The North Pembrokeshire and Fishguard Railway was a railway company in south-west Wales, incorporated to extend the moribund Narberth Road and Maenclochog Railway, with a view to developing a port on Fishguard Bay and ferry services to Rosslare in Ireland.
The Narberth Road and Maenclochog Railway had been opened in 1876 to connect slate quarries at Rosebush with the main line of the Great Western Railway; it also carried passengers and general merchandise, and the line had an exceptionally steep gradient. The line was not profitable and closed in 1882.
The North Pembrokeshire and Fishguard Railway was promoted in 1884, planned to build from Rosebush to Goodwick, on Fishguard Bay. At this time the Great Western Railway operated a ferry service to Ireland from Neyland (New Milford) and the NP&FR boldly sought to challenge this with a shorter crossing to Rosslare. The proprietors were to improve the harbour at Rosslare as well, and planned to work collaboratively with the Narberth Road line.
The steep gradients and sharp curves on that line would have made the through route exceptionally difficult, but another company, the Fishguard and Rosslare Railway and Harbour Company was incorporated in 1893 and bought out the smaller lines, and extended to a station at Fishguard Harbour. In addition the F&RR&H took over a considerable extent of railway in Ireland based in Rosslare. The Great Western Railway built a better-aligned route to Fishguard, opened fully in 1906 when the ferry service transferred to Fishguard. The new line bypassed the Rosebush railways, which reverted to the status of local rural lines, and they declined and were closed in 1937.
South Wales Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was completing its main line between London and Bristol, and in 1844 the company's engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was surveying a line that would connect the Gloucester branch to Cardiff, Swansea and Fishguard. A prospectus was issued in the name of the South Wales Railway. The significance of Fishguard was that the intended, with the collaboration of new railways in Ireland, to capture the contract for the official mail traffic between London and Dublin.At that time, Ireland was part of the United Kingdom and communication with Dublin was an essential part of governmental administration. Hitherto this had been carried from Holyhead to Kingstown (now known as Dún Laoghaire), but the road transit to Holyhead was long and difficult. A ferry from Fishguard to "a new port south of Wexford" and efficient rail connections on both sides of the crossing could be competitive.
The South Wales Railway (SWR) was incorporated by the South Wales Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. cxc) on 4 August 1845. It was always in effect a subsidiary of the Great Western Railway, and a perpetual lease by the of the in December 1846 was agreed to start from the completion to Fishguard. There were difficulties about the route at the Gloucester end of the South Wales Railway, and Brunel began to have misgivings about the suitability of Fishguard, which at the time had no sheltered harbour facilities. In 1845 there was widespread loss of the potato crop on which a majority of Irish people depended for a living, resulting in mass starvation and commercial depression, which deepened the following year. The catastrophe is known as the Great Famine. With unfortunate timing, the Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow and Dublin Railway secured its authorising act of Parliament, the Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow and Dublin Railway Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. ccviii) on 16 July 1846; capital £2 million.
Observing the deepening crisis in Ireland, the Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow and Dublin Railway Company cut back its plans and declared that it could not build to Wexford. For the time being a rail and ferry route to Dublin via Fishguard was impossible. Brunel had all along entertained thoughts of developing the transatlantic shipping trade from south-west Wales, and he declared this in 1844. Whereas the Irish ferry service was reliant on the shortest possible sea crossing, transatlantic shipping had different priorities. Linking with his doubts about the general suitability of Fishguard, he agreed with the board of the South Wales Railway that it would not now build to Fishguard. A branch of the planned Fishguard line was to run to Haverfordwest and the decision was taken to extend that line to a harbour on Milford Haven, where there was a deep anchorage. The railway's terminus was given that name, but later it was changed to Neyland, and another harbour and station nearby was named Milford Haven.
The lease of the by the had been interrupted by the decision not to build to Fishguard, but in March 1852 a new lease was agreed, and abandonment of the Clarbeston Road to Fishguard section was sanctioned by the South Wales Railway Act 1852 (15 & 16 Vict. c. cxvii). The South Wales Railway was publicly opened as far as Haverfordwest on 2 January 1854, and from there to Neyland on 15 April 1856. A twice weekly steamer service to Waterford, and other services were started gradually.
The terminus, "Milford Haven", was renamed Neyland in 1859 and then changed again to New Milford by December 1859.
Narberth Road and Maenclochog Railway For some years small-scale slate quarrying operations had been carried on at Rosebush, high in the Preseli Hills, and eight miles from the South Wales Railway main line at a station called Narberth Road, itself three miles from Narberth. That station was later named Clynderwen, and later again Clunderwen. In 1869 a wealthy financier named Edward Cropper purchased the freehold; Cropper was also a director of the London and North Western Railway. Joseph Babington Macaulay, Cropper's stepson, operated the quarry, and in order to facilitate transport of the heavy mineral to the main line railway, he planned to build a railway connection.
