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Overgrown railway trackbed approaching the site of Pantyresk level crossing at West End in Ebbw Vale

A private plateway built by Benjamin Hall* was opened about 1811 from the Monmouthshire Canal at Risca up to Manmoel Colliery (in the Upper Sirhowy Valley). The Great Western Railway leased it in 1877 and converted the section in the Sirhowy Valley to standard gauge. The Ebbw Vale section was also converted to standard gauge but not until 1912. Most of the line survived until 1991 to serve Oakdale Colliery, by which time it was one of the oldest lines to remain in use.

*Hall's son, also named Benjamin, designed the clock tower at the Houses of Parliament and gave his name to the bell, 'Big Ben.'