THE Llanelli and Mynydd Mawr Railway is a new heritage railway just entering its third full season in operation. It may be short at present and a little off the beaten track, but it has a history dating right back to the very beginning of the railways, encompassing the eras of king coal and the super pit.
The single ribbon of track skirting the small hamlet of Cynheidre five miles north of Llanelli stands as a testament to nearly 220 years of rail-borne transport in the Gwendraeth Valley: first as part of the pioneering Carmarthenshire Tram-road, opening up links to the coalfields north of Llanelli, and then, after a period of disuse, much of the formation was used as the basis of the then Llanelly (the anglicised form of Llanelli) and Mynydd Mawr Railway, linking several collieries to the port.