page_title: Mold Railway
section_title: Formation
hierarchical_section_title: Mold Railway / Formation
caption_attribution_description: English: Diagram of the Mold Railway in North Wales in 1872
context_page_description: The Mold Railway was a railway company that built a line in north-east Wales. The line linked Mold to Chester and it opened on 14 August 1849. The company built a mineral branch line to Ffrith, opened in November 1849. Mold itself was an important regional centre, and contained considerable mineral resources.
  The London and North Western Railway took over the company in 1859. As the mineral industry developed, steelmaking at Brymbo became dominant, and the LNWR arranged with the Great Western Railway to connect to that place.
  The passenger service closed in 1962, and in 1972 all rail activity ceased except for serving a factory at Mold; total closure followed in 1983.
context_section_description: The Chester and Holyhead Railway opened its route in 1848 as far as Bangor, and throughout in 1850. Its promoters saw the Irish Mail traffic as the dominant purpose of their line; however Mold was an important regional centre, with considerable mineral resources locally, and the Mold Railway was authorised in Parliament on 9 July 1847. The Company's capital was to be £180,000, and it would run from the junction at Saltney, west of Chester to Mold, with a branch to Ffrith, where there were mineral deposits.
  The construction of the C&HR main line, and in particular the Britannia Bridge, consumed all of the C&HR's available financial resources and more, and as many directors and shareholders were common between the C&HR and the Mold Railway, the latter was not well provided with funds. This led to a slowing down of construction progress in 1848, and deferment of the Ffrith branch beyond Coed Talon.
  The C&HR became impatient as it had been relying on this feeder to its system, and it acquired the Mold Railway Company, by the action of a clause in the Mold Company's Act of Incorporation; this was effective on 30 March 1849.
caption: The Mold railway
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