page_title: Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf
section_title: NCB Mountain Ash Railway
hierarchical_section_title: Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf / Transport / NCB Mountain Ash Railway
context_page_description: Mountain Ash is a town in the Cynon Valley, within the County Borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales.
  At the 2001 census, Mountain Ash had a population of 7,039 increasing to 7,374 at the 2011 Census. The Mountain Ash geographical area incorporates and includes the districts and villages of Cefnpennar, Cwmpennar, Caegarw, Darranlas, Fernhill, Glenboi and Newtown. Mountain Ash lies within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan.
  The town lies about 4.5 miles south of the town of Aberdare and approximately 19 miles northwest of Cardiff. The village and community of Penrhiwceiber lies around a mile south of Mountain Ash.
  From an administrative point of view, Mountain Ash is split into two electoral wards: Mountain Ash West takes into account the town centre, together with the districts of Miskin, Darranlas, Fernhill and Glenboi; Mountain Ash East comprises the remaining districts of Cefnpennar, Cwmpennar, Caegarw and Newtown.
context_section_description: An early British railway line had developed from the industrial development within the South Wales Valleys, which with its core centred around Mountain Ash became known as the Mountain Ash Railway (MAR). Having developed from an early tramway, it became in the 1970s the last core of steam locomotive operations in the UK. Developed by Powell Duffryn as it consolidated various industrial assets, the railway started across from Afon Cynon at the Penrikyber Colliery, heading north past a coal stocking area at Pontcynon, then past the Mountain Ash interchange yard (known as the Lansdale Yard) and through the former Nixon's Navigation colliery - home of the railway's central workshops, locomotive sheds and weighbridge - and on north past Duffryn Colliery, terminating at the Abercwmboi Phurnacite plant. The railway's main access to the UK rail network was via the Vale of Neath Railway's station at Mountain Ash (Cardiff Road) railway station, although it also had access to the competing and dominant Taff Vale Railway.
  Early locomotives were drawn from all of the major UK industrial locomotive makers, but like many industrial railways post-World War II the operational fleet were based around a core of group of Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0STs. In 1959 the National Coal Board (NCB) acquired ex-GWR Pannier Tank No.7754. Although rather too heavy to work on the relatively light-rail of the MAR - which was also poorly maintained, which resulted in regular spreading of the rails - after a refit in the late 1960s, it became a favourite with MAR crews. It eventually became the last British mainline-built operating steam locomotive in the UK, until it ceased operations in 1975 following a cylinder valve crack. The NCB were persuaded to donate the locomotive to National Museum Wales, who have since loaned it indefinitely to the Llangollen Railway. The MAR closed in the mid-1980s, after the miners' strike.
caption: The ex-GWR Pannier Tank No.7754, in preservation at the Llangollen Railway. Through operating on the NCB Mountain Ash railway, it became the last British mainline-built operating steam locomotive in the UK, until it ceased operations in 1975.
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