page_title: Oswestry and Newtown Railway
section_title: Llanfyllin branch
hierarchical_section_title: Oswestry and Newtown Railway / Branch lines / Llanfyllin branch
caption_attribution_description: English: Down stopping train at Oswestry. View northward, towards Whitchurch and Gobowen; ex-Cambrian Whitchurch - Welshpool - Machynlleth etc. main line, junction of GW branch from Gobowen. The Cambrian main line was a victim of the Beeching Report and was closed on 18/1/65, the Gobowen line survived until 7/11/66 when Oswestry station was closed but remained open for goods until 6/12/71. The station has been restored recently by the Cambrian Railway Trust - but with no trains, yet (2011). The train is headed by 4-6-0 No. 7815 'Fritwell Manor' (built 1/39, withdrawn 10/64).
context_page_description: The Oswestry and Newtown Railway was a British railway company that built a line between Oswestry in Shropshire and Newtown Montgomeryshire, now Powys. The line opened in stages in 1860 and 1861. It was conceived to open up the area to rail transport, when local opinion formed the view that the trunk railway companies would not do so. Subscription money for the construction proved very difficult to generate. It was the action of a contractor partnership, Davies and Savin, in agreeing to accept shares as the majority of their payment for construction work, that saved the company from failure.
  Forming a local network with other local concerns, the O&NR amalgamated with them, forming the Cambrian Railways, in 1863. The industry in the area was not buoyant and hoped-for long-distance traffic did not materialise, although the development of Aberystwyth as a resort provided a useful benefit. The railway connected to the emerging national network at Oswestry, but the later connection of the Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway abstracted traffic from the northern part of the system.
context_section_description: There were many small communities in isolated locations in the general area, and in the Llanfyllin area, a solicitor named John Pugh focussed pressure on the company to provide a branch line. The O&NR arranged a meeting at Llanfyllin in 1860 to discuss a branch from Llanymynech. This was agreed upon; it would cost about £60,000. The O&NR decided to get powers for a branch, and also for a line to Llanymynech Lime Rocks, provided subscriptions were forthcoming locally. An Act was obtained on 17 May 1861. The following July, Benjamin Piercy (as engineer) started planning the route and also that to Kerry, and two months later Savin agreed to build the line.
  The first sod of the branch was cut at Llwyn, near Llanfyllin, on 20 September 1861, and Savin, then in partnership with his brother-in-law John Ward, quickly built the line. The 9 ¹⁄₄ miles (14.9 km) were straightforward to construct, but the gradients were steep. Leaving Llanymynech, the line had to climb to cross the nearby Shropshire Union Canal; trains used a short bay at the north end of the station, and were propelled to a reversing siding alongside the main line but at a higher level. After reversing, they crossed the canal and continued alongside Rock Siding, which served lime kilns. Further on, the branch crossed two of the narrow-gauge tramways from Llanymynech Hill to the canal and also the Nantmawr branch. The first trains ran on 10 April 1863 and there were occasional workings prior to the official opening excursion on 17 July. This was a 23-coach special run to Borth, which gave many of the 600 passengers from the hilly valley their first view of the sea.
  Llansantffraid was the only intermediate station in O&NR days. Another was planned at Llanfechain but difficulties in getting possession of the land delayed opening of the station until January 1866, followed a month later by one at Brongwyn (later Bryngwyn). It was unstaffed, and passengers operated a signal if they wanted a train to stop. There was one intermediate loop at Llansantffraid.
  Although passenger traffic hardly developed, there was a boost in heavy goods traffic when Liverpool Corporation decided to build a big reservoir at Lake Vyrnwy about 1880. In February 1881, the Corporation proposed to construct a narrow-gauge tramway alongside the road to bring in construction materials, but this was not done. When work on the dam started in June 1881, cement for the dam and pipes for the aqueduct to Liverpool were shipped to Aberdovey and conveyed by rail to Llanfyllin, and taken onward by horse and cart transport. A new siding and storage shed was provided at Llanfyllin, and stables for 95 horses were set up in the station yard. When the lake was eventually completed on 16 March 1910 it was the biggest in Wales.
  The awkward access to the branch, involving reversal in a headshunt at Llanymynech, was simplified on 27 January 1896 when a ¹⁄₂-mile (0.8 km) spur was opened; this connected the Llanfyllin branch to the Nantmawr branch of the Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway. This branch line entered Llanymynech directly from the south; it had been built about 1866 and operated passenger trains from 1870. It closed in 1880 when the Potteries Railway failed, but the Cambrian Railways adopted it in 1881 and worked it. By now it was disused once again; the track was relaid for the purpose.
caption: Oswestry railway station
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