The Mid-Wales Railway was conceived as a trunk route through Wales connecting industrial areas in North West England with sea ports in South West Wales. The company was prevented from reaching its goal by competing proposals in Parliament, and it was only able to build a line between Llanidloes and a junction with the Brecon and Merthyr Railway east of Brecon. The line was long and opened in 1864. The company found it impossible to raise the money by issuing shares, but the contractor partnership of Davies and Savin agreed to build the line and take shares in payment.
The line passed through terrain requiring steep gradients and sharp curves in a sparsely populated area with little local traffic, and the limited long distance business was costly to operate. Finding continued independence impossible to sustain, the company amalgamated with the Cambrian Railways in 1904.
Use of the line declined from the 1930s onwards, and very limited use of the line resulted in closure on 30 December 1962.
Crossing the centre of Wales As the mainline network of England and Wales began to take shape in the 1840s, the centre of Wales remained without a railway. There were several proposals to cross the region by a trunk railway, in some cases to connect industrial England to coastal ports in West Wales. For some time none of these came into effect, and it was a local line, the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway (L&NR), that first occupied part of the area. It was long, it opened in 1859, and it was not connected to any other railway. Newtown was a centre of the flannel manufacturing industry.R W Kidner, The Mid-Wales Railway, Oakwood Press, Usk 2003, , pages 5 to 9
The Oswestry and Newtown Railway (O&NR) followed in 1861; it connected to the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway at Oswestry, giving access to the national railway network. Next, the Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway made a connection to the at Buttington in 1862, forming a route from Newtown to the Midlands and London.Rex Christiansen and R W Miller, The Cambrian Railways: volume I: 1852-1888, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1971, , pages 35 to 40Kidner, page 15
After a number of false starts, a practicable route across Mid Wales gathered support in March 1859, when a meeting was held to further what became the Mid-Wales Railway. At that time it was described as "the Mid-Wales section of the Manchester, Liverpool, Swansea & Milford Haven Junction Railway". This went to Parliament, competing for approval with other schemes. It was passed, but in a much truncated form, with the title the Mid-Wales Railway, to construct a line from Llanidloes to Newbridge-on-Wye by way of Rhayader. At Llanidloes it would connect with the , and from there to the national railway network. The (22 & 23 Vict. c. lxiii) was passed on 1 August 1859; authorised capital was £150,000.Kidner, page 33Peter E Baughan, A Regional History of the Railways Of Great Britain: volume 11: North and Mid Wales, David St John Thomas, Nairn, 1980, , page 204
The line's supporters still saw it as part of a trunk express route, and the greatly reduced powers granted by Parliament were, they believed, a temporary setback. Despite the sharp curves and steep gradients, the Shrewsbury Journal repeated the promoters' publicity that "express trains at the highest speeds reached can be run with the greatest ease and perfect security". The directors believed that "as the line would be passing through... one of the richest mineral districts in Britain", they would seek powers to exploit any minerals found during construction.Christiansen and Miller, page 103 The company's supporters still planned to reach Llandovery as part of the onward thrust towards south-west Wales, but Brecon was also considered to be a useful destination. Other railways were approaching Brecon: also in 1859 the Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway (usually referred to as the Brecon and Merthyr Railway) was authorised, and the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway in 1857.Kidner, pages 8 and 9Christiansen and Miller, page 106
Extending southwards
The Mid-Wales Railway (MWR) had no intention of terminating at Newbridge, and the company tried again to get access to Llandovery. In Parliament in the 1860 session it lost out against the Central Wales Extension Railway, and had to make do with powers to join the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway at Glasbury, making a junction at a place later known as Three Cocks, and continuing to Talyllyn to join the Brecon and Merthyr Railway there. This had been merely a proposed branch so far as the Mid-Wales was concerned, but having lost Llandovery a second time, the now treated this as its main line. This was authorised by an act of Parliament, the (23 & 24 Vict. c. cxxxiii), on 3 July 1860. The connection to the Brecon and Merthyr Railway would give access not only to Brecon, but also to the mineral areas of Dowlais and Merthyr Tydfil over that line.Christiansen and Miller, pages 108 and 109Kidner, pages 16 and 17
The Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway (HH&BR) would build from Hereford to Glasbury only, with the Mid-Wales Railway to adopt its powers for a line southward from Glasbury as far as Talyllyn. This was to be over the old Hay Tramway, which was to be upgraded and realigned to make it suitable for locomotive operation. However, the Mid-Wales Railway Company's board of directors feared that the might demand an unreasonable price to surrender its line, so they arranged for the acquisition to be authorised in Parliament, by the (24 & 25 Vict. c. lxv) of 12 June 1861.Christiansen and Miller, pages 120 to 124 The continuation from Talyllyn into Brecon was also to be mostly over the Hay Tramway route, and the Brecon and Merthyr Railway would adopt the powers and construct that part of the route.
