The Llanidloes and Newtown Railway (L&NR) was a railway company between Llanidloes and Newtown in Montgomeryshire, Wales. It was promoted locally when plans for trunk railways passing through the locality were cancelled; local people saw that a railway connection was essential to the flannel industry in the district. The line opened in 1859, and at first was isolated from any other railway, but from 1861 it became connected to Oswestry by an allied railway company, and other companies also connected to it. From 1864 the company was incorporated into the new Cambrian Railways company.

Serving a thinly populated and remote area, the line was never commercially successful, and the long-distance through routes passing through did not succeed in bringing great traffic volumes to the line. When Llanidloes station was to be extended and improved, the Manchester and Milford Railway (M&MR), then under construction, undertook to pay a one-third share of the cost of the works, and of future maintenance and operation of the station. The M&MR later decided to alter the course of its line and never reached Llanidloes, but continued to be liable for heavy charges for a station it did not connect with.

Major route closures took place in the region in the 1960s, but a portion of the L&NR, from Newtown to Moat Lane, continues in use, carrying passenger trains on the Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth line.

Before the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway

At the end of the eighteenth century, the local industry of Mid Wales was already fairly well provided with canals, although the mountainous terrain made their engineering difficult. After 1830 attention was being given to railway communication with Ireland and a royal commission was established in 1836 to enquire into the matter. Charles Blacker Vignoles reported in 1837 on his recommended route to reach Dublin, which was to use a natural harbour at Porthdinllaen on the north coast of the Llŷn Peninsula. Vignoles proposed a railway route to Porthdinllaen from Shrewsbury via Oswestry, Chirk, Bala, Barmouth, Harlech, and Pwllheli, although a route similar to the present Chester – Holyhead route was considered, and rejected.C B Vignoles, Report on the Various Lines by which a Railway could be Carried from London to Port-Dinllaen in North Wales, in the First Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Enquire into the Manner in Which Railway Communications can be Most Advantageously Promoted in Ireland, HMSO, London, 1837, page 32 onwards

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was considering a London to Dublin route at the same time, and he too favoured Porthdinllaen as a ferry port. His line would have been broad gauge and run from Ludlow through Craven Arms, Montgomery and Newtown. However at this stage these schemes were merely proposals and had not achieved traction in gaining financial commitment. In fact George Stephenson, favouring the easier gradients of the Chester to Holyhead line, was persuasive, and when the Chester and Holyhead Railway was authorised on 4 July 1844, any scheme for Porthdinllaen was futile.Rex Christiansen and R W Miller, The Cambrian Railways: volume I: 1852-1888, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1971, , pages 14 to 16

In 1852 a further proposal was published, for a Montgomeryshire Railways Company; it would run from Shrewsbury through Minsterley (rather than Welshpool), Newtown, Llanidloes and Llangurig to Aberystwyth. The London and North Western Railway, by now dominant in North Wales, took over the scheme but altered the route avoiding Llanidloes, and in fact the western part of this scheme was dropped before it went before Parliament.Christiansen, pages 19 and 20

Llanidloes and Newtown Railway proposed

There was considerable disappointment in Llanidloes, that the town was now to be passed by, and much interest was shown in building their own line to Newtown, where a connection would be made with the Montgomeryshire line when it was built. A meeting was held at Llanidloes on 30 October 1852 under the chairmanship of George Hammond Whalley MP. A prospectus was approved: capital of £60,000 would be needed to build the line, and annual receipts were estimated at £8,250, offering a dividend of 7 per cent. The route was surveyed by Rice Hopkins. The bill went forward to the 1853 parliamentary session. Serious errors in Hopkins’ levels were exposed, but the scheme was quickly rectified and the (16 & 17 Vict. c. cxliii) was passed on 4 August 1853.

Authorisation and construction

The Llanidloes and Newtown Railway received its authorising act of Parliament, the Llanidloes and Newtown Railways Act 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. cxliii), on 4 August 1853. Commercial prospects seemed excellent; Whalley was elected chairman.Andrew Muckley, Llanidloes and Newtown Railway, in the Railway Magazine, February 1963 The authorisation led to a period of elation within the company, and immediately a long extension line to Shrewsbury was suggested. However, the new company quickly found great difficulty in raising subscriptions to build its own line. It was not until September 1855 that the first construction contract was awarded; that went to David Davies of Llandinam. In time Davies became prominent in construction and mining in Wales. Soon Davies got the contract for the whole line; he took into partnership Thomas Savin of Llwyn-y-maen.

The original plan was for a double-track line but this was amended to single-track, with bridges built for later doubling.

