hill' and loaded trains to Nantgarw coke ovens until the end of steam in 1965.

Note the underbridge bottom right foreground covered by vegetation, the only indication of the route of the Glamorganshire Canal. To the right of the canal, between 'South Wales Forgemasters' and the terraced housing, is the site of the Cardiff Railway line to Treforest closed to freight in 1953 when the new connection to Nantgarw Colliery opened.

The 1952 connection to the original Cardiff railway main line, which enabled the section north west of Coryton to be abandoned, is the second of the two branches we see here, diverging just north of the station. "Great Western Album" edited by R C Riley (Ian Allan 1965) has a couple of very evocative shots by Ian Wright of trains on the section which was abandoned when this connection was put in.