Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway
The Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway was a standard gauge railway company, running a line along the west coast of Wales. The railway was planned to run between to and on to Porth Dinllaen, with branches to and . These branches joined the Bala and Dolgelly Railway and Newtown and Machynlleth Railway respectively. There were two major river bridges planned: the Dovey Bridge, across the River Dovey, and the Barmouth Bridge, over the River Mawddach. The former proved impracticable to build, so an altered route was built from to , near Glandyfi, making a Y-shaped network . The line from Pwllheli to Porth Dinllaen was also not built, although parliamentary powers to do so were obtained on multiple occasions. The routes were opened progressively between 1863 and 1869, all parts of the planned network being built apart from the Dovey Bridge, and Porth Dinllaen to Pwllheli line. The company was absorbed into the Cambrian Railways in 1865. Continuous shortages of money delayed the completion of the network. The Dolgelly branch was closed in 1966 as part of the Beeching cuts, and the remainder was under threat of closure in the 1970s. In 1980, serious defects were found  in Barmouth Bridge due to a marine worm boring into timber piles, which took several years to fix. History. 19th century. In 1859, the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway, the first main line railway in central Wales, was opened. At first it was not connected to any other railway, but it fostered interest in railway development, and soon, through routes to Newtown both from Chester (opened 1861). and from Shrewsbury (opened 1862) were available. Striking westward and crossing very difficult terrain, the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway was opened on 31 December 1862. Although Machynlleth was an important market town, its promoters  were considering an extension to Aberystwyth and the Cardigan Bay coast. Due to shortage of subscription money from general investors, the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway was in the hands of a successful partnership of railway contractors, David Davies and Thomas Savin, who put up most of the construction money and took paid up shares as the majority of their payment. These men shared the idea of continuing to the coast, but Savin had an ambitious vision of a huge investment in developing the coastal district, which Davies considered to be over-reaching, and the partnership was dissolved on 30 January  1861. The Newtown and Machynlleth Railway had preliminary designs made for a coast line, to be called The Machynlleth, Aberystwyth and Towyn Railway. At about the same time, the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway and the Oswestry and Newtown Railway (the latter still under construction), working together, had a coast scheme prepared for a line from Aberystwyth to Pwllheli, with several branches. Davies supported the Towyn scheme, while Savin favoured the line to Pwllheli. Moreover, there was now talk of the Pwllheli continuing to Porthdinllaen, on the north side of the Lleyn Peninsula. Porth Dinllaen was a natural harbour on the  north side of the Lleyn Peninsula, that had been proposed as a packet station for the Irish mail service. At that time, Holyhead had been selected in preference, but Porth Dinllaen still had supporters for development as a ferry port. Both schemes were to be presented to Parliament for the 1861 session, but in fact the Machynlleth, Aberystwyth and Towyn Railway scheme failed to deposit its documentation in time for the Parliamentary deadline, and was unable to proceed. The Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway Act (in earliest documentation spelt "Aberystwith and Welch Coast Railway") alone continued the Parliamentary process and  was given the Royal Assent on 22 July 1861; the authorised share capital was £400,000 (later increased). The railway was to extend from Aberystwyth to Portmadoc, an important harbour at the time. There was also to be a branch from Ynyslas to Machynlleth to connect to the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway. The main line would bridge the Dovey estuary with a viaduct from Ynyslas to Aberdovey. Seeing a connection to its own line as essential, the Newton and Machynlleth Railway succeeded in getting a clause in the A&WCR Act that, if the A&WCR failed to complete the Machynlleth connection  by 1 August 1864, the N&MR might take the powers over. The A&WCR took stock and now made progress to secure the extension on from Portmadoc to Pwllheli and Porthdinllaen. Railway schemes supported by the Great Western Railway were being planned from Llangollen towards Barmouth, and possibly on from there to north Wales. The A&WCR wanted to head off the threat; to do so it proposed a branch line from near Barmouth to Dolgelly. The A&WCR obtained a second Act of 29 July 1862 which authorised these extensions. The Bala and Dolgelley Railway, friendly to the GWR, had been authorised  on 30 June 1862, so that when built it would complete a GWR-supported route to Dolgelly from Ruabon. Further north, the Carnarvonshire Railway was incorporated on 29 July 1862 with powers to build from Carnarvon to Portmadoc by way of Afon Wen. The Carnarvonshire Railway authorisation duplicated the A&WCR as between Afon Wen and Portmadoc. The duplication was ignored at first, but