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Heritage railway in South Wales

The Garw Valley Railway is the trading name of the Bridgend Valleys Railway Company Limited. It operates a short section of railway located in South Wales, which is being recreated as a heritage railway. Formerly part of the Llynvi and Ogmore Railway (L&OR) and built by the Great Western Railway (GWR), the line was used for freight and passenger services, with most of the track still in place between Brynmenyn and Pontycymer. The project currently has a train shed at Pontycymer, and hopes to initially offer brake van rides between Pontycymer and Pant y Gog, a distance of 0.5 mile (1 km).

The Duffryn Llynvi & Porthcawl Railway Company (DL&PRC) obtained its Act of Parliament in 1825, running from Caerau Duffryn down the Llynvi Valley to Tondu, and then west to Porthcawl where it built a pier for trans shipment of coal. Merging with the Bridgend Railway in 1834, built to the system centred on Tondu totalled 21 mile (34 km). Within 10 years of opening, four collieries and some associated drift mines were serviced by the Garw Valley line, producing and hence shipping 4,000 tonnes of coal per day. In 1906 the Glengarw Colliery opened, which by 1911 was producing 1000 tonnes of coal per day. The main traffic was coal, but between 1887 and 1902 stations along the Garw were constructed at Llangeinor, Pontyrhyl, Pontycymer and Blaengarw. to create a UK national level operational museum project, with a vision of offering a Welsh National Railway Centre at the Brynmenyn Industrial Estate, and an operational railway north to Pontycymer. Groundwork Neath Port Talbot (the government body responsible to Bridgend County Borough Council for the regeneration of the Garw Valley) leased the trackbed from Network Rail for 125 years on the understanding that it found a companion railway company to oversee the 4 miles 56 chains of track from Pontycymer to Brynmenyn. The BVRS sought to establishment a single track heritage railway. On 23 March 2001, the Welsh Assembly made its first Transport Works Act order in favour of the BVRS, and six days later Railtrack formally signed over the route to BVRS, which became known as the Bridgend Valleys Railway Company. the project was re established:

The project will also establish an archive of South Wales Valleys railways.

After establishing a base and train shed at Pontycymer, where the archive is currently stored, the current focus is on building a new platform at Pontycymer. They are now working with the Bridgend Valleys Railway Company to rebuild the line. In summer 2014, land works were commenced to establish a station at Pontycymmer. By spring 2015, the first of platform had been completed. In 2016, work commenced on levelling and relaying the track that runs alongside the platform, with work continuing throughout 2016 and into 2017. On 20 August 2017 the shed lines were reconnected to the running line, thus allowing one of the company's Planet locos to be driven into the platform, thus being the first loco at Pontycymer Station for some 25 years.

After establishment of a station at Pontycymer, the company aims to relay 1 mile (2 km) of track south to Braich y cymer. Beyond this, it will require two bridge replacement projects to be completed, before access can be gained to establish a station at Llangeinor, and then onwards to Bryngarw Country Park, which will be the southernmost limit of operations in the medium term. In the long term, it is hoped to extend as far south as Tondu, on the Transport for Wales route between Bridgend and Maesteg.