Most people, especially those of Scottish heritage or with strong Scottish connections, would associate the word 'dram' with whisky, the word indicating a measure of that national drink equivalent to one sixteenth of an ounce (though from experience I think most 'wee drams' would be rather more than that). In Wales, the word has an entirely different meaning – it is 'the Welsh term for a tram, a small wheeled truck used for transporting coal and other materials between the coal face and the surface'.
This particular dram is located on the approach to Cardiff Bay's Barrage, the rock, earth and concrete construction that forever closed off the bay from the adjacent Bristol Channel. It sits in a small area of coal-related ephemera, grandly labelled the Age of Coal exhibition, sandwiched between the Cardiff Sailing Centre building and an assemblage of outdoor fitness equipment.
The information board adjacent to the dram reads as follows:
This coal dram
was kindly donated by the Rhondda Heritage Park. ...
The example shown dates from around 1950 and carried one and a half tons of
coal. It would also be used to carry pit props (by having the ends cut away)
and explosives, when the top would be enclosed with lockable doors.
Drams could be shackled together to form trains or 'journeys' and could be as
many as 40 drams in length if the train allowed.
They were pulled on rails by static haulage engines using long steel ropes or
by locomotives. Drams were also pulled by colliery horses if operations were
not mechanised.
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