page_title: Ebbw Vale Steelworks
section_title: Transport
hierarchical_section_title: Ebbw Vale Steelworks / Early 19th century / Transport
caption_attribution_description: English: Mobile phone mast &amp; former railway This (ubiquitous) mobile phone mast sits along side the former rail line that carried limestone from Cwar y Hendre to the iron and steel works at Ebbw Vale. Timber sleepers and some of the original stone sleepers can be seen along this bridleway.
context_page_description: Ebbw Vale Steelworks was an integrated steel mill located in Ebbw Vale, South Wales. Developed from 1790, by the late 1930s it had become the largest steel mill in Europe. Nationalized after World War II, as the steel industry changed to bulk handling, iron and steel making was ceased in the 1970s, as the site was redeveloped as a specialised tinplate works. Closed by Corus in 2002, the site is being redeveloped in a joint-partnership between Blaenau Gwent Council and the Welsh Government.
context_section_description: The new railway line contracts required additional integration across the production facilities. In 1794 the company built a 1 mile (1.6 km) tunnel for the new Rassa Railroad, a tramway built to connect the Sirhowy Ironworks to the Beaufort Ironworks at Ebbw Vale, and connected them both to several limestone quarries at Trevil.
  By this time both the company and the Tredegar Iron Company had need to transport raw materials to and products from various iron works in the upper Ebbw Valley, to Newport Docks. Developments included:
  Rassa Railroad: Sirhowy Ironworks to the Beaufort Ironworks, Ebbw Vale, and connected them both to several limestone quarries at Trevil.
  Llanhiledd Tramroad: from Crumlin (low level) north to Ebbw Vale.
  Sirhowy Tramroad: Newport to Crumlin (low level).
  By 1805, a 24-mile (39 km) stretch of tramline had been laid to transport coal and iron ore to Newport Docks, laid jointly by Tredegar Iron Company and the Monmouthshire Canal Company. Pulled by teams of horses, in 1829 Chief Engineer Thomas Ellis was authorised to purchase a steam locomotive from the Stephenson Company. Built at Tredegar Works, it made its maiden trip on 17 December 1829.
  On grouping in 1923, all of these railway lines became part of the Great Western Railway's Ebbw Vale Line, now operated as a passenger-only service by Transport for Wales.
caption: A mobile phone mast sits atop the trackbed of the former Rassa Railroad, extended to enable limestone to be moved from Cwar y Hendre to the iron and steel works at Ebbw Vale. Timber sleepers and some of the original stone sleepers can still be seen today along this bridleway
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