Construction conflict On 23 July 1860, the Manchester and Milford Railway (M&MR) was authorised by the Manchester and Milford Railway Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c. clxxv), also to start from Llanidloes and to run to Pencader.J S Holden, The Manchester and Milford Railway, Oakwood Press, Tarrant Hinton, 1979, , page 12
Although Parliament passed the Manchester and Milford Railway Act 1860 and the Mid Wales Railway (Extensions) Act 1860 a few weeks apart, it was not noticed that for the first from Llanidloes, the two railways would occupy the same ground. This fact emerged as construction was being planned, and each company wanted to build the duplicated section, and permit the other to use the line for a fee. Both companies refused the other's idea, and finally a compromise was agreed: the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway (L&NR) would build the duplicated part of the lines and allow the two companies to use it. The point of divergence of the two southward routes was Penpontbren, about from Llanidloes.Holden, pages 15 to 17 The built part of its line from Penpontbren to Llangurig, a distance of about , and a single goods train traversed the stub of line, after which it became dormant.Holden, pages 43 and 44 By this time the was having serious doubts about the wisdom of continuing construction over the difficult terrain to reach Llangurig from the south, and made the huge decision to divert the line to Aberystwyth instead. The Llangurig stub remained, disused, and the paid the interest charges and operating and maintenance costs on the enlarged Llanidloes station, which it would now never use.Holden, page 17 The effect of all this was that the joined the end-on at Penpontbren, and not at Llanidloes, but had shared ownership (with the and the ) of the Llanidloes station.
Construction The company had found raising the subscriptions for construction almost impossible, and the contractors David Davies and Thomas Savin, enjoying considerable success in railway building in Wales, had agreed to construct the line, taking shares as most of their payment. This saved the company, which would otherwise almost certainly have failed. On 2 September 1859 the first sod of the northern part of the Mid-Wales Railway was cut at Rhayader. There was the customary banquet afterwards, and some directors made adverse remarks about Davies and Savin's financial involvement, which was felt to compromise the board's authority. The truth was that without that money, there would have been no railway, but unnecessary friction was generated by intemperate remarks.
In fact Davies and Savin themselves fell out shortly afterwards, and parted company with each other and with the company before any construction was actually started. A fresh contractor, Alexander Thomas Gordon, took on the work. Little work was done by Gordon due to continuing money shortage, and he was followed by James Overend and John Watson on 26 March 1862. Like Davies and Savin, they were to be paid in shares: 223,000 ordinary shares, 117,000 debentures and 200,000 Lloyds bonds.Christiansen and Miller, pages 107, 108 and 111Baughan, pages 208 and 209
At Talyllyn Junction, with the Brecon and Merthyr Railway, a triangular layout was adopted, and the Mid-Wales Railway built a station at the North Junction, with platforms for trains to Brecon and also to Dowlais, the latter being on the East Loop. The Brecon and Merthyr Railway built a station by the West Junction. As a result Talyllyn had two stations to serve a tiny population: in 1900 Brynderwen had nine houses and Talyllyn eleven.Kidner, pages 19, 26 and 27
A length of line extending east from Three Cocks Junction towards Hereford was declared to be Mid-Wales property: the intention had been to make a triangular junction here, as at Talyllyn; there would have been an East Junction where the line entered the cutting to go under the Glasbury road. This was not proceeded with, but the Mid-Wales company owned what would have been the south-to-east arm of the triangle.Kidner, page 25
The Mid-Wales Railway operated a special demonstration train throughout the line on 23 August 1864. Remedial work was necessitated by the Board of Trade inspecting officer's refusal to sanction opening for passenger traffic earlier. Full goods services (apart from the east loop at Talyllyn) operated from 1 September 1864. The Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway service from Hereford to Brecon was running by 19 September, traversing the from Three Cocks Junction to Talyllyn. Ordinary Mid-Wales passenger trains probably started on 21 September, although special trains were run on 19 and 20 September for Brecon Races, with borrowed engines.Kidner, page 20Christiansen and Miller, page 113
Cambrian Railways formed Before long, the several networks centred on Newtown decided that they needed to join up with one another, and in July 1864 the Cambrian Railways company was formed by the amalgamation of four existing companies: the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway, the Oswestry and Newtown Railway, the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway, and the Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway (the Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway would join soon after). The Mid-Wales Railway did not participate in this amalgamation, but the Cambrian Railways Act 1864 (27 & 28 Vict. c. cclxii) preserved the rights concerning running powers over parts of the other lines.Christiansen and Miller, page 71
Builth Wells connection