Cropper and Macaulay applied in July 1871 for a Board of Trade certificate under the Railways Construction Facilities Act 1864 (27 & 28 Vict. c. 121); this was a low-cost means of getting a line authorised where landowners were agreeable to the construction and there was no other infringement of the public interest. Captain Tyler of the Board of Trade visited the site in October 1871;Shepherd, E. (2015) Fishguard & Rosslare Railways & Harbours Company - An Illustrated History Newtownards: Colourpoint, 2015, p. 78 the line was to be standard gauge as by then it was known that the GWR would shortly be converting the gauge of the South Wales Railway from broad gauge to standard. The certificate was issued on 24 June 1872.Petchey, Tim (n.d.) A List of Railway Undertakings in England, Scotland and Wales Winchcombe: author The cost of construction was stated to be £42,247, a considerable sum then.Shepherd, E. (2015) Fishguard & Rosslare Railways & Harbours Company - An Illustrated History Newtownards: Colourpoint, 2015, p. 79
Passenger operation was contemplated at the planning stage: a clause in the authorisation required Cropper to arrange for one train daily to call at a station at Llanycefn whose location was to be agreed with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. There was an agreement with the Great Western Railway that that company would lay a third track for about a mile alongside its main line to allow Cropper's trains to reach Narberth Road station. When completed, the line had one of the steepest gradients on a standard gauge line in England, with gradient of 1 in 27 for about 1.9 miles (see List of steepest gradients on adhesion railways).
A trial run by the contractors in September 1875 reputedly allowed passengers travelling to the annual hiring fair at Maenclochog, while slate traffic appears to have started from January 1876. Colonel C S Hutchinson inspected the line on 3 May 1876 on behalf of the Board of Trade for public opening, but he was dissatisfied with the intended arrangement at Narberth Road for branch trains and he declined to give approval. Different arrangements were put in hand and when Hutchinson reinspected in September, he approved the opening. The line - now trading simply as Maenclochog Railway company's poster illustrated in Shepherd, E. (2015) Fishguard & Rosslare Railways & Harbours Company - An Illustrated History Newtownards: Colourpoint, 2015, p. 84 - opened for passenger traffic on 19 September 1876 with four passenger trains each way daily,Western Mail 20 September 1876, page 3 with stations at Llanycefn, Maenclochog and Rosebush - and apparently (but later) a "fare stop"Probably a regular stopping place but without any physical facilities. at Beag. The line was worked on the "one engine in steam" principle.
Even on opening day, there was ambitious talk of extending the line from Rosebush to Fishguard, and instituting a harbour there in opposition to the GWR. Cropper was hostile to the GWR, and the high charge imposed by the GWR for the company's use of Narberth Road station was a sore point.Shepherd, E. (2015) Fishguard & Rosslare Railways & Harbours Company - An Illustrated History Newtownards: Colourpoint, 2015, p. 81 The slate from Rosebush was not as good quality as North Wales slate, so the slate trade was not as positive as had been hoped and, after a period of decline, the line was closed from 1 January 1883.company's advert in Pembrokeshire Herald 29 December 1882
The line was reopened on 15 December 1884,company's advert Pembrokeshire Herald 12 December 1884 with two passenger trains daily, and some carryings of slate. But it was no more successful than previously, being closed from 31 March 1885 but reopened on 21 March 1887,Clinker, C R (1981), letter in Journal of Railway & Canal Historical Society November 1981, p.31 (an advert for farm servants in Western Mail 2 June 1887 said railway “now open”) only to close yet again "on and from" (Saturday) 25 June 1887 (which probably means with effect from Monday 27 June).company advert in South Wales Daily News 21 June 1887 The company owning the railway and the quarry was to have been offered for sale by auction on 20 February 1889, but this was postponed Pembrokeshire Herald 15 February 1889 and never took place, but the railway was eventually purchased by the North Pembrokeshire & Fishguard company in 1894 for £50,000.Shepherd, E. (2015) Fishguard & Rosslare Railways & Harbours Company - An Illustrated History Newtownards: Colourpoint, 2015, p. 85
Rosebush and Fishguard Railway
Reaching Fishguard had long been an aspiration, and the Rosebush and Fishguard Railway was authorised by the (41 & 42 Vict. c. ccxviii) of 8 August 1878. The line was to be nearly 14 miles in length, running from Rosebush, on the Narberth Road and Rosebush Railway line, through Puncheston and Letterston to Goodwick, on Fishguard Bay. There were running powers over the Narberth line; authorised capital was £90,000.
A contract for construction was soon let, but the lack of available money delayed actual progress and in 1881 the (44 & 45 Vict. c. cxcvi) had to be obtained authorising an extension of time. At the same time agreement was reached with the Narberth Road and Maenclochog Railway to operate the two lines (when complete) as a single entity. Even this new time extension proved not to be fruitful and the work was stopped, with a mile of formation made.
North Pembrokeshire and Fishguard Railway