When Taff-Ely took over the operation of the service to Ty Rhiw it wasn’t on the blinds of any vehicle so a board was carried in the windscreen. It would seem that 89 was the regular bus on this service, which only operated in the morning.
This photograph is taken close to the Nantgarw Gap, a natural breach in the rocky outcrop which formed the southern boundary of the South Wales coalfield. The Barry Railway leapt over the gap in spectacular style with Walnut Tree viaduct, which would have been visible in the upper right but was largely demolished in 1969/70. The Taff Vale Railway clinched the main valley floor route, alongside the road and canal, so when the Cardiff Railway came along they had to cut a short tunnel through the rock. Their route emerged just here and the bus is about on the old formation of the railway, the majority of the course of which was used for new A470 road northwards.
