page_title: Neath and Brecon Railway
section_title: Adelina Patti
hierarchical_section_title: Neath and Brecon Railway / Adelina Patti
context_page_description: The Dulas Valley Mineral Railway was incorporated in 1862 to bring coal from the Onllwyn area north-east of Neath to the quays there, and in the following year was reconstituted as the Neath and Brecon Railway. The line was opened as far as Onllwyn in 1863.
  The directors allowed a contractor John Dickson a free hand in building the line and when he became bankrupt the company was in a desperate financial situation. Nevertheless, the line was completed to Brecon in 1867, and an offshoot to connect with the Swansea Vale Railway, giving better access to Swansea, was ready in 1873.
  The larger Midland Railway acquired rights over the line and ran a heavy mineral train service for many years, although the remote and difficult course of the line was expensive to operate. After the 1922 "Grouping" of the railways, a pooling agreement led to the diversion of the heavy traffic to routes that were easier to work over, and the line reverted to a quiet and remote rural line.
  The passenger service was withdrawn in 1962 and present-day traffic is confined to uncertain mineral business from Onllwyn to Neath.
context_section_description: Adelina Patti was a famous and acclaimed opera singer; she first sang in public as a child in 1851 and her career lasted until 1914. She earned huge fees and appeared internationally.
  She acquired Craig-y-nos, described as a castle, and lived there between 1878 and 1919. The nearest station was Cray but the road to it was extremely poor. Having good connections she asked the Midland Railway to provide a platform at Bwlch, which was only a crossing loop, but in time she had a private waiting room erected at Penwyllt, and she paid personally for furnishing it and providing a road to it from Craig-y-nos. She habitually travelled in a private saloon, and many highly placed people visited her at Craig-y-nos. Her costumes and personal attendants were accommodated with her in her saloon during her own travels.
  Her celebrity was such that the GWR publicity department was able to use her name to advertise the Severn Tunnel, newly opened to passengers, when she was returning from London to Craig-y-nos:
  Madame Patti has practically opened the Severn Tunnel… It is true that very few people knew it, and perhaps Madame Patti herself did not know it, but everybody will be talking about it to everybody else. The facts are these. On Sunday Madame Patti and party—a large one—wanted to get from London to Neath with comfort and speed. A special train was arranged for, and the great songstress paid for it out of her own pocket, or wherever she keeps the great piles of money she has made. Many people will be interested to know that the special train ran along the new route through the Severn Tunnel, and that the whole distance from Paddington to Neath was comfortably traversed in four hours and twelve minutes. This was the first through train from London to South Wales via Bristol and the Severn Tunnel, and Madame Patti chartered it, rode in it, and paid for it, and therefore she has the honour of having opened the Severn Tunnel route to London.
  After this part of the line was closed in 1962, it was re-opened on 1 July 1964 for the traffic of Hobbs (Quarries) Limited, and that company acquired the station buildings at Craig-y-nos station, which had fallen in to disrepair. The new owners restored the station are to its original state:
  The station building itself has been converted into a lodge with all-electric cooking and other facilities, and the waiting room restored, and, so far as was possible, equipped with furniture appropriate to the period, Theatre handbills and murals relating to the great singer, who died at her house, Craig-y-Nos Castle, on September 27, 1919, are exhibited on the walls, and no effort has been spared to recapture the original atmosphere, upholstery and curtains being in pink and white with red carpeting.
caption: Adelina Patti in 1863
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