the position was finally resolved by an agreement of 13 December 1865 under which the Cambrian Railways (successor to the A&WCR) built the section. The A&WCR concentrated its construction work on the Machynlleth "branch", as it was  clear that this offered better hopes of an early income, compared with the main line crossing the Dovey estuary. In addition, the deadline set by the clause in the Act had to be achieved. The line was opened from Machynlleth as far as Borth on 1 July 1863; it was worked by Thomas Savin, the contractor who had built the line, for the time being. Opening of the rest of the Aberystwyth line, from Borth to Aberystwyth, was achieved for goods traffic on 23 June 1864; passenger operation had been refused by the Board of Trade inspecting officer, Captain Tyler , but rectification work was put in hand, and passengers were carried from 1 August 1864. Part of the northern section of the network, from Aberdovey to Llwyngwril, was next opened, on 24 October 1863. The Aberdovey station was at the harbour, and for the time being connected with a ferry from Ynyslas. The line from Llwyngwril to Barmouth Junction, and from there to Penmaenpool, on the Dolgelly line, followed on 3 July 1865. There was an intermediate station called Barmouth Ferry, at the place where Fairbourne station was later built. Passengers for Barmouth alighted there and walked on across the  sand-bar to catch a ferry over the Mawddach estuary to Barmouth harbour. The third Bill promoted by the company was the Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway Act, passed on 13 July 1863. It authorised construction of an Aberystwyth Harbour branch, and alteration of the Dovey viaduct, and of the Mawddach bridge to add a vehicular road as well as the railway. The south-western extremity of the Corris Railway was duplicated by the A&WCR line and was no longer useful; the Corris Railway was authorised to abandon its line west of Machynlleth, by its Act of 25 July 1864 . (The Aberystwyth Harbour branch was not constructed because the Cambrian Railways as successor to the A&WCR wished such traffic to go to Aberdovey.) The A&WCR's engineer Benjamin Piercy was dismissed from the company's service early in 1864 as part of a power struggle between Thomas Savin and other factions on the board. He had been progressing the design of the Dovey bridge, but practical and financial difficulties with it had been emerging. In particular finding a good foundation stratum was proving extremely difficult. Piercy's expulsion gave an opportunity to revisit the plan to bridge the estuary, and  in May 1864 the decision was taken to abandon the bridging plan. In October 1864 preparations were undertaken for a Parliamentary Bill to authorise the abandonment, and to substitute an extension from Aberdovey to a junction with the Aberystwyth line near Morben. The line became known as the "deviation line" and the junction location was later called Dovey Junction. The Bill was given the Royal Assent on 5 July 1865. The Act stipulated that the fares and goods rates for consignment between Aberdovey and Borth via Morben were to be the same as if the bridge were built and in  operation. The GWR had planned to get direct access from Dolgelly to Aberystwyth by way of the bridge, and it got a clause inserted empowering it to build the bridge itself within ten years; it never attempted to do so. The course of the connecting line at Aberdovey was difficult, and a proposed waters' edge route through the town proved unacceptable. An alternative path round the back of the town was developed, but it was operationally difficult, with steep gradients and sharp curves, and three tunnels. In addition, the Aberdovey Harbour station would be by-passed, and there was no  space for a new station on the deviation line, and the new Aberdovey was inconveniently located some way west of the town. The group of Newtown railways were now discussing amalgamation: the several small railways would be stronger if they joined forces. The A&WCR was included in the talks, but there was a standard condition imposed by Parliament in considering amalgamations, that the companies concerned must have spent at least half of their authorised capital, and that at least half of their authorised network must have been built. The A&WCR was not yet in that position, and had to be  excluded from the amalgamation Bill put forward by the other companies. They were authorised to amalgamate, forming the Cambrian Railways, by Act of 25 July 1864. Henceforward the A&WCR was included in strategic discussions and plans with the Cambrian Railways. A year later, the criterion for amalgamation was achieved, and the A&WCR was incorporated in the Cambrian Railways by the passing of the Cambrian and Coast Railways (Amalgamation) Act of 5 July 1865: the merger took effect on 5 August 1865. The Manchester and Milford Railway built a line from Pencader to Aberystwyth, opening there in August 1867, with platforms  on the south-west side. The contractor Thomas Savin was undertaking all the remaining construction work for the A&WCR section of the Cambrian Railways, as well as working the traffic. He had accepted company shares as the major part of payment for his construction work, and he was directly financing company outlays from his own resources. On 5 February 1866 he found himself in serious financial difficulty, and was in effect bankrupt. This put the Cambrian company