Some progress was made with construction, but by the end of 1857 all available money had been expended and work stopped, and Davies and Savin were working elsewhere. Early in 1859, Davies and Savin offered to finish the line, in exchange for all unissued shares and debentures, on paper a 25 per cent rise on the original contract value, and to lease and work the line. The chairman was against acceptance, but a committee of shareholders considered that there was no realistic alternative, and voted in favour. The lease was incorporated into the 21 July 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. xxx). (The proposed canal extension was to be a short tramway to the Shropshire Union Canal basin at Newtown, but it was never built.)

The railway construction was resumed with the excavation of Scafell cutting. The company engineer was now Benjamin Piercy of Trefeglwys, as Rice Hopkins had died.Peter E Baughan, Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, volume XI, North and Mid Wales, David St John Thomas Publisher, Nairn, 1991, , pages 149 and 150

Opening

The line was finished to a temporary terminus at Newtown, and goods trains started running on 30 April 1859. The company was not in a position to operate passenger trains for some time; the necessary Board of Trade approval was received on 6 or 9 August and passenger train operation started on 2 September 1859.Earlier sources quote 2 September 1859; but Quick has done more recent research and gives 11 August 1859, explaining that the 2 September date probably resulted from a previous source assuming that the public opening followed the formal. In reality, the formal opening was later, on 31 August. Some newspapers described that as the opening and gave no mention of the earlier use.Michael Quick, Railway Passenger Stations in England, Scotland and Wales: A Chronology, the Railway and Canal Historical Society, Richmond, Surrey, fifth (electronic) edition, 2019, page 472 These were the first passenger trains to run in mid-Wales. Intermediate stations were at Dolwen, Llandinam and Caersws, and working of the single line was by timetable. There was no intermediate crossing place.

Four locomotives were ordered from Sharp, Stewart and Company of Manchester to work the line, and Davies and Savin used other engines for the construction. The first, Dove, reached Llandinam in 1857. It was brought by road from Oswestry on a special road wagon pulled by 14 horses. Dove was probably a second hand Sharp, Roberts 2-2-2 locomotive acquired from the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway. It was followed by locomotives named Squirrel, Llewellyn and Enterprise. At this stage the L&NR was isolated and all stores were carried by canal to Newtown and carted across the town to the station.Christiansen and Miller, pages 22 and 23

Connecting railways

The isolated state of the L&NR was not to last for long; the Oswestry and Newtown Railway opened on 10 June 1861, connecting the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway to the rest of the railway network via Oswestry and the Great Western Railway.Christiansen and Miller, pages 22 and 23 The Newtown and Machynlleth Railway followed, opening on 3 January 1863, running westward from Moat Lane Junction, so that the southern (Llanidloes) end of the L&NR was now a spur branch line. The existing Moat Lane station (Caersws) was closed and replaced by one nearer Newtown, at the junction at Moat Lane. From 14 August 1860 Llandloes and Newtown Railway trains ran through to Abermule, on the Oswestry and Newtown Railway.Baughan, page 151

Southward connections

Llanidloes was now the southern termination of the lines in the area, but two ambitious schemes to connect to Llanidloes were in hand. On 1 August 1859, the Mid-Wales Railway was authorised by the Mid-Wales Railway Act 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. lxiii). This scheme had been radically cut back during the parliamentary hearings; only a few months previously its promoters called it "the Mid-Wales section of the Manchester, Liverpool, Swansea & Milford Haven Junction Railway," but it was authorised from Llanidloes as far as Newbridge-on-Wye only, passing through Rhayader.R W Kidner, The Mid-Wales Railway, Oakwood Press, Usk 2003, , pages 15 and 16Baughan, pages 204 to 208 The authorised line was not what the Mid-Wales proprietors wanted, and in 1860 they returned to Parliament. This time they were more successful, and the Mid Wales Railway (Extensions) Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c. cxxxiii) was passed on 3 July 1860. This confirmed the previous year's approval, and extended it to Three Cocks, giving access to Brecon and Merthyr.Donald J Grant, Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain, Matador Publishers, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, , page 381

Later that month, on 23 July 1860, the Manchester and Milford Railway was authorised to build a line south from Llanidloes through Strata Florida, Tregaron and Lampeter to Pencader.Grant, page 356 Unnoticed at the time was that the authorised route southward out of Llanidloes was nearly identical for the Mid-Wales Railway and the Manchester and Milford Railway.J S Holden, The Manchester and Milford Railway, Oakwood Press, Tarrant Hinton, 1979, , pages 15 to 18

After some argumentation, this difficulty was resolved by the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway undertaking to build the duplicated section of line, granting running powers over the line to both companies, and, it hoped, to build a joint station at Llanidloes. This was authorised by the (25 & 26 Vict. c. clxii) of 17 July 1862. The point of divergence of the two routes was near Penpontbren Farm, nearly south of Llanidloes station. The Manchester and Milford Railway constructed its line from the southern extremity, northwards, and the process was slow due to money shortages. The Mid-Wales Railway too was subject to cash problems, but most of its line from Penpontbren to Rhayader was made ready by March 1863, despite the difficult terrain.