PRACTICE&PERFORMANCE
CAMBRIAN CASEBOOK
In Practice & Performance this month, John Heaton FCILT turns his attention to steam workings over the difficult sections of the former Cambrian main line and connecting routes.
THE very mention of steam locomotives in mid Wales conjures images of antique-appearance 4-4-0 'Dukedogs' hauling short trains along the Dovey estuary, or 'Manors' clinging to the cliffs above Llangelynin with the Pwllheli portion of the 'Cambrian Coast Express'.
The only remaining railway lifeline from the formerly industrial West Midlands to the attractions of the mid Welsh seaside now cleaves through the Cambrian Mountain and then has a peak to climb at Talerddig before reaching the riparian run into Aberystwyth.
Before reaching the university town, trains often divided at Machynlleth, and in fact still do, with a portion heading north for Barmouth and beyond. Modern travellers from London are used to this routing but their ancestors and cousins from the conurbations of Manchester and Leeds had an alternative way to reach the northern section of the Cambrian coastline until the mid-l 960s without need for the current substantial Shrewsbury deviation.
To the north of the current rail artery there was another main line giving access to the Barmouth area but it is now sometimes disregarded. This was the route from Ruabon via Dolgelley, which passengers travelling from Northern cities would reach from Chester via Wrexham General. Some might dispute this route's main line claims but I rest my case solely on the fact it occurs in the Ian Allan Main Line Gradient Profiles and its eminent 1947 Railway Magazine predecessor.
Interest
Both routes were of particular interest to Railway Performance Society (RPS) steam specialist Michael Rowe, partly from his travels during the 1950s and partly from his Welsh nationality. He has generously allowed me to draw freely on his research.
The spellings I have used in the article are those of by RA Cooke in his seminal work Atlas of the Great Western Railway 1947.This decision means some names are not those in use at the date on which they are mentioned and many are incorrect in modern usage. For instance, even by 1958 Dolgelley had been altered by the local authority to Dolgellau, but 1947 is relatively central to the subject matter used. Similar licence has been talcen by using the 24hr clock.
The Cambrian Railway was formed in July 1864 after the amalgamation of the Llandiloes & Newtown opened 1859, the Oswestry & Newtown ofl861, the Newtown & Machynlleth (1863) and the nascent Oswestry, Ellesmere & Whitchurch. It is evident Newtown was an important location in the 1860s. In fact the Railway Mania of the 1840s seems to have been 20 years reaching mid Wales, as the Cambrian continued to expand by absorbing the Aberystwyth & Welsh Coast Railway in 1865 which had opened to the town of its title in 1864 and would reach Pwllheli in 1867.
It was 1869 before the Cambrian completed the Dolgelley to Barmouth linlc and only after the Great Western, frustrated by the Cambrian's dilatory dealings, had threatened to complete the connection itself. The Great Western was making advances into natural Cambrian territory via the Vale ofLlangollen (opened 1863), Llangollen & Corwen (1865) and Bala & Dolgelley (1868).