into difficulty as well. On 10 May 1866 the financial house of Overend, Gurney and Company failed, plunging money markets throughout the United  Kingdom into turmoil and making railway investments a source of danger for the public. Many investors were unwilling or unable to respond to calls on shareholdings, and money became very difficult to borrow. For some years the company was in serious financial difficulty, and at length mortgage holders sued in the Court of Chancery. The company's Deputy chairman, Captain R D Pryce was appointed Receiver, but they stayed their actions after two months, at the end of 1867. In fact the Cambrian Railways as a whole was in serious financial difficulty, with huge obligations and almost no profitable business  activity. The Cambrian Railways Finance Act, 1868, was passed on 31 July 1868 and authorised a financial reconstruction, as well as preventing for a period the activation of claims against the company, but although this prevented immediate disaster, it did not abate the problem. Barmouth Bridge was first tested in July 1866 by crossing a steam engine, but it was not until 3 June 1867 that a service started, and then only of a horse-drawn carriage. Steam trains did not use it regularly until the opening of the entire coast line four months later, when on 10 October 1867  the line was opened through to Pwllheli. The viaduct was mostly constructed on over 500 timber piles and 113 spans, which was driven into stand, with a drawbridge at the northern end. Meanwhile, on 14 August 1867 the "deviation" line from Dovey Junction to Aberdovey was opened. Porth Dinllaen had once been promoted as the mail packet terminal for Dublin, but lost out in favour of Holyhead. The A&WCR still yearned to develop it and got powers to do so in the 1862 Act. When the line reached Pwllheli the vision waned, and continuing across the Lleyn peninsula was not  attempted. In 1876 the Cambrian Railways unsuccessfully sought to revive the powers. Undeterred, the Porthdinlleyn Railway Company was incorporated in 1884 for a line from Pwllheli, but abandoned it in 1892. In 1913 the company obtained powers for a rail extension to Porth Dinllaen, but World War I intervened and afterwards the idea lapsed. In 1899, Barmouth viaduct was re-built, described by C P Gasquoine as: In 1899, the ironwork portion of [Barmouth] viaduct had become too weak for the constantly increasing loads of developing traffic, [so] it was completely renewed with a modern steel structure of four spans , one of which was a swing span, revolving on the centre pier and giving two clear openings. The piers carrying the girders are formed of columns 8ft. in diameter sunk through the sand down to solid rock, which was reached at a depth of about 90 feet below high water mark... In 1906, and the following two or three years, the timber portion of the viaduct was also completely renewed in the same material. The original Pwllheli station was on Abererch Road, stopping short of the inner harbour and the River Erch. In the mid-nineteenth century the harbour  was busy with coal and agricultural products, but the railway dominated those traffics; reduced conservancy allowed silting of the inner harbour by material brought in by the River Erch. In 1903 improvement works were carried out to the Inner Harbour, and reclamation work was carried out; an embankment was constructed by Pwllheli Corporation. The location of the railway station was far from the centre of the town and the opportunity was taken to extend the line westwards to its present position at the Cob. This was authorised by a Cambrian Railways Act of 2 July 1901. On 19 July 1909  the extension to a new two-platform terminus was opened. 20th century. After World War I, the Government passed the Railways Act 1921 which transferred most main line railways into one of four companies, in a process referred to as the "grouping". The Cambrian Railways was to be a constituent of a new Great Western Railway, although the old GWR was to be the largest component of the new company, The transfer took effect on 1 January 1922, from which date the Cambrian Railways ceased to exist. The layout at Aberystwyth was improved in 1925 with longer platforms taking up  the land formerly used by a turntable. A triangle for locomotive turning was installed, using one of the Manchester and Milford sidings, but it was not possible to carry out through running to Carmarthen over the triangle. A new station frontage and a big increase in the area roofed over were the improvements most appreciated by passengers. Aberdovey station, opened when the "deviation" line connecting to Dovey Junction was opened, was a great distance west of the town, and over decades there were complaints about this. In 1933 Penhelig Halt was opened, at the east end of the town but  considerably more convenient. The last of a series of coast halts was opened at Llandecwyn in 1935. At Abererch, a conditional halt with double-arm platform signals for passengers to stop trains, became a full station. Penychain Halt was opened on 31 July 1933, at first just a simple short platform. On the seaward side here Butlins built a large holiday camp in 1939, but just as it was being finished, it was taken over by the Royal Navy as "HMS Glendower". After the War some further work needed doing, and the holiday camp did not open until the 1947  season. The halt station was enlarged and a second platform was built, with