Margam Marshalling Yard - the system of automatic control

Skill, ingenuity and gravity, combined with a ‘hump’ or slope, have produced Europe’s first automated yard for organising thousands of railway wagons at Margam, Port Talbot.

Kenneth Kendall – a household name as a BBC newsreader from the 1950s-1970s - narrates over striking shots of the maze of railway lines used to marshall or organise thousands of railway wagons at the first automated yard in Europe. Gravity, together with a ‘hump’ or slope, has been harnessed to move the wagons about this giant yard in their thousands, assisted by traffic officers, tally men and maintenance crew.