- Cambrian Railways
Cambrian Railways owned 230 miles of track over a large area of mid-
Wales . The system was an amalgamation of a number of railways that were incorporated in 1864, 1865 and 1904. The Cambrian connected with two of the larger railways to give connections to the North West of England, via theLondon and North Western Railway ; and with theGreat Western Railway for connections between London and North Wales. The Cambrian Railways were absorbed by the Great Western Railway on1 January 1922 as a result of theRailways Act 1921 . The name is continued today in the route known as theCambrian Line .The Cambrian Railways system
Constituent railways
The earliest section of the Cambrian was the section from
Three Cocks toTalyllyn . This had been opened in 1816 as part of the "Hay Railway", a tram-road worked by horses connecting the town ofHay with theBrecknock and Abergavenny Canal atBrecon . The western section was sold to theBrecon and Merthyr Railway ; the eastern section became part of the Mid-Wales Railway (see below).In the following list the dates are: date of incorporation; opening date
* "
Oswestry and Newtown Railway " 30 miles:6 June 1855 ; 1860-61
* "Llanidloes and Newtown Railway " 12.25 miles:4 August 1853 ; 1859. Until 1861 this section of the line was isolated
* "Newtown and Machynlleth Railway " 23 miles:27 July 1857 ; 1863
* "Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway " 18 miles:1 August 1861 ; 1863-64
* "Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway " 86 miles:26 July 1861 ; 1863-69
* "Mid-Wales Railway" 45.5 miles:1 August 1859 ;1 September 1864 . This railway was independent of the Cambrian until1 January 1888 , when the latter took over working the line. On1 July 1904 the two railways amalgamated.
* The "Wrexham and Ellesmere Railway " opened in 1895. Wrexham was the largest town served by the Cambrian.
* "Van Railway " (serving lead mines) 6.5 miles: built 1871
* "Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway " (WLLR) 9 miles: 2ft 6in gauge: opened4 April 1903 ; closed to all traffic on5 November 1956 : re-opened as aheritage railway .
* "Tanat Valley Light Railway " (Llynclys - Llangynog) 15 miles: opened5 January 1904 : closed to passengers 1951
* "Mawddwy Light Railway" 6.75 miles: incorporated5 July 1865 : closed to passengers 1951
* "Vale of Rheidol Railway " 11.75 miles: 1ft 11¾in gauge: built 1902, absorbed 1913.Branch lines
*
Abermule - Kerry
* Barmouth Junction -Dolgellau
*Llanfyllin branch (The information in this section was taken largely from "The Railway Year Book 1912".)Feeder lines
The Cambrian had connections with many independent lines, including:
Narrow gauge
* "
Corris Railway ", at Machynlleth
* "Ffestiniog Railway ", at Minffordd
* "Kerry Tramway ", at Kerry
* "Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway ", at Llanfihangel (later Llandre)
* "Talyllyn Railway ", at Tywyntandard gauge
* "
Potteries, Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway " (laterShropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway ), atLlanymynech Locomotives
At the grouping in 1922, 94 standard-gauge engines and five narrow-gauge engines were transferred to the GWR, identified by type and builder at
Locomotives of the Great Western Railway.Accidents
A head-on collision occurred at
Abermule on26 January 1921 , killing 15 passengers, including Lord Herbert Vane-Tempest, a director of the company and son of the fifthMarquess of Londonderry . The accident was caused by a confusion amongst the staff at Abermule whereby the driver of the train in the station was given back the token he had just handed over, for the section of track he had just travelled over - it would not have been possible to give him the token for the next section. The driver did not check which token he had and set off. He soon collided with the Aberystwyth to Manchester express coming the other way, which had the token for that section.Other information
The headquarters of the Cambrian Railways was at
Oswestry . The building still stands (2004), although detached from the railway lines and in use for commercial purposes. The largest station premises on the line were at Aberystwyth. In 1911 there were 91 locomotives and one rail motor car in the Cambrian's rolling stock.A registered museum dedicated to the history of the Cambrian Railways is run by the
Cambrian Railways Society in Oswestry.ee also
*
Railways of Shropshire
*Cambrian Railways Trust
*Cambrian Railway Society External links
* [http://tvlr.co.uk/ The official Tanat Valley Light Railway Company Ltd]
* [http://www.corris.co.uk/ Corris Railway]
*" [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20074 The Story of the Cambrian] ", by C. P. Gasquoine, 1922, fromProject Gutenberg
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