"The Barry Railway (Barry) was incorporated by Act of Parliament on August 14 1884, for the construction of a dock at Barry Island, 7 miles from Cardiff, and the construction of railways about 26 miles in length from the docks to the Rhondda Valley, with access by junctions with the existing and authorised railways to all the other great mineral-producing districts of South Wales." (The Railway Year Book for 1912, Railway Publishing Co Ltd). Eventually the Company’s route mileage was 66 miles, but with 140 miles of sidings: 100 miles of them were around the docks. The head office of the railway was at Barry.
Apart from owning the docks themselves - which consisted of three docks entered by locks - the four main portions of the rail network were:
the line via Aberthaw to Bridgend, linking with the Great Western Railway. This was the Vale of Glamorgan Railway, promoted by the Barry.
At first, passenger services on the Barry were only run on the Cogan branch, but soon further services were run, including those for passengers using the steamers in the docks. There were 150 coaching vehicles owned in 1912; and 138 locomotives.
The BarryRailway company was promoted by interests in coal mining and steel in the South Wales valleys as an althernative to the existing rail service to Cardiff docks and as such, its interests were very much in transporting the commodities of its sponsors.
The Barry company was to run steamboats only until May 1910, selling their fleet to avoid mounting debts and a shareholder's revolt against a board which remained sympathetic to the venture.
As a railway company, parliamentary powers were required to operate steamships and the powers granted generally included provisions which limited operations to routes genuinely associated with the mother company's principal business (ie railway connections to non-accessible locations).
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