On Wednesday 9th January 2008, the first coal train was loaded at Miller Argent's Cwmbargoed Disposal Point, formed with a Class 66 locomotive, 66078 coupled to twenty one HTA coal hoppers. Unlike the past, the locomotive pushed its train of empty hoppers into Cwmbargoed Disposal Point from the reception sidindgs. The loaded train (1500 Tons) was then pulled back into the reception sidngs where the locomotive ran round its train to continue its journey to Aberthaw Power Station. Initially a single train operated on Wednesdays to Fridays, arriving at 0905 hrs and departing at 1250 hrs but once production was in full swing up to seven trains ran each day.

The new flow arose from the FFos-Y-Fran land reclamation scheme, where a license was granted to mine ten million tons of low to mid volatile Welsh steam coal by opencast methods until September 2022. During January 2016 Miller Argent was bought out by Gwent Investments Ltd and the company was renamed Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd during 2018. An extension to the license was refused and mining operations ceased towards the end of November 2023. By this time Aberthaw Power Station had long closed and the coal was being transported to Tata Port Talbot Steelworks.

Cwmbargoed Disposal Point is remotely located three miles east of Merthyr Tydfil and 400 metres above sea level, providing outstanding photgraphic opportunity between Ystrad Mynach and Cwmbargoed where the line climbs 200 metres in the last four miles from Bedlinog.

Depicted below are some of the images of the first train being loaded.

This article is to be continued once the final train has left Cwmbargoed Disposal Point.