Situated on Barry Dock   South Wales, Woodhams was to become one of the favourite haunts for enthusiast and preservationists alike from the late 1960's to the late 1980's.

Established during the great coal boom in South Wales, Woodham Brothers were involved in the coal exporting business from Barry Docks. Following the decline in the coal industry, many of the businesses based in and around Barry Docks were forced to change trades, and Woodham Brothers made the change in the late 1930's. It was during this period that Woodhams set up a road transport and scrap metal business based down at the docks.

In 1955, the British Railways modernisation plan was brought into being, and this basically meant the withdrawal of more than 50% of the British Railway wagon fleet. This meant that scrap dealers interested in the scrapping of railway wagons and rolling stock could apply for tender, which Woodhams did in 1957, and thus the long period associated with the scrapping of railway wagons and rolling stock began..

The modernisation plan  also included the eventual withdrawal of all steam locomotive power throughout the country, and its eventual replacement by diesel traction. This however was still in it's planning stage.

However, in 1958, the British Transport  Commission re-appraised the situation, and a decision to withdrawn steam locomotives sooner than had previously been decided was made. This resulted in hundreds of steam locomotives up and down the country being withdrawn, causing a headache for British Railways, as soon, the locomotives were being withdrawn faster than they could be disposed of, and many railway sheds became clogged up with the storage of these withdrawn locomotives.

To ease the problem British Railways were forced to put out to tender the scrapping of the withdrawn locomotives, and so the Woodham Brothers story begins.

March 25th 1959 saw the first batch of locomotives to arrive. This batch consisted of four ex- GWR  locomotives followed by another GWR tank engine some 7 days later. Although at first the number of locomotives purchased was small, the size of deliveries to the site soon increased, and by April 1961 a further 40 locomotives had been acquired.. Most of these locomotives were disposed of  relatively quickly, but now that the volume of locomotives arriving at Woodhams was increasing all the time, additional storage was required, and this was found at the sidings in the lower yard, adjacent to the oil terminal.  The West Pond site (lower yard) was used to store the many locomotives that arrived from 1964, including a large amount of ex Southern Railway locomotives.

In 1965, 65 more locomotives were purchased, 28 of which were disposed of in the first six months. However, come the summer period of 1965 a reprieve was granted to those locomotives still on site. The more easily disposed of railway wagons once again became Woodhams main business, and the locomotives were left very much alone. Woodham Brothers continued to purchase steam locomotives right up until the end of steam in 1968.

 From 1959 to 1968 a total of 297 locomotives were purchased by Woodham Brothers, and in August 1968 at the end of the steam era, 217 remained on the sidings.

The years that followed became the golden years of railway preservation. Woodham Brothers had what the preservationists wanted, available locomotives to buy. In the following years, nearly all the remaining locomotives at Woodhams yards were saved from the cutters torch, and many ex-Woodham locomotives are now fully restored to working order.

Nothing remains today of this remarkable site, all that once was, is now sadly gone.  A large wasteland now occupies the site, where not so many years ago the remainders of the British railways steam locomotive fleet could be seen, rusting away in the damp sea air.

Woodham's site today, April 2005 ©mpg2005