page_title: Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway
section_title: Relations with the Great Western Railway
hierarchical_section_title: Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway / Relations with the Great Western Railway
caption_attribution_description: Ffotograffydd/Photographer: P B Abery (1877?-1948) Dyddiad/Date: [193-?] Cyfrwng/Medium: Negyddion gwydr / Glass negatives Maint/Dimensions: 119 x 163 mm. Cyfeiriad/Reference:PBA22/2 Rhif cofnod / Record no.: 4508364 Rhagor o wybodaeth am gasgliad P B Abery yn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru More information about the P B Abery Collection at the National Library of Wales
context_page_description: The Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway was a railway company that built a line between Hereford in England and a junction with the Mid-Wales Railway at Three Cocks Junction. It opened its line in stages from 1862 to 1864. It never had enough money to operate properly, but the Midland Railway saw it as a means of reaching Swansea, and from 1869 the Midland Railway was given exclusive running powers over the HH&BR. There was then a long-running dispute over whether the Midland inherited rights of access previously granted to the HH&BR.
  Although the Midland used the route for goods access to and from Swansea, the line was never developed as a trunk route. As a rural line it failed to achieve commercial success and in 1962 the passenger service was taken off, followed by total closure in 1964.
context_section_description: At the time of the 1863 opening, it was obvious that the West Midland Railway was going to amalgamate with the Great Western Railway. It did so by Act of 1 August 1863. Hitherto the HH&BR had assumed that its partner companies at Hereford would have much to gain by using the HH&BR line for access to South Wales, but the considerable network of the GWR did not seem to offer that likelihood. A rapid cooling of relations followed immediately, with the issue of the junction at Barton unresolved.
  In fact the GWR considered the HH&BR line worthy of developing as an ally, and the GWR General Manager, John Grierson, visited Hereford in November 1863 and agreed a compromise. A junction could be formed that did not directly cross the GWR (former NA&HR) line, but ran to the back (west side) of Barton station without making conflicting moves. An agreement was finalised on 24 August 1864, although many details were to be agreed later; nevertheless the first HH&BR train ran into Barton station on 1 October 1864. The agreement stipulated that the facilities granted to the HH&BR might be transferred to the Brecon and Merthyr Railway if required. The HH&BR and the B&MR were discussing an amalgamation at the time.
  In 1864 the HH&BR deposited a Parliamentary Bill for curves at Barton; one was to ease and regularise the curve to Barton itself; another was to curve to the north and run alongside the northward line to Barrs Court Junction; the curve was known as the Widemarsh Loop. At the same time the HH&BR petitioned against a GWR Bill for the Hereford Loop, which would bring trains from Abergavenny across to the Barrs Court line in entering Hereford from the south. While these matters were in Parliament, the GWR, the London and North Western Railway (also interested in the Hereford Loop) and the HH&BR agreed that the LNWR and the GWR would construct a south curve, the Brecon Curve, near Barrs Court Junction, enabling through running from the Barton direction to Barrs Court without reversal. For its part the HH&BR would withdraw opposition to the Hereford Loop, and construct the Widemarsh Loop itself.
caption: Glasbury railway station
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