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Isambard Kingdom Brunel had strong associations with South Wales;
chief engineer of the GWR at just 27, he was the same for the South
Wales Railway Co., taking the railways across South Wales. This
illustrated history focuses on Brunel's contribution to the
maritime world, from his work on dry docks and shipping facilities
to his steamships, including his 'great leviathan'. For PSS Great
Eastern, Brunel chose Milford Haven as a home port where she would
spend many years, still the largest ship in the world but sadly
without work after her pioneering role laying telegraph cables
under the world's oceans. The Great Britain steamship sailed from
Penarth, a dock associated with the later work of Brunel's son,
Henry Marc Brunel who would be responsible for the largest dock
system built in Wales, at Barry. Other dock works include Briton
Ferry which Brunel designed to handle the output of the VNR and the
SWMR. One of his last engineering projects was a steam railway
ferry across the river Severn, a unique work that was superseded
with the opening of the Severn Tunnel. This illustrated history
delves deep into Brunel's legacy.
Communications and Coal looks at Brunel's return after the
completion of the Taff Vale Railway, which included schemes for an
alternative Irish route through mid- and north Wales and a direct
crossing of the River Severn. The latter was intended for his
broad-gauge South Wales Railway, on which his pioneering Wye Bridge
at Chepstow and his longest timber work at Landore would be built.
The final choice of the SWR terminus at Neyland was not without
problems for Brunel who was also engaged on the 'insurmountable'
difficulties faced by the Vale of Neath Railway, tramroad
conversions in the Forest of Dean and the final phase of the broad
gauge in south Wales which included the Llynvi Valley Railway and
the South Wales Mineral Railway.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel is famous for many things - the Great
Western Railway, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, timber viaducts and
the steamships Great Western, Great Britain and Great Eastern - but
his work in South Wales has been largely overlooked. Yet South
Wales provided the landscape in which many of his innovative works
were pioneered and Brunel the engineer is represented there at
virtually every stage of his career. Many of these engineering
landmarks survive and are still in use to this day. This is the
first in a series of three volumes examining the achievements and
legacy of Brunel in South Wales (reaching into Mid and North Wales,
Bristol and the Borders), beginning with the historic background of
the Merthyr ironworks and Richard Trevithick. It will look at
railways, docks, piers and other connections, including his great
ships which had strong links with South Wales, despite not having
been built there. Born in Cardiff, Stephen K. Jones writes and
lectures on local and industrial history, photography and Brunel
and his works.
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