brick waiting rooms and a wooden platform; the old halt platform was refurbished, and the line was doubled to Afon Wen, (commissioned on 3 April 1947) since most of the Butlins traffic would be coming via Bangor and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (successor to the Carnarvonshire Railway). The layout at Afon Wen was enhanced at this time, as the holiday trains reversed there. The running lines at Penychain were reversible. By the 1970s the camp station had fallen into disuse as most holidaymakers came by  road. The railways of Great Britain were again reorganised by Government when in 1948 nationalisation of the system took place. The new owner was British Railways. In the 1960s the former A&WCR network was under consideration for closure or significant reduction, as goods traffic declined steeply and passenger business too transferred to road transport. The threat of total closure was eventually averted, but the collapse of wagonload traffic in particular rendered most local goods facilities unnecessary. The national strike in the coalmining industry in 1983 also hastened a transfer away from traditional traffics. The Dolgelly line did succumb to closure . Trains from Barmouth to Ruabon did not run from 13 to 17 December 1965 due to floods east of Dolgellau. The Barmouth to Dolgelly section reopened, but finally closed from 18 January 1966. A proposal to close the entire Coast line in 1971 was fought successfully by a pressure group. The Radio Electronic Token Block signalling system was installed over the weekend of 1 and 2 October 1988. On 13 October 1980, Barmouth bridge was closed to rail traffic when it was discovered that about three-quarters of the 500 timber trestle piles had been damaged at river bed level  by the shipworm, teredo navalis, a marine borer. Extensive repairs were undertaken in the mid-1980s, including replacing 48 of the piles with greenheart hardwood and strengthening 330 more piles with cementitious resin grout and glass-reinforced concrete jackets. Rail services resumed when the viaduct re-opened in April 1986. Morfa Mawddach triangle. There was a triangular layout at Morfa Mawddach where the Dolgelly line diverged from the main line to Pwllheli. The south curve was opened first, on 3 July 1865 as part of the direct route from Aberdovey to Dolgelly. The west and north curves were opened in 1867  as part of the main line to Barmouth, and at that time a station was then opened at the apex nearest Barmouth; it was named Barmouth Junction until 1960, when it was renamed Morfa Mawddach. No platform was ever built on the south curve; it was singled around 1900 and then used as a siding. The station originally had three platforms, two on the main line and one on the branch, but about 1890 a down platform on the Dolgellau line was added. There was also a bay platform at the end of the up Dolgellau platform, used from 1934  for camping coaches. As the Barmouth turntable would not take all types of engines working through from Dolgellau (which was less restricted than the main line) the triangle was sometimes used for turning engines. Dolgelly. The A&WCR's Dolgelley branch had been authorised in 1862, and in the same session the Bala and Dolgelly Railway, in effect the Great Western Railway, was also approved. At the time no direction was given as to the lines connecting, but this was rectified in an Act of 21 July 1863, which mandated a joint station. The A&WCR had reached Penmaenpool, two miles short , on 3 July 1865, and no progress was made for some time. The GWR line opened on 4 August 1868. On 11 June 1869, the Board of Trade Inspector passed the Cambrian extension from Penmaenpool to Dolgelly. Due to a delay in getting possession of land, the Cambrian Railways had to erect a temporary station at a point known as Frondirion (about half a mile west of the Great Western station), opening on 21 June 1869. The extension to Dolgelley GWR station was opened on 1 August 1869. There were two separate stations here until 1872. Mitchell and Smith show  a fragment of a 1911 Ordnance Survey map; Dolgellau station has the appearance of a single station on a double track section of line, but the legend shows "Station (Great Western)" for the buildings on the northern platform, and "Station (Cambrian)" for the southern. Plate 92 shows the station and the caption states, "The canopy styles reflect the earlier different ownerships". Accidents. The cliff top line at Friog was the site of two almost identical accidents, in 1883 and 1933, in which the locomotive plunged to the foot of the cliff, leaving the bulk of the train remaining on the  track. The locomotive crews were killed in both instances. The topography at this point is demanding, as the existing coast road at a higher level had to be accommodated, as well as a working mine. Current operations. The majority of the line is open, except for the line between Morfa Mawddach and Dolgellau, which closed on 18 January 1965, and the Aberdovey Harbour and Ynyslas wharf branches. The ten-mile (16 km) section of the Dolgellau branch, alongside the southern shore of the Mawddach estuary, is now the Llwybr Mawddach (or "Mawddach Trail"), a cycle route and bridleway. This section  of the line featured in the BBC's "Railway Walks" series with Julia Bradbury. Station list. Stations in bold are still open. Connecting lines. Several other railways made connection with the A&WCR network. These were: